Everybody has different opinion and requirements. Yes ?

 

Everybody has different opinion and requirements. Yes ?

I think that this thread has proved this to be true You need to make your own best guess at what is likely to suit you.

... and of course decide what you think to be affordable to you.

I wish you good luck.

 

Everybody has different opinion and requirements. Yes ?

Oh yes indeed. And I think personality has something to do with it--whether we like the idea of something already set up and structured for us, versus something that we create from scratch every time we use it. Beyond the obvious fact that we're working with processors that are already complete, though if you're using PICs, you have an incredible number to choose from.

 

My mind was set on it long time ago. I was able to get the money I need this week. So why not full fill my dreams. Eh!

If we don't, what's the point in living and enjoying your hard work.

 

The easypic board is in basic just a large PCB with some sockets, switches and other bling. All this can be replaced with a good breadboard and some premade arrangement like a set of debounced switches, a 2x20(or 40) LCD, and some seven segments displays. That you can easily make for the price of 15 bucks. And the PICKIT 3 you already have as I understand.

 

(FYP): The easypic board is in basic just a large PCB with some sockets, switches and other useful items. None of this need be hand wired on some breadboard with some other hacked on add ins. You get pretested switches, space for a 2x20(or 40) LCD and even a GLCD, and some seven segments displays.

You could not build it's duplicate for twice that price.

 

First I'll clarify that I don't work for MikroE either, and have never received money from them for my involvement. So you can consider me unbiased. (As unbiased as someone who really likes a product can be.)

Using a good development board is a dream. Just being able to plug in a display and USB and start coding is very beneficial.

Also, the benefit of having one button on every PIC pin and one LED on every PIC pin is hugely beneficial.

That basically means you can start coding a project straight away without having to solder or plan anything. You can change the number of buttons your project uses as it develops, or use any spare output pin as a temporary indicator light while you debug.

And for more power users (JohnP?) you can plug in a 40 pin PIC and LCD and start coding your project, using the LCD to display operating parameters and signal parameters giving far greater "debugging" capability than any normal in-circuit debugging feature. For instance it can display the value from an ADC pin AFTER you do 32bit math on it to convert to degrees farenheit.

Then as the project nears completion, you can simply remove the 40pin PIC and display, and replace with your final target 18 pin PIC and re-compile.

I also use my EasyPIC boards as test equipment. Like just code up a PWM signal generator;

and use it for testing other projects, without needing to build any hardware.

Or a simple storage 'scope;

just by writing some code and plugging a display into the dev board.

Or a baud rate converter;

to test another project that communicates at the wrong baudrate.

Basically it means if you are good at code, you can just get down to writing code and have a powerful application running in the time it takes you to write the code. That is where a good dev board really beats something like a breadboard or soldering.

If you read my review of the EasyPIC6 it might give you more insight on these dev boards;
http://www.romanblack.com/easypic6.htm


(edit; Apologies for that picyure above that seems to have corrupted size tags).

 

The 2x16 Character LCD and Graphic LCD with Touch Screen are sold separately, at added cost of course

 

I have added the LCD plus some goodies..total comes to $208.00 I can afford tht.
Plus the pickit3 retched send me is having issues. I was not able to program even one chip with it yet.

 

I have added the LCD plus some goodies..total comes to $208.00 I can afford tht.
Plus the pickit3 retched send me is having issues. I was not able to program even one chip with it yet.

What kind of issues my friend. A PICKIT 3 should work out of the box. But in some cases you may have problems like Eric007 here. And the fix is easy
http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=73500&highlight=pickit&page=3
As a product it is nothing wrong in the easypic7. And if you feel it is the correct tool for you just get it. But before you move on check what kind limetations it is on the C-compiler in free mode. The pro version cost about $250 and it may be needed for some project. So if you have not done it, you should study this page http://www.mikroe.com/mikroc/pic/

 

The pickit3 I got was a used one.
So let's talk about it after I get the easypic.

That compiler you at the last lint, t0. Page shows discount, $199.0 .wht's up with that?
Are those the same as the $249 ones ?

 

That compiler you at the last lint, t0. Page shows discount, $199.0 .wht's up with that?
Are those the same as the $249 ones ?

You are entitled to buy the discount version if you have already bought a compatible development board from the same supplier.

So you can buy EP7 now, and if you decide that you want to buy mikro C pro at a later date, you will qualify for the discounted version, which is exactly the same as the $249 version. You will have to pay postage again on a second order.

If you do buy a compiler one day, I would recommend the dongle version, as long as you can spare a USB port for every mikroE compiler (and visual TFT) that you buy.

Delivery can be a little slow by ordinary mail (perhaps 2 weeks). I prefer standard mail rather than UPS(edit:- oops meant DHL), as DHL sometimes are required to add tax, which makes the delivery a little painful. Ordinary mail is slow, but simple and reliable. I hear tales that DHL is not so much faster, and mikroE sometimes are slow to dispatch.

I only mention delivery delays in case you expect fast response. Hang in there, and in less than 2 weeks you will have the best PIC board ever (IMHO) - good choice and well worth a little waiting. And you can try out many <2k examples straight away, even without PICkit3.

You might like mikroE compiler free version and decide to buy the full version, in which case you won't care that your PICkit3 is broken.

 

I will get the compiler later and I chose DHL.
They say it's $25.00 each time. what ever the courier.

 

I will get the compiler later and I chose DHL.
They say it's $25.00 each time. what ever the courier.

Sorry, meant DHL.... must stop relying on memory

Watch out for special offers - you might get 8% off, 13% off, reduced postage, no postage.
Perhaps buy one thing, get somthing else half price or free.

Offers rarely coincide with when you want to buy, but worth keeping an eye on.

 

Thanks to RB for a good explanation of what one might do with a development board like that. I think I might make up a little board with 2x16 LCD and some swiches and LEDs myself for the custom programmable signal genrator that he did.

I should point out the the free compilers from Microchip are not limited in how much memory they can use. They are only limited by disabling some optimization. I have one dsPIC program that absolutely pushes the performance of the chip (getting 1M analog samples per second) using the free compiler. In this case, I had to use assembler for the crititical interrupt handler, but I suspect I would have needed that even with the fully optimizing compiler.

I guess my point is that $200 for the development board and $250 for the compiler is money I would rather spend elsewhere.

Bob

 

I was checking the check out and they asked for shipping and billing address.

Now obviously I know the shipping address but the billing is confusing.

I add funds to wife account and I am using her Visa.
Would the billing address be her Visa address ? Or is the same as shipping ?

 

If you are in the states as I suspect based on your timezone do check out what Mouser has on their shelves. They are the major distributor here in the states.

And DO keep in mind that there is simply no reason to thing you are stuck with MicroElectronica compilers when using MicroElectronica boards: I used C32 on their Multimedia board with... ok, Microchip had some terrible bugs in their library code there but I found and fixed it. (Posted it, they put it in the next release, then took it out the release after... one line of code lol).

 

Like ErnieM said you can use any compiler you like, or even work in ASM if you like.

All that is required is that your compiler can call an external programmer .exe which they all can these days.

So you can work in the compiler you prefer, and just press "build and program" on that compiler and it will automatically send the compiled HEX to the EasyPIC7 which programs the PIC in the socket.

 

Like ErnieM said you can use any compiler you like, or even work in ASM if you like.

All that is required is that your compiler can call an external programmer .exe which they all can these days.

So you can work in the compiler you prefer, and just press "build and program" on that compiler and it will automatically send the compiled HEX to the EasyPIC7 which programs the PIC in the socket.

I suspect that you may have overlooked one little fly in the ointment:- I do not think that Hardware Debugging is workable with the set-up that you describe:

May, or may not be important....

 

It's done.
I'll will get it hopefully within a week.