Book - Programming PIC Microcontrollers with PicBasic by Hellebuyck - solved - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2016, 02:08:10 pm
content: Hi,I own a book titled "Programming PIC Microcontrollers with PicBasic" by Chuck Hellebyck. The book comes with a CD containing source code and the eBook. My CD has self destructed with the label and silver coating coming away from the disk. The whole surface is affected.I have tried contacting the publisher and author but nil response to date. I downloaded the source code files from the authors support site but would like to obtain the eBook etc.Would anyone have this book and CD please ? If so, would you be willing to send me the contents of the CD so that I may make a new one for my book. It would also be a good idea to make a copy for yourself as the CD appears to have issuesI am posting an image of my book and damaged CD as proof of ownership as this is not an attempt to get the book on the cheap !Hope someone can assist me.Fraser

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 31, 2016, 01:52:39 pm
content: I now have the ebook that I was asking for.The sad thing is that the approach to the authors web site via the contact form (he self publishes the book now) brought nil response. Not even a "sorry cannot help".A fellow forum member helpfully pointed me towards a PDF copy on the internet. That copy should not be in the public domain, as this is not a free book, but an educational institution has it uploaded to their reference document server and the Google Spiders found it. As a legitimate owner of the book and CD, I have no moral issues with downloading the PDF version from said server.Still a little disappointed that the author ignored my request for help though. Such can feed the distribution of electronic versions of books via non authorised channels.Fraser

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 01, 2016, 12:20:56 pm
content: Nice, but unfortunately you'll hit a dead endwhen it comes to modern pic families that aren't supported.Since taking up C30, I haven't looked back,but there are some projects I'd still use it just because it's familiar.

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 01, 2016, 03:14:26 pm
content: @rt,Thanks for the comment. Indeed, I am playing a game of 'catch-up' so just wanted to experiment with Arduino sketches, PICBasic and C programming of PIC's. I will never be a great coder, but I do want to gain a basic knowledge of the common programming languages used for Arduino and PIC projects. I see Arduino sketches as the quick and simple solution for some scenario's, and PIC programming as a bit more involved, but hopefully more versatile in the end.I managed to get my hands on a Basic Stamp 2 as well. That is likely very out of date now, but I want to learn a bit about it in case I ever need to work on one in the future.Fraser

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 01, 2016, 03:24:08 pm
content: PicBasic was the future of BASIC Stamps, mainly because the BASIC is interpreted at compile time rather than run time.I hope you never have to deal with a BASIC Stamp in future

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 01, 2016, 05:50:44 pm
content: So are BASIC Stamps a dead technology now ? They are certainly quite expensive when compared to other microcontrollers. I saw them in my job being used to control a simple antenna selection matrix when they first came on the market I have not seen them used in my job since. I can find microcontrollers called the "Nano" (not Arduino Nano) that run basic, but I have not looked at them in detail yet.Fraser

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 02, 2016, 12:51:02 pm
content: PicBASIC is interpreted and converted to assembler prior to loading the chip,so that saves a lot of execution time the Stamps take interpreting the BASIC as well.At the time these things came about there weren’t a lot of the free tools available, such as the whole Arduino World.At least doing things in BASIC though, it’s quite easily ported to C, so it’s not nessecarily wasted time using it if you use C as well.I just don’t see a future in these commercial packages anymore, especially when they don’t keep up with advancements in the microcontrollers.

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 02, 2016, 03:44:24 pm
content: Many thanks. That is good to know. It also explains why the used Basic Stamp 2 and its development board only cost £20 on eBay. These days you can buy a lot of brand new Arduino related kit for £20, so the competition is fierce. I was surprised at the cost of the Basic ATOM that replaces the Basic Stamp. Not a hobby friendly price tag at all.Many thanks for taking the time to explain.Best WishesFraser

author: BloodyCactus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 02, 2016, 03:58:25 pm
content: parallax does still sell basic stamp modules and stuff.

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 02, 2016, 04:23:56 pm
content: Hi Fraser,If you're interested in programming PICs in basic then I recommend Proton Basic IDE...http://www.protonbasic.co.uk/content.php/935-Proton-IDEThere was a spinoff used for the Amicus18... A PIC18F25K20 / 25k22 based board that was intended to compete with the Arduino, same footprint and pinout. Unfortunately it never really gained traction but I think you may still be able to get them from Farnell. Pretty irrelevant anyway as the circuit is minimal (published), using an FT232 to interface the bootloader via usb.http://www.myamicus.co.uk/Originally there was an Amicus IDE which supported just the above PICs, however it fell behind the main Proton development so it was decided that the more recent Proton IDE versions should simply support these devices free of charge. There's an Proton24 16bit version too which includes free support for a couple of dsPIC33F series.It's a good language. It's compiled so it's a lot faster than Basic Stamp etc., with lots of useful built-in functions. You can also program the PIC via Pickit2 etc if you don't want to use the bootloader.Highly recommended for those of us who 'will never be great coders'. There's plenty of useful info between the two sites.ChrisP.S. Thought so, still there....http://uk.farnell.com/amicus/amicus18/pic18f25k20-iscp-board/dp/1818281?ost=amicus&selectedCategoryId=&categoryId=700000005178&searchView=table&iscrfnonsku=false

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 02, 2016, 04:43:01 pm
content: Many thanks Gyro. I will look up that Basic IDE.Best WishesFraser

author: Kilrah
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 02, 2016, 05:19:40 pm
content: Both the Basic Stamp and BASIC itself in the context of microcontrollers are pretty much dead and obsolete now even if you can still find stuff. It was all the rage 10-15 years ago, but now Arduino replaces all of that, much cheaper, open, and is most likely even easier to work with simply due to the sheer amount of people working with it and creating code/doc.

author: H.O
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 02, 2016, 05:28:52 pm
content: And if you're sticking with PBP then the user forum at picbasic.co.uk is the place to hang out (I do). Melabs (the makers of the PBP compiler) also has a forum on their site.I've been a PBP user for 15+ years and I'll continue to use it, I've never learnt C and I fear the day i have to do so even though I acknowledge it IS the de facto standard. PBP compiled and fairly fast, very solid, supports almost every 8-bit device (but ONLY 8-bit devices) there is but yes it hasn't seen any major development in years (since the introduction of version 3). It's not perfect but it's still a very capable language/compiler capable of a lot more than blinking LEDs :-)

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 02, 2016, 08:22:17 pm
content: It's definitely very good at what it does.You do realise besides a few things, you can pretty muchwrite BASIC straight into a C compiler with different syntax?That doesn't make anyone proficient with C, but gets youinto a more modern controller family quickly.Still, if BASIC was suitable for a particular task I'd still use it.

author: H.O
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 02, 2016, 09:41:43 pm
content: QuoteWell, I think that could be said for just about any language? It's the "weird" (to me) syntax of C that I don't like (and haven't had a need to learn yet). But lets not turn this into yet another this into another "one of those threads" :-)