The Matrix Multimedia PIC Development Board is an established platform for step by step learning and simple project development.
The board will program a range of 8, 18, 28 and 40 pin PIC micro devices using the programming software supplied, and can be used within this course for programming firstly in Assembly, then later in C. The board and accompanying software is compatible with PIC micro microcontroller devices from the 12xxx series, 16xxx series & 18xxx series, and will be fitted with a PIC16F84A device. Although this device has now been superseded by the PIC16F628 device, they are pin for pin compatible (albeit with less functionality) and we believe using the PIC16F84 device still gives a really good introduction to this PIC family device architecture.
We supply a University CD which contains compatible versions of software that are used within this microcontroller module, (Newer versions of this software are available on the web, but compatibility issues may arise if student wish to download the ‘latest versions’)
We also supply CD containing the Matrix Multimedia Development Board firmware.
The University CD contains:-
The CD may try to Auto-run the Quincy software, so please be sure to view the other software that is also included on the CD.
This is an earlier student version of this software that is compatible with MPLab v5.5.
Hi-tech Lite C compiler can be freely distributed and (aimed at students and hobbyists) supports a limited number of popular PIC devices within the confines of 1000 words of compiled code (sufficient for this module). N.B.:- Free downloads from Hi-tech website of Hi-tech PICC C compilers (Full version) are restricted to 21 day trial period!
MPLab v 5.5, which is also supplied on the CD, works well with this version of the Hi-Tech Lite C compiler. Higher version of MPLab (e.g. v8.00 and above) are available from the Microchip Website but it is fair to say that some may give some students unnecessary difficulties/challenges within the scope of this module when interfacing with other versions of software. The module notes deliberately work with the earlier version 5.50 (as they are much less cluttered and simpler to use as an introduction to the Microchip Environment if a student hasn’t come across this environment previously). If a student is comfortable with the more recent versions of MPLab, then they may use the later editions, but would need to match it in with more recent versions of third party softwares.
We will try to support students mixing and matching the more recent versions of the two above software versions. e.g The Hi-tech LITE C compiler version 9.50 is compatible with MPLAB version 7.50 (and above) and so this may prove to be a useful working pair for many students.
We have also included Quincy 2002 C/C++ Integrated Design Environment (IDE) for students who need to study the basics of C programming (chapters 8 & 9). Quincy2002 contains everything you need to code, compile, debug, and execute C and C++ programs. This is also freely available to download from http://www.alstevens.com/quincy2002/ but provided on the CD for your convenience.
WinRAR is a powerful archiver and archive manager. (RAR files can usually compress content by 8 percent to 15 percent more than ZIP files can). WinRAR has been included (in the \\winrar directory) to allow you to open the source code zip archives (in the \\source directory).
The CD automatically runs the Setup program whenever loaded in the Disc-drive.
The Setup.exe program installs Quincy, the compilers, and the example programs from the CD-ROM to your hard drive. Please read the readme.txt file on the ‘Uni CD’ for further information. You may have to use the explore facility to access other files on this CD.
Further guidance is given in the background information section of the course content.
The Matrix-Multimedia CD provides Lite versions of ASM and C compilers for use with the dev. kit for quick & efficiently running the code examples from within the on-line notes to run on the demo board.
Updated 24.02.10 KS
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