gnupic: Thread: [ANN] Pikme PIC Bootloader (for 16F819 etc)

The Pikme PIC Bootloader is available at

          http://pygmy.utoh.org/pikme

I call it "The World's Simplest PIC Bootloader".

It is set up for the PIC16F819 but should be easy to modify for other
PIC variants that are capable of programming their own flash memory.

All source is included and commented extensively.  License is
MIT/BSD-style.

The downloader is in Python.  I run it under Linux (Debian) but it
should run at least on Unix/Linux/Windows (anywhere Python and its
serial module run).

It uses only half of an I/O pin on the PIC (that is, it can use an
input-only pin) and even that pin can be used for other purposes by the
application, providing it doesn't wiggle at boot time.

It uses a one-way serial interface from the PC to the PIC (so, 2 wires:
the PC's TX pin and ground).  It is bit-banged to do inverted TTL serial
(fake RS232) so that no MAX232 or similar is needed.

I use it with the RA5/Vpp/MCLR* pin but 3 equates in the source code
allow you to use another I/O pin if you prefer.

The downloader picbl.py needs the name of the hex file and the number of
the serial port.  So, to download dummy1.hex via the second serial port
(COM2: on Windows, /dev/ttyS1 on Linux), you would run something like

       python picbl.py dummy1.hex 1

I'll be glad to have feedback on it and will try to adjust the
documentation if anything isn't clear.


-- 
Frank