Programming PIC using CDC?
 

Hello!

I wanna know how can I write my program to a PIC microcontroller without using MPLAB.

Thanks in advance!

Re: Programming PIC using CDC?
 

Do you mean that you want a different IDE or a compiler? Microchip's mcc18 compiler is really the only compiler that works for the PIC. Howeverm if you're looking ata different IDE, there are a lot of options, such as DevC++ and CodeBlocks. Our team uses CodeBlocks, since we find its plugabble architecture nice for any extra functionality we want to add, and its pretty easy to add a new compiler. You just add new compiler and add the linkers and libraries and compile flags, which you can get from a build log in MPLAB.

Re: Programming PIC using CDC?
 

I am fairly certain that you have to compile in MPLAB, its all proprietary to microchip. My team codes in eMacs and then builds in MPLAB

Re: Programming PIC using CDC?
 

Actually, there are several different compilers that support PIC18 targets, aside from just Microchip's (do a quick Google search).

Now, whether or not they support the Microchip C18-specific extensions used in the IFI code is another story.

Re: Programming PIC using CDC?
 

I'm not exactly sure this is a FIRST application here. Outside the FIRST box might work here, too.

Re: Programming PIC using CDC?
 

our programmer is always programing pics for various projects and he doesnt use mplab

Re: Programming PIC using CDC?
 

As long as you have the compiler tools, you can build your own tool chain, and you won't have to use MPLAB.

Re: Programming PIC using CDC?
 

for non-FIRST microcontrollers, i use a microchip PICSTART PLUS programmer and CCS-C compiler. it has its own IDE, but i prefer to use it with MPLAB.

www.sparkfun.com has a lot of PIC resources

Re: Programming PIC using CDC?
 

Well, you could always look up the opcodes for each machine language instruction, and the microchip .hex file format and write your code in a text editor... but I'm guessing that you probably don't want to get quite that "bare bones".

Alternatively, you can presumably write your C code in any text editor and then compile it using PICC Lite (a freeware compiler, available from Microchip) and then compile it using command line options.

These are both kind of silly options since MPLAB makes doing both of these tasks much easier... maybe you want to avoid C or assembly language all together... in which case I would recommend PIC BASIC Pro or PIC BASIC (I much prefer the pro, even though it is more expensive) from www.melabs.com

They also have their own IDE... MicroCode Studio, I believe it is called.

Jason

P.S. If you can possibly run MPLAB, I recommend learning to use it... some of the emulator and debugging functions are quite useful.