You can learn from our mistakes.
In a previous post, we went through the different aspects of a UART and how to set it up and use it to communicate either between PICs or other peripherals. In this post, I’d like to address the specifics of communicating between your PIC and your PC through Hyperterminal or PuTTY. It is [...]
To visualize your boards, you’ll need to download Eagle3D and POVRay. Install those and you’ll be ready to go.
Eagle3D
A very useful tool written some time ago by Matthias Weißer, Eagle3D allows you to create a virtual three-dimensional image of your board. It does this by using EAGLE’s built in scripting language, or User Language Programs [...]
In a previous post I explained many of the registers and bits used in the UART. This time we’re going to put those pieces together to make a functional UART.
First thing you need to set is the baud rate. The baud rate is dependent on the clock speed. It’s important to know what you [...]
A built in analog to digital converter (A/D Converter or ADC) makes life easy when you’re using your PIC. As you know, an ADC is a powerful and even necessary tool in many projects. There are a lot of options, registers, and bits that can get confusing so this post will be dedicated [...]
EAGLE Addlevel Parameter
Implicit Pins
Sometimes in EAGLE, you’ll see errors and warning based on implicit pins. I touched on this before, but it’s something that deserves a little more attention. For many ICs, the device in EAGLE includes the I/O pins in the symbol you place on the diagram, and the power and ground pins [...]
We’ve already looked at the process of writing to your EEPROM, but it isn’t much use if you can’t retrieve the information. In this post we’ll figure out how to get that information back so you can use it again. It is much simpler than writing because there’s not the concern of corrupting data.
Again, this [...]
For me, the EEPROM is a powerful tool for debugging. Sure, there are debugging tools out there and even better “home-made” variety debuggers, but for me, it is simple and easy to use. With the PICkit 2 software, you are able to read what is currently on your PIC. If your PIC has written something [...]
Creating Gerber Files in EAGLE
In this post, I’ll be using the gerber viewer found here (just download the latest version of the executable), and the information here is based on our use of PCBFabExpress. For this post, I feel like the video is much clearer in explaining the CAM Processor, as the actual text becomes [...]