I'd like to start messing around with PIC development and I have a few questions since I'm not very experienced in the electronics side of things:

I'd rather not go through 9V batteries powering my board, so I was planning on using a DC adapter I have (9VDC 500mA). Here is the specs for it DC Adapter. Would this work OK if I cut off the barrel connector and connected the two wires to a +5V regulator circuit on the breadboard? I was planning on following this schematic for the 7805 regulator.

This may be obvious but I just wanted to make sure this was the proper way since I couldn't find any barrel jacks that would fit into a breadboard. I've done a fair amount of reading on electronics but not much hands on application so I don't want to do anything stupid.

BTW the PIC I plan on learning on is a 16F84A most likely or something close to that if it makes a difference.

Thanks!

 

That circuit should work. Remember that anything you drive with the PIC will add to the heat dissipation of the regulator, so you may need a heat sink.

As for your choice of devices, the 16F84A is a very old device. There are lots of example programs on the Internet for it. However, it is so old, that many tutorials now ignore it. The 16F628A or even later PICs have largely taken its place in tutorials.

My advice is to pick a tutorial that you like and use the device used in the tutorial. Are you planning on starting with Assembly or a higher level language?

John

 

Hi John,

Thanks for the feedback. I checked out the data sheet on the 16F628A and I'm glad you pointed me in that direction. Looks like you get more for less money in fact. I just did some tutorial hunting and found a few that target this chip so I think that's what I'll go with. Plus, I'm sure I can adapt others that were for the 16F84 to run on this device too since they're so similar.

I'm planning on working in assembly using MPLAB. I'm assuming all I need is MPLAB and a PicKit2 to program the chip on my breadboard with a little wiring.

I'm really looking forward to getting my hands dirty after all these years of just writing software

Mike

 

The biggest difference between newer chips and the 16F84 is in the set-up. Chips with analog inputs (like the 628) default with the analog functions turned on. The first few lines of code take care of turning them off, if they are not used. The tutorials will guide you thorough that. After that, adapting 16F84 code to the 16F628 is extremely simple.

Please keep in touch on this forum.

John