1. June 2009 by pilot.

I am always grateful to readers that report to me typos and/or issues found with the books listings and the CDROM code, but today I want to thank particularly Laurent Debrauwer not only for pointing out an issue with the SD card fileio.c module (as posted on Chapter 15 of the “Exploring the PIC32″ book) but also for isolating the “bug”.  Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in File I/O, AV16/32 | No Comments »

24. April 2009 by pilot.

There is one problem I have with the current style used in the PIC24 and PIC32 datasheets, it has to do with the way the pin out of the device is presented. Since so many functions are multiplexed on each pin, I find myself constantly checking for potential conflicts when choosing carefully my GP I/Os. The pin-out table is designed to list alphabetically all the individual options and determine the pin number, but then how do you cross check for other functions with the same number?

As I did before for the PIC24, I have created a convenient Excel spreadsheet and filled it with the PIC32MX3xx pinout table info: PIC32MX3xx pinout

Now you can sort the pins by name, by pin number (in different packages) or by group/peripheral.

As an added bonus it was easy to include the information about the pin usage by the Explore16 board and the various PICTail boards available (including the AV16/32 of course).

I hope you’ll find it useful…

P.S. Should you find any error or omission, please make sure to report it to me…

Posted in PIC32, AV16/32, PIC24 | 1 Comment »

5. January 2009 by pilot.

The Xiph.Org Foundation offers an open source alternative to the omni-present MP3 audio compression: it is called Ogg Vorbis and promises same if not better performance but it is royalty-free and license free. From their web site, like in all open source project you can download the full C source code for all the tools you need to convert and play back Ogg Vorbis files/streams on most operating systems

Like most open source projects, the code is based on the assumption that you will use the classic GNU Toolchain: gcc compiler, linker, standard GNU libraries, to compile and link your application. Now as you might know the PIC32 toolchain happens to be GNU compatible … Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Linux, PIC32, Tools, AV16/32 | No Comments »

27. December 2008 by pilot.

I guess we all wait for the Christmas holidays to recover from a long year of hard work, enjoy some more time with family and friends and prepare for the new year at the doors. As I am writing this, it’s real cold and snowy outside, just like in the typical Christmas stories, and I find that this is just the perfect time (after dinner and when the kids are in bed) to … write some fun embedded applications!

I had meant for a while to post some additional projects for those of you who have read the books and tried out (prototyped) the projects using the published schematics or assembling  the AV16/32 kits, but I never got to it.

So, finally ..here they are!  I have just added a new page to the PIC32 explorers’ web site dedicated to the first six new projects.

More will be coming shortly… hope you’ll have fun!

Posted in PIC32, Tips and Tricks, AV16/32 | No Comments »

15. May 2008 by pilot.

Using the new double buffered graphic library (see previous post) we can now create simple animations. In chapter 12 we have already seen how to visualize a 2D function using a grid and a bit of perspective (isometric). The next obvious step is to look into 3D objects and how to animate them by moving and rotating them in space. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Graphics, Tips and Tricks, AV16/32 | 1 Comment »

10. May 2008 by pilot.

In the good old times, when studying at the University of Trieste, I particularly enjoyed Rational Mechanics, a required class for any EE Master back then, presented by professor Enzo Tonti. One of the things that were always making his lectures a pleasure (and a challenge) was his constant reference to, and practical use of, personal computers to illustrate visually the concept at hand.

Mind those were the early days of the Apple II, the Commodore C64, the Sinclair Spectrum and for the few lucky (and rich) ones among us the first IBM XT personal computers. The graphic capabilities of those personal computers were primitive to say the least. In fact, a single PIC24F128GA010 has today more program memory than any of those personal computers and the resolution of the video output, using the AV16 board we developed in the book (without any hardware assistance), is actually pretty close. Yet prof. Tonti used to teach us how to develop effective demos using little more than a few lines of BASIC or, I should say, of the “soup” of BASIC dialects that were popular at the time… (Actually prof. Tonti developed a brilliant scheme to identify a sort of minimum common denominator among all those disparate systems and Basic dialects that he called Inter-Basic if I recall correctly… there must be a web site somewhere where all this is documented)…

We simulated graphically the motion of planets around a sun, the complex motion of pendulums of various kinds, we animated objects in 2D and 3D! Key to all those graphic exercises was the ability to alternate fast images on the display to obtain the illusion of motion….

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Graphics, Tips and Tricks, AV16/32 | 1 Comment »

5. March 2008 by pilot.

PICTail(tm) Plus is the name that Microchip uses for the expansion socket offered by the Explorer16 boards. It is one of the easiest and most flexible options available for prototyping out there. All the signals from a 100 pin PIC microcontroller are grouped logically and conveniently in three sections so that if only a few signals are required a smaller board can be arranged. The edge of any PCB can be quickly transformed in an inexpensive (as in free) connector as soon as you realize that all it takes is a set of 1mm spaced traces (gold plating is an option you might consider for longevity). NOTE that all connections are clearly documented in the appendix of the Explorer16 User Guide (DS51589) .

The AV16 board that I developed to support the code examples of the book is only one example of PICTail Plus expansion board, on microchiDIRECT you will find many other options to support: IrDA, Graphic displays with touch sensing, Ethernet, SD Cards and more.

But my all times favorite is the simplest one of all: AC164126  also known as the:

Prototype PICTail Plus board 

For $20 you get 3 (three) boards actually. All the signals are accessible in a standard spacing four row line up with silk screen call outs. Get your soldering irons warm!

Posted in Tools, AV16/32 | 1 Comment »

13. January 2008 by pilot.

So this is what the AV16 board looks like (I just realized I did not have pictures of the completed board on the web site):

In this picture you see it mounted on the Explorer16 first slot. The audio jack on the right side is connected to my computer set of amplified loudspeakers (with a nice sub-woofer for extra humph) and the video jack on the left is connected to a TV.

To check the availability of the AV16 board and/or to order one, refer to the AV16 page on the FlyingPIC24.com web site.

In reality I use one of those cheap portable LCD DVD players ($99 last Christmas at Fry’s) as my output device during development and debugging.

If you look carefully at the bottom of the board you will notice that I have made some modifications to the video circuit (added one resistor and a “blue” wire) while experimenting with … new features … in particular I was trying to simplify further the graphic.c routines having the OC3 peripheral produce directly the SYNC signal. More on this soon…

If you really have good eyes though, you will notice that I was not using exactly a PIC24 when this picture was taken…

Posted in AV16/32 | 1 Comment »