PIC Microcontrollers

   I have been aware of the PIC programmable microcontrollers since 1994 or before, much earlier in fact than I had Internet/ Web access.   The devices I had previously been researching were the Motorola 68CH705 series with whose programming syntax I am very familiar having extensively programmed the 6809 since my sojourn at UNSW (University of New South Wales) in 1980-1986 (what I was doing there is another story!).

   Unfortunately, the more useful "HC705" devices are second only to impossible to obtain in this country.   By this I mean: rarely in stock by distributors; expensive (by comparison to the US) and unable to be ordered in "small" quantity (in distributor terms; less than 500).   OTP (One Time Programmable) parts are not a great deal cheaper than the (extremely expensive) windowed, erasable and re-usable parts.

Since "cheap" has a lot to do with both commercial and "hobby" applications, the main contender here really appears to be the PIC from Arizona Microchip.   OK, so much for the plug; Microchip (who used incidentally, to be General Instruments, the makers of all those original video- game chips with "AY-" numbers) make dozens of versions of these, some mask- programmable, some OTP, some windowed.  The device really worth playing with though is the PIC16F84 (formerly the PIC16C84).

   You can, if you approach things as I tend to, or would like to at least, develop your own code to program it, but it is easier to start by acquiring the software in MSDOS or Windoze versions and building a kit from Don McKenzie, such as his DT001  "simmstick" motherboard.

   Now there are absolutely oodles of links for the PIC.  OK, so I AM going to put some here!   This page is DEFINITELY in mid-construction.

  To read those of the above download files which are in PDF format, you will need a WIN95 (or other) Acrobat Reader.