People Still Trying to Use Old Chips?

(instructions, reset, WDT, specifications...) PIC12F6xx, PIC16Fxxx, PIC16F6x, PIC16F7x

Re: People Still Trying to Use Old Chips?

Postby Ian.M » Fri Jun 13, 2014 10:28 am

For converting PIC16F87x(A) projects, I'd suggest the PIC16F88x series. Its cheaper, has the same Midrange core and very similar peripherals, comparable output drive capabilities and is on the PICkit 2 debug support list.

People who lack confidence/experience are likely to have problems coping with porting to a completely different processor family - e.g. the guy over in MCHP recently who was trying to handle banking and paging on an enhanced midrange part with BSF and BCF instructions.

OTOH for a totally new project, its worth checking if an enhanced midrange or PIC18 device with fancier peripherals would be a better choice - but *ALWAYS* check the errata!
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Re: People Still Trying to Use Old Chips?

Postby jtemples » Fri Jun 13, 2014 6:45 pm

I'm surprised the 16F887 is still price-competitive given its age.
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Re: People Still Trying to Use Old Chips?

Postby stef_r » Thu Aug 14, 2014 1:15 pm

To give my contribution on this topic:

I have made some PIC projects before, mainly with the 16F628A because this was 'the' device for the program PICBasic I used to program my devices with.
It also suported the 'big' 16F877(A) but other than those two, the program was very restricted for device selection.

Now, a few years later, at my work I was asked to design a device with a PIC Controller. My boss knew this was a hobby of me.
So I started to look at my old, dusty PICBasic program... Hmmm... No good for the device I wanted to use.

Since I have no grounded understanding of the C language -unfortunately- I came out with Assembler.
This would give me no restrictions whatsoever of which device I should use since it's the ground-level language of the whole PIC family.
Anyway, looked for some tutorials and most of them coverd the mid-range 16F877 or older devices.
I started looking into the assembler language with these PIC's but what a struggle.....
Shadow registers, banks, etc...

Then I found the very great and usefull tutorials from Gooligum.
And especially the Enhanced Mid-Range section... What a relief!
No more talking about shadow registers, read-write-modify problem anymore!

Since I'm stared with these Enhanced mid-rang tutorials, life is on the bright side! :-)
Although I'm still learning and have TONS of questions, mainly specific for my project, I'm really getting the feeling of it!

So I think, if I may give some advice to newbies like myself, don't look back (yet!) to the older processors, start with a good tutorial course for the Enhanced Mid-Range devices!
Even the smallest one, the 12F1501 is capable of a lot more you would think of!
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Re: People Still Trying to Use Old Chips?

Postby f6eeq » Sun Feb 01, 2015 1:36 pm

Hi all,

Thanks to Ian answer to a post on MCP forum, I got the hint to look at this forum, and I registered.

Speaking of old chips, I am returning to PIC programming after some interruption, and I'm back in the GOOLIGUM enhanced mid range.
It is strange that the usual French electronic shops (at least Go-Tronic and Selectronic which are about the only ones to sell to hobbyists) do not carry the modern stuff.
For instance GOOLIGUM uses 12F1501, 16F684, 16F1824, which are not in their catalog. You find 16F84... but to a relatively high price (around 6€!!).

I found a lot of improvement with those enhanced chips, as automatic context saving for interrupts, internal clocks, enhanced IOC...
So now I will forget the old 16F84/88, but I have to order from Microchip Direct!

Hope to find lot of help in this forum.

Gerard/F6EEQ
73 from Gerard, F6EEQ
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