Author Topic: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"  (Read 49639 times)

Offline raynerd

  • Madmodder Committee
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2893
  • Country: gb
    • Raynerds Projects - Raynerd.co.uk
EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« on: January 30, 2010, 03:03:28 AM »
The other thread got polluted because of the issues with the video. There really is little of any use in that thread other than the mutal appreciation that Big Bro really is watching us! So here is "Take2" and hopefully some PIC programming related discussion to follow...?

Hi Guys

I got my EasyPIC 6 dev board a few days ago and I`m thrilled with it. It really is a super slick bit of kit! Ease of use is just immense! I had it running and programming within about 5 minutes of plugging it in and installing MikroC.

Here is my vid of a few clips of me playing around with the board and its functions:



I`m not going to do a huge review as there are already a few out there by people much more knowledgeable than me but I`m just going to mention some of the bits that I like ...

This board has an inbuilt COG LCD display so a display is always on hand:



It of course has the LCD port as well so you can have a second display (or more likely use the COG for debugging). Mikro only sell a 2 x 20 char display but I purchased a couple of 4x20 LCDs of ebay for about £5 and my mate soldered a standard IDE socket on the back - it plugs into the board just fine. You can see it in use in the video along with the COG.

It also has an expansion port, which obviously expands the number of available ports. As of yet I`ve never filled the available pins on a 40 pin PIC so have no use for it yet but it does the job. The COG is actually attached to this so you have to enable the expansion port to get the COG to work.

Also, the easyPic6 has the new matrix keypad which is a really smart extra! Along with the direction and button pad below. I am sure this will come in very useful and saves having to buy the add-on matrix pad.

It also has some "cool" improvements over the earlier models such as an ice blue "program" LED - which of course makes programming go much more smoothly   :lol:

I have just purchased the G-LCD with touch screen adaptor but as of yet I`ve not even plugged it in. I`ve heard very good things about it.

I have seen the Arduino development boards a few weeks ago and had the opportunity to play around with one for a couple of hours and for both ease of use and actual board content, the Mikroelectronica stuff blew it away in comparison - IMO!


Offline dsquire

  • In Memoriam
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2275
  • Country: ca
  • Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2010, 03:39:04 AM »
Craynerd

It came through loud and clear across the pond. I'm going to follow this close as I want to play around a bit with some of this stuff. Just have to make up my mind and get started I guess.   :D :D

Cheers  :beer:

Don
Good, better, best.
Never let it rest,
'til your good is better,
and your better best

Offline raynerd

  • Madmodder Committee
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2893
  • Country: gb
    • Raynerds Projects - Raynerd.co.uk
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2010, 09:53:36 AM »
Don, I really advise you go for Mikroelectronica stuff, the Arduino stuff is popular but in my opinion, not as easy to use. The functionality of the EasyPIC is just amazing. I was in the very fortunate position that my friend is incredible in programming and has a number of development boards, I got the option to try a few out before I committed my money. I spent hours with Ardunio and hours with Mikroelectronica as well as some of the Chinese imports on ebay.

For £115, the EasyPIC 5 comes with a 16F887 PIC and USB cable and from there you only really need an LCD (£5 for 4 line on ebay or £14 for 2 line!!?? from Mikro) and you have an amazing bit of kit. Infact, with the EP6 having the onboard COG LCD display, you don`t even need the add-on LCD.

I`m probably talking to a Professional programmer, Don, but if you are total noob like me, as you said you just need to go in and buy one. There is so much info and programmes on the web to get you going.

If you haven`t already, download the free MikroC programming software and give some coding a go.....that is presuming you want to go down the C route.

http://www.mikroe.com/download/c_pic_pro.php

It is free up to 2K of code (if you want a full version PM me and I`ll let you know the cheapest seller)

Chris
« Last Edit: January 30, 2010, 09:23:07 PM by craynerd »

Offline dsquire

  • In Memoriam
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2275
  • Country: ca
  • Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2010, 03:57:05 PM »
Chris

Thanks for the reply and info.

Your partially right. I am a programmer. I once got a computer to say HI to me. Never did get paid for it so guess not a professional. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I have a couple of bit and pieces laying around here that I should dig out and what I really have. I know that I have a couple of displays and an assortment of chips and transistors etc. I don't have anything definite that I want to build, Just something to play around with when I feel like it. I am going to go and have a look at MikroC software and see what that is about. :D :D

Cheers  :beer:

Don
Good, better, best.
Never let it rest,
'til your good is better,
and your better best

Offline raynerd

  • Madmodder Committee
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2893
  • Country: gb
    • Raynerds Projects - Raynerd.co.uk
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2010, 09:37:48 PM »
Don, I don`t know how you managed to make 'head nor tail' of the message above. I think I was half drunk by the looks of it when I wrote it! I have since edited....anyway back on topic.

Although I am making my X-axis controller and now have plans for a Techo with built in display for all my machines, I didn`t really have much of a focus when I first looked into it. I know I was certainly so limited with my understanding when I first started that any efforts of a complex programe would have been impossible anyway.

In actual fact I`ve given the advice to you that infurated me when I got given it. The problem I had when I was told to download MikroC without the development board is that you can`t test your code and this really frustrated me!!  :bang:  That is why the dev boards are so good, you just re-program the chip and you can immediately test your changes. Since the PICs can be recoded 10,000 times and are only £4 for the best ones (£1.00  for smaller models), you can test test test.

If you do have a go at writing some code after downloading Mikro C - download :
http://www.mikroe.com/zip/easypic6/easypic6_examples_v101.zip

and open the 16F887 examples folder and if you base your code around this PIC (887) I can easily blow it to the PIC for you and send you a short vid of how its working - from flashing an LED to a fully integrated 4 axis touch screen controller :) ... just email or post up the code.


Like you said, they are amazing to play around with even without a clear use for them! I`m currently trying a few projects including a binary clock based on a 32khz crystal, a 6x6 led matrix hopefully expanding to a 6x6x6 cube chaser and my X-axis controller. The first two being almost entirely pointless....but makes me happy  :headbang: :D :)

Offline j45on

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 380
  • My tiny workshop Location Ashford Kent
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2010, 07:21:42 AM »
Sorry chris I know this is an old thread but I'm interested in buying an easypic kit
http://www.mcustore.com/pic-development-packs/1-easypic6-development-pack.html
And wonder if it is suitable for beginners ? IE: I know nothing  :scratch:
Jason

Offline kwackers

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 356
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2010, 08:35:03 AM »
I use Mikro's stuff (including the easypic) for development and can highly recommend it.

Excellent libraries. Everything through multiplexed LED's, LCD's through blue tooth, GPS, memory cards, LAN etc etc. The add-on cards are cheap and functional, couple of library calls and your device can have it's own web page etc.
Well made boards.

I've used them to design and make lots of stuff, some commercial (yacht control system for example, using CAN based comms through 3 control boards driving a central PLU which controlled the yachts systems) and many other things.

The only downside is the C compiler isn't the fastest. But if that's an issue then you can uprate the processor (easiest) or nearly always re-think the algorithms to make them faster. Failing that you can always as a last ditch either write a section in assembler (or compile to assembler and lift out and optimise the relevant section).

With regards beginners, probably slightly harder to get up and running than Arduino (but easier to expand the hardware - everything just 'plugs in'), but much more capable in the long run. You can also pick the language you prefer, they have C, BASIC, Pascal etc.

I'd highly recommend them.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2010, 08:37:37 AM by kwackers »

Offline raynerd

  • Madmodder Committee
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2893
  • Country: gb
    • Raynerds Projects - Raynerd.co.uk
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2010, 12:21:04 PM »
Jason, it was Kwackers who introduced me to them and they are very easy to use almost straight from the box. The best thing in my opinion are the excellent code examples that come with it (or can be downloaded off their  website) for free. Using these it was possible for me to adapt and write my own codes quite quickly. I found I was quickly learning (kwacks may disagree :-p )  how to write code from scratch by modifiying their examples in previous attempts.

I`m totally presuming, but if you are like me and a TOTAL begginner then I don`t think there is one single fault with them and I can`t say that about many things I`ve purchased over the years. I`ve made a few stupid errors in hardware and still not managed to destroy it which is also unusual with me and electronics!

Like Kwackers said, the libraries are excellent because you just call on them and they work. For example I haven`t got the foggiest clue how a LCD screen works yet using their libraries I can really really simply use them with no trouble. OK - that is slightly ignorant of me, but at the moment and with the things I do, I`m just happy using them for now without actually knowing how they are running at a code level.

A friend of mine took it up just after I showed him what I had done with my EasyPIC. He has been doing it about 2 months less than me (9months ish) and using Assembler he can only do really really basic codes which take about twice the line space mine would. I therefore highly recommend C as well - once you get a grip and start using it, it is an excellent tool! I`m sure others may disagree or argue against what I`ve said but all I can tell you is I think that Mikro -C along with the EasyPIC 6 is an excellent excellent tool.

AND - I DONT work for Mikroelectronica lol   :D :) :)

Offline j45on

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 380
  • My tiny workshop Location Ashford Kent
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2010, 04:47:55 PM »
Cheers guys  :nrocks:
I will have to wait until pay day now.
Will it need a PSU there is not one listed in the contents or any pic's
Jason

Offline raynerd

  • Madmodder Committee
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2893
  • Country: gb
    • Raynerds Projects - Raynerd.co.uk
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #9 on: November 07, 2010, 05:27:02 PM »
It has an ON/OFF switch and the possibility to power up the board from USB or external power supply.


Offline cidrontmg

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 229
  • Country: pt
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #10 on: November 08, 2010, 10:27:11 PM »
Hi craynerd and kwackers, you´ve convinced me. I just ordered an EasyPic6, and some other boards from Mikroelektronika. And downloaded 109 Mb of files from their site... And ordered one 4x4 keyboard. I´m also building the rotary table controller, and having a hard time trying to convince Farnell that I really would like to have their 4x4 kbd... I got most of the other components from Germany and Poland, just missing the 4x4 keypad. I´m building the rotab controller into a Hammond/Eddystone cast ali box, big enough to also house a sizable PSU. And it´s a natural heat sink.
I don´t know if I can use the Mikroelektronika keypad for it, electrically yes, but it doesn´t seem very bombproof mechanically.  One possibility would be to decimate a pocket calculator and use that...
I´ll take some pictures when I have a bit more to show.
Somehow funny that the EasyPic6 is made in Belgrade, Serbia, then it goes to the U.S.A., and then is sold to Portugal... And it would be more expensive if bought straight from Serbia! International trade and globalization work in mysterious ways.   :loco:
 :wave:
Olli
Penafiel
Portugal

Offline j45on

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 380
  • My tiny workshop Location Ashford Kent
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #11 on: November 09, 2010, 04:18:12 AM »
cidrontmg
The key pad I got from farnell is made by apem if that helps
http://www.apemswitches.be/1-26725-Portugal.php

I also ordered an easypic 6 as well :ddb:
Jason

Offline raynerd

  • Madmodder Committee
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2893
  • Country: gb
    • Raynerds Projects - Raynerd.co.uk
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #12 on: November 09, 2010, 05:58:28 AM »
Please post your reviews! I`m quite excited now there are more of us that have one ... I`m still very much learning so it`ll be good to discuss issues with others!

Are you both going down the route of Mikro C for the programming?

I made a few good projects to get me going - a set of traffic lights (totally pointless!), I made a ball and cup game with an LCD display, a binary clock and my favourate one, which I actually built on an outside circuit was a little electronic dice. OK, all pointless really but they got me going with getting to grips with C and getting the skills to make my x-axis controller. I`m sure you`ll be better than me from the start but I had zero experience with any form of programming.   


 




Offline j45on

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 380
  • My tiny workshop Location Ashford Kent
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #13 on: November 09, 2010, 07:19:48 AM »
Mikro C but the free version.
I can't justify £130 for software yet in case I can't figure it out.
Jason

Offline cidrontmg

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 229
  • Country: pt
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #14 on: November 09, 2010, 10:37:04 AM »
Hi j45son, craynerd,
the Apem link helped, sort of. While I was trying to find a local vendor, I stumbled on a shop in Oporto that had 4x4 pads, not by Apem though, but cheap enough to check what they´re like. Hope to get a package this week.
I´m not much of a C programmer. Basic and Pascal are far more familiar to me. I´ve also done quite a bit of  x86 asm programming, but I´m afraid it´s not much help. The instruction set of these CPU´s is totally different. I´ll see first what I can do with the free Basic and Pascal versions, the 2k limit seems rather low. The max. program size for 18F452 seems to be 32k. But in x86 assembler at least, you can do an awful lot in a 2k program. And maybe I´m still able to learn Microchip asm...
 :wave:
Olli
Penafiel
Portugal

Offline j45on

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 380
  • My tiny workshop Location Ashford Kent
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #15 on: November 10, 2010, 07:07:35 AM »
Postman has been  :ddb:

Jason

Offline kwackers

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 356
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #16 on: November 10, 2010, 07:27:45 AM »
Wow! That was quick, whenever I order something from them it takes a couple of weeks!

Did you order it direct or via someone else?

Offline j45on

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 380
  • My tiny workshop Location Ashford Kent
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #17 on: November 10, 2010, 07:47:32 AM »
Kwackers I ordered from it www.mcustore.com on Sunday or Monday night I forget which.
I can't wait to get home and play  :zap:
Jason

Offline raynerd

  • Madmodder Committee
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2893
  • Country: gb
    • Raynerds Projects - Raynerd.co.uk
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #18 on: November 10, 2010, 05:21:27 PM »
Kwacks, I ordered from them as well and was pleased with the quick delivery.

Ewwww... they have changed the box!! Mine is green!! Any luck with it?

Just got to figure all the jumper settings now and you`ll be off  :coffee:

Offline j45on

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 380
  • My tiny workshop Location Ashford Kent
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #19 on: November 10, 2010, 07:05:29 PM »
Jumper settings ?
I think it came pre programed (the pic) it was doing a nice sweeping pattern with the leds when I fired it up
but I some how erased that  :lol: when I used mikro c
Mikro c loaded with a led flash program which I thought was the one the board was displaying so I changed the timing as indicated in the code but it was a different code.
I have ordered a book as I know absolutely bugger all about C
My trouble is I try to run before I can walk  ::)
Jason

Offline cidrontmg

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 229
  • Country: pt
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #20 on: November 10, 2010, 10:37:25 PM »
Still waiting for my board, but actively downloading reading/learning/programming material. I´m at 238 Mb´s and 2020 files atm. No duplicates, afaik. This PIC business seems quite heavy on learning...  "The instruction set for the 16FXX includes 35 instructions in total", compared to the basic Intel x86, let alone to the x64, very very little.
I also downloaded the free MPLAB IDE from Microchip,
http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1406&dDocName=en019469&part=SW007002
near the bottom of the page. It is an assembler programming environment, quite big at 103 Mb, but seems interesting. It runs in Windows machines, so I can try it without any PIC chips. Of course, I can´t test the written code without something to run it on. I think I´ll see what I can do with it (if anything), before trying the Basic/Pascal compilers. At least it doesn´t have any limitations, and it´s free. Two very strong points in its favour...
 :wave:
 
Olli
Penafiel
Portugal

Offline j45on

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 380
  • My tiny workshop Location Ashford Kent
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #21 on: November 11, 2010, 03:08:53 PM »
You guys have probably already found this one http://www.pictutorials.com/PIC_books.htm lots of free books

What other good learning resources are there ?
Jason

Offline raynerd

  • Madmodder Committee
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2893
  • Country: gb
    • Raynerds Projects - Raynerd.co.uk
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #22 on: November 12, 2010, 08:20:40 AM »
jason - jumper settings - all the jumpers that have to be set to the correct position for the different components of the board to work!? I find half that time that it isn`t my code that is wrong but the actual jumpers aren`t set correctly.

Have you downloaded all the examples? I presume the pic is the 16F877, in which case there is a hole host of C examples for the 877 that micro have made including the preprogrammed flashing LED curtain.

I have to say that I was shown most of what I learnt by a computer programmer which was an incredible help and would have struggled massively without, but the rest I learnt by modifying the Mirco C 16F877 examples.


Chris

Offline j45on

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 380
  • My tiny workshop Location Ashford Kent
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #23 on: November 12, 2010, 03:26:51 PM »
Hi Craynerd I'm still reading lots of baffling stuff I have downloaded the examples and had a quick play with them
and I'm still waiting for some books to arrive this is going to be a very steep if not impossible learning curve for me
Jason

Offline kwackers

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 356
Re: EasyPIC-6 Development Board by MikroElectronica - Take"2"
« Reply #24 on: November 12, 2010, 04:06:02 PM »
Start with something simple like the flashing LED example.

Don't worry too much about the code that sets up the PIC, just concentrate on the code that does the work.
Think you can see what it does?
Try flashing it at different rates.
Try flashing different LED's - more than one at a time.
Try changing the ON/OFF times.
Try flashing different patterns.
Finally try flashing lights on different ports (you'll need to start to see how the setup works).

Doing it this way you'll separate out the hardware (setting up the PIC) and the software. You can apply this to any of the examples, ignore the hardware and just concentrate on the 'core' software then eventually bring in the hardware.
The reason for this is that PIC's are very complex pieces of hardware, there's a lot in those little chips and you'll need to spend a fair bit of time with the data sheets and looking at the how to switch on and off the bits of hardware you need to use. For now I'd seriously avoid this otherwise you'll probably drown in the information available.