PIC Programming (Recent)

2009 Meetings:

September 2009: Bob presented our new computer with Intel i7 CPU, 6GB memory, and 2TB disk space. Andrew visited the webpage of Microzed, the Australian distributer of the Picaxe. John showed some more prototypes he made from Sparkfun modules of GPS loggers using PIC24 and ATMEL Mega168. Patrick reviewed progress being made in parallel computing using large arrays of pico chips.

August 2009: Steve showed us a flowchart he made to lay out the structure of a complex program. Andrew described moving from the PIC12F to the PIC24F for the datalogger he is developing, and showed us the Forth compiler for the PIC16F87X. Peter mentioned Cygwin and the PIC Forth Wiki. Wayne demonstrated the Amiga operating system on a laptop computer.

July 2009: John showed some devices he built using modules purchased from Sparkfun, the microcontroller development company. Shane showed pictures of how he fitted a MegaSquirt fuel injection computer and an exhaust gas oxygen sensor to an old Holden. Wayne showed the schematics of his designs of noiseless, transformerless power supplies using capacitors and 4053 switches.

June 2009: Martin showed a device he designed using an ATmega8 microprocessor to calculate the baud rate being used on a serial connection and display it on a LED screen. Les showed us the program he wrote in C using ED for Windows, the smart language-sensitive programmer's editor, to control his solar hot water heater. John spoke of his use of the AVR Mega168 microprocessor to study the performance of racing motorbikes. Shane showed pictures of KRE Engineering's remote control tractor camera that inspects the inside of underground pipes and sends images to a screen on the surface.

May 2009: Les showed pictures of the modifications he made to his hot water heater to run it on solar power, Wayne introduced us to the PIC10F220/222 6-Pin microcontrollers, Alex described a USB interface for an ATtiny45 microprocessor, Andrew discussed PCB autorouting using the free Diptrace program.

April 2009: Geoff showed his add-on for a Porsche 928 driven in a hot climate. It was a fan speed controller for an oil cooler, using a PICAXE08M and DS18B20 temperature sensors. Stuart continued his talk on converting 8-bit code to 16. Martin gave away several boxes of equipment, such as switchmode power supplies and microprocessor programmers. Bob displayed his new Guestbook on the club's webpage, and invited readers to use it to discuss microprocessor matters.

March 2009: Kevin showed us a PICkit3 development kit, Peter showed some voltage converters he made. Using the whiteboard, Wayne showed the schematic of his PIC TV project based on a PIC12F675, Geoff showed the schematic of his PICAXE08M accelerometer, Martin showed the schematic of his microcontroller based keyboard input detector with LCD display, Andrew discussed techniques of measuring tides with microprocessors. Stuart outlined the problems he is facing in rewriting his 8 bit RISC languageÿfor the 16 bit PIC30F microprocessor.

February 2009: At the February Meeting Bob showed a Youtube movie of a Hexapod robot CNC router cutting a rectangular shape, Neville showed a movie of a Mang CNC wire bending machine.
Andrew showed the hardware of his data logger tester using two PICAXE08Ms. It enabled him to quickly test 250 CR800 data loggers.
Alex showed a 3 to 9volt converter from Jaycar.

Ashley showed his EasyPIC5 from Mikro Electronics, a programming and development board described in the May 2008 Elektor magazine. Mike told us of the Meetings of the Amateur Radio NSW Radio Homebrew and Experimenters Group. Seppo spoke of Microchip's new PICkit3, and referred us to the Talking Electronics website as a good source of PIC information. Wayne showed us how to set up the ADC controller in a PIC16F688.

January 2009: Neville showed two YouTube movies about cutting polystyrene foam with a hotwire under CNC control. They showed an industrial machine at work and an Instructable on building a DIY version. Andrew L. reviewed his experience in programming computers with multiple CPU's. Wayne discussed the assembler code he wrote for last month's TV display of a PIC output.

2008 Meetings:

At the August meeting Alex demonstrated using HAPSIM, a software component simulator. HAPSIM simulates components such as buttons and leds in software, and can be used to test AVR microprocessor applications on a computer screen before committing to actual hardware. Stuart explained some details of his reduced instruction set language for PICs. Andrew discussed interfacing a PICAxe chip to the Xbee module for wireless remote control, as described in http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/docs/axe210.pdf.

At the July meeting Peter showed us some articles from Elektor, EPE, and Silicon Chip magazines. Bob Backstrom introduced us to Joomla, a webpage template that allows members to easily upload articles and comments. He proposed Joomla be used for the PIC Club website.

At the June meeting Stuart continued his description of his tiny programming language for the PICs, that he introduced at the March meeting, this time showing us the interpreter. Peter showed some articles from the March Elektor magazine.

"At the May meeting Martin showed the pressure/temperature monitor he built using an ATMEL HP03 sensor. He built it into a transparent floppy disk box, so all the components and the display could be seen from the outside without having to place components off the board and wire them up, and the flip lid gives easy access.

At the April meeting Martin showed the accelerometer he built, using the ATMEL LIS3LV02D6 chip. He donated a couple of PIC display and development boards, which were auctioned off at a bargain price. Steve showed us Ted Rossin's website where a Logic Analyser based on a PIC873 is described. Andrew introduced Microchip's PIC24FJ family, a new range of high pin count (64/80/100 pin) devices with 64-256KBytes of flash memory. Les discussed the merits of the serial data formats FM0, FM1 and Manchester.

At the March meeting Tony showed his stepper motor, operated by remote control. Stewart showed a tiny programming language he wrote for the PICs. He wrote an interpreter which is loaded into a PIC, enabling programs to be written in a few lines that would take several pages in Assembler.

At the February meeting Steve showed his depth sounder alarm for a yacht, David discussed using the PICkit2 as a debugger.

At the January meeting Tony showed the hardware he is developing for his solar tracker, Alex showed his Alpha system monitor that displays on a website environmental data of a remote site, and Neville suggested a User Language Program for the Eagle PCB Program.

2007 Meetings

At the November meeting Tony discussed using the PIC for remote control, and demonstrated some devices he built. Andrew discussed the PIC24 family. Tony showed us a PIC simulator and debugger.

At the October meeting David demonstrated the Eagle CAD program for designing circuit boards. Neville showed two of the four Instructables, Schematics and Layouts, for learning this program, and examined Eagle's User language Programs. Tony demonstrated two PIC devices he built. In the first a 3-colour LED was made to show many colours by its PIC driver. In the second a Passive Infrared Detector (PID) was set up to detect movement of an intruder and radio an alarm signal to a remote station. Geoff showed his PIC-controlled triac driver set and discussed some problems he was having with it.