Welcome to the official PICList home page.

The PICList is a collection of people interested in the Microchip PIC and other similar processors who have joined the PICList@MIT.EDU mailing list.

This web site is an FAQ and archive for the email list which was started, and is still maintained, by James Newton who was a former list member and admin for several years. Mr. Newton is (as of 2008/06/09 19:20) no longer an administrator for, or member of, the PICList mailing list and is in no way responsible for its content. This web site is part of the larger massmind collection. The site is huge (~3GB), and not fully indexed by Google or any other search engine, but can be fully searched (slowly) here:

Useful FAQ sections:

• Main Index There are also sections for the SX FAQ and AVR FAQ
• Source Code Library (huge, really... the code you need is here)
• Beginners Checklist
• Projects (good general purpose projects for beginners with lasting value)
• FREE PCBs! Enter the PICList design contest to win a free PCB from olimex.com!
• Related Sites / LINKS

How to Join, Manage or Leave the MIT PICList email list.

If you are new, read the List Introduction, below, especially the parts about Topics and how to compose a post that will allow us to help you.

Please avoid unnecessary list traffic by reviewing the FAQ and searching the archive before posting. Thank you.

Join, Manage or Leave the email list from the MIT mailman page at:
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist Additional assistance is available in the Full List Manual

HALL OF FAME! Support the PICList

If you have enjoyed the PICList and learned from it or used designs and ideas posted by its members, please consider supporting the PICList by honoring its major contributors with a small donation or a word of thanks. Many contributors are professional consultants who are well known for their excellent work.

PICList Members Around the World

Members are invited to add their locations, names and optionally, photographs.

PICList Quick FAQ

Q : How do I join / use the PICList?

A : Step by step:

• First, you check the PICList.com PIC FAQ at http://www.piclist.com/faq or the SX FAQ at http://www.sxlist.com and search the Archives. to get an instant answer without wasting anyone's time.
  
• Second, you must be subscribed to the list (not the piclist.com site) to post to the list and you must send from the email address you subscribed from. If you want to subscribe, unsubscribe or change your list options, then please visit the PICList Mailman page at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
  
• Third you must compose a message to piclist at mit.edu that will elicit help.
  • The subject should be as complete a description of the problem as is possible in 60 characters or so. Compress and distill.
    TOPICS:
    Important: The PICList uses topics to help keep track of various threads and off-topic posts. Therefore, your subject line must start with ONE (and only one) of these labels:
  • • [PIC] - mailto:piclist at mit.edu?subject=[PIC]
      This label is for posts that are strictly on the topic of PICs. If the subject is not PIC specific, please use another tag. Some examples of [PIC] topics are: MPLAB or other PIC language questions, on chip peripherals, how to do some sort of thing in PIC assembly language or other PIC specific languages, "how do I...on a PIC".
    • [SX] - mailto:piclist at mit.edu?subject=[SX]
      Items specific to the Ubicom SX microcontrollers
    • [AVR] - mailto:piclist at mit.edu?subject=[AVR]
      Items specific to the Atmel AVR microcontrollers
    • [EE] - mailto:piclist at mit.edu?subject=[EE]
      This label is for topics that, while not necessarily about PICs, are of general interest to the engineering community. How to hook something up to a microcontroller or other computer (not related to the PIC on board peripherals), analog circuitry, how to measure something, how something works, news about companies involved in EE, etc...
    • [OT] - mailto:piclist at mit.edu?subject=[OT]
      This label is for posts that are completely off the topic of PICs and engineering. The only thing we don't (ever) want to see are religious (unprovable beliefs), hate, or political messages.
    • [BUY] - mailto:piclist at mit.edu?subject=[BUY]
      People looking for parts, equipment, job/position, or consultants should use this topic.
    • [AD] - mailto:piclist at mit.edu?subject=[AD]
      This label is for posts advertising a commercial product or service. Don't spam, do post [AD]

    Don't use more than one topic tag. If its not about PICs directly, that's ok, post it anyway but put [OT] or [EE] at the beginning of the subject line instead of [PIC].

  • If you are selling something PIC related, limit your posts to new product announcements or replies to other members questions and always add [AD] to the beginning of the subject line.
    
  • CONTENT: The body should
    • - be in plain text, not HTML. (see: emailformat for more information)
    • - be a detailed description of the problem in as few words as possible.
    • - If you have a web page, post a verbose description of the problem to it and put the full URL of that page in your post (include the http:// ) along with a summary of the problem.
    • - include what you are trying to do (overall), what you expected to have happen at this point, what you are seeing, and how you are seeing it (what test equipment, etc...)
    • - Include specific part numbers, code snippets (not the full source, please), and signal descriptions.
      
• Finally, read your message over again, check the subject line and press send.

You may not see your message echoed on the PIClist, and it may take more than a day before anyone responds since most people only read their PICList mail once a day and they are all over the world. If no one responds after a few days, read the rest of this page,  and Myke Predko's general list guidelines at www.piclist.com/../listguide,  rethink your post and add a "Nobody responded to my last post, what am I doing wrong?" to the beginning and send it again.

If you decide to leave, you may unsubscribe at the PICList Mailman page

Q: What are these [PIC] and [OT] things in the subject lines? What are Topics?

The PICList uses topics and topic filtering to try to allow a greater range of discussion while still respecting the fact that many hardcore engineers, who are valuable resources to the list, may have little time to read off topic posts and need a reliable way to filter them out so that they can spend what time they have concentrating on the topic they are most interested in. Despite our name, the PICList also hosts discussions related to other embedded controllers.

Topic tags must be at the start of the subject line and enclosed in brackets "[" and "]". For example, the current topics are:

[PIC] - mailto:piclist at mit.edu?Subject=[PIC]

Which should be at the start of the subject line for most postings to the PICList. This says that a PIC microcontroller (or clone like the SX line) is directly involved, connected or the entire subject of your post. Any person who works with PICs would want to read it...

[SX] - mailto:piclist at mit.edu?Subject=[SX]

Items specific to the Scenix/Ubicom/Parallax SX microcontrollers

[AVR] - mailto:piclist at mit.edu?subject=[AVR]

Items specific to the Atmel AVR microcontrollers

[EE] - mailto:piclist at mit.edu?subject=[EE]

Items which have little connection to PICs, but may be of interest to engineers.

[OT] - mailto:piclist at mit.edu?subject=[OT]

Items which have little or no connection to the PICLIST, but are asked by its members anyway.

[BUY] - mailto:piclist at mit.edu?subject=[BUY]

People looking for parts, equipment, job/position, or consultants should use this topic.

[AD] - mailto:piclist at mit.edu?subject=[AD]

This is for advertisements of a commercial product or service. Don't SPAM, do post [AD]

If you don't use one of these, other people will not see your posts. People who are interested only in the PIC itself listen to [PIC], people who are also interested in general engineering issues still listen to [PIC] and also listen to [EE] and people who are also interested in anything PICListers have to say also listen to [OT]. People who are interested in buying or selling also listen to [BUY] and [AD].

So: Please pick ONE that matches the subject of your post and type it at the start of the subject line and then continue. Putting a topic tag in, filters the post IN to that topic rather than filtering it OUT of the other topics. Ok? Let me say that again...

Putting a topic tag in, filters the post IN to that topic.

The point of this is that it will reduce the likelihood of people posting comments about the space program with [PIC] at the start of the subject line. It also breaks up the PICList in to "Channels" where each topic can be turned on or off with a command to the list server. If you are very busy, then you can only turn on the [PIC] channel and turn the others off. Just tell the list server to only send [PIC] topics by changing your Mailman options at the PICList Mailman page.

See also:

[Skip Prev] [Prev] [Next] [Skip Next]
[Random] [Next 5] [List Sites] [Join Ring]

Post your questions to the QUESTIONS page. Please do NOT post questions here.

Comments:

Questions:

PICList 2008 contributors: o List host: MIT, Site host massmind.org, Top posters @20080828 Apptech, Jinx, Xiaofan Chen, olin piclist, Alan B. Pearce, Vitaliy, William \Chops\ Westfield, Tamas Rudnai, Cedric Chang, David VanHorn, * Page Editors: James Newton, David Cary, and YOU! * Roman Black of Black Robotics donates from sales of Linistep stepper controller kits. * Ashley Roll of Digital Nemesis donates from sales of RCL-1 RS232 to TTL converters. * Monthly Subscribers: Shultz Electronics, Timothy Weber, on-going support is MOST appreciated! * Contributors: Richard Seriani, Sr.

  .