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PDA Robotics
When an AC is used adapter to power the programmer, the state of the
“Batt ON” jumper does not matter.
If you are powering the EPIC Plus Programmer with two 9-volt batter-
ies, plug each battery onto the battery snaps. Connect the 2-pin short-
ing jumper to the 2-pin “Batt ON” posts. It is a good idea to check the
battery voltage from time to time or if there seems to be difficulty pro-
gramming parts.
Warning: Do not connect a battery across the center snaps. Doing so
shorts out the battery and may cause it to explode.

Note: The LED may be lit at this point. It should go out when the EPIC
programming software is run. Do not insert or remove a PICmicro
MCU when the LED is on.
The EPIC Plus Programmer should now be powered up and ready to
program PICmicro MCUs.

General Operation

The next task is simply to write your program using any text editor, such
as DOS Edit or Windows Notepad, and assemble it using the assembler,
PM, included on the disk, or MPASM (or MPLAB), available from
Microchip. Instructions for the use of PM are on the included disk.
Note: For PDA Robot, I am using the PICmicro MCU compiler. The
source code and the process of generating the .HEX file is explained in
detail in the next section of this chapter.
Once your program assembles properly, the generated .HEX file may
be programmed into a PICmicro MCU using the EPIC programming
software. Three versions of the EPIC software are included: two ver-
sions for DOS (one command line and one graphical) and one for
Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. If you choose the graphical DOS
version, it should be used in a straight DOS session or from a full-
screen DOS window in Windows 95/98 or OS/2. (Running the graph-
ical DOS version of EPIC under Windows is discouraged. Windows
[all varieties] alters the system timing and plays with the ports when
you are not looking, which may cause programming errors.)

The Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP version should, of course, be
run under Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, or XP. The Windows and

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