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Quick start with OSat Board version 6.10 (Hard and software part)

By Bernice Zuiya

OSat Board version 6.10

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             It happen sometimes that we feel blocked while we are trying to start a project using PIC controllers since this require a programmer and some other important ingredients such as oscillator circuit, power supply etc.. But a good news here is that I have tried to simplify the time, cost and energy by using this version of board. 

Let give some advantage and disadvantage of this board,

             Ah ah ah I think one thing comes directly to your mind <Why should I go for something which has some disadvantage ? Is it really working ?>; the answer to your worrying question is OSat Board has been tested at different level to ensure that our users find more than 80% satisfaction  while testing  or implementing it to their projects. 

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  Let start with the good new news or advantage:

Advantage:

   1. This board comes basically with a 8-bit PIC micro-controller PIC16F877A

   2. OSat board can be place directly on a breadboard the start using it

   3. OSat maybe directly be supplied from a USB terminal of a computer, battery bank or any ...

   4. Working under a boot-loader technique "Tiny boot-loader" designed by claudiu chiculita which basically mean there is no need of a PIC Programmer to     upload your Hex file to the micro-controller's memory. Read more about this boot-loader from Here

   5. CH340G mounted on bottom side, this integrated circuit is used as USB to serial converter since its price is somehow cheap compared to FTDI chip used for the same purpose.

   6. 3.3 Volt regulator circuit, this used to supply different electronics which require a specific range of voltage such as a 3.3 volt ex: ESP8266 Wifi Module ...

   7. Easy to use as a shield

   8. Easy to find libraries, code and example on internet.

   9. LED Test, this board contains an LED connected on PORTB of this controller so that a new learner for the first time may test his Blinking code  LED.

   10. Number of in-out pins of the controller is basically enough to interface with many other systems.

   11. Etc...

 

Disadvantage:

   1. compared to Arduino or other board available on the market, OSat board is the youngest product which doesn't have an IDE

   2. Less memory on chip

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How to use OSat Board Version 6.10 ?

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               You are exempted from lots physical movement when you are basically supposed to use a PIC programmer to update the program in memory of you controller, but here a great work has been done by claudiu by designing different PIC's boot-loader which can be found for free Here

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Steps:

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  • if you already have the board in front of you with its USB cable then you will basically need to connect the cable to both part computer (USB Terminal and to your device USB connector).

  • The second important thing is that you need is to verify if the CH340G IC's driver is already installed on your computer if not download it Here, sorry for those who are using different operating system since the process of installation has been tested on windows OS, but we will explain soon how to do the same on other OS such as Mac or Linux.

If your download is completed I will suggest you to follow these steps of installation as given below:

1. unzip the downloaded file the open it you will probably see some files plus an executable !

2. Double click on setup: 

Click on INSTALL to install the driver: 

                 wait up to the end of installation, if this were installed correctly then you should be able to see a new serial COM Port as shown below:

    If the drive is installed correctly you should see a new COM Port connected when you open the device manager on your computer in my case the device is connected at COM port "3" or COM3 as shown in the image at left side.

     Now open tiny boot-loader folder after the download is done,if not you can take it from Here then

Follow the steps below:

  • Open tiny boot-loader's folder then double click tiny boot-loader application, you will probably see the following window:

  • Set the baud rate at 115200, Please for a good communication between the device and tiny boot loader application do not change this ,

  •  select the COM port where the device is connected as you can see in my case the device is connected on COM3 it can be different in your case,

  • Now you need to verify if the PIC is detected by the boot loader application opened on your desktop by:

        >> push the reset button on OSat board then directly click also on checkPIC in less than a second; The you will see the following message appearing in the tiny boot-loader window as show.

  • If the PIC were detected, the Let blink a test LED connected to on pin of the controller (PORTB pin RB1), for this blinking you basically do not need to connect extra things to blink the LED.

  • Download a test blinking project Here, then unzip it then place it somewhere,

  • On tiny boot-loader window click on Browse the select the Hexadecimal file from the downloaded Blinking test folder.

  • The next step is now to export the hex file to the micro-controller's memory by pressing on time on the Reset button on OSat board version 6.10 then click on Write Flash in your tiny boot-loader window, after the process done you should probably see a message showing that the hex file has been send successfully if all parameters were correct you should see the following:

 - After this finished the LED will start blinking directly, this way of exporting an Hexadecimal file remains same.

Please for your questions are all welcome at zuiya.mambula@gmail.com or comment directly Here !

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