Supportpage for the EPPO project

Mainresource for the EppoManager application, its scripts, tutorials as well as the hardware concerning EPPO itself, and the Led Bar Demo Board.

Although this site is as up-to-date as possible, we can not be held accountable for possible damages as a result of use of information and/or software obtained from this site.


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Why yet another PIC programmer?
Look around on the net. The cheapest programmers you can build yourself are just for one type of controller. So building separate programmers for seperate controllers is not really the way you want to go. EPPO can manage the DIL controllers up to 28 pins (narrow), and the rest via ICSP (In Circuit Serial Programming).
My experience on off-the-shelve programmers, such as Microchip's Picstart Plus, is a quite dissapointing one. Everytime a new microcontroller is released, the current programmer must be upgraded. At first you had to program a controller with new firmware, and replace the one inside the programmer. A year or two ago, Microchip decided to replace the controller with a so called PUM, of which the firmware was upgradable via their IDE MPLAB. Well... My PUM was unusable after my first upgrade, and when I complained with Microchip, everybody had gone fishing.

Why choose Microchip microcontrollers?
This is a subjective one. Basically, any microcontroller can do the same job. some of them have more I/O ports, other ones have specific analog or communicative features. I think the Microchip range of controllers is the most complete one on the market. A drawback is that not every electronics-shop can deliver Microchip controllers, apart from the most popular (and in my view obsolete) PIC16F84. The microchip microcontrollers are small, fast and have RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Controller) architecture, so quickly to learn.

What type of controller must I choose?
The main property I always look for, is how many I/O pins I will need. You also have to keep in mind that, by using a microcontroller, you in fact are heavilly reducing other (logic) components from your hardware design. So if you design some circuitry, you leave the station with knowing what inputs and outputs your hardware design will need. After that you start your design with drawing a microcontroller with exactly that I/O configuration. Then start removing components you can "do" in software, like debouncing switches, directly driving LED's instead of using transistors etcetera. Although EPPO can program any PIC microcontroller, I made a list of controllers up to 28 pins, which reduces the number of microcontrollers to choose from quite a lot:
Microcontroller number of I/O Extra features Pins
PIC12F675 5 I/O, 1 input A/D, int osc 8
PIC16F688 11 I/O, 1 input int osc 14
PIC16F88 15 I/O, 1 input EEPROM, int osc 18
PIC16F73 21 I/O, 1 input A/D 28
You might remark that I do not address memory issues. My experience with the controllers I have ever programmed, is that the memory resources fit the microcontrollertype. If you use less I/O, you probably need less memory.

What's the difference between C type and F type microcontrollers?
In short: C type controllers, such as the 12C672, you can only program once. So if you screw up your program, or the programming itself, you will find that your microcontroller has been upgraded to a disposable one, ready to throw away. The F type controllers have their program not in EPROM, like the C type ones, but in so called flash memory. These controllers can be erased, and reprogrammed a huge number of times. Most older C type microcontrollers have a F type counterpart, so eventually all C type microcontrollers become extinct.

Why still support C type programming?
If you have a well tested and popular design, you might think of using a C type controller instead of a F type one. Normally the C type microcontrollers are cheaper than the F types (until they last that is). It can be very rewarding, checking ebay or other auctionsites, on left-overs. Since the C type controllers become less and less popular, you probably can by them cheaper and cheaper.

How do I update EppoManager with a new type of controller?
This issue is covered in the EppoManager's helpfile. In simple terms, you have to get or write a script for every operation you want to execute on the new microcontroller. If you are completely uninterrested in how the programming process actually works, please wait for somebody to send in scripts, so you can download them from the scripts page. If you are up to the challenge, please get the programming specifications from the Microchip website (http://www.microchip.com) for that particular microcontroller. The CDROM that came with EPPO has a lot of programming specifications for the most popular microcontrollers. The programming for the new microcontroller is probably not that different from an other type which is already supported. It might be that you just have to copy the scripts for that controller, rename them (anti-overwrite), and change the scripts to fit the new controller. Remember to adjust lines 1 thorugh 3 in the scripts, so that EppoManager recognises the new controller.
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