Anyone know what this is?

RickAlty

Senior Member
Found this little board in my loose box of Picaxe parts. I don't remember buying it, and have no idea what it is. The IC is a 16f84-04/P

2425124252

Anyone recognize him ?

Richard
 

RickAlty

Senior Member
That would make sense, as there was actually a 2x16 LCD module in the same bin. Not sure how it would connect to the pins on the LCD, though... Or anything else about it for that matter.

Thanks for the reply.
 

Flenser

Senior Member
From this page What is a PICAXE? no PICAXE chip was ever based on the PIC 16f84 so it looks like this board could have been in the wrong draw.

LCDs have a very standard connection using either a 1x14 row or a 2x7 row of header pins so it seems unlikely to be a serial LCD interface board.

It has a serial connector so you could try hooking it up to a serial terminal and see whether it outputs any info to the terminal when you power it on.
9600 baud is a very common default setting and if you get garbage characters you know it is outputting something and to try other baud rates.
 

Buzby

Senior Member
It looks like a PIC programmer.

Google 'David Tait PIC programmer' for lots of links, one of which might give you the answers.
 
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AllyCat

Senior Member
Hi,

With 08 pin (empty?) and 18 pin sockets (with a PIC) it possibly is a programmer, but it seems TOO simple for that. Certainly the 9-pin sub D connector looks like RS232 (probably ground to pin 5 at one end) but it appears to use pins 3 and 4 whilst RXD and TXD should be 2 and 3, so I wouldn't expect "normal" communications. It's probably deriving power from the "handshake" pins (6 - 9) along the other side (note the diodes), which might require connection to a "classic" PC COM port (not a USB adapter), but with no apparent regulator it may be "assuming" 5 volt (TTL) signal levels?

Cheers, Alan.
 

Buzby

Senior Member
... A small percentage worked, if you had the right computer !
I built a couple of these 'totally passive' programmers on stripboard. They needed a proper serial port to work, but this was back in the days when computers only had proper serial ports.

I've no idea who David Tait is, or was, but if it wasn't for his programmer I would not have started with PICs, so would probably never come across PICAXE.

PassivePICprogrammer.PNG

As you can see, the PIC is powered by the TXD from the computer, and the comms are done by wiggling the port control pins.

Very ingenious !.
 
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