gnupic: Newbie help
Subject:
Re: Newbie help
From:
####@####.#### (Byron A Jeff)
Date:
24 Nov 2001 16:28:38 -0000
Message-Id: <200111241626.LAA04602@cleon.cc.gatech.edu>
>
> Hi,
> I'm a complete newbie to all this PIC stuff. I would like to buy a decent PIC
> programmer. I can get PICSTART PLUS for £100 (~$160, I think). I have also seen
> something called EPIC, which does not seem to program all of microchip's stuff.
> I wouldn't want to have to buy another programmer, as I don't have much cash.
Well let me interject here. You may be approaching this from a difficult
angle. Instead of investing significant money so that you can ensure that you
can program every conceivable part, try the approach of starting with one or
two types of parts and a simple programmer for them. Then you can make an
informed decision about when to upgrade.
In that vein let me offer my Trivial LVP programmer. It has exactly 2 parts
and costs less than £2 (I always wanted to use a pound symbol in a post ;-)
Coupled with gpasm, gpsim, and picprg2.3b (which can be found on my page with
the programmer), One can quickly and cheaply put together a development system
for the 16F62X and 16F87X parts.
My site is http://www.finitesite.com/d3jsys
> Anyway, PICSTART PLUS seems to have lots of useful software, which should last
> me until linux does absolutely everything to do with pics (gpsim seems a bit
> strange to use. I think I'll wait to a higher version number...).
A higher version number isn't going to have any of your expected improvements
if you do not tell the developers what is "strange" about the gpsim. Personally
I find it to be a completely invaluable developement tool.
>Anyway, could
> someone please tell me if I would be making a terrible mistake wasting my
> (precious) money on this picstart plus thing?
Not a mistake. However it is a significant investment. Why not build my
programmer (or one of the other inexpensive ones out there), test it out. It'll
only cost a bit of time and if the result are satisfactory, you'll have quite
a bit of cash.
I'll leave the rest of your questions to the list...
BAJ
