Spiff's Electronics Notebook

EEPROM read/write code for CC5X (January 30, 2008)

CC5X may already include internal-EEPROM handling code, but I couldn't find any. With this in mind, here are two short methods for writing and reading from the EEPROM in many PIC microcontrollers. (Based on Microchips datasheets and .)

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CC5X Code EEPROM Howto PIC
Posted by spiffed at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

Getting up to speed with the PIC16F737 (January 29, 2008)

Porting code between PIC micros from the same product range is normally a smooth process: redefine a few pins, change some clock-speed constants, and add support code for that new integrated peripheral widget.

Sometimes though, there's a large hurdle before you can even begin. The 16F737 posed such a hurdle, there are a few clever lines of code required to put the device into all digital I/O running under the internal oscillator (intosc).

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Code PIC
Posted by spiffed at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

Repairing a KITSRUS Kit 150 for ICSP (January 29, 2008)

In the beginning, I fell in love with the Kitsrus Kit 150 PIC programmer for it's socketed automatic programming mode. The kit was priced right, supported most of the chips I encounter, and available locally. Over the years, I've ended up with five of them.

Recently, I discovered none of them function for ICSP or 40-pin parts. (Normally I use a JDM2 clone for ICSP, this was the first test of the K150.)

Obviously, some investigation was in order.

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Howto Kit KitsRUs PIC Programmer Repair Solder
Posted by spiffed at 8:39 PM | Comments (0)

Microchip non-RoHS sale (December 21, 2007)

For hobbyists, kit builders, and lovers of lead, MicrochipDirect is selling off non-RoHS compliant inventory for steep discounts.
I was able to pickup some chips for less than 40% of their normal price. The best deals are on SMD parts, but most PICs are available in 1-off for less than their normal 25-off cost.

PIC RHOS Sale SMD
Posted by spiffed at 1:42 AM

Serial LCD Controller (June 26, 2005)

makes a number of rather nice serial (and USB based) LCD and VFDs. What they do not make, are inexpensive LCDs. Thankfully, hacking serial onto a cheap parallel LCD is sometimes almost as good.

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Code Kit LCD PIC Serial SerialLCD
Posted by spiffed at 1:11 PM

A bigger basic H-bridge (April 12, 2005)

We just don't do small. So when it came to choosing stepper motors, I picked nice beefy 2lb bipolar beasts. Driving these has, however, turned into a bit of a problem.

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FET H-Bridge Kit Optoisolator PCB PIC Transistors
Posted by spiffed at 8:20 PM

Digital Input to the PIC16F628 in C (March 26, 2005)

I recently mentioned that I could not convince C to read from PORTA of a PIC. I have seen the error of my ways. The only thing missing from my code was a single line to disable analog functions on PORTA. inserting CMCON = 0x07; into the top of main() nicely fixed the mysterious I/O failures.

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Code Howto PIC
Posted by spiffed at 12:46 PM

Blinkin' PIC (March 24, 2005)

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Code Howto PIC
Posted by spiffed at 9:23 PM