Contents of Articles

Tests

Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Test 5
Page 19 More to be added here

P1 - top half of page!

Go to ”21” a strategy game

This site is enormous. It’s equivalent to over 100 text-book pages. Start by glancing through it quickly and come back. You will then have some idea of its content and how it will help you with PIC programming. It’s the most advanced course ever-devised, taking you from the absolute beginning and supplying everything you need to get into programming.
After a quick read-through you will see the photos of the PIC LAB-1 project, the Multi Chip Programmer, the programming files the range of experiments as well as the other modules in the series.
You can then settle down for the absorption-process.

Do not use: EditPad. Your program will not assemble!!

This project is not only for experimenting. It can be programmed as a module for counting, displaying or detecting a number of quantities and the extra-pages section (pages 6 to 19+) shows how to adapt the board (and add extra circuitry) to create very impressive projects.
The concept of this project is very powerful. It outstrips anything similar using a PIC16F84 chip in a “stand-alone” module.
We have a new module on the drawing board using the upgraded version of the ‘84 - the PIC16F628, with experiments to cover the features of the PIC16F628.
Another module is called PIC Lick-1. As the name implies, it licks anything you have seen to date; in size, price and capability. It has zero overhead, no loss of features and can be used directly in a wide range of products. Anything you design with it can be implemented at the lowest cost possible.
Then there’s PIC Robot-1. A small module with 3 inputs (two amplifiers for sonic direction-finding) and one amplifier for infrared control via a TV remote control. Two H-bridges provide forward/reverse for two motors. It’s designed to fit any wheeled vehicle you provide.
Register your email address and you will be informed when new projects are added.

This project covers two fronts. It provides a totally new design for constructors as well as covering a large amount of electronics theory. The project is full and complete on this site but if you want additional theory, it is provided in our BEC course, in the Library of Routines as well as PIC Programming.

MODIFICATIONS

Modifications will be posted here
MOD 1: Take the 47k microphone load resistor to the 4v2 produced by the two green LEDs. This can be done on the underside of the board.

Click for the PIC Micro Webring

LIST OF EXPERIMENTS

All the files for the experiments are contained in: .hex
or individual files: Expmts-all

Experiment 1 Turning on a LED
Experiment 1a LED on for 0.5sec - without debounce
Experiment 1b LED on for 0.5sec - with debounce
Experiment 1c Two pushes to turn LED on for 0.5sec
Experiment 1d LED turns on for 0.5sec after button released
Experiment 1e LED ON for 0.5s more than button-press time
Experiment 1f Flash a LED
Experiment 2 Toggle a LED
Experiment 3 Running LEDs
Experiment 4 Counting on the 7-segment display
Experiment 4a Binary Counting
Experiment 4b Binary Counting - up/down
Experiment 4c Letters on 7-segment display
Experiment 4d Displaying WORDS
Experiment 4e Push “A” to display a word
Experiment 5 Creating a tone
Experiment 6 Creating a tune
Experiment 7 Siren Sound
Experiment 7a Hee Haw Sound
Experiment 8 A to D Conversion
Experiment 8a Measuring Resistance
Experiment 9 Pulse Detection with a coil
Experiment 10 Temperature Detection
Experiment 11 Sound Detection
Experiment 11a Sound-to-Frequency
Experiment 11b Whistle-On Whistle-Off
Experiment 12 Light Detection
“21 Matches” A strategy game - shows the power of programming. The following pages of experiments, theory and expansions are on our pay-site. More details can be found [HERE**](/articles/pic-lab-1/extra-pages)
Page 6 The Piezo diaphragm as an input and output device
Page 7 NITINOL wire
Page 8 Poling - looking at an input
Page 9 3-digit Counter A-to-D Converter - Measuring Resistance
Pages 10a,b,c,d Library of Routines. This is the secret behind our “Cut-and-Paste” concept to create your own programs.
Page 11 Timing and Delays. Creating a program to control up to 8 devices.
Page 12 Adding extra inputs and outputs
Page 13 Advanced Programming and Clever Commands
Page 14 Test 1 on basic electronics for the PIC LAB-1
Page 15 Test 2 on basic electronics for the PIC LAB-1
Page 16 Test 3 on basic programming
Page 17 Test 4 on programming
Page 18 Test 5 on programming
Page 19 Selecting programs via the scale around a pot.

Rock, Paper, Scissors. A game showing how to create “effects”

This is a joint project from POPTRONICS magazine, and POPTRONICS Interactive Edition. It is presented by Colin Mitchell Editor, POPTRONICS Interactive Edition.

InputDevices
PICLAB 1 Iso
The 5 Input devices and the PIC LAB-1 complete
The 5 input devices are: diode, 10k pot, microphone, coil, photo transistor,

This is our first project to span two media. It is designed around the “beginners” PIC chip, the PIC16F84 and is the first project you should build (after a PIC programmer) if you want to learn how a PIC microcontroller works.
PIC LAB-1 article is fairly large in content. Due to the limitation of space in the magazine POPTRONICS, the outline has been presented on the printed page, while the full article is here, on the website.
That’s one of the advantages of the web, the page is endless. And that’s exactly what we need when producing an instructional article like this.
Over 25 experiments have been prepared to cover the basic concepts of programming and the interfacing of a number of devices.
There are lots of other advantages of the web, including the ease of downloading text and programs for burning into the chip.
The experiments can be pasted into your text editor without the time-consuming task of typing.
This is a new concept and we are sure it will continue in the future.
Another big advantage is linkability. Throughout the article we will be providing links to data, information and theory. Some of these links will take you to POPTRONICS Interactive Edition, the pay-per-issue e-magazine that supports this site. Click HERE to subscribe.
The enormous amount of work that goes into the presentation of the FREE projects section is covered by readers who subscribe to the e-magazine as well as those who purchase the kits for each project. If you want to succeed in this area, you will need to be involved in the practical side by building the project and carrying out programming.
You are invited to subscribe and also click the button below to buy a kit and join the thousands of readers who have purchased a kit from Talking Electronics.
All the articles, kits and electronics courses provided by Talking Electronics have been presented in a completely different way to anything you have seen before.
Everything fits together to create an enormous educational encyclopedia to get you from the beginning of electronics to a level that can make you readily employable.
We have documentary proof where readers have skipped over more than 50 other applicants by merely stating they had read Talking Electronics books and built a number of their projects. By taking some of our projects to the interview, your acceptance is virtually guaranteed.
Take this project as a typical example. After studying the PIC LAB-1 project and carrying out the experiments, you will be capable of writing your own programs and understanding how to interface devices to a microcontroller. Showing this type of project, with a laboratory book of say 25 -30 experiments and explaining your understanding of the concepts, will advance your presentation at least three rungs up the ladder of acceptance.
A special Readers Experiments section has been provided on the site map above, where you can add projects you have created for PIC LAB-1. Simply email them to Colin Mitchell.
This project is only the beginning. Its potential is almost limitless and it’s up to you to create your own programs and ideas.

Now for the article …

But just before we start, I received an email outlining a program that helps programmers write a program via ICONS. Read my comments about this program HERE.If you have ever wondered where to start with PIC microcontrollers, this is it.

Lots of PIC Programmers and projects using PIC chips have been presented in books and magazines, but nothing in the middle - nothing to help the beginner DEVELOP A PROJECT. PIC LAB-1 shows you how to create programs that collect information from the outside world and display it on an output device.
It uses the “beginners” microcontroller, a PIC16F84. This chip can be re-programmed about 1,000 times and is ideal for developing a project.
Projects such as code locks, robot control, vending machine applications, monitoring, motor control, animation, displays, tones, tunes, invalid aids, games and signaling are just a few ideas that are ideal for this chip.
But before you can launch into writing a program, you need to be thoroughly familiar with the operation of the chip and how to write instructions.
This project has all you need but if you want to know more about how to write a program, we have a comprehensive course called PIC PROGRAMMING COURSE on the website. You can see the course later. There will come a time when your will need to see the additional information but for the moment we will cover as much as possible to get you started.
If you have never written a single PIC instruction, click HERE for your first lesson.
Our method of loading values into a file uses Hexadecimal. Learn about Hex HERE.
First we start with a pinout of the chip:

The simplest circuit to connect it to the power rails is shown below. The two components on the clock line (4k7 and 22p) make the chip oscillate at 4MHz and any instructions programmed into memory will be executed at the rate of 1 million per second. Pin 4 needs to be taken HIGH. When taken LOW, the chip resets. Pin 6 is the lowest output line of Port B.
The program in the chip flashes a LED and this is covered in Experiment 1f, on the following page.

It may seem overkill to use a microcontroller to blink a LED but this is an example to show how to program the chip. We must start somewhere and to carry out a simple operation such as this you will need to have a list of instructions for the chip. Click here for the set of instructions for a PIC16F84. We have laid them out in a completely different way to that supplied by the manufacturer of the chip. Our list is much more understandable and information has been included to help you choose the right instruction.
More information on the operation of the chip is provided in our PIC Programming Course. This is on the pay-site: POPTRONICS Interactive Edition and you need to subscribe for this section.
This course represents 2 years of collecting information and solving problems during the designing of projects and is invaluable to help you create a program. THE PC BOARD The PIC LAB-1 Printed Circuit Board is very neatly laid out. It has two amplifying stages so an input of the microcontroller (called an input line) can be connected to a coil, microphone, piezo, photo-transistor, potentiometer or a diode (for temperature detection), as well as a push-button. The output has a row of 8 LEDs and a 7-segment display to show the result of the information. A complete Multi Chip Programmer (with software) is available on this site as well as a blank programming template to assist you with creating your own programs. MPASM is also available on the website to take your .asm file and assemble it to produce a .hex file for the Multi Chip programmer.
In all, it’s a complete package.
It gets you from the absolute beginning, to the stage of producing your own programs and projects with ease and efficiency. It is not in competition with anything else on the market as it has been designed to teach PROGRAMMING - at the least cost.