gnupic: 16F877 and Linux
Subject:
Re: 16F877 and Linux
From:
Scott Dattalo ####@####.####
Date:
26 Feb 2000 15:20:56 -0000
Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.4.05.10002260837150.1163-100000@tempest.blackhat.net>
On Sat, 26 Feb 2000, [iso-8859-1] Ricky Ng-Adam wrote:
> I'm a total newbie to PIC and only a beginner in electronics so bear
> with me. (A positive note: I'm skilled in Linux/Unix and programming in
> general.)
Got any spare time? gpsim could use you!
> We just bought ten 16F877 for a big robot submarine student project
> which I'm working with a team of people experienced in electronics but
> not very much in Linux.
I'm currently adding support for the 16F877 (and the other 16F8xx devices
as well) in gpsim.
<snip>
> I've been looking at the PICLIST and PIC web page and the only thing I
> can find for PICs (and more precisely PIC for Linux) are
> dead|unmaintained|outdated|16F84-specific information.
Except for gpsim and gpasm. I can't really speak for Linux/16F877 in
general. AFAIK, there's no activity to write drivers to talk to the
16F877. Much of the reason is because Microchip has so far decided not to
release the details on how the ICD protocol is implemented. But, they
didn't release the PicStart+ protocol either and that was reverse
engineered. (see below)
>
> I'm not scared to get my hand dirty in software, I just need :
>
> -to know if the Linux/PIC16F877 community active? is it feasible and
> realistic at this moment (or with some programming) to effectively use
> Linux as a development environment for the 16F877?
gpasm already supports the f877. gpsim will be adding support shortly.
> -to know the state of things for Linux+16F877+C compiler
There are c2c and picc. I don't know if they specifically support the 877
or not.
>
> -get the proper hardware solution/programming software combo. What is
> the simplest and lowest cost solution to get those HEX into the 16F877
> in-circuit?
<snip>
> -I have downloaded a bunch of software, including gpasm-0.8.4
Check out gpasm in Sourceforge. It's up to 0.8.8 and I'll be bumping it up
to 0.8.9 in a few hours (to fix a '508 config bug).
gpsim is also in Sourceforge cvs. I've got a boat load of changes that
will be going in very shortly (<48 hours). One of which is the preliminary
support of the '877.
The sourceforge page for gpasm:
https://sourceforge.net/project/?group_id=2298
and gpsim:
https://sourceforge.net/project/?group_id=2341
> -I have started reading the PDF spec for the 16F877 (not finished
> yet).
>
> -Built a non-functionnal circuit based on
> http://www.jdm.homepage.dk/newpic.htm. It doesn't work yet (or we just
> can't get the damn software to work under DOS).
James Cameron can give you much better information than I about
programmers. But what I have used is the Picstart+ programmer from
microchip and Andrew Pine's driver under Linux:
http://www.cosmodog.com/pic/
What's good about this combination is that you can leverage off the
support microchip provides in programming the chips. The protocol doesn't
tell picstart+ how to program, just what to program. Other open sourced
programmers will have to indepently implement the programming algorithm.
It's not impossible...
I hope this helps. Btw, your project sounds really cool!
Scott
