PIC based Arduino
Yes, the title is tricky, don’t be afraid Arduino still uses the ATmega168, this project is very similar to the Arduino concept, but also very different. It is a small development board which uses a PIC micro controller with native USB support, the author states that this is the main advantage over Arduino, but there isn’t available a user friendly IDE with custom language. Although not everything is lost since for the PIC18F family you have a feature limited C compiler made available from Microchip, C18. The author also states that he launched his CUIduino board in 2005, roughly the same time with Arduino, maybe is true but at least the name was inspired from Arduino.
It is a great alternative for the PIC community, but in lack of simplified language, it still remains just another development board.
PIC based Arduino: [Link]
January 24th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
hi,
on this site : http://www.hackinglab.org/
you can get the details of a free arduino like system based on simple pic device, and also you get a free ide environment for windoze, mac and linux like the arduino.
hope this helps !
regards,
January 24th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Hello Jeanyves and thanks for the info.
January 25th, 2009 at 4:59 am
hello, i found your web by search, do you have scheme for that microcon?
January 28th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
@rahman: just follow the link !!!
January 21st, 2011 at 5:41 pm
I’m really failing to see how people get away with writing off the C compilers available for the PIC family as “not full featured” or “limited.” There are FREE C compilers available for PICs that support full ANSI C and even include many other compiler-specific functions to make life easier.
I understand that limiting and abstracting functions in the Arduino environment is nice for the beginner, but I’m really getting sick of all the PIC compilers being written off as “limited.” As if the Arduino IDE isn’t?!
Besides, those free compilers are free versions of “pro” level software. The only things you really lose going to the free version are some low-level optimizations. The code is still fairly compact and perfectly functional. I seriously doubt that the Arduino IDE will produce more compact code than the free versions of PIC compilers, and if not then it is not even a valid argument if the “limited” PIC stuff is still less limited than the Arduino.
Yet everyone bemoans the PIC as having an expensive toolchain, and limited compilers, and some even have the misconception that you HAVE to program in assembly and oh, the humanity! But the Arduino is the most functional and capable system in existence! Give me a break.
The Arduino is simple and thus great for people who have no real interest in learning to program or learning about the hardware they are using. They’ll blink some LEDs, call themselves hackers, and then forget about all of it a year later when the ready-made blink routines start to run out of functionality in the Arduino IDE, and they never really learned how to program in the first place.
January 23rd, 2011 at 12:40 pm
I agree that the free versions of PIC compilers would produce more compact code than the Arduino IDE but as you’ve said Arduino is great for people who have no real interest in learning too much. Its great for skipping some of the steps you would do on another dev platform. Me personally I don’t like it much, I don’t have one and I don’t think I’ll get one soon.
January 23rd, 2011 at 5:07 pm
@SVF: the PIC compilers available from Microchip are optimization feature limited after 30/60days, this can be found on the official site. Meaning that after the “trial” the binary size can increase by 30-40%. Although i think Microchip has the cheapest low-end development boards, the pickit bundle is unbeatable.
Lets not compare any C compiler with the Arduino’s own language, its just ain’t fair, Arduino is for people who don’t want to get into the details, they just want to do something fast, and with minimal effort.
For example, I ain’t a PC programmer, but i used National Instruments CVI IDE to write some applications, I didn’t cared that wasn’t Object Oriented, the generated code was kinda messy, but I didn’t had the time to dig into Visual C++ or Borland controls.
For many, arduino or similar products offer a great opportunity to create something, without extensive HW/SW knowledge.
Just for the sake of clarity I am not an Arduino fan, never been, never will be