Yes, I also had a look around for tutorials and I also noticed that most use the 16F family; so I added a couple to accompany the order.

 

There's a huge difference in goals between learning something and building a commercial product.

 

It took me maybe 20 minutes to make a few changes to an Arduino sketch and then it was working on a PIC.

Why bother Assembler does the Arduino community bother about Assembler?

You are kind of misguided. Assembler was obsolete 15 years ago already.

Many people have moved away from PICs because these assembler tutorials and in the end, the programs dont do much, and then they saw amazing things people do with Arduino.

do whatever you want and learn for yourself and see whats important for you yourself I am not responsible for anyone.

 

There's a huge difference in goals between learning something and building a commercial product.

I realize that. This is just a one off project due to a huge gap I saw in the market.

I'm definitely giving it a try; even when I had my electronics abandoned for more than 6 months.

 

There's a huge difference in goals between learning something and building a commercial product.

there is also a hudge difference being able to use Arduino devices + source codes- or not.

With these old PICs and Assembler, guess you aren't able to use that.

People bother a lot Arduino or PIC but differences are minor- both 8 bit platforms.

 

With these old PICs and Assembler, guess you aren't able to use that.

I don't think there's a need for any Assembler here. He wants USB stack. There are few written on C. Apparently, it'll have to be used as a base. This will take out most of the PIC resources. All that is necessary is to add few things in C - should be very similar to Arduino.

 

Doesn't use any arduino device or library. They are all basic components with the exception of the microcontroller and the USB coms.

I already have the prototype working on Arduino; though I'll have to change some components that I ordered from China, and which will prabably take a month to arrive; by which time I expect to have the PIC prototype working.

If you knew how simple the device is, you would laugh... and the cheapest are selling on ebay between $150 for the really cheap, and $500 to $1000 the good ones.

The only problem is: not many people buy this stuff.... I would, but not at those prices.

 

Been there, done that.

Know how much a CT scanner costs?
I can build it for 1/1000 of the price. Would anyone buy one from me?

Not to discourage you but before you think of getting into production, cover your basics thoroughly first.

 

To be honest, at the moment I'm more worried about making it look good than making it work; precisely because of what you said -nobody would buy a home made device.

In any case I have nothing to loose; before thinking about selling them I wanted to make one for my own use... and that without counting the learning experience and being involved in an interesting project; which drives me more than the possible benefits.

 

Build your knowledge base first before tackling a commercial product.

When you get to the product design stage the choice of microprocessor ought to be way down on your priority list.

 

Yes, I guess I have no choice anyway; since this will be the first time I attempt something like this.

 

Hope you get along with this technology and dont become confused just from people's opinions.

 

Yes, I guess I have no choice anyway; since this will be the first time I attempt something like this.

Maybe I missed somewhere, but why USB device with PIC? There are plenty of other better platforms where chip and dev board cost less than nothing.

Just a simple benchmark example... http://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/3221

There is TI MSP430F5529 Launchpad with open source / hardware design, with debugging / flashing for around 10$ (with Fedex shipping included in price). And no, don't think that TI is best choice...

http://forum.43oh.com/topic/3416-stm32l-vs-msp430f5-whats-left-for-msp430

 

I would had preferred to use Atmel, since that's the platform where I'm developing the prototype; but I wasn't sure I could get the chips that would go in the final device with the same features and at low prices as PICs.

The cost of the development board is not what's important, but the features and prices of the final chips.

 

There's also whether or not I'll use the platform in the future...

I've been using Arduino (Atmel) for a long time, and I intent to continue using it. I also had plans to get into PICs in the future, regardless of this project; so I was going to buy the programer anyway.

 

Maybe I missed somewhere, but why USB device with PIC? There are plenty of other better platforms where chip and dev board cost less than nothing.

Just a simple benchmark example... http://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/3221

There is TI MSP430F5529 Launchpad with open source / hardware design, with debugging / flashing for around 10$ (with Fedex shipping included in price). And no, don't think that TI is best choice...

http://forum.43oh.com/topic/3416-stm32l-vs-msp430f5-whats-left-for-msp430

That page is kind of misguided as it mentions stoneage PICs, most new 16F have two FSR registers, 18F have these incrementing instructions too, and mA/MHz is much better.

Few people would consider these old PICs I even doubt just anyone.

 

There's also whether or not I'll use the platform in the future...

I've been using Arduino (Atmel) for a long time, and I intent to continue using it. I also had plans to get into PICs in the future, regardless of this project; so I was going to buy the programer anyway.

Then it is not clear why you lock out yourself for using modern PICs. You can get a cloned PICKIT3 for 20 to 30 dollars.

 

Just for your information, you can see mA/MHz here.
All these old assembler tutorials also foster opinion PICs are slow, powerless and outdated.

The Maxim page is actually quite ridiculous I dont even think these old PICs are still available or manufactured.

It is well known you can forge benchmarks to suit your own agenda for instance by exploiting the fact most readers simply dont know most of the information you have. You dont lie but you carefully leave out information so you communicate the result that suits you.

 

Then it is not clear why you lock out yourself for using modern PICs. You can get a cloned PICKIT3 for 20 to 30 dollars.

I'm not...

If I ever need modern PICs I'll get the pickit3. But for now I'm just planning to learn the basics, and program the chip I need for this project; for which the pickit2 is more than enough. In any case, I doubt I'll even use all the features that the pickit2 chips have to offer.

About the clones: I saw various models on ebay, but I wasn't sure about any of them and didn't want to risk without knowing enough about PICs.

 

I'm not...

If I ever need modern PICs I'll get the pickit3. But for now I'm just planning to learn the basics, and program the chip I need for this project; for which the pickit2 is more than enough. In any case, I doubt I'll even use all the features that the pickit2 chips have to offer.

About the clones: I saw various models on ebay, but I wasn't sure about any of them and didn't want to risk without knowing enough about PICs.

Well the members on the forum are here to help.

I also have STM8 and STM32 boards here, played a little with them but dont see a benefit to relearn. I continue to use PICs because MPLABX is updated often, is free without code size restriction, and has many facilities.

The schematics + firmwares both for PICKIT2 and PICKIT3 are freely available and the cloning is permitted.

The PICKIT3 clones are very close to identical to the original PICKIT3, tough there are also some PICKIT2 clones with less components, they cant do certai things which arent needed often.

The clones to work OK. Myself I got an original PICKIT3 some years ago from a vendor, not Microchip Direct.

I think there has to be competition, and there are several player now in the market. ST offers very deeply discounted eval boards, but the included libraries are fairly sophisticated, you'd have to dedicate yourself to that platform.

I have so far neve regretted using PICs and never had any serious issue, using C, it is fairly easy to start off a project with just any PIC.