iPad to PIC16F887 and Back

So now that I've removed all the old stuff I had attached to my demo board I finally got around to soldering a few wires. Taking a quick look at the datasheet for this microchip showed me which pins I'd need for wiring it up. For those interested it was pin #1 and pin #44. (RC6-TX and RC7-RX)

PIC16F887 Demo Board

I had some magnet wire laying around from years back that just so happened to fit into the connector on the end of the iOS serial cable. Without actual pins to use this was perfect wire to use! It is somewhat stiff like a pin, does not short out to itself, and goes into the connector nicely.

Connector With Wire

After a bit of searching I found some sample code on the picmicro web page that related to serial communication utilizing the chips built in Enhanced Universal Synchronous Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter  aka (EUSART).  Using redparks demo software supplied with the SDK download I was able to pass data out of the iPad via the serial cable to the picmicro then back again.

 Demo Board Wired Up

Second Try

Sent a 1 and got a 1 back! I'm pretty certain it is working as it should. When the chip is not running the program nothing is returned to the Ipad which leads me to believe that it is receiving and passing the data back as it should.


Video Clip in Action



Some day I'll get a better camera... my phone can only do so much but it is very handy!