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Hi all,
  I'm thinking about buying the Pic software and hardware.  I just 
don't want to spend a small fortune.  I can deal with the programming 
board and software at $60.  Do I really need to spent 100 to 250 
dollars on a compiler?  What do you guys think about the Basic stamp?  
I priced the bs1 and bs2 chips.  They seem to be expensive but if I'm 
not mistaken it looks like I could get everything I need in a $79 
dollar package.  What do you guys think?

thanks
Steve
	

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Steve wrote:
> Hi all,
>   I'm thinking about buying the Pic software and hardware.  I just 
> don't want to spend a small fortune.  I can deal with the programming 
> board and software at $60.  Do I really need to spent 100 to 250 
> dollars on a compiler?  What do you guys think about the Basic stamp?  
> I priced the bs1 and bs2 chips.  They seem to be expensive but if I'm 
> not mistaken it looks like I could get everything I need in a $79 
> dollar package.  What do you guys think?
> 
> thanks
> Steve

Since you don't tell us what you need it is difficult to say if it meets 
your needs.  Buying a PIC is not like buying a PC, there are hundreds of 
variants tuned to lots of applications; from 6 pins to 144+ pins and 
just about everything in-between.  What do you want to do?  How fast 
does it need to get done?

DLC

-- 
---------------------------------------
Dennis Clark    TTT Enterprises
---------------------------------------

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I think the basic stamp is an excellent starting ground. It is super easy to 
get going. One of the advantages is that it comes with its own easy to 
learn 'Basic' software. Yes pun intended. However you will soon find out that 
it doesn’t come with a lot of bells-and-whistles. Like, ADC, PWM, USART which 
are  built in to the PIC. 
If the high cost of the compiler is  what your talking about, most compilers 
have a demo or trial that gives you full use up to 1 or 2K of code.  

In addition to the experimenters board, programmer, software there are a few 
other components you may need as well. Like oscillators, resistors, capacitors, 
LEDS,  switches, RTC, FETS, etc. However the cost should be minimal. 

Daryl

Quoting Dennis Clark <dlc@dlc@...>:

> Steve wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >   I'm thinking about buying the Pic software and hardware.  I just 
> > don't want to spend a small fortune.  I can deal with the programming
> 
> > board and software at $60.  Do I really need to spent 100 to 250 
> > dollars on a compiler?  What do you guys think about the Basic stamp? 
> 
> > I priced the bs1 and bs2 chips.  They seem to be expensive but if I'm
> 
> > not mistaken it looks like I could get everything I need in a $79 
> > dollar package.  What do you guys think?
> > 
> > thanks
> > Steve
> 
> Since you don't tell us what you need it is difficult to say if it meets
> 
> your needs.  Buying a PIC is not like buying a PC, there are hundreds of
> 
> variants tuned to lots of applications; from 6 pins to 144+ pins and 
> just about everything in-between.  What do you want to do?  How fast 
> does it need to get done?
> 
> DLC
> 
> -- 
> ---------------------------------------
> Dennis Clark    TTT Enterprises
> ---------------------------------------
> 
> 
> to unsubscribe, go to http://www.yahoogroups.com and follow the
> instructions 
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 

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--- In piclist@picl..., "Steve" <stever240@...> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>   I'm thinking about buying the Pic software and hardware.  I just 
> don't want to spend a small fortune.  I can deal with the programming 
> board and software at $60.  Do I really need to spent 100 to 250 
> dollars on a compiler?  What do you guys think about the Basic stamp?  
> I priced the bs1 and bs2 chips.  They seem to be expensive but if I'm 
> not mistaken it looks like I could get everything I need in a $79 
> dollar package.  What do you guys think?
> 
> thanks
> Steve
>

As Dennis point out, there are hundreds of different processors, PIC,
AVR, ARM, whatever.  Then there are the 'canned' solutions like the
OOPic, Atom, Stamp, etc.

To some extent your application drives the hardware selection.  But,
perhaps more important, is where you're at.  Are you comfortable with
hardware?  Do you understand C, compiling, linking, etc?

I can tell you that you will get a lot more horsepower by picking one
of the high end AVR chips with a development board (www.sparkfun.com).
Then add an ISP dongle and you are ready to go.  Add a JTAG dongle
later if you wish.  FWIW, my current favorite is the ATmega128.

Programming software can be FREE.  The GNU tool chain works very well
with the AVRs and the WinAVR library (Google for it) has most of the
code already written.  But, this all assumes a higher skill level.

PICs are also interesting and cc5x is a great compiler.  There is a
free version that works well.  PIC C Lite is also free.  Both of these
will work well with mid-range PICs.  I like the 16F877(A) and the
16F88.  Especially the 16F88.  Here you integrate the compiler in the
Microchip MPLAB development environment.  But, you need some kind of
chip programmer.  I have used several but settled on the high price
spread because the rest are too limiting or they don't work at all.  I
bought the Microchip PIC Start Plus.

One of the advantages of the Atmel AVRs is the ISP programming device
is reliable and inexpensive.  The PICs are a PITA because the
programming voltages and algorithms vary between parts.

At the beginner end of the spectrum, Stamp owns the market.  They have
a reliable product, excellent documentation, plenty of tutorials and a
lot of published projects.

Richard
	

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Depends on what you want to do and how much you already know.  The $79 
kit does give you a Stamp and lesson book, but the stamp is built onto 
the programmer board so you won't be able to put the programmed chip 
into any circuit you have.

While the Basic Stamp has a wider user base, the PICAXE is far 
cheaper.  You can get them from this guy: 
http://stores.ebay.com/PHAnderson-Electronics

If you know programming and are pretty handy you can easily get started 
with PICs for under $20.  PHAnderson has cheap programmers and the PICs 
and there are several free compilers on the web for download.

Mike
	--- In piclist@picl..., "Steve" <stever240@...> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>   I'm thinking about buying the Pic software and hardware.  I just 
> don't want to spend a small fortune.  I can deal with the programming 
> board and software at $60.  Do I really need to spent 100 to 250 
> dollars on a compiler?  What do you guys think about the Basic 
stamp?  
> I priced the bs1 and bs2 chips.  They seem to be expensive but if I'm 
> not mistaken it looks like I could get everything I need in a $79 
> dollar package.  What do you guys think?
> 
> thanks
> Steve
>
	

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