gnupic: Thread: Re: [gnupic] problems installing piklab

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jay Dagenais 
> Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2006 5:15 AM
> To: ####@####.####
> Subject: [gnupic] problems installing piklab
> 
> The first I  couldn't find  alone, it seemed to be a part 
> of a larger piece of software,  and the other  two were rather 
> large files which would have taken a long  time to download 
> wirelessly, so I didn't yet. 

I think you need much more than the 3 files. I do not know how
you build the software and what you have installed for your
Suse 9.2. I think you need  development version of QT and kdelibs 
and maybe some more things and they are big. I also guess Suse 9.2
may be a bit old.

> Am I right that the piklab is  the gnu equiv to  mplab? Thanks 
> in advance! 

I think there is no GNU equivalent to MPLAB yet. piklab/pikdev
are nice IDEs which integrate gputils and support for some 
popular programmers. piklab also aims to add the support for
ICD2 debugging for PIC 16F.

> Oh yeah, one last problem here, I  am trying to  download firmware 
> into a PIC so I can build an ICD2, but am  having a hard 
> time with choosing a programmer to build for the loading of 
> the firmware into the PIC16F8xx. The main issue being that 
> I have only a  laptop running  right now, and have read that 
> the JDM versions do not work  the USB to RS232  converters 
> nor the power levels issued from the laptops  serial port even if 
> it did have one! Is there any work around for this one, or 
> should I be  choosing a different programmer for loading this one 
> chip!!?? Help?

Do you have a programmer now? Have you tried it? If you have a
JDM and it does not work with your labtop, try to get help from
a friend who has a desktop. Even though reading is important, I 
think it is much more rewarding to try out things. And from 
the emails I have a feeeling that you will be better off **buying**
a programmer (eg: Wisp628 or an ICD2 clone or a PICkit 2 or some
others) rather than building your own. It will help you get started 
earlier. You do not need to know too much about PIC programmers
before you enter the PIC world.

Regards,
Xiaofan

You know that you are absolutly correct! With the amount of time and even 
cash that I have sunk into parts, hours and all in order to obtain a free 
programmer to get started with the PIC's, I could havce easily just bought 
any one of a number of commercial programmers and been well on my way by 
now. Alas, I have taken the hard way, as I find myself doing in many of my 
endevours. The last day or so I have found a couple of designs which are 
parallel port oriented, and am going to have a go at building one tonight, 
if it doesn't work I guess I will break down and buy one finally.

Also right that the version of Suse I am using is old, from last year. I 
have other recent copies of Mandrake, and Mandriva, but for some reason they 
just won't install on my laptop, and no monitors for any of the desktops! I 
recently recieved a copy of DSL linux in a zine, and am very interested in 
this as it is quoted as being able to boot from USB pen drives using a total 
of only 50MB, which isn't that small I guess in the embedded community. They 
also say that it can be booted right from in Windows, or another Linux, 
whatever, so that may be the way I go after I figure out how. Anyways, I am 
just using the Suse instal untill I get a bit better as it is comfortable to 
me as Linux can be to a beginner:)

As always, thanks!!


>From: "Chen Xiao Fan" ####@####.####
>Reply-To: ####@####.####
>To: ####@####.####
>Subject: RE: [gnupic] problems installing piklab
>Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 08:48:07 +0800
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jay Dagenais
> > Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2006 5:15 AM
> > To: ####@####.####
> > Subject: [gnupic] problems installing piklab
> >
> > The first I  couldn't find  alone, it seemed to be a part
> > of a larger piece of software,  and the other  two were rather
> > large files which would have taken a long  time to download
> > wirelessly, so I didn't yet.
>
>I think you need much more than the 3 files. I do not know how
>you build the software and what you have installed for your
>Suse 9.2. I think you need  development version of QT and kdelibs
>and maybe some more things and they are big. I also guess Suse 9.2
>may be a bit old.
>
> > Am I right that the piklab is  the gnu equiv to  mplab? Thanks
> > in advance!
>
>I think there is no GNU equivalent to MPLAB yet. piklab/pikdev
>are nice IDEs which integrate gputils and support for some
>popular programmers. piklab also aims to add the support for
>ICD2 debugging for PIC 16F.
>
> > Oh yeah, one last problem here, I  am trying to  download firmware
> > into a PIC so I can build an ICD2, but am  having a hard
> > time with choosing a programmer to build for the loading of
> > the firmware into the PIC16F8xx. The main issue being that
> > I have only a  laptop running  right now, and have read that
> > the JDM versions do not work  the USB to RS232  converters
> > nor the power levels issued from the laptops  serial port even if
> > it did have one! Is there any work around for this one, or
> > should I be  choosing a different programmer for loading this one
> > chip!!?? Help?
>
>Do you have a programmer now? Have you tried it? If you have a
>JDM and it does not work with your labtop, try to get help from
>a friend who has a desktop. Even though reading is important, I
>think it is much more rewarding to try out things. And from
>the emails I have a feeeling that you will be better off **buying**
>a programmer (eg: Wisp628 or an ICD2 clone or a PICkit 2 or some
>others) rather than building your own. It will help you get started
>earlier. You do not need to know too much about PIC programmers
>before you enter the PIC world.
>
>Regards,
>Xiaofan
>
>
>
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Jay Dagenais wrote:
> You know that you are absolutly correct! With the amount of time and 
> even cash that I have sunk into parts, hours and all in order to obtain 
> a free programmer to get started with the PIC's, I could havce easily 
> just bought any one of a number of commercial programmers and been well 
> on my way by now. Alas, I have taken the hard way, as I find myself 
> doing in many of my endevours. The last day or so I have found a couple 
> of designs which are parallel port oriented, and am going to have a go 
> at building one tonight, if it doesn't work I guess I will break down 
> and buy one finally.

Don't be discouraged. I'va an ultra-simple hand-made programmer design 
working also as ICSP (you can program the target PIC without taking it 
off from its circuit). If you want I can draw the schematic and e-mail 
it to you.

> 
> Also right that the version of Suse I am using is old, from last year. I 
> have other recent copies of Mandrake, and Mandriva, but for some reason 
> they just won't install on my laptop, and no monitors for any of the 
> desktops! I recently recieved a copy of DSL linux in a zine, and am very 
> interested in this as it is quoted as being able to boot from USB pen 
> drives using a total of only 50MB, which isn't that small I guess in the 
> embedded community. They also say that it can be booted right from in 
> Windows, or another Linux, whatever, so that may be the way I go after I 
> figure out how. Anyways, I am just using the Suse instal untill I get a 
> bit better as it is comfortable to me as Linux can be to a beginner:)

AFAIK knoppix, ubuntu and SimplyMEPIS are the most capable in 
recognizing hardware. These are also the easier to use for a novice.
knoppix and MEPIS even run off the CD if you want (maybe ubuntu has a 
live version as well, I don't remember).

Cheers,
Marco

-- 
Marco Pantaleoni

elastiC language developer
http://www.elasticworld.org

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jay Dagenais
> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 9:44 AM
> To: ####@####.####
> Subject: RE: [gnupic] problems installing piklab
> 
> You know that you are absolutly correct! With the amount of 
> time and even cash that I have sunk into parts, hours and 
> all in order to  obtain a free  programmer to get started 
> with the PIC's, I could havce easily just bought 
> any one of a number of commercial programmers and been well 
> on my way by  now. Alas, I have taken the hard way, as I 
> find myself doing  in many of my  endevours. The last day or 
> so I have found a couple of  designs which are  parallel port 
> oriented, and am going to have a go at building 
> one tonight, if it doesn't work I guess I will break down 
> and buy one finally.

So your labtop has a parallel port. Then you should
look at pikdev website and build the parallel port based
programmer. It supports many PIC as well using pikdev.
You could also try BAJ's TLVP or THVP. I do not have any
parallel-port based programmers though. But they are said
to be quite good if one has access to a parallel port.
For me I have access to quite some PIC programmers 
(PICkit 2, ICD2, PICkit 1, Promate III at so I
do not need one with parallel port.

> Also right that the version of Suse I am using is old, from last year. I 
> have other recent copies of Mandrake, and Mandriva, but for some reason 
> they just won't install on my laptop, and no monitors for any of the 
> desktops! I recently recieved a copy of DSL linux in a zine, and am very 
> interested in this as it is quoted as being able to boot from USB pen 
> drives using a total of only 50MB, which isn't that small I guess in the 
> embedded community. They also say that it can be booted right from in 
> Windows, or another Linux, whatever, so that may be the way I go after I 
> figure out how. Anyways, I am just using the Suse instal untill I get a 
> bit better as it is comfortable to me as Linux can be to a beginner:)

I myself am not that experienced in Linux. I've never used Suse but I
know that Suse 10.0 has been out for some time. So I only guessed that
Suse 9.2 might be a bit old. It may be quite okay to stick to it.

It would be nice if you can get recent Mandriva Linux to work since
pikdev/piklab have RPMs for it. You can get the help from the
Google or various Linux forums.

But I would think any tiny LINUX distros will not be a good choice to 
try out PIC development under Linux. gputils/sdcc might run fine.
They do run fine on most major Linux distributions. But the GUI based 
software like gpsim/pikdev/piklab/ktechlab/etc may be a bit
tricky to get set up with some Linux versions. 

And I will say that you should forget about the live CD versions 
for Linux PIC experiment. They are okay for Linux experiment
but not Linux PIC experiment. I personally use Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy
as the main Linux OS and run Fedora Core 4 as the 2nd Linux OS. And 
I still need Windows XP from time to time. For example, when I am
testing piklab ICD2 support, I will need to make sure that the
setup is working under Windows first.


Regards,
Xiaofan

On Monday 20 February 2006 23:57 pm, Marco Pantaleoni wrote:
>
> Don't be discouraged. I'va an ultra-simple hand-made programmer design
> working also as ICSP (you can program the target PIC without taking it
> off from its circuit). If you want I can draw the schematic and e-mail
> it to you.
>
Why not attach it as a .jpg or .png to the mailing list. I think many would 
be interested in it.

Jeff