Amicus

Amicus is a multifunction development system inspired by the popular Arduino board, however, the Amicus board uses a Microchip PIC^® microcontroller instead of an Atmel AVR^tm type.

The Amicus Hardware is an open design, the schematics and design data are available for download FREE of charge. Amicus Software is FREE to download and is NOT LIMITED in functionality.

What does the name Amicus mean ?
The name Amicus derives from the Latin word Amici, meaning friend. An Amicus is a person who speaks or performs on your behalf. The Amicus18 board will become your best friend, allowing a freedom to perform tasks that you never dreamed possible.

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Amicus is supported by an integrated development environment (AMICUS IDE). The Amicus18 IDE provides the user with

• Proton Basic source code editor - with colour syntax highlighter
• Compiler - Full version of Proton Basic for the PIC^® Microcontroller with full integration to MPLAB^® for debugging, if required.
• Programmer - automated programming of the Amicus Board - no external programmer required.

The Amicus18^tm IDE has been designed to maximize programmer productivity by providing highly integrated and intuitive interface to the tools required to develop on the Amicus 18 hardware. The Amicus IDE provides many features for authoring, modifying, compiling, deploying and debugging your programmes. Your program can be compiled while being written, providing instant feedback on syntax errors. This results in an uninterrupted workflow from writing the program code through compiling to downloading the program to the Amicus hardware.

Comprehensive documentation and a helpful and friendly support environment, make using Amicus18 an easy and enjoyable experience for beginners and seasoned programmers.

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Extension boards add functionality to the Amicus, these boards are known as shields. A shield is a PCB that fits over the Amicus board and provides extra functionality, such as Ethernet, Motor control, LCD, Smartcard, GPS, GSM etc…

The entry level shield is labelled The Companion Shield. This is a PCB laid out in the pattern of a solderless breadboard. The holes are single sided, which means that components can easily be removed using solder mop braid, or a solder vacuum tool, if a mistake is made, or components need to be re-used.