New Project - PIC 18F2550/80 Development Board

Posted by Tijs | Posted in 18F Development Board | Posted on 19-12-2011

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Last weekend I have drawn a PIC 18F2550/18F2580 development board. It got tiresome to build up a standard microcontroller circuit on a breadboard every time and wanted to have a simple standard board that would carry the microcontroller.

I will stop using the 16F series as the 18F's have a lot more ram,  IO's, peripherals and better specs while there is hardly any difference in price with the 16F628A, which I was previously using. Second, it is a lot more convenient to use only one type for most projects as this saves me the time needed to get to know the quirks and limits of each and every one of them. Therefore I will use the 18F25x0's for any next prototyping and forget about the 16F series for now. The 18F2550 has USB, the 18F2580 has an ECAN peripheral. The board supports both. The board was designed to fit underneath the iTead 50mmx70mm protoboard. (which I can't seem to find in the store anymore..)

Features:

  • PicKit2 programming connector
  • Power from PicKit2 connector selectable via solderjumper
  • Power from USB connector selectable via solderjumper
  • Onboard 5V regulator (7805) which is can be disconnected and/or by-passed with solderjumpers
  • Onboard crystal and capacitors with soldjumpers to breakout those pins to the headers if no crystal is used
  • mini-USB connector connected to USB peripheral (18F2550 ONLY)
  • place for MPC2551 CANbus driver connected to ECAN peripheral (18F2580 ONLY)
  • Rs of MPC2551 pull-up and break-out pin
  • AUX pin of PicKit2 available on break-out pin
  • All pins (Except PicKit2 programming connector) on the same 2.54mm grid so that the development board can be mounted underneath some standard protoboard
  • 3 complete ports available on pin headers
Note: the 2550 has USB, the 2580 has CAN. Neither of them has got both. Therefore this board can NOT be used as a CAN interface with an USB port although the board layout might suggest otherwise. But feel free to contact me for the designs.

Comments (2)

Ian said on 23-12-2011

Nice looking board. Too bad about the USB/CAN conundrum.

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Tijs said on 23-12-2011

Thnx.

But yes, one can't use both (neither PIC has got both). But since I get 10 boards at once when I order them and probably won't even use half that I found it convenient to make both options available on one. There is spare room to add an FTDI usb chip however.

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