I appreciate Gordon's expert opinion below. If you'd like something that is very, very simple to work with in order to explore the world of PIC programming, you should also consider the picaxe line of products. These comprise PIC chips with a basic interpreter on board. The wiring for the programmer is very simple, and the toolchain is easy because it removes the compiling stage.
While I'm trying to move on to the atmel line, using this inexpensive programmer: http://www.ladyada.net/make/usbtinyisp/index.html
I still find the picaxe chips dead handy for all sorts of little jobs because so much is built into them.
As for computer programming, I would encourage someone returning to this practice to consider adding one of the cross-platform scripting languages to his or her arsenal. Ruby and Python are both good choices.
73, Bruce VE9QRP
On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 7:18 AM, Gordon JC Pearce MM3YEQ gordonjcp@gjcp.net wrote:
JW wrote:
Along the same line: anyone on here doing PIC programming or know of a list for beginners? From CW keyers to Antenna control units and everything in between it looks like it would be fun to program some gadgets for around the shack...
Without lighting up a PIC/AVR flamewar, I've pretty much entirely moved from PIC to AVR. The hardware is generally two to four times faster for the same clock rate (gets more done per cycle) and is easier to program
- you can make up an AVR programmer for the parallel port that's
basically three resistors!
Furthermore, the toolchain is much better for AVR - Microchip are only interested in pushing their frankly dreadful Windows-only MPLAB software, while Atmel actively contribute to avr-gcc, a cross-platform toolchain based on the industry standard gcc. The whole AVR community seems a lot better than the PIC one, and I say that as a long-standing user of PIC microcontrollers.
In short, PIC is great, but the community isn't as strong and the tools are rubbish. On the other hand, Microchip are always more than happy to sample parts and their customer support is *excellent*.
AVR is technically superior in pretty much every way, with an excellent community. Unfortunately Atmel's tech support are a dour bunch who are often hard to get good information out of, and not great at sending samples.
I haven't tried the ARM-based AVRs or the MIPS-based PICs yet, though. Those might be something to tempt me back to Microchip, if MIPS is as good as I remember it ;-)
Gordon _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb