Chipino (Arduino for PICs)

[Waifian]

I saw this in this months issue of Nuts and Volts. I got a kick out of it.

http://chipino.cc/

[Jon Chandler]

There are a few options for PIC-based "Ardiuno-like" boards.  Crownhill/Proton Basic recently introduced Amicus.  The Amicus compiler is the full version of Proton Basic, limited to the PIC18F25K20.  Amicus, which is free, will work with any 18F25K20, regardless of hardware, so this is an excellent demo for them and a nice compiler available free-of-charge.  The 18F25K20 is a nice 28-pin micro, but limited to 3.3 volt operation which does cause some issues.

The Amicus board has a FTDI USB converter chip with a custom VID/PID.  The bootloader supplied with the Amicus compiler will only work with the custom VID/PID to "save the user from having to specify a com port."  The ds30Loader is a great substitute without the nonsense and can easily be integrated into the Amicus IDE.  There's information about the loader here as well as some pre-built load files for common configurations.

Amicus was introduced with much hype and fanfare.  It does offer a PIC-based, Basic-programmed alternative that is more-or-less compatible with Arduino shields but it doesn't seem to be making much of an impact with anybody.  It's kind of a shame too, since Proton Basic is a powerful and easy-to-use compiler.  Making the full version available for free as a demo should get some attention.

[Mr J]

looks great, glad to see some alternatives. Maybe it will give Atmel a kick in the pants to improve there distribution. Did you see the standby current specs of the PIC wow! Be great if someone made a page and compared the two. I might have to order one and play around with it, i always liked the PIC series. The proof if this takes off, will be the documentation and if you can get the parts. I've used the stm8 and it was a nightmare to get it running compared to the arduino.

Price on Digikey for a one blank PDIP
PIC16F886 is $2.60 14,130 in stock
Atmega328 is $3.93 none in stock  (Come on Atmel!)

[Chasm]

Those two are not really comparable.
The Pic has 14KB Flash, 368 Byte RAM, 256 Byte EEPROM.
The Atmel has 32KB Flash, 2KB SRAM, 1KB EEPROM


But yes, Atmel could have a better product availability.

[Jon Chandler]

Those two are not really comparable.
The Pic has 14KB Flash, 368 Byte RAM, 256 Byte EEPROM.
The Atmel has 32KB Flash, 2KB SRAM, 1KB EEPROM


But yes, Atmel could have a better product availability.

The PIC18F25K20 used in the Amicus is more comparable to the Atmel.
33 kB flash, 1.5 kB RAM, 256 bit EEPROM.  405 are in stock at Microchip, for $2.12.
It will also run at 64 MHz with the 4xPLL enabled.

[TopherTheME]

I was thinking about getting one with my last order from Newark but they were out of stock. It would be nice if they took off and gave the Arduino some competition as I've had nothing but bad luck with Arduino and Atmel. The Arduino IDE runs like crap on my laptop and my AVRISP MKII randomly died after flashing two chips.

I was a little disappointed with the quality of the assembly of my Demoilenovdfjslkdjfsl (sp?), but given that Arduino is a small start up I guess I can see past it. The headers and power jack are all crooked, and two of the pins on the FTDI are shorted. Fortunately, the pins that are shorted are both connected to ground.

[Jon Chandler]

Sadly, the Amicus may be too little, too late.  The forum only gets a few posts a week at most, and searching on "Amicus 18" finds mostly posts I've made.

There's some question about exactly what their "open design" terminology means.  The license terms aren't spelled out anywhere on their pages and a forum question asking for a clarification has not been answered.  Given that, I can understand some reluctance about embracing the platform.

Jon

[Alex]

Topher, how did you get such a close picture of the board?

[Psi]

He probably has a macro lens, or his camera has builtin macro.

[TopherTheME]

Topher, how did you get such a close picture of the board?

Step 1: Set camera to macro mode
Step 2: Place camera over board
Step 3: Push focus button and select the tiny square
Step 4: Push the "shoot" button

He probably has a macro lens, or his camera has builtin macro.

No special lenses, just macro mode. I thought all digital cameras had a macro mode these days?

[Alex]

Thanks for the fool-proof explanation. I have a DSC-W290, no way I can capture the dust on the PCB. Just a different lense I guess. Anyway, we are getting off-topic. Thanks.

[Mechatrommer]

and two of the pins on the FTDI are shorted.

is it solder short? or fungus that conduct electricity. i read about it somewhere but forgot the fungus name. looks like it in the picture?

[TopherTheME]

and two of the pins on the FTDI are shorted.

is it solder short? or fungus that conduct electricity. i read about it somewhere but forgot the fungus name. looks like it in the picture?

Fungus that conducts electricity? No, its definitely a solder short. I don't know of any fungus that can live off of solder and IC's.

[Psi]

I thought all digital cameras had a macro mode these days?

Good point and shoot cameras do.

For DSLR you buy a macro lens.

[Mechatrommer]

Fungus that conducts electricity? No, its definitely a solder short. I don't know of any fungus that can live off of solder and IC's.

i think i've deleted the pdf from my hd, the closest description for it is:

http://medgadget.com/archives/2005/06/microbial_nanow.html
http://www.geturfile.com/2010/10/specialized-bacterial-filaments-microbial-hair-shown-to-conduct-electricity

it has a name, i just forgot it, so very difficult to google anymore, last time was a coincidence, if not mistaken when i was googling for leaded unleaded solder/flux.
ps: man! do i have to have phd for this? haha just kidding.

[the_raptor]

I was a little disappointed with the quality of the assembly of my Demoilenovdfjslkdjfsl (sp?), but given that Arduino is a small start up I guess I can see past it. The headers and power jack are all crooked, and two of the pins on the FTDI are shorted. Fortunately, the pins that are shorted are both connected to ground.

Personally I wouldn't go too easy on them. The late model Duemillinove and early Duos are crap compared to many Arduino-clones and shields I have seen. The routing (I mean the cutting off the individual PCB from the larger assembly, feeling sick atm and can't be quite sure if that is the correct term) for these is in particular pretty shit and has coped them flak already.

I have a Duemillinove and a Freetronics TwentyTen and the TwentyTen looks like a much more professional product. IMO who ever Arduino have had doing their boards for the last six or so months has been trying to do it on the cheap (eg not keeping their router sharp). When you get Chinese shield (DFRobot motor shield) manufacturers turning out better boards then the official Arduino board something is wrong.

Part of the idea of Arduino is making electronics engineering accessible to new markets and turning out "hobby" level boards is not acceptable IMO.

[sonicj]

it has a name, i just forgot it, so very difficult to google anymore, last time was a coincidence, if not mistaken when i was googling for leaded unleaded solder/flux.
ps: man! do i have to have phd for this? haha just kidding.

tin whiskers?

btw, shorting of those 2 pins on the duemilanove (i added it to my spell check library ) is normal. soldering on my board looks pretty bad, but i haven't had any problems.

[sonicj]

Personally I wouldn't go too easy on them. The late model Duemillinove and early Duos are crap compared to many Arduino-clones and shields I have seen. The routing (I mean the cutting off the individual PCB from the larger assembly, feeling sick atm and can't be quite sure if that is the correct term) for these is in particular pretty shit and has coped them flak already.

I have a Duemillinove and a Freetronics TwentyTen and the TwentyTen looks like a much more professional product. IMO who ever Arduino have had doing their boards for the last six or so months has been trying to do it on the cheap (eg not keeping their router sharp). When you get Chinese shield (DFRobot motor shield) manufacturers turning out better boards then the official Arduino board something is wrong.

agreed. my iteaduino looks 100x better than my duemilanove



"Chipino is actually designed to use the same footprint as Arduino so all the Ardunio shields can also be used with Chipino."
they (arduino) should have never done this in the first place, but they obviously aren't going to change it so its nice to see a PIC design that compatible with all my existing shields!