PIC Microcontrollers

[Brendan]

Does anybody here play around with Microchip PIC Microcontrollers at all?

I know Arduino is the "go-to" solution these days for prototyping...but I really enjoy playing with 8-bit PICs...I find I can do nearly anything I need done with them...and I can design my own boards with a much smaller footprint when I'm just working with the chip itself (vs. a chip and support PCB such as Arduino).

I typically start a project on a breadboard...and then, if I want to make it a permanent solution, but still a one-off, I use a prototyping board I designed for most 8-pin and 20-pin PIC Microchips (image attached).

This protoboard has connectors for the PICKIT3 programmer (to program a raw PIC), a serial connection for PICAXE chips (PIC chips with a serial bootloader), I also can whack a couple of traces, run a couple of wires, and use the PICAXE connector for serial bootloading of a PIC chip w/out the PICAXE bootloader (needs different serial in / serial out pins). Also, there is a 4-pin header that can go to USB...I sometimes play with PIC18F14K50 chips, which can support USB.

I can bring one of these in if anybody is interested.

Brendan