The final print of my PK2 case using my new Davinci 3D printer worked good. I now have a stack of failures in my lab to get to this point but many of them were my own mistakes. I used TinkerCad for the design. I did a final print of the cover at 0.1 height and 90% fill. I didn't have a lot of success with this in previous prints but this time it came out good. I've found that the placement of the design on the heated bed affects the results. Since the top of the box is the bottom of the print, the heated bed had a huge affect.

The side snaps needed a little trimming with an Exacto knife to get rid of the extra plastic, but that was expected as I didn't design in any support for the over-hanging wedge on the top walls. The plastic sags without support and then cools off in that sag position. A simple slice with the Exacto cleaned it up.

I gave up on putting the elproducts.com name on the case top because it was unreadable. I even tried it as a cutout like the PK2 but it needed to be too big for the Davinci to print it readable. The case makes a nice package if you don't want to use a bare board design. I'm going to add the .stl files to my PICkit 2 page so anybody can print them. This makes a nice project for an electronics class. Build the board and then print the case. In the end you have a useful project. Use it with the free Great Cow Basic compiler and you can be programing PICs in no time.


Note: The Davinci 3D printer went is now $529 vs the original $499 at Amazon.com. Demand drove it up apparently. And they are out of stock again. I'm told that MicroCenter will carry them so if you have one of those stores near you check it out.
If you buy one through the link in the upper right on this blog, I get a small royalty so if you like what I write consider clicking there first.

In my March 24th blog post I talked about  ordering an updated version of my PICkit 2 clone board from ITEAD studios back on March 13th. On March 18th I was emailed that they were shipped. By my blog post the boards were still in transit. They arrived today on the 28th so I can compare them to the originals from ExpressPCB. 10 days for shipping via air mail wasn't too bad.

I haven't built one up yet but I am impressed with the quality of the board. In the picture above you can see the ITEAD board on the left and the original ExpressPCB board on the right. First thing to notice is the shape. To get the low cost $85 for three prototype board service from ExpressPCB I had to order in a 2.5 x 3.8 panel. I ended up squeezing in another board design to use up the extra space but it all required me to cut out the board. The ITEAD board was routed out for me for $20 and I have 10 of them instead of three.

Next I looked at the silkscreen and the ITEAD is brighter and easier for my old eyes to read. The solder mask is a little brighter green as well but that really doesn't matter. The board is hot air solder leveled (HASL) on all the pads and they look real good and should be easy to solder. 

I tested the mini B connector in the board and it fit fine. This was the major change to the board in addition to removing the power plane on top and replacing it with a 0.020" trace. So it looks like it will work but the real test will be when I solder it together and see if it can program a PIC. That will be the ultimate test. I'll update you on that in a future post.

I've put together an explanation for Understanding Microchip PIC .hex files many times but when I need it I can't find it. I'm just not organized enough. That is a big part of the reason I've built this website. I now have an online place to store my notes about programming Microchip PICs and all my supporting projects right here in one place. So I put together a detailed summary of how to analyze and understand a .hex file once again and gave it its own page.

Its on my site now for everyone to view. Check it out and let me know if this helps you in any way. I didn't want to make it too long like some summaries I've seen, but I think I covered the topic well enough to help you understand it. People who want to create their own bootloader for PICs will need to understand this file format so maybe someone will gain from this post.

If you do find this post or any of my blog posts helpful, then help out this site by supporting our sponsors, or clicking on the ad below. I also have an Amazon store now with stuff I recommend. Purchase through my AStore and you pay the same price but Amazon sends me a small royalty. Thanks.

I'm planning on launching a Video Blog soon and in the process have tried various different tools for creating special effects. One I found was the Animate It app for iPad. Its from the people that gave us the Wallace & Gromit stop action videos. It is a lot of fun to play with though I don't know how useful it is for a video blog since I can just speed up a video if I want to get through a section quickly.

So I figured I'd share this little test video with my audience and let you be memorized by the building of a CHIPINO module kit. I needed one for a project so two birds with one stone.

One of the features I like most about the Great Cow Basic (GCB) compiler is it produces a pure assembly file. I've mentioned this before in a previous post, but what I didn't know it did until recently, was that it can transfer the BASIC command to the assembly file as a comment.

The picture below shows a screen capture from the MPLAB screen that has a GCB generated file. The Basic command lines show up as comments in green. The assembly code shows up below it.

It turns out this is just a command line option for the compiler. This feature has been automatically set in the design environment included with the Great Cow Basic download at my Great Cow Basic CHIPINO website. What this

I uploaded the ExpressPCB files for the PK2 programmer I created. I had the board layout and schematic on my PK2 webpage but didn't have the files. So now you can download them and make your own.

I posted them as non commercial, for personal use only. For those that just want to make a couple of their own PK2 programmers (it's always good to have a couple around), then the files are there to use. If a Boy Scout troop wanted to make them as a project, that's ok too. If a high school wants to use the design as a class project then fine. See where I'm going with this? I want to help ...

I recently helped a reader of my Embedded C Books through the early stages of getting things working properly. Sometimes the little things get in the way such as a compiler that doesn't fully install or a programmer that won't connect up properly with the USB port. These are the issues I can't write a solution for so I offer all my readers email support.

But when they get a faulty tool then that is really frustrating. I recommend the MPLAB 8.30, PICkit 2 and PIC16F690 for my Beginner's Guide to Embedded C books (volume 1 and 2) but sometimes people prefer to use the latest such as MPLABX or PICKit 3. I can't argue against it but until my updated versions are released (hopefully by summer) I still recommend they stick to the tools I use in the books.

But I've recently had two people with tools issues. One had a faulty PICkit 3 and another had a board with some kind of connection issue. I couldn't fix either one and fortunately they both figured out the problem. I hate to hear of a PICKit 3 issue. 

Configuration settings are one of the more confusing topics to someone just getting started with Programming PIC Microcontrollers and often is the hurdle they have to get over to get that first LED to flash. The configuration settings enable the features of the micro. Settings, such as enabling the Debug feature, Low Voltage Programming or setting the Oscillator to internal or external are just some of the options. 

They are sometimes called fuses since in older one time programmable parts they were set once and couldn't be changed. But with today's modern flash memory devices, the configuration can be changed every time the part is programmed.

The configuration is really just a set of bits that get set or cleared to enable or disable the feature. These bits are grouped together into a byte or several bytes depending on how many features need to be configured.

I've had a few people ask me recently about the best way to get started programming PICs. Apparently my Getting Started with PICs page needs a lot more work and I plan to add more information there soon. But in talking to these people they convinced me that I should be promoting my Programming PICs in BASIC book with the CHIPAXE 8-pin module instead of the larger CHIPINO. First off its a cheaper option and second it's less intimidating to start with an 8-pin chip.

So I updated my recommendation at the bottom of the Getting Started with PICs page to show this package. It's

The Microchip Free Sample site I wrote about in a previous blog post has been updated a little. Its still at microchip.com/samples. The step by step views are shown in the gallery below. You will need to create a login and then you will see your order limits in the lower left hand corner of the screen. Just follow through the checkout steps and you will receive an email with the confirmation of your order. 

The Samples available will have a little grey icon in the Sample column. I suggest you select parts that have a /P or /SP part number since that indicates DIP package. 

You can get new sample orders every month and sometimes get more than one per month. If you aren't using this system to stock your own lab and develop with Microchip PICs then you are missing out on a great opportunity. I don't know of very many companies that make it this easy and Free!