PICAXE Microcontrollers
PICAXE Microcontrollers
Find out about PICAXE microcontrollers and their use in renewable energy projects
electronics | electric circuit | educationAcross our website we have plans for many
electronic circuits, from
solar water heating pump controllers to
light detectors, and from
shunt regulators to
battery status monitors. As the requirements of a circuit get more complicated, the number of components and complexity of the connections between them increases greatly. It can also be extremely difficult to modify the behaviour of a circuit once it has been soldered together if requirements change later.
In order to get around these problems,
microcontrollers are used. A microcontroller is basically a
computer-on-a-chip - i.e. an integrated circuit which has
memory, processing power, and inputs and outputs. A programme (software) can be loaded onto a microcontroller to make it behave as required and therefore carry out
complex activities with minimal additional components.
PICAXE
The
PICAXE system is a complete package which enables non-expert electronics enthusiasts to put together microcontroller based circuits with ease. The
BASIC programming language is used to write programmes which can be tested in the supplied PC-based
Programming Editor software and then downloaded to the
microcontroller ready to be used in a circuit.
There are a wide range of PICAXE chips available with different numbers of input/output
pins, sizes of
memory, and capabilities. Although other sizes are still sold, it is recommended to use the following (since these are likely to be supported in the long term):
for
education: PICAXE-08M, PICAXE-14M, and PICAXE-20M
for
standard projects: PICAXE-18X, PICAXE-28X1, and PICAXE-40X1
and for
advanced projects: PICAXE-28X2, and PICAXE-40X2.
Buy PICAXE Products
The full range of starter kits,
PICAXE chips, accessories, project kits, and project boards are all available best priced at
Rapid Online.
Useful Picaxe Links
Three PICAXE manuals are available to download completely free of charge:
PICAXE Getting Started Manual (98 pages).
PICAXE BASIC Commands (188 pages).
PICAXE Microcontroller Interfacing Circuits (45 pages).
You can download and install the latest version of the
PICAXE Programming Editor free of charge here. You can therefore start to practice writing programmes in
BASIC and test run them in the included
simulator.
For anyone starting out with
PICAXE, the
PICAXE forum is packed with useful information generously shared by users of the PICAXE system. Before attempting a new project, it is well worth visiting this popular
forum and searching for any relevant information before starting.
The official
PICAXE website is here.
Article Last Modified: 12:12, 18th Sep 2008
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