A Further Study Into The Use of The PIC32MX250F128B, With Side Projects Using The AT91SAM3X8E (Arduino Due) and The Intel Galileo

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 15

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

ECE 4999: INDEPENDENT


STUDY REPORT
Under the supervision of Professor Bruce R. Land

Syed Tahmid Mahbub
Spring 2014


A further study into the use of the PIC32MX250F128B, with side projects using the
AT91SAM3X8E (Arduino Due) and the Intel Galileo


Page 2 of 15

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION . 3
2. AT91SAM3X8E TESTS . 3
3. PIC32 TESTS . 3
a. PROTOTYPE BOARD .. 3
b. OTHER TESTS .. 4
c. CLOCK SWITCHING .. 5
d. CORE TIMER .. 5
e. 32-BIT TIMER .. 6
f. FURTHER I/O .. 6
g. DAC WITH ANALOG COMPARATOR REFERENCE MODULE . 7
h. ADC . 8
i. DMA . 8
j. PWM . 9
k. INTERRUPT . 11
l. CAPTURE AND ANALOG COMPARATOR MODULES: CAPACITANCE METER 12
m. PERIPHERAL LIBRARY AND LOW-LEVEL ACCESS .. 13
4. TESTS WITH INTEL GALILEO . 14
5. FURTHER EXPANSION 15
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 15


Page 3 of 15

INTRODUCTION
The independent study for this semester Spring 2014 is a continuation of the independent
study from last semester: a comparative study between the Atmel AT91SAM3X8E and Microchip
PIC32MX250F128B 32-bit microcontrollers. However, this semester I shifted my focus mostly to the
PIC32MX250F128B over the AT91SAM3X8E in order to get a better understanding of the PIC32 as this
has better promise in terms of applicability especially in a hobbyist or classroom setting.
Beyond working with just the PIC32, I experimented a bit with the Intel Galileo due to its
Arduino compatibility. While the Arduino Due was used mostly for the convenient platform (instead of
having to deal with the surface mount AT91 microcontroller, or its programmer and basic connection)
provided for experimenting with the AT91SAM3X8E, the Arduino compatibility feature of the Intel
Galileo presented an interesting opportunity to perform some simple basic tests to compare
performance between the 84MHz AT91 platform and the 400MHz Intel Quark platform.

AT91SAM3X8E TESTS
I did not work much with the AT91SAM3X8E this semester. However, I did work on a simple mini
oscilloscope that used the internal ADC along with a small TFT display obtained from Adafruit. That is as
far as my experiments went with the AT91. It is still a nice option for quick prototyping or quick circuit
design, given its plethora of hardware peripherals and available library functions. However, since this is
not likely to be used in an educational (eg a microcontroller course) or a commercial (due to price of
platform compared to microcontroller itself) setting, I chose to pursue the PIC32 in more detail (the
PDIP package of the PIC32 also makes it an attractive option for hobbyist/prototyping purposes).

PIC32 TESTS

PROTOTYPE BOARD
I initially made a verroboard prototype board for experimenting with the PIC32. This had the
basic power connections along with connectors on the board to make it easy to take connections to
other circuits. The idea was to be able to power it externally (without using the USB port of the laptop,
which I did not like) along with the ability to have a more sturdy board (the Microstick II appeared a
bit flimsy especially the connectors at the bottom that would come off the breadboard very easily).
I then worked on the design of the simple proto board to make a finalized version on PCB. I
ended up designing a simple small PCB that incorporates the PIC mounted on a DIP socket, along with
the basic connections for power, optional connections for an external crystal oscillator, USB connector, a
variable resistor whose wiper can be connected (via a jumper) to an analog pin, a programmer (PICKIT3)
Page 4 of 15

header and an array of pins along the edge of the board that can easily be plugged into a breadboard.
The pins consist of all the IO pins of the PIC32 along with the power (VDD, GND and VIN) connections.
A detailed description of the verroboard prototype can be found on my blog at:
http://tahmidmc.blogspot.com/2014/02/pic32-development-proto-board-on.html
Details of the finalized prototype board, along with the design files (schematic + PCB designed
with ExpressPCB) and images of the final mounted/assembled board can be found on my blog at the
following link:
http://tahmidmc.blogspot.com/2014/02/pic32-proto-board-details-schematic-pcb.html
Here is a picture of the final prototype board that I have been using for all my experiments
(connected to the PICKIT3 programmer):


OTHER TESTS
I spent some time just trying to understand the PIC32 internal architecture to get a grip of
whats happening inside and why. While my independent studys focus was mainly on the PIC32
peripherals, I felt like I had to understand what was going on inside especially when I could get a port pin
to toggle at only about 5MHz with the PIC running at a 40MHz clock. This led me to learn a bit about the
internal architecture of the PIC32, of not just the peripherals but also of the MIPS core. This, additional
to the inspected assembly code, enabled me to understand why a lot of things were happening as they
were (for example the 5MHz pin toggle). Besides that, it was pretty cool learning how the MIPS core
Page 5 of 15

worked as this was also the first time I was using a MIPS core. I enjoyed it so much that I actually got a
book See MIPS Run that will enable me to better understand the MIPS architecture.
Beyond that, I played around with the PIC32 peripherals and just experimented with them.

CLOCK SWITCHING
The PIC32 offers the very useful feature of being able to change the clock frequency, and even
clock source, on the fly. I have been able to quite easily switch from the internal 8MHz FRC oscillator (no
PLL) to a 30MHz or a 40MHz oscillator with the internal FRC oscillator with PLL. Although I have not
tested it myself, there also exists the option to switch between the internal and external oscillators.
Clock switching is a very interesting module. It offers an interesting option in terms of power
saving, since it allows switching on the fly. When all the processing power is needed, the clock can be
switched to 40MHz frequency, while it may be reduced down, for example to 2sMHz, when high
frequency isnt needed to conserve some power.
An interesting note to be made about using PLL with the internal FRC oscillator is that, the PLL
pre-divider is fixed to 2. For proper operation, it is stated that the input frequency to the frequency
multiplier module be within 4MHz-5MHz. Since the internal oscillator by default has a frequency of
8MHz, it makes sense that the pre-divider is fixed to 2.
However, this is something that I (and Professor Land) did not realize at first and so while trying
to get the PLL running, initially setting the PLL pre-divider to 4, and then setting the multiplier to 20 (and
post-divider to 1) resulted in the PIC not working. Turning the multiplier down to 19 caused the PIC to
run, but at 76MHz. This was because, despite us setting the pre-divider to 4, it was fixed internally to 2.
Later changing the pre-divider to 2 and changing the post-divider to 2 fixed the problem and gave us
40MHz (with the multiplier equal to 20).

CORE TIMER
Using the Core Timer available on the PIC32, I made a simple delay library. The idea was to have
simple delay functions to have for use in cases where a software delay can be used without the need for
great precision or accuracy in timing. I used this delay library as part of a simple LCD library (set of
functions) I wrote for using for my own testing. The LCD library was written to facilitate the use of an
alphanumeric HD44780-based LCD for use in circuits, supporting simple functions for transferring
characters, strings and numbers at desired positions on the LCD, in 4-bit mode.
Another interesting use of the Core Timer would be as a central clock/device for time-keeping.
The Core Timer can be thought of as a sixth albeit stripped down 32-bit timer in the PIC32 and it can
be always kept running in the background. Additionally, it increments every two clock cycles (System
Page 6 of 15

clock cycles) and has compare and interrupt capability. So, this makes the Core Timer simple to use as a
background time-keeping device for example to manage multi-tasking or multiple task scheduling in a
simple code or operating system. A simple example would be the implementation of an Earliest
Deadline First (EDF) RTOS similar to the Tiny Real Time (for the Atmel ATmega series of microcontrollers)
OS that is currently used in the ECE 4760 course at Cornell University.
Following this thought, the idea of an RTOS interested me for a few days. I looked through
existing PIC32 operating systems and saw there are a good few available. However, I realized that I did
not have much use for an RTOS right now and thus did not invest further time into learning to use an
existing RTOS.

32-BIT TIMER
The PIC32MX250F128B has five 16-bit timers (ignoring the Core Timer). These are timers 1, 2, 3,
4 and 5. Timer 2 and timer 3 can be combined to create a 32-bit timer; so can timer 4 and timer 5. This is
straightforward to do since setting timer 2/3 or timer 4/5 as a 32-bit timer requires the setting of just
one bit in the control register T2CON or T4CON. Timer 2 and timer 4 are the master timers for the timer
2/3 and 4/5 respectively. Timer 3 and timer 5 are the slave timers. Timer 2 and timer 4 settings
configure the 32-bit timers 2/3 and 4/5 respectively. Timer 3 and timer 5 interrupt settings configure the
interrupt settings for timers 2/3 and 4/5 respectively. The period register for timer 2/3 and timer 4/5 are
PR2 and PR4 respectively.
Setting up the 32-bit timers and using them are straightforward. I did a simple test to blink LEDs
by using the 32-bit timer interrupts. Additionally, I used a 32-bit time base for the capacitance meter I
constructed (I talk about this later).

FURTHER I/O
For another simple test of the IO, I wrote a simple matrix keypad library for personal use for a
4x4 keypad. While this is straight forward, it served as a simple demonstration of the use of the IO
module of the PIC32MX250F128B, which despite being quite simple is fairly powerful due to features
such as selectable pull-ups and pull-downs, configurable open-drain outputs and 5V tolerance on certain
pins. In this code, I accessed the individual port bits as such:
PORTAbits.RA2 for accessing port for reading
LATAbits.LATA3 for accessing port latch for writing
This demonstrated another way of accessing individual bits of the ports instead of using (for
write) the SET, CLR or INV registers (PORTASET, PORTACLR, PORTAINV for example). However, upon
inspecting the output assembly, it was obvious that this method of port access was not efficient (too
Page 7 of 15

many lines of assembly code needed) especially compared to the very efficient SET, CLR and INV
registers which allow atomic bitwise manipulation of the ports and efficiently and consistently [3 lines
of assembly code were required for every SET, CLR or INV operation/assignment].

DAC WITH ANALOG COMPARATOR REFERENCE MODULE
Beyond the IO, the PIC32 provides a plethora of peripherals with a horde of features. This also
means that this allows one to hack the multitude of features to use a certain peripheral for a way
beyond what was initially its target use.
A simple example of such a scenario would be to use the internal comparator voltage reference
module as a simple digital to analog converter (DAC). The comparator voltage reference module had
two voltage ranges, each with 16 user selectable voltages. That makes a nice 4-bit DAC. The two ranges
with all 32 values cannot be used as a 5-bit DAC due to the non-linearity of voltages between the two
ranges (selecting voltages from either range from minimum to maximum possible). While the idea for
this was brought up last semester, I had not gotten around to testing how fast I can get reliable
conversions out of this. Continuing from where I left off last semester, writing a simple conversion code
and testing speed showed, interestingly, that this DAC can be used quite nicely at 100kHz. I have not
tested beyond that since 100kHz with such a simple hack is nice and easily usable in a lot of applications
not requiring a great number of digital steps. A more detailed explanation of this, along with pictures of
the waveforms I obtained while using this for testing can be found on my blog, at the following link:
http://tahmidmc.blogspot.com/2014/04/hacking-pic32-comparator-reference-to.html
Here is an oscilloscope waveform that clearly illustrates the non-linearity in using all 32 values
for the output waveform (interleaved among the two ranges):


Page 8 of 15

ADC
The ADC is another peripheral that I had used last semester but did not get around to testing the
performance of more specifically, the maximum attainable conversion speeds. The maximum specified
analog to digital conversion frequency of 1MHz (1 million samples per second) at 10-bit resolution was
easily attainable using the standard timing specifications laid out in the datasheet electrical
characteristics section. Of note here is that the datasheet recommends using an external reference
voltage supply for sampling frequencies in excess of 400kHz. Additionally, the ADC provides further
performance with the availability of options such as channel scanning, repeated conversions, conversion
clocking options (by Timer 3, CTMU, auto-convert, etc.), input offset calibration and interrupt selection
(interrupt can be triggered at the end of each sample, at the end of every 2 samples, . at the end of
every 16 samples).
An interesting hurdle I ran into when testing the ADC conversion rate is that initially I couldnt
get to the 1MHz mark even when I followed all the timing specifications laid out in the datasheet. This
turned out to be due to the way I was measuring the number of conversions. I was doing this by
incrementing a counter in the ISR and then displaying the counter value onto a 7-segment display after
one second. However, the interrupt latency was a limiting factor here since the maximum interrupt rate
possible was slower than the maximum ADC conversion rate. See INTERRUPT section.
This was resolved by changing an ADC interrupt setting from interrupt at the end of each
sample to interrupt at the end of every 8 samples and then multiplying the final counter value by 8.
Since I was interested in the value of the counter variable to the nearest thousand, the error introduced
by taking readings every 8 conversions and multiplying (since I might miss a few because of the last
interrupt being after the timer interrupt which had a higher interrupt priority; the ADC was disabled in
the timer interrupt) was insignificant.

DMA
A further huge part of the PIC32 that adds to its power is the DMA controller. Having never
worked on DMA before, it took me a while to understand the concept of DMA and use it in the PIC32.
However, once I got to that, setting up the DMA controller for DMA transfers was straightforward. I did
my testing with low level register access available here:
http://tahmidmc.blogspot.com/2014/05/simple-pic32-dma-example.html
Something that I found very interesting is that the DMA controller/module maintains its own
flags for detecting interrupt requests for data transfer start/abort requests. This is completely
independent of the INT interrupt controller enable and flag settings/configuration.
The results observed using DMA for single byte transfers and DMA bursts at different priority
settings present an interesting picture of the DMA module. The DMA module has four channels with
selectable priority. It is interesting to note here that the four channels cannot be used to transfer data
Page 9 of 15

concurrently. Different priority level settings dictate which DMA channel transfers data before
another/others. Having the same priority level for multiple channels yields another interesting
observation. Each channel has a natural priority associated with it but this does not act in the same
way as the manually selectable transfers. The DMA controller selects the channel with the higher natural
priority and transfers one 32-bit word data; then the next channel (that has a lower natural priority but
the same user-selected priority level) is selected for a 32-bit word transfer. The DMA controller cycles
through the multiple channels at the same user selectable priority and keeps on transferring a single 32-
bit word on the channel with the highest natural priority before moving on to the next channel (with a
lower natural priority) and so on until the block transfer is complete (all data is transferred).
From here, I plan to do further experiments with the DMA module, specifically to use the DMA
module for transferring data in a circuit for VGA display interfacing with the PIC32MX250F128B. I was
planning to do this near the end of the semester but could not due to a lack of time. This is still
something I want to do in my own time and so will probably work on it over the summer for myself.

PWM
I tested the compare module out by writing a simple code that used the compare module for
pulse width modulation to drive a DC motor for open loop speed control. The duty cycle was displayed
on a 3-digit 7 segment display. I interfaced the PIC32MX250F128B with a 3-digit 7 segment display as a
demonstration of IO interfacing (with 7 segment displays) along with timer application and interrupt
usage.
Another simple test of PWM was a simple code for DDS to generate a sine wave output. Using a
software-generated sine table, the compare module was used for the PWM while a simple RC low pass
filter was used to obtain the sine wave output. After testing the DMA module, another channel of
thought for analog waveform generation was opened. The most straightforward method is to use a DAC
to output the analog voltages as required. Another common method is to use the PWM module as I
spoke of above (DDS). The DMA module enables analog (arbitrary) waveform generation using both the
above methods, with the advantage that there is no CPU overhead. A timer interrupt can be used as the
triggering source for the DMA channel. This timer can be made to interrupt at regular intervals. The
DMA channel could then transfer data from a source array/table to the PWM duty cycle register (for
DDS) or the analog comparator reference module (simple DAC) or to a PORT where a DAC can be used to
convert the digital signals from the PORT to the required analog levels.
To summarize, there were no surprises when using the PWM module. The behavior is exactly as
described and following the procedures laid out in the datasheet and the reference manual, this is a
simple module to get working. The availability of the double buffered duty cycle registers ensures that
the PWM is glitch-free, allowing the change of duty cycle any time required since the hardware takes
care of the duty cycle update as required, at the end of the period.
Page 10 of 15

A further use I put the PWM module in was in audio playback. Essentially, the concept is the use
of DDS. I initially used no compression. I used a piece of computer software (Audacity) to convert WAV
files to 8-bit WAV. Then, I used a piece of software (WAV2C) that I got from the internet that converted
the 8-bit WAV file to a C header file containing the raw PCM data (a large array with 8-bit byte/unsigned
character elements). This was stored in FLASH (by making the array a constant array). The C header file
also had, as a comment, the required sampling frequency. This, I set to be the timer interrupt frequency
(frequency of PWM). The PCM data was the duty cycle information every timer interrupt, the PWM
duty cycle was updated with the next value in the table. This was output on to a pin where a low-pass
filter was used before passing the signal onto the output (headphones or audio amplifier into speaker).
I later tried using ADPCM, for compression, so that the PIC flash could be used to hold a larger
amount of audio. However, I could not successfully implement this, as I could not wrap my head around
the ADPCM algorithm. This remains one of the projects I wish to expand upon soon and complete (a
project for myself).


Page 11 of 15

INTERRUPT
The PIC32 offers a versatile interrupt controller with user selectable interrupt priority levels
(seven to be exact) and sub-priority levels (four selectable). Getting the interrupts to work was fairly
simple and I had managed to do that last semester.
What I hadnt gotten around to testing previously was the interrupt latency.
To test the interrupt latency what I had done was to set up a timer for a 1 second interrupt.
This was given the highest priority 7. That means that the shadow register set should be used for this
interrupt. Then I had the ADC set to interrupt upon a conversion (the ADC was given a lower interrupt
priority 6). In the ADC ISR, the timer interrupt was enabled. However, the ADC result buffer was not
read; neither was the ADC interrupt flag cleared. So, as soon as the PIC exited the ISR, the ISR was
reentered. After one second, when the timer interrupted, the ADC interrupt was disabled. Initially, an
ADC conversion was manually triggered to start everything off. In the ADC ISR, a counter variable was
incremented. When the ADC interrupt was disabled after a second, the counter variable was displayed
on a 3-digit 7 segment display to display the top 3 decimal digits (the program ensured that the
counter variable value was less than 1 million). I got a reading of 385 indicating a value between
385,000 and 386,000. The PIC was running at 30MHz. Rounded down, there were 385,000 interrupts in a
second.
The ADC interrupt is persistent. This means that the interrupt remains active and its interrupt
flag also stays set until the source causing it is resolved. In the case of the ADC, this is the ADC
conversion and to clear the interrupt and make it inactive, the result buffer must be read. Since I did not
do this and the ADC interrupt is persistent, the ISR kept being re-executed as it was exited. To properly
make a persistent interrupt inactive, the interrupt source must be cleared (in case of the ADC, read the
result buffer) before the interrupt flag is cleared. This ensures proper deactivation of the interrupt and
proper clearing of the interrupt flag.
The other type of interrupt is non-persistent interrupts. An example of this is the Timer
interrupts. A complete list of all the interrupt sources along with the associated IRQ #, vector # and type
of interrupt (persistent or not) can be found in the PIC32MX250F128B datasheet. A small section of this
(taken from the datasheet) for demonstrating what I meant is:
Page 12 of 15



This was just my preliminary test (to get an idea of interrupt latency) and I cannot guarantee
that this is an accurate figure for a performance metric for the interrupt latency. This just gave me an
idea of the kind of performance to expect.
According to Professor Bruce Lands interrupt test (source:
http://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/courses/ece4760/PIC32/), a timer interrupt test revealed an
interrupt rate of about 780kHz (with the PIC running at 40MHz). Since this was the highest priority
interrupt, this is possibly the figure for the performance when the shadow register set. Assuming that
both the tests performed are correct, the use of the shadow register set provides about a 50%
improvement in interrupt performance.

CAPTURE AND ANALOG COMPARATOR MODULES: CAPACITANCE METER
I used the capture module along with the analog comparator module to design a simple
capacitance meter. The idea is to time how long it takes the capacitor voltage to rise to 2.37V and based
on this, use the formula for capacitor charge to find the value of the capacitance. The capture module is
used along with the 32-bit Timer 2/3 as the time base for the timing. The analog comparator module is
used to detect the voltage level. The analog comparator output goes low when the capacitor voltage
crosses 2.37V and this triggers the input capture module to record the timer value which is the
Page 13 of 15

indication of the time (some software calculation required to convert to actual time). The input capture
module was set to trigger upon a falling edge on the external event (shorted with C1OUT pin).
The input capture module does not allow direct triggering from the analog comparator output
internally. So, I used the fact that the analog comparator module allows the comparator output to be
output to a port pin (C1OUT pin). This was then set as the pin that triggers the input capture.
The 2.37V reference to the comparator (non-inverting/+ pin) was provided from the internal
comparator reference module. The inverting pin (- in) of the comparator was provided to an external pin
this was connected to the capacitor since this was checking the capacitor voltage against the internal
reference.
The capacitance was then displayed on a 16x2 alphanumeric LCD using the LCD library that I
wrote.

PERIPHERAL LIBRARY AND LOW-LEVEL ACCESS
Microchip provides a nice peripheral library for its PIC32 series along with documentation of the
associated functions and macros, as well as some sample code for using the library. The nice thing about
the library is that the functions are relatively low-level.
I did use the peripheral library in a few cases, eg the Core Timer configuration. However, for
most cases, I decided to use low-level register access to get a complete understanding of the internal
peripherals.
However it must be noted that the peripheral library functions arent at a level where the
peripherals can be used with almost no idea of the internal peripheral mechanisms (as I mentioned
above) like in the Arduino for example where there are high-level libraries for almost everything.

Page 14 of 15

TESTS WITH INTEL GALILEO
The Intel Galileo was released as an Arduino compatible development board (as a supposedly
faster Arduino). I received one from Professor Bruce Land and thought of testing it out. Its Arduino
compatibility made it interesting especially since it had a 400MHz Quark SoC running it. Comparing it to
the AT91SAM3X8E (in the Arduino Due) was going to be interesting.
However, a short amount of testing with the Intel Galileo proved to be very disappointing,
illustrating several shortcomings in terms of performance that made it difficult to compare even to a
lower end Arduino (Arduino Uno), let alone an Arduino Due.
Not all functions and libraries are supported on Galileo; eg. pulseIn function used to
read pulse widths of input PWM signals. Additionally, doing so with low-level access to
special function registers, if a hardware peripheral module to do this was even present,
would be a big headache it wouldnt be as simple as for the AT91 with everything
relatively well documented in the datasheet; additionally, this should not be necessary
since it was marketed as being Arduino-compatible.
A simple square wave toggling ran at around 74 Hz which is pathetically slow. This is
because the Arduino is emulated on the Linux OS on the Galileo additionally, the IO
pins are through an I
2
C port expander. No pin toggling speed test was performed on the
AT91 as its quite obvious that theres no way the AT91 is that slow.
Alternatively, there is supposedly a fast mode for IO, a command can be sent to the
Galileo for the specific I/O pin - this is done through the PCI port. However, even at fast
mode, the maximum claimed toggle frequency is 2.3MHz.
Cannot use external voltage reference (AREF) for analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The
5V reference varies way too much to use for applications requiring precise ADC
measurements (the 5V supply was observed to drop to 4.8V during testing).
The ADC has a much lower impedance tolerance than the Arduinos ADC (a 10k
potentiometer gave us bad readings) to fix this might require a buffer. The AT91 ADC
operates perfectly fine with a 10k variable resistor used as a test voltage divider.
Physical touching of components near circuit caused the Linux kernel to crash, forcing us
to manually reset the board (or even re-upload code as has happened once) to continue
operations.
Some of these tests were performed individually while some of the others were performed
together with other members of the Cornell Cup team. It is possible that there have been updates to the
Intel Galileo platform to overcome or improve upon these drawbacks. However, these are personal test
results from about midway through the semester that discouraged me from using the Intel Galileo.


Page 15 of 15

FURTHER EXPANSION
I plan on personally using the PIC32 regularly for circuits for myself and in real world
applications. Over the summer, I will be working on products such as sine wave inverters, MPPT solar
charge controllers, AC voltage stabilizers and battery chargers. For these, I plan to use the
PIC32MX250F128B due to the processing power and peripheral flexibility it provides. These will
incorporate aspects of the PIC32MX250F128B I have learned and experimented with during my
independent study and will be the culmination of my learning during the independent study.
Additional to these, I have certain projects I am interested in doing just for fun. These include
interfacing the PIC to a VGA monitor, playing with audio (specifically ADPCM which I experimented a
bit with during the semester but could not strongly grip), interfacing a graphic TFT display (obtained
from Adafruit the same one I used with the Arduino Due) with the PIC and possibly making a small
oscilloscope with the PIC, and DC-DC switching regulators based on the PIC. Again, these will all expand
on concepts I have learned over the course of my independent study.
Finally, I plan on providing more information on the PIC32 peripherals (as learnt from my
independent study) and my projects, on my blog. This includes documentation of the various peripherals
I have used along with the sample code I have used for my independent study, along with required
explanations. Due to a lack of time, I could not do so over the semester and will thus now put these up
on my blog as the semester is now over and I have a bit more free time.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank Professor Bruce Land for his advice, help and support during the entirety of
the period of my independent study and of my freshman year at Cornell University.

You might also like