I found this 40-pin chip in a CPU battery. It is labeled PIC16C74B-04/P. I have the datasheet, but that’s not my best language. i just want to know if its possible to use this as the ones used in LMR - if is possible to make a robot with this chip and what would i need to program it. I read something about ICSP(in-circuit serial programming), which I believe is the process used with this chip, but that’s as far as I go. Thanks.
Yes, you should be able to
Yes, you should be able to reprogram the chip using ICSP or by dropping the chip into a flash loader. You’ll need to either make or buy a programmer from the PICSTART Plus, PRO MATE II or MPLAB PM3 lines. You can’t use the more modern PICKit programmers because the 16C series has been replaced entirely; in fact it’s somewhat hard to buy the 16C’s because they’re out of production.
Because they’re older chips they also don’t have the convenient internal oscillator option, so you’d need to salvage/buy suitable oscillator components.
To summarise: you can reprogram and use this chip, but for the amount of effort it would require you’d likely find it a lot easier (and cheaper) to just buy a modern microcontroller.
Another question…
Quick reply! I’m currently working with Arduino, so PIC = maybe next time. Do you think PIC’s are easy to program? An what is the prog. language? Thanks.
personally I think PIC’s are
personally I think PIC’s are easy to program. I use assembly to program my PIC’s but its also possible to program them in C.
There are other compilers
There are other compilers available, for BASIC etc, but I strongly recommend Assembly or C. Don’t forget to take a look at the PICAxe micros either, they’re also very popular around here.
Could I…?
From what you are saying, I believe is possible to compile arduino programs in PICs by modifying the code (AVR is a from C++). Is that correct? I can’t keep doing blind investments; gonna have to stay with arduino for a while… just thinking ahead.
I can’t give you much of an
I can’t give you much of an idea as to how easy/hard the modifications would be, but yes you can adapt code written for an AVR to suit a PIC. The closer the languages and the micros are, the easier it would be.