Submitted by:
Glenn Clark
VersaTech Electronics
The programs and drawings shown below are taken from the examples section of the manual.
Lets take a minute and talk about the nuts and bolts of making projects. The TICkit module is designed to easily plug into a solder less breadboard. These are readily available from most electronic parts stores, including Radio Shack. Almost any 6 volt battery can be used as a power source for a TICkit, but make sure you do not use any battery with more than 6 volts output or you will fry the TICkit processor. There is a power supply and construction area for a TICkit project on the T62-PROJ project board if you are making a more permanent project. You can just use the power supply on the T62-PROJ board by soldering wires on the +5 and ground buses and plugging these into a solder less breadboard. The more reasonable approach is to make or purchase a +5 volt regulated power supply. To make your own, you can use the following circuit based on a 7805 (LM340).
All of the parts required for this supply are readily available from parts stores including Radio Shack. The unregulated DC source can also be a wall mount transformer supply. The circuits shown above are suitable for most typical applications. More advanced projects might require regulators with lower quiescent (no load) power consumption to conserve battery power, or you might need more voltages than just +5 volts. There are many, many good texts on power supply design and countless monolithic IC solutions for any of a wide range of power requirements. All the TICkit directly needs is a good 5 volts with a reasonably sharp rise time. The 20 MHz TICkit62 itself consumes less than 30ma not counting loads you place on it. The 4 MHz TICkit 62 uses less than 15ma unloaded.