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PIC Development Boards

The JAL (Just Another Language) online course is just about to start. 

At the inaugural meeting of the JAL Special Interest Group last week, a few suggestions were made for suitable PIC development boards.


The 50 mm x 50 mm  board above is from Fraser Smith and is the same one featured in his automatic signals articles featured in the March and June 2020 Journals. 

At £1.40 for one and only £1.80 for two that include the 20 pin DIP socket,  my choice was clear. The advantage of this board is that it can be used for 8, 14 or 20 pin PICs,




The second potential board is designed by Alan Turner. It is slightly smaller at 50 mm x 33 mm but can only support 8 pin PICs. Given that most of the pocket money kits produced by Davy Dick utilise the 8 pin  16F765 chip, perhaps this will not be an issue,

The board is available in two versions, differing only in the power capabilities of the onboard  5 Volt regulator. ( 78L05 or 7805 )

This board can be used to build some of the PMP kits with some modification.  PMP13 the lighthouse simulator requires no changes and is much easier to implement and build on this board than the strip-board equivalent.

The Power Indicator LED is a useful addition to the board.

Which is best?    I'll let you know when the course starts (See previous posts for details)

Andy R

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