HypnoSquare Instructions v 1.3, May 2009
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If you might be swapping the PIC out a lot, we recommend the use of a ZIF (zero insertion force) socket. We
have found that the Aries Series 526 low profile ZIF socket works well.
The pins for the low voltage in-circuit programmer are broken out on the PCB (labeled LV-ICP). To connect a
programmer you will need to look up the PIC18F4620 docs and see how the pins are exported from our PCB.
Don‟t ask us for help beyond this – though perhaps eventually we will have forums with questions and answers
for hackers working on these items.
The PIC programmer we used is the simple circuit and PicPGM software freely available from
http://www.members.aon.at/electronics/pic/picpgm/
The UART is available and broken out on a header, and you can also re-appropriate the 2 GPIO pins used for
the buttons for other purposes if you wish.
This PCB, circuit, and PIC controller can give you a nice platform for a whole host of LED related projects.
Basically you can use it to drive 64 3-color LEDs in any configuration you like, or 192 single color LEDs in any
pattern you desire. The hardware allows individual pixel and color access, and with time multiplexing, you can
even get many levels of color.