The PICkit™ 2 Starter Kit from Microchip £32.89 + P&P

The PICkit™ 2 Development Programmer/Debugger (PG164120) is a low-cost development tool with an easy to use interface for programming and debugging Microchip’s Flash families of microcontrollers. The full featured Windows^® programming interface supports baseline (PIC10F, PIC12F5xx, PIC16F5xx), midrange (PIC12F6xx, PIC16F), PIC18F, PIC24, dsPIC30, dsPIC33, and PIC32 families of 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit microcontrollers, and many Microchip Serial EEPROM products. With Microchip’s powerful MPLAB Integrated Development Environment (IDE) the PICkit™ 2 enables in-circuit debugging on most PIC^® microcontrollers. In-Circuit-Debugging runs, halts and single steps the program while the PIC microcontroller is embedded in the application. When halted at a breakpoint, the file registers can be examined and modified.

Microchip PICkit™ 2 Programmer/Debugger User Guide

Features of PICkit™ 2 Starter Kit

(Peripheral Interface Controller)

 PICkit™ 2 Development Tool Overview

Low Pin Count demo board supporting 8/14/20-pin mid range PIC microcontrollers.

20-pin PIC16F690 Midrange microcontroller. Note: Requires the AC162061 ICD Header and AC164110 adapter to debug.

A series of 12 Lessons on assembly programming that cover I/O, A/D converters, timers, interrupts, and data tables (All source code files are provided)

Getting Started in PICBASIC PRO tutorial on developing and debugging in BASIC with a FREE microEngineering Labs PICBASIC PRO™ Demo Compiler (contained on the PICkit 2 CD)

HI-TECH PICC™ LITE C Compiler with MPLAB IDE.

128-Pin Demo Board User Guide

The DM164120-1 is a small demo board with a PIC16F690 on board and a small prototype area. Use it with a PICkit 2 to program your code via the 6-pin ICSP header on the board.

MPLAB IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is a free, integrated toolset for the development of embedded applications employing Microchip's PIC^® and dsPIC^® microcontrollers. MPLAB IDE runs as a 32-bit application on MS Windows^®, is easy to use and includes a host of free software components for fast application development and super-charged debugging. MPLAB IDE also serves as a single, unified graphical user interface for additional Microchip and third party software and hardware development tools. Moving between tools is a snap, and upgrading from the free software simulator to hardware debug and programming tools is done in a flash because MPLAB IDE has the same user interface for all tools.

MPLAB IDE User Guide

Get inside your Microcontrollers with Microchips PICkit 2

Microchip PICkit™ 2 Starter Kit £35 from Rapid

The following tutorial series introduce Microchip PIC Microcontrollers, beginning with an overview of the PIC family and the development environment recommended for these lessons.

The lessons cover the baseline and midrange PIC architectures using assembly language and freely-available PIC C compilers.

Introduction to PIC Programming

0: Recommended Development Environment

Baseline PIC Assembler Tutorials

1: Lighting an LED                               L1 source
Introducing the PIC12F508/509.
 

2: Flashing an LED                               L2 source
Adding delay loops.

3: Writing Modular Code                      L3 source
Subroutines, relocatable modules, memory banking and paging.

4: Reading Switches                            L4 source
Internal pull-ups, reading and debouncing simple switches.

5: Timer0                                             L5 source
Using Timer0 for event timing, delays, debouncing and as a counter.

6: Assembler Directives and Macros    L6 source
MPASM expressions, macros and conditional assembly
 

7: Sleep Mode, Watchdog and Clock Options
Using sleep mode, wakeup on change, the watchdog timer, and external oscillators.                 L7 source

8: Driving 7-Segment LED Displays      L8 source
Single and multiple 7-segment displays, multiplexing,
lookup tables and binary-coded decimal (BCD)
Using the PIC16F505.
 

9: Analog Comparators                        L9 source
Comparators, hysteresis, fixed and programmable voltage references using the PIC16F506.

10: Analog-to-Digital Conversion        L10 source
Using the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) on the PIC16F506.
 

11: Arrays and Long Integer Arithmetic
Indirect addressing, multi-byte addition and subtraction and 8-bit multiplication.         L11 source

Midrange PIC Assembler

Tutorials

1: Basic Digital Output                         L1 source
Introducing the PIC12F629 using delay loops to flash an LED.
 

2: Writing Modular Code                     L2 source
Subroutines, relocatable modules, memory banking and paging.

3: Reading Switches                           L3 source
Internal pull-ups, reading and debouncing simple switches.

4: Timer0                                             L4 source
Using Timer0 for event timing, delays, debouncing and as a counter.
 

5: Assembler Directives and Macros    L5 source
MPASM expressions, macros and conditional assembly.

6: Introduction to Interrupts                 L6 source
Interrupt service routines, timer and external interrupts, debouncing.
 

7: IOC, Sleep Mode and the Watchdog Timer
Using interrupt-on-change, sleep mode, and the watchdog timer.                                     L7 source

8: Reset, Power and Clock Options     L8 source
Oscillator (clock) modes, power-on reset and brown-out detection.

9: Analog Comparators, part 1            L9 source
Using the single comparator module and programmable voltage reference on the PIC12F629.
 

10: Enhanced Features of the PIC16F684
Introduction to the PIC16F684, and some of its enhanced features, including additional internal oscillator modes and ultra low-power wake-up.

                                                           L10 source

11: Analog Comparators, part 2          L11 source
Using the dual comparator module and programmable voltage reference on the PIC16F684.
 

12: Driving 7-Segment LED Displays   L12 source
Single and multiple 7-segment displays, interrupt-driven multiplexing, lookup tables and binary-coded decimal (BCD).
 

13: Analog-to-Digital Conversion        L13 source
Using the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) module,
ADC interrupts and operation in sleep mode.
 

14: Arrays and Long Integer Arithmetic
Indirect addressing using FSR, multi-byte addition and subtraction and 8x8-bit and 8x16-bit multiplication.                                       L14 source

Baseline PIC C Programming Tutorials

1: Basic Digital I/O                               L1 source
Introducing HI-TECH C PRO, HI-TECH PICC-Lite and CCS PCB Digital I/O, debouncing, and using weak pull-ups on baseline PICs.

2: Using Timer0                                   L2 source
Configuring and accessing Timer0 using Timer0 for debouncing, background tasks, event timing and counting (with some examples of C macros).

3: Sleep Mode and the Watchdog Timer
Using sleep mode, wakeup on change, and the watchdog timer on baseline PICs.            L3 source

4: Driving 7-Segment Displays             L4 source
Single and multiple 7-segment displays, lookup tables and multiplexing on baseline PICs (using the PIC16F505).

5: Analog Comparators                        L5 source
Comparators, fixed and programmable voltage references (using the PIC16F506).
 

6: Analog-to-Digital Conversion and Simple Filtering
Analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) and calculating a moving average (accessing banked memory).

                                                            L6 source

Midrange PIC C Programming Tutorials

1: Basic Digital I/O                                L1 source
Introducing HI-TECH C PRO and PICC-Lite digital I/O, debouncing, and using weak pull-ups on midrange PICs.

2: Using Timer0                                    L2 source
Configuring and accessing Timer0 using Timer0 for debouncing, background tasks, event timing and counting (with some examples of C macros).

3: Introduction to Interrupts                  L3 source
Interrupt service routines, timer and external interrupts, debouncing

4: IOC, Sleep Mode and the Watchdog Timer
Using interrupt-on-change, sleep mode, and the watchdog timer.                                      L4 source

5: Reset, Power and Clock Options      L5 source
Oscillator (clock) modes, power-on reset and brown-out detection.

6: Analog Comparators, part 1             L6 source
Using the single and dual comparators and programmable voltage reference on the PIC12F629 and PIC16F684.

7: Driving 7-Segment Displays             L7 source
Single and multiple 7-segment displays, lookup tables and interrupt-driven multiplexing.

8: Analog-to-Digital Conversion and Simple Filtering
Analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) and using arrays and simple integer expressions to calculate a moving average.                                                 L8 source