Over the coming months, I'll be covering everything from the difference between microcontrollers and microprocessors to Microchip's MPLAB X IDE, the PIC Low Pin Count Demo Board and the incredibly useful PICkit3 programmer tool. I hope to build a strong foundation of understanding for microcontroller programming and project design.
This month I take a look at Microchip's MPLAB X IDE. This integrated development environment allows us an easy allow in one package that allows us to write and compile our code, manage our projects and libraries, as well as program and debug our PIC microcontrollers from a single visual platform. This is the tool for designing any PIC project.
If you've always to give PICs a try, but didn't know where to start, then I recommend checking out last months article in Everyday Practical Electronics.
You can buy the latest edition in PDF format online at http://www.epemag.com/buy-epe-online.html or you can buy it off from the shelf in your nearest newsagents.
To follow along with the articles, I recommend getting your hands on the following:
1. Purchase the PICkit 3 Low Pin Count Demo Board (http://tinyurl.com/h2jj2ek)
2. Purchase the PICkit 3 Programmer + USB Cable (http://tinyurl.com/zcpx3le)
3. Download PICkit 3 Starter Kit User’s Guide (http://tinyurl.com/jyqfeuk)
4. Download MPLAB X IDE (http://tinyurl.com/hmehqja)
5. Download XC8 Compiler (http://tinyurl.com/h5g9k5l)
I can't fit everything in the article, so whatever extra I have, might end up here on my blog page. So be sure to check back regularly for more cool projects.
Next month, I'll be getting my hands dirty with some lessons and some coding, based off the PICkit3 Starter Kit User Guide from Microchip's website. It's a decent PDF, but if you're new to PICs, then it can be a minefield.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteMay I ask you, and your readers, to take look at Great Cow BASIC please? See http://gcbasic.sourceforge.net/
There is more than one IDE.
Great Cow BASIC support Microchip and AVR 8-bit micro-controllers, has an excellent IDE, supports PK2, PK3, AvrDude, Bootloaders (the list goes on and on), extensive Help, extensive demonstration code etc. etc.
As an Open Source project the users get the help of the community and of industry too. Microchip have been most helpful in supporting the project in terms of micro-controllers, boards and IP.
I just wanted to make sure that you, and your readers, are aware of another capable IDE available today. The Great COW BASIC IDE, and the Great Cow Graphical BASIC is a fast and easy method to achieve PIC and AVR based projects.
The latest release, June 26th 2016 has the following:
• Support for the Xpress Evaluation board including a host of demonstrations for the Xpress Evaluation board.
• New GCB utility to load hex file into Microchip Xpress board.
• Improved performance to increase productivity and to reduce compilation time.
• Ethernet support for ENC28J60 adapter with a full TCPIP stack. This is a separate download.
• Performance improvements to further improve productivity.
• Improved support for 900+ Microchip and Atmel 8-bit microcontrollers
- Microchip 10F, 12C, 12F, 16C, 16F, 18C and 18F devices. The LF devices are now automatically supported (no need for LF specific chip files).
- AVR microcontrollers Classic AVR, Tiny AVR and Mega AVR devices.
• An IDE to make programming as easy as possible including Help and IDE Helpers.
• 450+ cool project files that showcase the breadth and depth of capabilities of the micro-controllers.
• Support for a large set of supported hardware accessories including I2C drivers adding 2nd I2C support.
• GLCD handling with even more types of GLCD supported.
• New scalable fonts with added support for extended fonts sets.
• Increased support for microcontroller timers by supporting all the available microcontroller timers – this can be up to 12 separate timers.
• Full Windows and Linux version of the Great Cow BASIC Compiler and the toolchain.
• New Windows installer for four different type of installation.
• Plus other new functionality and enhancements or fixes over the previous release – over 190 major changes since the April 2015 release.
Best regards,
Evan
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHi Evan,
ReplyDeleteI didn't remove those posts myself. They must have been done automatically. I probably have a limit to the length of the comments made here and it would have exceded that.
The package sounds great. It's always good to have another IDE available that can cover both Microchip and Atmel devices. I'll check it out and I will probably write a blog post about it.
They were marked as spam. I've removed the first one out of spam. I can't figure why they were marked as spam :(
Delete