You will need a few items to begin working with microcontrollers. I purchased the PICSTART Plus Part Number: DV003001 kit from Microchip. This kit includes the following: A sample PIC16F84 microcontroller chip: My kit actually came with a PIC16F84A chip. This is a 18 pin, 8-bit chip. The PIC16F84A data sheet is only 88 pages. So this is easier than the
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18F chip. But the 16F chips do not support USB. The programmer unit: This is the device that will write the program to the chip. This will interface with a computer`s serial port. On newer computers, you may need an additional USB to Serial Converter. I am able to use this programmer for the 18 pin PIC16F and the 40 pin PIC18F chips. Compiler, Assembler and IDE. The kit comes with a copy of the MPLAB IDE. This provides a development environment for many different chips and supports C and Assembler programming languages. The IDE contains a simulator and a debugger. While you wait for the kit to be delivered, I would recommend reading the PIC16F84A data sheet. You will need to review the pin configuration on page 3. Make special note of the following: In addition to the above, you will also need some basic electronics components. You will need an oscillator circuit. Section 6. 2 covers the oscillator configurations. The 16F84A chip has four possible oscillator configurations: LP Low Power Crystal, XT Crystal/Resonator, HS High Speed Crystal/Resonator and RC Resistor/Capacitor. A typical oscillator circuit uses a crystal and two capacitors ranging from 15 pF - 33 pF. You can get the crystal and capacitors from The Electronic Goldmine. You will need a breadboard, a IC Extraction Tool, a 5 volt regulator (7805), some LEDs and resistors. I used low power 15mA 3volt LEDs. Doing the math, you find R=(5volt-3volt)/(15mA)=133kOhm....
This project fits more for custom made battery casing that can have more space to hide things inside. This switch with few alterations can be used for any other project as well but is designed based on e-bike needs! This project use a clever functionality of....
The circuit described here uses ultrasonic oscillations and operates based on the propagation velocity of these oscillations in the air. Thus, we can easily determine the distance of two points if the time within which the wave travels this distance is....
Sometimes the precious metals are hidden too deep and are not detected except with complicated devices. In many cases, however, small pieces of precious metal buried near the surface can be detected by relatively simple means. Everyone is very attractive to....
Many times for various reasons we forget or can not water the plants that we have in our homes. And many humidity sensors units just notify us with a beeping sound or with a flashing light, that the pot needs watering. But what if we are away from home? This....
The principle behind a metal detector is really very simple. Proof of this is the circuit that follows, in which it proves that the construction of a metal detector can be done in the minute, with few components that we find very easily everywhere. With the....
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In the past the sounding (sea bottom measurement) was done with the "bullet", that is, with a heavy lead object that the seamen plucked into the sea hung from a calibrated rope. As soon as the "bullet" reached the bottom, the depth appeared directly from the....
This Amplifier was designed to have the following specifications: Distortion less than 0.1% at full power of 100W even at 20KHz. Power has to be attributed to an extended bandwidth. The output transistors must be protected against short circuits. The power....
A series of LEDs serve to alert the gardener when plants need water. Using two conventional digital integrated LEDs and a series of LEDs, we make a very useful device for gardening. The device detects the amount of water in the pot and alerts the grower.....
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