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Review article: ‘Robotics: Intro to PICAXE’

PICAXE Microcontrollers

In my article entitled ‘Robotics: Intro to PICAXE’ I started out with a generalized description of the various PICAXE microcontrollers available from Revolution Education Ltd.. Here I would like to expand slightly and take a bit more In-depth look at the PICAXE microcontrollers. First starting with the ‘Standard Use’ class, then moving on to the ‘Advanced Use’ class after that. Revolution Education Ltd. has changed their previous categories from ‘Education, Standard, Advanced Use’ and combined ‘Education and Standard Use’ into one category. The M2 and X1 microchips are classified as the ‘Standard Use’ class, while the X2 series of microchips are classified as the ‘Advanced Use’ class of microcontrollers.

As of the writhing of this article, you still can purchase several of the older PICAXE microcontrollers, namely: the ‘PICAXE-08M Module’, ‘PICAXE-08 microcontroller’, ‘PICAXE-08 microcontroller (5 pack)’, ‘PICAXE-08 microcontroller (50 pack) [Only available to educational account holders.]’, ‘PICAXE-18X microcontroller’, ‘PICAXE-18X microcontroller (10 pack)’, ‘PICAXE-18M microcontroller (25 pack)’, and the ‘PICAXE-20M microcontroller (22 pack) [Only available to educational account holders.]’. I would suggest however that you stick to the the new PICAXE microcontrollers as they are richer in features, power, and cost LESS in many cases than the older discontinued PICAXE microcontrollers. (I am unsure how long the X1 parts will be available and would suggest moving up to either an X2 part or an M2 part instead)

In the table below you will see the stats for the standard class of PICAXE microcontrollers:

(NOTE: the top speed of the M2 Series is 32MHz and the X1 series is 20MHz)
(NOTE: * Input/Output Pins are configurable as either)

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