This is a discussion and code sharing group for users of the PIC-EL board, a demonstration board that we first developed in 2004 for the purpose of helping people who are learning to program and use PIC microcontrollers. It is specifically designed with the radio amateur in mind - supporting hardware components that radio amateurs typically want to know how to use.

The PIC-EL III board has two main parts. First, it has a PIC programmer which attaches to a computer via a USB port (new - version 3). The 18-pin DIP socket directly supports these 18-pin PICs: 16F627, 16F627A, 16F628, 16F628A, 16F648A, 16F716, 16F818, 16F819, 16F84A, 16F87, 16F88, 18F1220, 18F1230, 18F1320, 18F1330. Many other PICs can be supported indirectly.

The second part of the PIC-EL board is the test/demonstration portion. By simply moving the slide switch, the board changes from a PIC programmer into a test board. It has pushbuttons, LEDs, rotary encoder, LCD, speaker, stereo jack for CW paddles, and a stereo jack for keying a CW transmitter. It has a socket to support a daughtercard (from the AmQRP organization) which can turn the PIC-EL into a signal generator. Now the user can immediately test these hardware components with the PIC program that was just programmed into the PIC microcontroller.

This group is set up to discuss the PIC-EL hardware and how the various hardware components are used by a PIC. Users can discuss and share software (via the FILES section) that they develop to run on the PIC-EL board.

The PIC-EL III kit is available from Bill Kelsey, N8ET, at KangaUS (www.kangaus.com). More information is available on my web site - www.cbjohn.com/aa0zz .

Entrance into the group requires my approval. However, this was just done to keep out spammers. Please feel free to join us, even if you just want to browse.

-Craig, AA0ZZ