MPLab for IFI boards

[Radical Pi]

Our primary programming laptop recently died, and it was the only one with the software to program the older IFI boards. We've come across the need to reprogram one of our boards (it's either 2005 or 2007, I'm fairly sure it's 2005), and I cannot find an install disc anywhere. After a bit of searching I found that there is a free Lite version of MPLab available for educational use, but I'm not sure whether the version displayed on the site will work with the board. I'm wondering if anyone knows whether the lite version would work with our boards and if so where I can find the correct edition to program the board (only the latest version is shown on the site).

[Mark McLeod]

I believe this academic version of the MCC18 compiler works.
Any MPLAB IDE will work, so the latest is fine.

You will need to use updated FRC libraries that match the new compiler.
You can get those from any of Kevin Watson's projects that mention the 3.0+ Microchip's C18 C compiler.
Kevin's edition is a good software baseline to start from, or you can use the original IFI default code.
The correct library will depend on the IFI controller year.

• 2004-2005 use ifi_frc_8520_30.lib
• 2006-2008 use ifi_frc_8722_30.lib

You'll also need the IFI_Loader to transfer the compiled .hex file to the IFI controller.