There’s so much going on in my research and experiments, it’s just hard to explain everything right now. But, in a nutshell, I have been patiently (but consistently) ramping up knowledge of building some awesome applications for the ARM Cortex M4 – both hardware and software. I have a lot of audio processing, lighting, and graphics ideas to start on so my first step is to become well-versed in their operation.In the last month or so, I have been drawing faces, drawing UI, painting, making headway on the ARM stuff, woodcarving, working on music, running over my budget for the new year (like multiple times with complicated, categorical spreadsheets), doing some behavior modification (like stopping drinking sodas and exercise regularly and others), working on this site, and so much more that I don’t write about.
Sometimes, it does seem like I have too many things going on, but like I say – “I just follow my interest” – and, where it leads, that’s where I go- just enjoying life as it comes, working with what I have. I definitely try to wisely balance it all by not getting into “comfort-only” scenarios, like spending gobs of time on stuff that doesn’t require any hard thinking or sweat from the brow. Rather, all of my “hobbies” require actual work and are investments in my future and have the additional benefit of brightening my days when I do them. The fulfillment factor is high.
MPLAB XC16 C Compiler. Remove MPLAB XC16 C Compiler. MPLAB XC16 C Compiler is a program developed by Microchip. The most used version is v1.11, with over 98% of all installations currently using this version. The software installer includes 10 files and is usually about 701.8 KB (718,641 bytes).
I am trying to install mplab x and xc16 compiler to a windows 8 device. I have installed mplab with no problems at all. I then installed xc16 however when i go to create a new project the compiler does not appear. Any suggestions on how to fix this? I have tried uninstalling both and reinstal. Apr 18, 2019 MPLAB XC16 C Compiler 1.36 can be downloaded from our software library for free. This free software was originally developed by Microchip Technology Inc. The most popular versions among the software users are 1.2 and 1.1. This free PC program is compatible with Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10 environment, 32-bit version.
That’s what I’m feeling right now. But, I also have to take it one step at a time as to not get burned out – going for a good balance.
It’s a great start to the new year.// A R MAs for the ARM stuff, though Lately, I have been deeply involved in trying to find a great toolchain and chipset that would work well with Mac OS X and my limited PCB fab opportunities here. I heavily explored the Atmel SAM4S for a while, and then the Silicon Labs EFM32 ( I do like Simplicity Studio), and even experimented more with PIC24’s and PIC32’s ( I like MPLABX, too), but I have been heavily preferring the NXP / Freescale Kinetis K series Cortex chips and their KDS ( surprised, but happy about their merger 🙂 ). I have everything I need to program and debug them, and I think Freescale and NXP have a lot of support around their products these days.And, whichever ARM Cortex M4F I choose, I feel future-safety coming off this because of the CMSIS rallying and the ARM standards and it’s growth. And, the IoT revolution is really just beginning, and I want on the train, and I’m digging my own tunnel with these research shovels.
This is certainly a new career path for me, but as I am already “dug in” to, and known, in the software industry I am currently employed in, I will continue that for a few more years. But, as I get more and more skilled at producing hit ARM apps with CMSIS, C/C, and assembly, and as I refine my architecture ideas (both HW+SW), I’ll be closer to being able to switch my day-to-day doings over to full time by about 2020, I believe.// G O O D M I L E S T O N ESo, that’s what I’m thinking for that It was a huge milestone to get the Kinetis rolling with some of my former code written for the PIC24. I ported some stuff over and after a few nights, I finally got it rolling! It was really nice to see it running as expected. Many things are different – interrupts, 32-bit vs 16-bit, registers, SysTick, NVIC, etc., so being able to rely on this setup as my “go-to” platform gives me a lot of leeway to design stuff from now on.
It’s huge because it finally allows me to have a string of product design and code architecture sessions over the next months that won’t be interrupted by changing platforms or technical difficulties.Also, I’m using the Segger J-Link now with a bare, exposed, Kinetis K22 ARM LQFP 64 chip that I soldered to a little plain break-out board (with filter caps and custom programming header and stuff). I’m going direct to bare chip without a dev kit, which was what one of my requirements were all along to getting this train started. I wanna design the board, power, regulation, routing, logic levels, inverters, amplification, communication, interfacing, headers, electro-mechanicals, etc.
– the entire system. Cuz, I think that stuff is fun, too. More work, but I wouldn’t wanna give up that phase. And, so I’m saying, that now that I’ve got that innovation complete with something stable in the lab, I feel like I have a platform to jump off of to design an endless amount of other applications, unrestrained. But, boy did it take a few months of setup time and sifting through the cruft of what would work best for me and my setup. Now, all good.// T H E F U T U R EI think, first, I’ll get the previous project I wrote about last month all set up with this new “drive train” and then move on back to the FFT application I developed last year, perhaps with my DisplayTech color TFT with cap touch. Maybe a pinch zoom for FFT window resolution?
Maybe a custom, level-switchable analog front end? Maybe build a touch, animated GUI lib to apply to all my new designs. Maybe a digital version of my old “Audio Tool” with selectable synthesis? I’m ready to get things going and move on though. Seems like I just got to the point to where I can finally get to the product design phase. Recently, I have been making a light animation controller.
The prototype is on a breadboard and combined with a separate little 2 x 3 RGB LED matrix module I built last month. I have the system running on 3.3v with a few test animations programmed in C on a 16-bit Pic24.I’m excited about this project and I’m continually making it better – both in features and in the kinds of animations I’m writing. It’s pretty wonderful to see it all come together!I still need to mount the pieces together and stain them, but it’s taking shape.
I’m also going to carve the pieces with some more detail and perhaps put in some metal inlays – I’m still messin’ with it. In the end, it’ll all be one piece, but I just have it sitting on the BB for the time being, to get a bearing.Got some stills here:I cut and sanded some wood last night and put a cut sheet of coated mylar underneath to let the colors diffuse and shine through a bit. I thought of this design while falling asleep a few nights ago and got back up to draw it out on the wood. So, it was nice to see it come to life.Mainly, my workstation has been my pool table (lol), and it’s a pretty awesome little surface. I clean it off and play pool in between projects, but yeah, it’s central and in the main room and it’s a great place to work. Also, I have some of my other in-progress projects in the background there that I brought out to be inspired by 🙂 This captures the scene for the end of 2015, for me to look back onThe pins talk to multiplexer-inverter chip pairs that gives each anode and cathode of the matrix a 3-bit address that I take advantage of when I control the sequence in code.
I like this way of doing things – the complexity has been offloaded to the hardware. I handle the current load by never having two or more LEDs on at the same time – it’s just very fast switching that makes it look “on”. I have a rotary encoder switching the animations, properly debounced, feels great, and integrated into the user event loop to provide more features.As I go along this month, I’ll be closer to deciding on an arrangement for a reproducible product. I’m currently investigating putting in an OLED or Chip-on-Glass display to show the current animation and battery state, etc.
Some smaller products won’t have this, but I want other, larger ones, to have that visual piece in there.All-in-all, I have been busy with software engineering at my day job, but when I have the time, I like to work most on this project – it’s an offshoot, or simplification, of the honeycomb light I worked on earlier this year.I have been doing a little painting lately using a “crackle” technique, and I have been drawing and carving more human faces, too – gettin’ better with both. One day, I’ll integrate all of them into my professional projects as well. The practice in those other disciplines, though, also helps me come up with designs like this to do this project:And, the next step on this Hex Light project is to design the SMD boards and get those etched and tested. Once they work and I have the kinks worked out, I’ll send off for some properly solder-masked, dark green and gold boards (fancy), and drop my logo on it for a real nice-looking internal product. And, yeah, I’m going to make the board a hex shape, too. 🙂 Until next time.
It’s interesting that these two words in the title show up together like this. I didn’t plan it 🙂 I have some things to say about the PIC24 chip, but first, the truck.Well, it turns out that I locked my keys in my truck and had to “pick” the lock last night. And, I even got a pic of it ( pun intended ). But, seriously The last few times I have locked my keys in a vehicle (over 10 years or so), I have #1) always called a locksmith to do it, and #2) the damn keys are in the same freaking place!
– I tend to leave them on the front driver seat. I guess I throw ’em there as I’m hauling out supplies from the back and the passenger seat. I’m gathering things and I press the auto-lock thing on the door, shut the door and whoops!
It’s too late.I remember, in Culver City, California, a long time ago, I did the same thing. This time at a 7-11 store parking lot right next to a dry cleaning shop. I figured that would be a good place to borrow a coat hanger, so I went in and got one.
I tried for about 30 minutes and had help from a few other dudes, and we laughed and tried. But, we couldn’t get it that time. I called the locksmith from the 7-11 pay phone (my phone was inside ugh).But, anyway this time, I was home. And, instead of calling out for assistance, I just figured I’d try to see if I could hack that shit up. So, I got a screwdriver and a big crescent wrench, wedged them in between the door and the frame with force (I pierced some weather stripping, but oh well). I got a coat hanger from my closet, modified it, got a light, and spent about 20 minutes getting it placed over the auto-lock button. I locked it a few times.
Nope not what I wanted. But, soon enough, I pressed the end of the coat hanger hard enough on the unlock button to pop the lock and open the door and get my keys sitting right there on the seat. Felt good.And now for the PIC talk So, I just heard that Microchip released a cross-platform version of their MPLAB IDE that goes with PICkit 3, and well I’m interested. And, while I usually have been going barebones with my toolchain (like with my ARM and AVR chains from the command line using makefiles), it brought attention back to Microchip as I was looking through the datasheet for the PIC24FJ256DA206. The -206 postfix means more data memory (96K yess!).
Microchip Xc16 Download
And, there’s so much more that I did not know about. I officially have this on my watch list.I am primarily a Mac OS X user and I like to program code from that. All of my dev tools and habits and quick keys and Unix commands are here. It’s just how it evolved and that’s my preference now. And, well, chip manufacturers don’t always make tools for their chip programming/debugging that are that friendly towards Mac users. Might be a cost thing. Might be a culture thing.
I don’t know. It was one thing lacking from both Atmel and Texas Instruments when I used their products in the past. But, it looks like I might be able to use Microchip’s tools (or guts, if I investigate how to build a barebones toolchain for it from the Terminal). Their documentation is great, as well. I’d like to look into this.Their 16-bit compiler is a port of GCC and they’ve gone forward with their support of “Apple OS X” (it says above) in their compiler and toolchain, up the stream, as well.
I’m really loving this. I might be turning this corner. And, since I got a really good impression of this chip for my projects, before I even investigated the IDE, I’m really willing to see what can be done, here.
It’s looking promising.Now that the first of the holidays is over and I’m feeling better from my cold, I can get back in to finishing up my FFT demo, programming the drivers for those other displays, and starting those LED matrix snakes for my paintings. I have that 16-bit PIC24 on my radar, right now and with projects waiting. However, first, I have to finish up the site and launch it. It’s going well so far.