Xmas present from Digi-Key, #digi-wish

Pickit 3 package

During Christmas 2013 season the Digi-key run a Digi-Wish competition which I took part. And as amazing it seems to be, I happened to win. I asked for either a FPGA-devkit or Pickit 3 demo kit and I got the latter one.

So, here are some pictures of the packet and the content. This bundle was delivered by DHL some days ago.

Naked Pickit 3 and devboard

Pickit 3 comes bundled with the nice looking Pic18 demo board and red usb-cable. The included Mplab programming environment CD apparently contains version 8 of the software, which I don't really need since I have for some time ago downloaded the latest version Mplab-X from Microchip site. 

Comparison shot Pickit2 vs Pickit3

As seen from the pictures I also took the Pickit 3 apart immediately and compared it to my old Pickit 2, looks like they have done quite a bit changes between product version.

The Pickit 2 uses an Pic18F2550 micro controller, that is on higher end amongst 8 bit Pic chips.

While the Pickit 3 has 24FJ256GB106, which is 16 bit micro controller with USB OTG port in it. There are also a lot of unused pins and peripherals at the Pickkit 3 controller, so I have to wonder didn't they find any simpler/smaller chip for this version of programmer.

Pic18 demo board

The demo board that came alongside Pickit 3 looks real good, with smooth gold finish and black solder mask. I have not yet any project for this, but I'll need to check the  Pic18F45K20 datasheets and see what this particular chip can do. So far I have only used those low end Pic16 series on all my projects and I'm quite sure there will be some differences.




I also did record video of the unboxing and Pickit 3 tear down/review. I will add the link here as soon as I have edited and uploaded it to Youtube.

Edit.. The viedeo quality was so bad (flickering etc.) that I decided not to make it public. I have no idea what happened... But the material was more/less ruined. 

Zenithink ZT-180 ePad teardown, Video #6

This time I decided to make a quick teardown video of Zenithink ZT-180 ePad I recently purchased secondhanded. It's amazingly easy to open as soon as you know the trick. I have not yet bothered taking the logic board out since all essentials are shown as is. There are some oddities in this machine, like using cheap painters masking tape to cover and fix parts, but that may well be left there by some earlier user.

Meta: I have not lately been making these 3d-printing related updates. I have been occupied with other activities, so no new cookie cutters designed/printed yet.  I also need to do some repairs for the printer, there's a known weakness on one part and it hinders the printing process. Perhaps I'll make a video of that too while I'll try to think best feasible way to fix issue.