Starting a PIc

PIC microcontrollers are a family of specialized microcontroller chips produced by Microchip Technology in Chandler, Arizona. The acronym PIC stands for “peripheral interface controller,” although that term is rarely used nowadays.

The reason I got into PICs was to experience a low-level world of make it from absolute scratch. If any of the following apply to you, then you should definitely give it a go:

• You want to be able to build embedded projects for very little cost.
• You are interested in learning the inner-workings of a microcontroller.
• You find it satisfying to build something from scratch.

When starting with PICs its a good idea to get one, you can get these from microchip.com or I got my first one and a few others from a local tech store. Alongside a PIC you should also get a programmer, the one I got is the PICkit3.5 which is a slightly improved clone over the original PICkit3, I got it from here: long-link. And with that finally I would recommend a few dupont wires and a power source of 5 volts.

I started with the PIC16F630, however I recommend using the PIC16F690, because it makes it easier to follow the guide I followed: https://picguides.com/beginner/introduction.php

Once you have received all the items and put it all together as per the guide I have a few debugs to address:

1. supply enough current! the average PIC accepts about 2 – 5 volts, if you aren’t sure about your PIC it is easy to find in the data sheet as all you need to do is search for operational voltage and the range should be there.
2. unlike arduino PICs output ground, this is a problem because if you stick a diode on the wrong way it isn’t going to work so keep this in mind.

At the end after I have resolved this page of the guide: https://picguides.com/beginner/digital.php, I have ended up with the resulting project:

And that concludes my starting with PICs, Next I hope to create a servo-setter for my dad as he constantly requires me to re-program my arduino for the servo setting.