Scavenging PIC micro-controllers

Hello all, I am new to the forum, which looks like an excellent and friendly place. I have taken an interest in micro-controllers lately and I'd like to get my hands dirty. In particular PIC controllers have caught my fancy. I have two questions.

1. I love scavenging parts (it's 3/4 of the fun), what should I keep my eye's open for that uses PICs?

2. There are a lot of sites that do a great job of explaining how to program a PIC in C or Basic for use in a simulator. What all of them lack is a good explication of how to get your compiled code transfered to the controller. Any suggestions for further reading on this?


Thanks,

Norm

PIC's appear in loads of items, too many to mention - BUT, they will almost all use OTP devices that can't be reused, and most are surface mount now as well.

PIC's are cheap, just buy some.

You transfer code via a piece of hardware called an in-circuit programmer. Like a PICKIT. Look at the MIcrochip website.

PIC's are cheap

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Hmm... Low pin count ones are cheap, but AVRs with large pin counts are cheaper than PICs.

My preference is that I like PIC24 and PIC32 better than AVR, PIC18 almost equal to AVR (but Microchip's C18 and their newly acquired HiTech compiler for the PIC18 are buggy as heck), and AVR way more than PIC16 and under. In any case, either are good microcontroller, but this forum is mostly for PIC and assembly. If you decide to go with the AVR, check out avrfreaks.com

amando96 said:

Hmm... Low pin count ones are cheap, but AVRs with large pin counts are cheaper than PICs.

Click to expand...

That would depend to some extent on where you live and which chips you are talking about and the vendor you buy them from. Newark in the US has 8 pin pics starting at 41 cents.

Thanks all

Thank you all for your input. While they certainly are cheap new and I will surely buy some new, I would still love to be on the look out for stuff to recycle.

Also along the lines of buying new. I am just getting started, what would you recommend as a good setup to start learning and experimenting with? It would be nice to be able to program 8,16, & 32.

Thanks agian,

Norm

The FAQ's

I read the FAQ's and Mike recommended blueroomelectronics - Smart Kits Build Smart People for learning PIC's. Thanks Mike.