Development Boards for PIC Microcontrollers Programming

Development boards are helpful microcontroller learning tools. Simple development boards contain just a microcontroller and the required clock circuitry. More sophisticated development boards contain LEDs, pushbuttons, LCD, serial ports, USB port, power supply circuit, device programming hardware, and so forth.

Some of the commercially available PIC18 microcontroller development boards include:

• The PICDEM 2 plus Kit
• PICDEM 4 Kit
• LAB-XUSB Experimenter Board
• PICDEM HPC Explorer Board
• PIC18F4520 Development Kit

PICDEM 2 Plus

This development board is manufactured by Microchip Inc., and can be used for the development of PIC18 microcontroller-based projects.

The board contains:

• 2 x 16 LCD display.
• Piezo sounder driven by PWM signal.
• Active RS-232 port.
• On-board temperature sensor.
• Four LEDs.
• Two push-button switches and master reset.
• Sample PIC18F4520 and PIC16F877A flash microcontrollers.
• MPLAB REAL ICE/MPLAB ICD 2 connector.
• Source code for all programs.
• Demonstration program displaying a real-time clock and ambient temperature.
• Prototyping area.
• Works with a 9 V battery or DC power pack

PICDEM 4

This PICDEM 4 kit manufactured by Microchip Inc. can be used in the development of PIC18 microcontroller-based projects.

The board contains:

• Active RS-232 port.
• Eight LEDs.
• Three different sockets supporting 8-pin, 14-pin, and 18-pin DIP devices.
• 2 x 16 LCD display.
• Three push-button switches and master reset.
• Generous prototyping area.
• I/O expander.
• Supercapacitor circuitry.
• Area for an LIN transceiver.
• Area for a motor drive.
• MPLAB ICD 2 connector.

LAB-XUSB Experimenter Board

This board is manufactured by microEngineering Labs Inc. it can be used in 40-pin PIC18-based project development. The board is available either assembled or as bare board.

The board contains:

• 5-volt regulator.
• 40-pin ZIF socket for PIC microcontroller.
• 20 MHz oscillator.
• Reset button.
• 16-switch keypad.
• Two potentiometers.
• Four LEDs.
• 2-line by 20-character LCD module.
• Speaker.
• RS-232 interface.
• USB connector.
• Socket for digital-to-analog converter (device not included).
• Socket for 12 C serial EEPROM (device not included).
• In-circuit programming connector.
• Socket for Dallas DS1307 real-time clock (device not included).
• Pads for Dallas DS18S20 temperature sensors (device not included).
• Prototyping area for additional circuits.

PICDEM HPC Explorer Board

This board is manufactured by Microchip Inc. it can be used in the development of high pin count PIC18-series microcontroller-based projects.

This board contains:

• 10 MHz crystal oscillator (to be used with internal PLL to provide 40 MHz operation.
• Power supply connector and programmable voltage regulator, capable of operating from 2.0 to 5.0 V.
• Potentiometer (connected to 10-bit A/D, analog input channel).
• Temperature sensor demo included.
• PIC18F8722, 128K flash, 80-pin TQFP microcontroller.
• Support for PIC18 J-series devices with plug-in modules.
• Eight LEDs (connected to PORTD with jumper disable).
• Reset button.
• RS-232 port (9-pin D-type connector, UART1).
• 32 KHz crystal for real-time clock demonstration.

Related: Exploring Raspberry Pi: Interfacing to the Real World with Embedded Linux

PIC18F4520 Development Kit

This microcontroller development board is manufactured by Custom Computer Services Inc. It includes a C compiler, a prototyping board with PIC18F4520 microcontroller, an in-circuit debugger, and a programmer. 

The key features of this development board are:

• PCWH compiler.
• PIC18F4520 prototyping board.
• Breadboard area.
• 93LC56 serial EEPROM chip.
• DS1631 digital thermometer chip.
• NJU6355 real-time clock IC with attached 32.768 kHz crystal.
• In-circuit debugger/programmer.
• DC adapter and cables.
• Two-digit 7-segment LED module.

Also read:

• Software Development Tools for a Microcontroller Programmer
• Basic Elements of an Arduino UNO Revision 3 Board