A review of a handful of PIC development boards

I don’t know what possessed me to make this video but I decided to go through some of the PIC microcontroller boards I have. I was inspired by my recent purchase of half a dozen of the new TAUTIC 18F26K22 development boards. This was money well spent. I think between this and the 20 pin board I’ll be pretty heartbroken if he stops making the boards.

You can buy many of the boards I reviewed on tindie or microcontrollershop. I didn’t mention that the 20 pin dev board TAUTIC has comes with a 16F1509, I have been dropping 18F14K22 into the board, and I also probably should have mentioned I used to use the ICD2 with the big old dev boards.. I don’t want anyone thinking their PICkit 3 will just plug-in read to go.. you’ll be making or buying a harness of some sort.

I feel like I’ve leaned on video a little too much lately. I’m looking for feedback on this: Love, hate, indifferent?

As a reminder: none of this product came to me for free or even at a reduced price that any one else couldn’t have gotten besides the PIC Clicker which I won randomly online two months ago.

The Hackers Bench Tone Sequencer

@JohnS_AZ shared his beautiful schematic of a tone sequencer [PDF] he designed with me a few weeks ago. I think he designed it for the @tymkrs ? I watched the video and it looked like a fun project, I wasn’t wrong!

John’s webpage is at : http://hackersbench.com/

I was shooting for sticking this project into an Altoids tin .. I had low expectations which is good because I’m about 1 cm t0 tall on the trimmers. If I found some lower profile parts and removed my DIP sockets I could pull this off. I’m not that motivated to take care of it but if you want to try you know what to do 😉 I used the Adafruit Altoids tin PCB… I purchased a couple of these a while back; they’re good stuff. The oscillator is up on the top board and then ‘LS90, 4051, VCO and the audio amp are below. I am particularly impressed with John’s use of the Pin 5 input on the LM555 to use it as a VCO; I haven’t seen this done much, usually you’re sticking a cap to ground on this input or letting it float (gasp!). I just have to add some stand-offs and a couple connectors and this project is wrapped up.
My version of his circuit:

Yep, just a little to "thick" to fit in the can... oh well. Stand off's will work :)
Yep, just a little to “thick” to fit in the can… oh well. Stand off’s will work 🙂

 

John made two great videos of this project:

 

Free Stickers!

They just came in, while supplies last..get a free sticker!

sticker_pnw

1. You have to have a twitter, Facebook, or blog/vlog that appears you have some interest in electronics, being a “maker”, or computer programming and your shipping address is in North America.

2. #tymkrs (irc) skip to the head of the line as long as they don’t wait more than a few days

3. E-mail or tweet @chasxmd your @ twitter_name or blog link.. and your shipping address to my e-mail address chas at this domain.. alternately see the full e-mail address on the right hand of this page under “Contact/Social”

Enjoy!

First try at reflow soldering with an 858D hot air station.

This is my first try at reflow soldering. It took four attempts to get it right… so you learn 3 ways not to do it 😉 I just got this 858D station in the mail the other day, it cost me about $70 on eBay.

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In this video I referenced Jayson Tautic’s reflow example.

A tiny Si4707 WX Radio Project Update

I pulled out the weather radio project today to see what I could get done in a few hours. I was pretty close on finishing off the hardware but I fell a little short right at the end. I found I had forgotten to buy something to convert the regulated 5V to 3.3V for the radio (and PIC since they’re tied together on I2C). I ran into a few issues I totally spaced:1.  The Si4707 requires a reset after power up .. it ignores I2C if you don’t.

2. Pull-ups.. duh, not only on I2C which I had, but don’t forget the Si4707 reset (oops).

I ended up buying a couple random Digikey parts at the ham radio convention and guess what? 10@ MCP1802T-3002I/OT (300mA 3.0V LDO) ..they are SOT23-5 and I had JUST gotten 10 break-out boards in the mail so I ended up having a 5V3.3V converter (close enough anyways, as the PIC and Si4707 work down to 2.7V).. soldered it up but I didn’t have time to pop it in. I used the Weller but I think I’m going to solder another one with the new hot air gun I got this week. I ordered one of those cheap 858D rework stations; I don’t plan on using it too much so hopefully it’ll do the trick. I also got a bunch of SMD protoboards.. so I get to practice reflow this week.

Tomorrow I should be able to finish up the radio and then it’s all software.

Si4707 WX Radio Build - 11MAR14

The photo isn’t the most exciting workbench shot but you can see that 858D in the back corner. The WX radio is the black box right up close to the left.

A weekend outside..

I didn’t have a very productive weekend in the workshop. I received a ton of parts Friday and Saturday including the case to the WX radio. I started installing parts and pieces in the case. I’m always very nervous about the first drill hole.. A only made a minor error (so far) and it is nothing noticeable.

I spent much of the weekend with my wife doing little tid bits outside the house. She spent a lot of time home last week so she was sick of being home; that directly translate into a reduction of bench time 😉 She did go out for a work thing Saturday and I went down to the Mike and Key game radio swap meet. I purchased a bunch of odds and ends and gave up when my pockets were full and I couldn’t carry anymore.

This morning we went out for a quick bit after sleeping in a little and went for a hike out east. It was relaxing but ate up most of the day. I suspect I won’t end up with a lot of bench time until this next weekend: I will likely have a bunch of overtime at work as I just inherited another project when I’m already way overbooked. I know, better than not having work.

Some of my purchases include a cheapo hot air gun.. For reflow soldering. I don’t know if I made a mistake going cheap? I also bought a new power supply and just a ton of parts. I pulled my last 16pin DIP socket out and can’t believe I didn’t order some last time?! How embarrassing! I also ordered six of the new TAUTIC 18F26K22 dev boards on Tindie and some blog stickers.. Check out those dev boards if you’re into PICs, their pretty slick.

I’ll leave you with a photo of the falls we hit up on our hike today…

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