C Compiler from Microchip - MPLAB C18

Downloaded and installed the C compiler from microchip - the "MPLAB C18". There's a free student demo which functions for 60 days and can then be uninstalled/ reinstalled painlessly.

Spent some more time with the IDE. Pretty great, intuitive, etc...

MPLAB IDE looks good

More progress with the dev enviornment.

I set up the MPLAB IDE specifically for the PIC18F4525.
Some template and linker files have been made for this chip which should come in handy. Also, discovered a friendly screen which will allow me to control the chips configuration without coding it into the assembly file until I'm ready to.

Wrote some sample code to send a changing value out an I/O port with delay, which finally assembled!

And the simulator isn't bad at all.
I'm really impressed with it's capabilities. You can walk through the program line by line as it will be executed and watch any register, it's address and it's value at that point in the program. There's also a stop watch which can measure instrction cycles and give you time to complete in microseconds based on a configurable clock speed.

I haven't burned the internal osciallator configuration onto the chip yet. I'm getting a little sucked into the IDE. But, hopefully tomorrow.

Also, I can't believe how expensive the compilers are for these chips. The demos I've tried out haven't worked with MPLAB or MicroCode Studio (another popular IDE). I'll hunt around and try some more installations tomorrow because the cheapest compiler I found was around 250$. So far I haven't wanted to use any C code, but that will probably change.

Timing and Default Config Values

Few new updates.

48MHz oscillator is too fast (might not be if I wanted to over extend the chip and see what happens) but, discovered that there is an internal clock which can run at 8MHz and software called Phased Locked Loop which will simulate given rate times four, so I'll get 32MHz, which is more than I need.

About to test the internal oscillator supplied by Microchip by burning the necissary configuration onto the chip, but my floppy drive is broken and the EPIC programmer software is on a floppy. I'll copy the contents to CD tommorow at Hunter. Maybe I should replace my broken floppy drive at some point. It died at least a year ago. Also, my Audigy 2 Sound Blaster sound card is not being recognized again. I made the mistake of plugging in an audio line while the computer was on, which was the same action I took which seemed to start the whole fiasco before, ending in Windows OS not booting. I'll remove and reinsert the sound card tomorrow and see if that works. It might be time for a new computer... or a new motherboard.

Watchdog Timer is set by default, which causes problems in developing and debugging. Microchip default configuration seems to be a bit wacky in general.