Installation experience (Win7 x64)

[MrWheeliebin]

I've received my PICnDuino and initially had some troubles getting it up and running but eventually succeeded. So I thought I'd dump my experience here.

Firstly I plugged it into my USB and got a lovely BLUE power LED and a flashing BLUE LED on what I think is the Arduino pin 13.

I have Windows 7 x64 and I had some trouble installing the drivers. The PC detected the device but failed to load the drivers. I already had the Arduino code installed but then eventually noticed from the video on this site that drivers can also be downloaded from the Amicus IDE directory.

First thing I got a bit confused on http://www.myamicus.co.uk site. I installed the MPLAB IDE rather than Amicus IDE (a.k.a "Amacus18 Compiler Setup", this is the one you want.) Once installed I replaced the drivers by right clicking on the problem device in Device Manager and selecting "Update Driver Software ...". I found these in "C:\Program Files (x86)\AmicusIDE\Amicus18 USB Driver". I did this for both required drivers and it completed ok.

After that the Arduino instructions were pretty much as they are in the video. The PIC ones are a little different. The Amicus IDE I downloaded didn't have the blink.bas but instead has LED_FLASH.bas. To get this to work I changed the LED id from RB0 to RC1. After that it also worked.

This is a VERY nice little bit of kit. Hope this is useful.

[brad]

Thanks very much for posting your experience and glad you like the PICnDuino.

I must admit it was my fault about the Blink.bas file - it doesn't come standard with Amicus18, I had made it a couple of months ago and when it came to making the video, I made reference to it but forgot that it was not a standard file.

I'm extremely glad that people are getting theirs to work and look forward to seeing what people make with theirs

[thierrius]

I also received my PicnDuino. Thanks for posting your installation experience. I'm totally new in electronics, but thanks to you I've installed the drivers correctly and I'm programming in Arduino now. Amicus will follow later..

My USB-stick also came with that little virus, but MSE had no trouble erasing it.

Since I have NO experience with neither electronics nor prototyping, I'm going to ask a very noob question:
- Can I supply power to my PicnDuino from another powersource than USB? If so, how?

[brad]

- Can I supply power to my PicnDuino from another powersource than USB? If so, how?

You sure can!

Just get any 5v power source and connect it up to GND and +5V on the PICnDuino. You can do this even while the PICnDuino is plugged in to the USB port because I have incorporated a Schottky diode that will effectively disconnect the USB power when it detects that a separate 5v Supply has been connected.

This is how you will power it up also if you don't need it plugged into a USB port I.E. if you have a completed project etc...

[thierrius]

That's awesome, thanks Brad! I'll report back!

[brad]

No worries thierrius - look forward to it

[sdudley]

I have had these for a while now but am just now getting around to experimenting with them.

So... I had the same difficulty installing the driver but managed to get it to work after searching through some of the frequently asked questions on the Arduino site. When I finally got the drivers installed and Windows 7 to recognize the Amicus18 Serial Port, I tried to upload the example blink code in the instructional video but I kept getting a "atk500_getsync(): not in sync" error. I went back to the FAQ section on the Arduino website and found that I needed to select com3 in the tools menu. It works well now.

I decided to check the other PICnDuinos I have and found that as I plugged each one in, I had to change the com port to the next value (4, 5, 6... etc.) consecutively in order to upload the code. Never-the-less, all the Arduino's seem to be working fine.

I didn't have any trouble with the PIC and the Amicus IDE.

Now that I am up and running (finally), it's time to learn a another language besides assembly (but I really do like assembly ) and get done with my next project!

Stacy

[brad]

Alright Stacy! Way to go!

Gav and I will help you out all the way with using your picnduino with swordfish basic and arduino.

Maybe along the way I could open up a new section on the site for beginner tutorials for sf basic and arduino. What do you think bitfogav, would you have any time to add a tutorial or two? I can give you author access to the site if you like.

[bitfogav]

Gav and I will help you out all the way with using your picnduino with swordfish basic and arduino.
Maybe along the way I could open up a new section on the site for beginner tutorials for sf basic and arduino. What do you think bitfogav, would you have any time to add a tutorial or two? I can give you author access to the site if you like.

Hey Stacy!! nice to see you

I would be happy to help and sure help with some tutorials Brad, there are some great Swordfish code examples here at digital diy to get you started. Swordfish examples

[sdudley]

Good to hear from you guys as well. I know I have been silent for a long time, but many of my projects have been wood and acrylic related. Since I discovered a scroll saw I have really enjoyed working in the garage crafting small wood projects (I even made my own phone case out of plywood).

I am always looking for ways to combine all my interests into projects so I can play with electronics, plastic, wood, airbrush, etc... The current project I am working on requires some very simple micro-controller code to make some lights flash as well as rotate through some RGB colors.
I had planned to use the PIC's I have lying around, but decided this would be a great opportunity to start learning something about the Arduino, as well as the Swordfish IDE that Brad has been raving about for sometime now. Honestly, I feel the simplicity of the requirements are not worthy of this powerful PICnDuino, but it is still a good opportunity to use it.

I'll make sure to post some pictures and video of this project when I am done. So far, it is turning out really nice!

Stacy

[sdudley]

Hey bitfogav,

Thanks for the link! I checked it out and within the first three seconds of looking down the list of code examples I found exaclty what I am planning to do for the flashing lights (with very slight modifications).
http://digital-diy.com/swordfish-exampl ... terns.html

That's too funny!

Now all I need is some code for randomly changing the colors in an RGB and I am set.

Man, you guys are right... This Swordfish stuff is really easy. Almost too easy!

Stacy

[bitfogav]

Sounds like you've been making some cool wooden projects!!

Not to go off topic here to much ive made a new post on the Swordfish section and it might be useful for you Stacy?. its a RGB code for Swordfish that I done awhile ago.

RGB Code

I also noticed that there are some broken links on that webpage that I posted at digital-diy, its been reported to admin so you might want to check back there soon and check out the other code examples.

[sdudley]

Hey thanks!

Man this is CRAZY! Swordfish is SO easy, it's as if the code just writes itself!

Stacy

[bitfogav]

Man this is CRAZY! Swordfish is SO easy, it's as if the code just writes itself!

Yes its great fun!

Haha Brad I think we are converted him!!

[brad]

Swordfish is nice and easy!

let's say you have eight LED's connected to PORTB. in order to make them scroll from left to right all you need to do is this

Code: Select all

for x = 0 to 7
    PORTB.bits(x) = 1
    delayms(200)
    PORTB.bits(x) = 0
    delayms(200)
next

or maybe back the other way...

Code: Select all

for x = 0 to 7
    PORTB.bits(7 - x) = 1
    delayms(200)
    PORTB.bits(7 - x) = 0
    delayms(200)
next

Such a nice programming language!

I knew we'd get him one day...