Current Part:
PIC 18F452
7805 +5v Regulator
20 MHz Crystal
10kΩ Resistor
1uF Capacitor
5mm LED
Breadboard
Breadboard Wire
SIPs
9v Connector
Battery Holder
Parts List Details
You are probably familiar with most of the parts listed out above, but if that's not the case-don't fear! I will briefly explain the purpose of the most important parts in the sections below.
PICKit3
The focus of this article is using the PICKit3 to program the PIC. The PICKit3 is microchip's newest programmer for loading programs onto the many different version of the 12xx, 16xx, 18xx, 24xx, 32xx and other series of PICs that microchip manufactures, so getting a PICKit3 is a one-time cost and great investment.
PIC 18F452
The PIC 18F452 is a fairly generic and widely available microcontroller. I have used it in many, many of my articles and projects so after you master programming the PIC using a PICKit3 you can try your hand and building similar projects like mine.
7805 +5v Regulator
This component is used to regulate the +9v or larger that comes from the power supply or battery that I'm using down to the +5v that the PIC needs to have.
20 MHz Crystal
I chose 20 MHz semi-randomly, any crystal 4 MHz or higher will work for this article. This will act as the clock speed with the PIC instruction speed being 20 / 4 = 5 MHz, because it takes 4 clock cycles to execute 1 PIC instruction.
Breadboard and Breadboard Wire
The breadboard will serve as our platform for connecting everything together and the breadboard wire is what we'll use to actually connect everything together.
9v Connector
Since most people don't have dedicated power supplies for hobby electronics, I find it is typically easier to use a battery like a +9v or a battery back, so this connector makes it easy to bring power and ground through the red/black wires to the breadboard.