New Vex API for MCC18: LibVexBot

Technical Programming
1

Hi everybody,

FYI, I wrote up a new API library for programming the Vex using MCC18. The API makes it possible to program the Vex without knowledge of how the PIC processor is wired in. All hardware access is done through simple function calls, such as io_get_digital(), io_get_analog(), sonar_emit_pulse(), etc.

The library is entirely open source, so those who want to can dig into the library code and program to the bare metal.

The source code distribution includes a sample program that behaves like the Vex default code, but interfaces with hardware entirely through the API.

It includes both MPLAB projects and a Makefile for building under Unix/Mac with Wine.

It should work with any version of MCC18. At some point, it will also work with SDCC, but there is still quite a bit of work to be done on that front.

You can download the code from

http://personalpages.tds.net/~jwbacon/Ports/vex.html

Regards,

Jason
2

Sounds cool, though it’d be nice to see quadrature encoders supported.

If you could get this to work with SDCC that’d be excellent.

3

If Santa sends me a quadrature encoder kit, I’ll write a driver for it. Of course, he could also send me a code patch. :wink:

SDCC’s day will come. The compiler works great, but there’s some code that underlies the Vex libraries that still needs to be written (SPI, ADC, etc.) Documentation is also scarce at the moment.

Jason