Introducing the HelvePic32

Created Fri, 02 Jan 2015 10:40:22 +0000 by GastonLagaffe

GastonLagaffe

Fri, 02 Jan 2015 10:40:22 +0000

Salut,

I have completed the tests of my through hole board using the PIC32MX250F128B and released the version 1.0.

The target audience for this board are kids and newbies (like myself) to introduce them to the ChipKit. Therefore, no SMD parts are used to give the kids the feeling of having soldered this board entirely by themselves. The kit is developed together with [url]http://www.boxtec.ch[/url], a very nice shop located near Basel, leading to the name HelvePic32 (as Switzerland has the international code CH=Confoederatio Helvetica). I have started to document example use cases in

If there is enough interest, we will make the board available as kit to solder it yourself.

Have a happy New Year, Mathias

majenko

Sat, 03 Jan 2015 11:34:00 +0000

Just looking at crafting a UECIDE board definition for this, and I'm having some confusion over the pinout.

You seem to have duplicated RB4 on both headers, but labelled them wrongly getting PROG and USBID confused. If the duplication of RB4 is right, then the one on JP4/1 should be labelled PROG not USBID since USBID is on RB5 as in JP2/0.

Can you clarify that?

GastonLagaffe

Sat, 03 Jan 2015 12:53:50 +0000

Salut,

sorry for the old picture in the English documentation. I have cleared the cache of my CMS and it now shows the correct pinmap (and the correct name as ChipKit is a TM). I have duplicated the PROG/RB4 on both sides as with the design I have one pin too many and I thought it may be the best pin to have it on both sides. Thanks for updating UECIDE.

Ciao, Mathias

majenko

Sat, 03 Jan 2015 13:25:34 +0000

Excellent. Right, I have crafted the board definition and added it to the beta plugins repo. Feel free to try it out.

I have numbered the pins starting top left (J2-0) and working anti-clockwise - 0 thru 15. PIN_LED1 and PIN_BTN1 are assigned, as are the macros A0 thru A8.

Let me know if there's anything not working right.

nroff-man

Sun, 04 Jan 2015 17:43:03 +0000

Hi.

If you make this board compatible with the PIC24FJ128GB202 then that would be interesting. I think it is already compatible with the PIC24FJ64GB002?

Good luck

Bye-bye

madias

Mon, 05 Jan 2015 16:04:38 +0000

Congratulations to your PCB! What I like is the detailed documentation you've written. Most of the XXXduino/chipkit developers lack on further and easy understanding informations.

regards Matthias

GastonLagaffe

Tue, 06 Jan 2015 12:15:34 +0000

Salut Matthias,

thanks for the flowers ... I think the success of the Arduino platform is driven by the work of adafruit, sparkfun and others that offer add-ons with good documentation. When I started with Arduino, I got me some parts from adafruit, connected them following the excellent guides and had fun. If I want people to use my PCB, I have to do the same so that it is simple to connect common add-ons to the PCB and have a result without digging through multiple forums. As a nice side effect, this documentation can be used in connection with other chipKit boards as well. I plan to go through all add-ons I have for the Arduino and document how to use them with ChipKit - so stay tuned

Ciao, Mathias

GastonLagaffe

Sun, 24 May 2015 16:41:51 +0000

Salut,

I just tested successfully a SMD Version of the HelvePic32 using the SOIC28 Chip version of the PIC32MX250F128B or PIC32MX270F256B. A Version that uses the 44 pin TQFP chips is underway.

Ciao, Mathias