| PIC 16F84 Stuff |
The PIC is a type of integrated circuit made by Microchip, Inc. It functions as a small computer: it has program memory, RAM and a number of I/O lines. My PIC of choice is the 16F84, as it runs at high speeds (10MHz), has a decent number of I/O lines (13) and is reprogrammable without a UV eraser (the F in the model denotes flash memory).
And, most importantly, it is compatible with the platform I use, Linux.
16F84 and Linux
To program the 16F84 (and not much else), I use some home-built serial port driven and powered hardware and a software package called picprog. A while ago, this software required a kernel patch. However, the author recently informed me that this is no longer true.
How do I write code, you ask? There are a few assemblers out there which are combatible with Linux, but I've tried most of them, and have not yet succesfully assembled anything. I've taken the route of Windows emulation. Using Wabi (a Sun commercial product which can be found elsewhere ) and MPLAB, Microchip's own development software, I write things. Wabi runs MPLAB flawlessly, and all I need to do to burn a PIC is to switch virtual terminals. A nice benefit of taking this route is that MPLAB is made by the manufacturer of the PIC, and is the least buggy assembler out there.
Code
At the moment, I haven't done much in the way of large PIC programming. You can take a look at the few PIC projects I have completed, however.
PIC Resources
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