Whilst you are going through this course you will want to actually program a PICmicro microcontroller. To do this you need two items: a programmer to put the code you develop into a PICmicro, and a circuit to test your code.

There are lots of options here ranging from small PICmicro project boards through to more complex systems that have debugging tools.

Our approach to this need has been to develop a circuit board that provides a platform for both programming a PICmicro as well as circuitry that includes a range of flexible input output ports, switches and displays.

In 1997 we made a version 1 development board: this consisted of a main board with switches and LEDs and a socket that would allow the PIC16F84 to be programmed and tested. There are two versions of this - a low cost, and feature limited, student version and a more flexible deluxe version with add on displays and power supply.

In 2001 we produced a version 2 board that will program just about any 8, 18, 28 or 40 pin PICmicro and which has all the displays on-board. Unfortunately this added functionality has meant an increase in cost and for this reason the version 1 boards are still available.

If you are using this course you do not need one of the Matrix development boards but you will need a suitable alternative.

If you have recently purchased a Matrix development board then before delving too deeply into this course you should check that you are able to get code into the PICmicro on the board.

For the version 2 board the instructions are in the accompanying documentation (in PDF format). For the version 1 board these instructions - and further information about the circuitry on the version 1 board) are given in the Resources section.