Re: Getting Started with PICs

[Frank Mc Alinden <fmcalind@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Dean
>            I can programme the basics(!) in Basic (and >have
dabbled in C in the past)
>but assembler (despite 1 project on a BBC-B upwards >of 15 years
ago) remains
>a mystery.

Well   i do it the other way round ;-(( I Programme in pic assembler...but
at the moment  im looking at trying PICBASIC....IF you can programme is
Basic you  will have no problem programming the pics...
And there is always help from Ian + Keith myself and others..and also a
very active Picbasic forum as well......

With the lcd i would imagine you would use 4 bit mode so you would need i
think 6 i/o for that providing you dont need to read data from the lcd..

Frank


----- Original Message -----
From: Dean Smith
To: Ukha_D@Yahoogroups. Com
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2003 6:58 AM
Subject: [ukha_d] Getting Started with PICs


I've seen numerous posts since joining this and other groups that suggests
all manner of smart things are possible if only you can programme your own
PICs!.

Now I have a project in mind - I would like to control a LCD, a few LEDs
(say up to 4) and recieve input from up to 8 buttons. (possibly a DS1820
aswell) And control the whole lot with a single Cat5 via RS232. I'm
guessing
my requirements are therefore: a UART and Enough I/O for LCD(8?) + LEDs +
Buttons. The LCD would have a basic menu structure which I'm hoping would
be
in the PIC rather than the Host Computer.

I can programme the basics(!) in Basic (and have dabbled in C in the past)
but assembler (despite 1 project on a BBC-B upwards of 15 years ago)
remains
a mystery. I assume LCDs are well supported by libraries for the common PIC
so I wont have to reinvent the wheel ?

Despite much googling I still remain a little baffled by the myriad of
possibilities. I've no doubt there is no "correct" answer but
what would
peoples opinions be on a suitable way to get started and what are the
likely
costs ?

Thanks

Dean