16F877 Development board suggestions ?

I've yet to see anyone say anything good about Futurlec. The place doesn't even have an ARBN, which is a warning sign.

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Chris

What's an ARBN for a Thai outfit?

Have been looking at that one myself. Note it only comes with the slower ($MHz IIRC) processor, but they stock the 20 and *might* be persuaded to swap processors at a price difference.

Futurlec are cheap, but take far too long to ship in my experience. I recommend Soanar:

Cheers,

Al

More a proto than a development board, but may suit depending on your needs.

Serial:

USB:

or bare boards at throw out prices, DT106 SimmStick:

Don...

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Don McKenzie
E-Mail Contact Page:               http://www.dontronics.com/e-mail.html

Crystal clear, super bright OLED LCD (128x128) for your microcontroller.
Simple serial RX/TX interface. Many memory sizes.
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/product.php?productid=16460

Last I checked sonar did not do microchip, but that was a few years ago :)

My suggestion would be to visit

and buy a devel kit from them. That way you get all the app notes to fit.

Oops, you're right - they don't sell PIC dev boards. I must have AVRs on the brain :)

Soanar are still great for general components, but only sell a handful of PICs (the prices are quite reasonable - $8.30 for an '877, compared to $13 at Jaycar) Still I would avoid Futurlec unless you don't mind waiting ages.

Have you considered Olimex?

costs about 45 bucks Australian, and you get a backlit LCD with a USB connection.

Cheers,

Al

or in Australia:

Don...

--
Don McKenzie
E-Mail Contact Page:               http://www.dontronics.com/e-mail.html

Crystal clear, super bright OLED LCD (128x128) for your microcontroller.
Simple serial RX/TX interface. Many memory sizes.
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/product.php?productid=16460

What features are you after ?

Also as the 16f877 and 16f877a are pin compatable

For nice boards I like the ethernet / wireless boards from

but you'll need an icd of some sort for programming.

The futurlec board is quite good. Just the orders can take a while sometimes(month or two).

The programming software can be annoying to get working on some computers. Works fine on some and not on others.

They are good if you are not in a hurry. I use a few of their arm and avr stamp boards.

Futurlec has some quite good boards but the software to go with them means they are not the best for beginners. Helps to have an alternative method of programming the micro in case you get stuck with the supplied software.

With pics , I have a microchip icd2 and for dip chips a k150 with zif, for avr's an atmel isp2 programmer + stk500.

The olimex boards are similar but depending on where you order from , you can get them in a few days.

Whatever board you get , make sure to get the correct programmer / programming cable for it.

A good way to speed up your learning is to get the dip version of the chips and a programmer like the k150 from kitsrus and build your circuits on a bread board. Get a programmer with a zif socket.

You would be surprised how much faster you learn (and more careful you become) when you have to hook everything up yourself (and draw the schematic and hook up diagram).

Its easy to see which students have learned via bread boarding and those that have never done any when running a lab tutorial class at uni. See some really amusing and weird things.

Alex