Beginner Micro

We just launched our store here at Beginner Micro. Use the Products link in the main menu or just go HERE. We currently are offering several products designed to make life a little easier in the lab and several books on embedded programming by Chuck Hellebuyck.

For those folks looking for a place to get started with developing electronic products, check out our starter kits that have everything you need. started.

If you need a little help getting your PicKit 2^TM LED’s to blink, here’s a little program that will get you started.  You’ll see after you run it that I’ve toggled all 4 of the LED’s in two different sequences.  You can play with the different outputs and durations to get familiar with how this is done in C.  I’m using PICC Lite here so don’t forget to “include” the pic.h file into MPLAB^TM, otherwise it won’t work. 

#include <pic.h>
 __CONFIG(FCMDIS & IESODIS & BORDIS & UNPROTECT & MCLRDIS & PWRTEN & WDTDIS & INTIO);
int i;
int j;
main()
{
PORTC = 0;
TRISC0 = 0;
TRISC1 = 0;
TRISC2 = 0;
TRISC3 = 0;
 j=0;
 while (j<3)
 {
     for (i = 0; i < 5500; i++);
          RC0 = 0;
     for (i = 0; i < 5500; i++);
          RC0 = 1;
     for (i = 0; i < 5500; i++);
          RC1 = 0;
     for (i = 0; i < 5500; i++);
          RC1 = 1;
      for (i = 0; i < 5500; i++);
          RC2 = 0;
     for (i = 0; i < 5500; i++);
          RC2 = 1;
     for (i = 0; i < 5500; i++);
          RC3 = 0;
     for (i = 0; i < 5500; i++);
          RC3 = 1;
     for (i = 0; i < 5500; i++);
          RC2 = 0;
     for (i = 0; i < 5500; i++);
          RC2 = 1;
     for (i = 0; i < 5500; i++);
          RC1 = 0;
     for (i = 0; i < 5500; i++);
          RC1 = 1;
     j=j+1;
 }

j=0;
while (j<5)
{
     for (i = 0; i < 8500; i++);
          PORTC=0b001001;
     for (i = 0; i < 8500; i++);
          PORTC=0b000110;
     for (i = 0; i < 8500; i++);
          PORTC=0b001001;
     for (i = 0; i < 8500; i++);
          PORTC=0b000110;
j=j+1;
}

}

It’s always helpful to have a list of commonly available capacitors values handy.  If you don’t see what you want here, you may have to put a couple caps in parallel to get what you want.  Here’s a listing of common capacitor values for polarized, non-polarized, and surfacemount caps. 

Non-Polarized Capacitors

Polarized Capacitors