Unsolicited MPLAB Xpress board - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: rolycat
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2016, 11:32:38 am
content: I have just received an MPLAB Xpress evaluation board, sent from Microchip Ireland.No cover letter, no associated email, nothing but an envelope containing the board in a cute little cardboard wrapper and a paper schematic.I've had an online account with them for years, but never used MPLAB Xpress.Anyone else get one of these out of the blue?

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2016, 12:08:48 pm
content: Quote from: rolycat on July 22, 2016, 11:32:38 amNope, but it's an interesting little board, looks like a USB dedicated ICSP programmer attached to a small dev board. It can be used with MPLABX as a general purpose board as well.I got one a few months back and after the initial curiosity wore off, it's back in its box on a shelf.

author: elecman14
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 22, 2016, 02:29:23 pm
content: Microchip had a form on their website awhile ago that if you filled it out you got a free board. The delivery time for mine was a couple of months. If I remember correctly all I received was a board in a small box with no letter. Maybe you filled out the form and forgot or maybe they think they can sell you some stuff O0.

author: rolycat
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2016, 02:45:45 pm
content: Quote from: elecman14 on July 22, 2016, 02:29:23 pmI don't use 8 bit PICs much these days, so it was interesting to see that newer chips now have the PPS pin remapping feature from the PIC24 range. Very handy, that.Maybe theycansell me some stuff...

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2016, 04:57:12 pm
content: I got mine today too!This is a nice surpise, I applied for the free board raffle but i never received confirmation or anything

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2016, 10:36:29 pm
content: Quote from: rolycat on July 22, 2016, 02:45:45 pmThese new(ish) 16f18xxx devices have reinvigorated my interest in the 8 bitters. I've already used the 8 pin 16f18313 in a number of projects, amazing little device.

author: true
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2016, 10:37:15 pm
content: I too received an unsolicited email telling me a board would be on the way, but I had moved so my address was incorrect. Signed in and updated my address but haven't received anything. There are no orders on my account for this board, only other orders I had placed.A confirmation in the e-mail would have been nice.If anything was sent. I do hope the recipient uses the board. (Almost certainly though, they will not.)

author: ralphrmartin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 04, 2016, 11:02:40 am
content: I paid for one of these - it cost about a fiver.However, I have a weird problem. When plugged into one Mac, the drive to which you download the code to program it shows up as READONLY. On another Mac, it shows up as READWRITE. Weird. Has anyone else seen this? Or got a suggestion for a fix? (Trying to reformat the board fails).

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 04, 2016, 11:49:24 am
content: i'll check with mine tonight(i have yet to use it)

author: Wilksey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 04, 2016, 12:21:39 pm
content: Gits never sent me one!Where did you buy yours from for £5? The cheapest I can find it is around £8 but then you got to either spend over £30 or pay £4 / £5 for delivery!

author: ralphrmartin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 04, 2016, 03:39:03 pm
content: Quote from: wilfred on August 04, 2016, 12:44:04 pmThat indeed was what I was referring to; you may need the code EXPINTRO16.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2016, 05:23:32 am
content: A bit disappointed in this board to be honest, unless I've missed something there's no onboard debugger, just a bootloader self-programmer, and it doesn't directly interface with MPLAB X for programming as far as I can see, you have to generate a hex file and copy it to the device.For me it's little more than a toy, and of no use for development if it doesn't directly integrate with the tools.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2016, 05:30:32 am
content: heh, the average child/maker doesn't care for that (he uses arduino after all)he wants something good to go, easy to use and self sufficient.the main point against pic micros i heard the last few years was that the programmer was too pricey. from that point of view this bootloader is very insteresting

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2016, 07:18:54 am
content: A sad thing is that at about the same time that Arduino first started, there was also the "USB BitWhacker", which also plugged directly into USB and used a bootloader to bypass the need for a traditional programmer, and was similar in cost and capabilities (#pins, etc) to the original Arduinos. All it lacked was a free and capable HLL compiler, the hubris to target non-programmers, and evangelists of the caliber that Arduino somehow managed to acquire... An interesting set of boards to compare! (http://www.schmalzhaus.com/UBW/index.html)

author: Wilksey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2016, 11:26:11 am
content: Thanks wilfred + ralphrmartin for the link / info!I'll check it out.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2016, 12:41:11 pm
content: I built a few UBW clones on matrix board, nice way to get used to using the Microchip USB stack but it lacked quite a bit compared to Arduino so most of mine either got torn down or remade as MCHPFSUSB dev board clones.