I’ve been doing a LOT of searching the internet for Linux based tools to write software for and to program PICs. I finally had a bit of success today when I found Pikdev (IDE) and CPik (C compiler).
I can’t really test these out properly since I don’t have a PIC programmer yet, but maybe somebody else can do that. The IDE is for KDE which runs under Linux and *BSD, but CPik (compiler) is only available as a binary right now (I have no idea why, and it makes no sense to me).
I’ll try these out soon under Gentoo Linux and see if I can at least edit and compile something.
Lol, great timing. I should have my PicKit2 programmer in my mailbox tomorrow. home.pacbell.net/theposts/picmicro/ has tools that are confirmed to be working with it under Linux. However, these are just to run the USB programmer.
I’ve been trying to learn PICs and have a number of .pdf ebooks about how to program them, and have basically been waiting on my programmer to really get started. I intended to use Mtlab under windows on my laptop and then transition to a similar setup on Linux. I’m sure KDevlop can be used as an IDE (possibly with a new project template file or something, yea open source) using the known gpl asemblers and linkers. I wanted to get to know these things better since KDevelop can also cross-compile to Windows and MIPs machines using very similar methods. Anyway…
The Pikdev program is bassically a few extra widgets added to kate (shares a lot of code with KDevelop to color code reserved words and such) to make it easier to compile programs. Instead of saving and bringing up the CLI for compiling, it will do it automatically. The Cpik compiler basically is in extremely early alpha and probably isn’t released as source yet since the code is horribly written.
Moreso than those programs, I am very interested in the homemade serial programmer on the Pikdev page, pikdev.free.fr/IMAGES/serial-prog-recto.png. Mainly, since I have all the parts lying around to make that. Heck, all I need is the serial to ICSP header, I have a board coming with my PicKit2 which essentially takes the ISCP and routes it to ziff sockets for all the various PICs: http://www.sure-electronics.net/englishsite/pickit2/full7.jpg
I noticed on the PikDev website that the PicKit2 is now officially supported. I’m not sure about what release this is in (probably not anything in my Debian packages, they did seem older), but considering I am having some trouble with KDevelop’s automake system and cross-compiling, I’m going to try compiling from CVS and see if this is true.
I’m just starting to fiddle with KDevelop now, so have not actually built anything with it. I have some things I want to develop for my robotics use. I am planning to create some tools with similar funcionality to what some some of Lynxmotion’s stuff has (like Seq), but it will take time.
First I have to learn how to use the tools properly and get a small working project built. Then I can move on to my real goals. I see KDevelop has support for Python as well as Java also and this is great.
I’ve been working on code to control an SSC-32 from Python, which works fine. I can send and receive between my Linux PC and the SSC-32 just fine without losing any data. I am now seriously considering adding a Bluetooth link to W.A.L.T.E.R. since I already have my LinkSys Bluetooth dongle for the Linux PC.
I see KDevelop has support for Python as well as Java also and this is great.