PICkit™ 2 Starter Kit

[Djarn]

I've been given this starter kit, does anyone know it and what can I do with it?

I am new to robotics, and programming microchips, so please excuse my question if it seems silly, however I'm trying t oget my head around different programmers and chips.

I've got a demo version of PICBasic Pro Compiler, can I use a different compiler?

[corrado33]

Hmmm

For those who don't feel like googling, it comes with this board


And a programmer.

It seems really cool, except you pretty much ruin the board every time you want to try something.  It looks like you have to solder to it so every time you make a circuit you can't really... undo it.  You probably have to buy a new board every time you want to start a new project.

It's cool that the board has a switch and a pot and a couple leds on it already. 

[Joker94]

Well, the programmer in the PIC kit is the far more expensive part and the reason they have the PIC kit, it doesnt take much to make up your own boards and prototyping bread boards with different chips for your projects.

Now that you have the programmer you have the most important part of the setup.

As for the compiler there are many different ones out there and many of them are free ware, I am not much of a PIC user so cant give you sound advice on that from.

Cheers

Joker94

[waltr]

That board and the PICKit2 is a good start for learn PIC micro-controllers. All of the documents can be found on the Microchip web site. Don't forget to download the data sheet for the PIC16F690. Also you can download Microchip's free MPLAB IDE which is the complete development tools for PICs. They also have free versions of the HiTech C compiler but do learn at least some assembler first.

The PIC16F690 does not have the built-in debugging hardware so any code debugging should be done using the MPLAB Simulator. If you need to do in-circuit debugging then there is a debug adapter.
A very good tutorial for getting started is here:
http://www.gooligum.com.au/tutorials.html

Most of the lessons can be done completely in MPLAB using the simulator. Do start at the beginning with the Base-line PIC lessons as the later lessons build on what you learn with the base-line PICs. Again download the data sheets for the PICs in the lessons. Once you start understanding the lessons then change the examples to work with the PIC16F690 on that board.

Instead of wiring stuff on that board I would install some headers connected to the PIC16F690's IO pins so other circuits can be plugged in or jumpered to a solder-less bread board.

[Danial]

you can also use CCS compiler so you can program in C language.
but there are more samples for Picbasic on the web.
I was making a silly mistake using PICKit2 for the first time.
1.first erase your PIC then import Hex file  2. check MCLR option if necessary

[Archangel]

PICKIT 2 is a good programmer. It does not care which compiler you use, as it loads the intel hex file into the PIC. The steps are generally, you write "code" in basic or "c" and using the appropriate compiler, compile your code which then gets turned into assembly, which by the way you can write your code in instead of those Higher level languages, then the assembly code, gets ran through an assembler such as MPASM (FREE from Microchip), the assembler generates the hex file which the Programmer loads into your PIC.