# pic controller



## TheSGC (Nov 15, 2007)

Shanex-2 said:


> I have been reading verious posts and have seen the word pic controller so I ran a search and came up with nothing. know my question is WHAT IS A PIC CONTROLLER ? what are the featchers it offers ? How are they built ? What are there pros and cons?


 
A PIC is a type of microproccessor made by Microchip. They come in many flavors and are programmable chips with inputs and outputs like Analog to Digital conversion, serial interfaces, PWM outputs, etc.

The PIC controller references here are for EV controllers with the brains based off the PIC proccessor. (And yes, I do have a nearly complete EV controller design based off the PIC that is right next to my 555 design, which both need a power source for the IGBT drivers, which I have yet to find.)


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## Shanex-2 (Jun 7, 2008)

well that does help ALOT .What does PIC stand for ? Is there a prefered chip ? Where do you get the info to program it ? Does it interface with a home pc or laptop? Sorry for all the newbie questions but if I don't ask how will I know.


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## Evan (Feb 20, 2008)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIC_microcontroller
Peripheral Interface Controller

There were originally made to build things like the matrix scan code to serial (PS2) adapters. These days though they come in more flavors and with more power than the PC's we used to have when the chip was first designed. It is an 8051 derivative.

No offense but if you are trying to build your own controller I would spend more time trying to learn this stuff one one of the many electronics/firmware forums on the net.

In the future please google for basic definitions like this.


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## madmike (Jul 11, 2008)

Here's an example of a pic based controller for a motorcycle.

http://www.theworkshop.ca/energy/picox/picox.htm


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## ga2500ev (Apr 20, 2008)

Shanex-2 said:


> well that does help ALOT .What does PIC stand for ?


Answered in another post.


> Is there a prefered chip ?


PICs now carry about 5 different families of chips. Each brings a different level of performance and cost to the table. The most widely used families are the 16F and 18F 8 bit families.

As for particular chips, I always recommend that hobbyists pick the most feature packed chip for a particular package. That wasy when you need a feature, it's available. Some samples are:

16F88: 16F top chip in the 18 pin package.
16F887: 16F top chip in the 40 pin package.
18F4550: 18F USB chip in the 40 pin package.

BTW Microchip does have a sample program. So you can ask for up to 15 sample parts, and they will ship them to you free of charge.



> Where do you get the info to program it ?


Everything you need is online at Microchip.com. Your best bet is to purchase a programmer such as the PicKit2 which is a USB interfaced programmer for most of the families. Microchip also has a slew of development tools available for free download. There are also a ton of third parties and open source advocates working on development platforms for the parts.




> Does it interface with a home pc or laptop?


Serial is pretty trivial. USB is doable with some of the 18F parts. Also Any part can be used with an external USB/serial interface or cable.




> Sorry for all the newbie questions but if I don't ask how will I know.



Well the Google is definitely your friend. There is also an extremely active PIC mailing list called the piclist that has about 2500 members and dozens of posts daily.

Go take a read of the microchip.com and piclist.com site. You can get lost in each for a few weeks digging up info.

ga2500ev


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## Shanex-2 (Jun 7, 2008)

THANKS FOR THE POSTS GUYS they really helped.


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