Use Fritzing With PIC PK2 Download And Cc5x C Compiler - GitHub

Use Fritzing with PIC PK2 download and Cc5x C compiler

The Fritzing application is an Electronic Design Automation software, suited for the needs of makers and hobbyists.

When used to document microcontroller prototypes and to share them with others, both the hardware and the source code has to be shared - as it will often be needed to reproduce the hardware with some differences, and then this has to be accounted for in the code.

For many decades the PIC midrange family of microcontrollers has been popular with both industrial developers and hobbyists due to their low cost, wide availability, large user base, and extensive collection of application notes.

Most PIC type ever sold by Microchip is still available today!

Hobbyists has been using a varity of different tools when developing code for PIC-midrange processors. This code is then uploaded directly to the "PIC chip" with a "pic-programmer", and there exists many types of pic programmers.

What's needed for programming PIC-midrange processors?

This Fritzing-PK2-Cc5x toolchain is ment to be used for sharing PIC midrange projects (perhaps as a "common denominator" for the many tool combinations that exists). This toolchain will be easy for everyone to setup, and it will not occupy much space on a hard drive (or on a USB stick). It could easily coexist with any other tool also used.

A PICKit2 clone "pic-programmer" will also be needed ( like the icp01 ), but it does not need to be expensive.

(A Windows user, could make extra use of this programmer in other electronic projects, as a USB-serial communication tool, or as a logic tool).

PIC midrange processors are often programmed directly in assembler code, due to processor architectural shortcomings (no longer the case with newer improved PIC architectures).

The CC5X compiler (free edition) is a C compiler for PIC midrange processors that produce efficient code without the need to use assembly language (at the cost of not exact following the ANSII C standard).

Allmost every existing PIC midrange project should be possible to express as Cc5x code.

The paid versions of the compiler will then be able to produce extremly efficient code for this older PICmicro architecture, if that's what's needed.

Fritzing-PK2-Cc5x Toolchain

Toolchain environment

The toolchain for programming and downloading code to midrange PIC-processors consists of a C-compiler and a PK2-downloader. These programs must be downloaded from external sources.

A batfile pk2cc5x.bat will execute the programs CC5X.EXE and pk2cmd.exe in sequence.

Cc5x Compiler

Visit Cc5x homepage

Download page http://www.bknd.com/cc5x/downl-stud.shml

Download cc5xfree.zip and unzip all (300) files to folder Cc5x.

(If you do this be sure that you agree with the terms of use)

The executable file is CC5X.EXE.

PK2Cmd folder

Download page http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/pk2cmdv1-20.zip

Download pk2cmdv1-20.zip and unzip all (4) files to this folder. The executable file is pk2cmd.exe.

Toolchain setup in Fritzing

In Fritzing you have to Browse to the toolchain folder. In Edit Menu choose Preferences. In preferences choose Code View tab and Browse to the location of the toolchain. Select the file pk2cc5x.bat. Click on OK.

Work folder optional

This folder is optional and can be used for your sourcefiles. Or you store them somewhere else.

Sharing code with Fritzing

Example sketch with PIC 16F690 pic_example.fzz. The example C-code hello_blink.c.

When sharing code by exporting and importing sketches (*.fzz files) with other Fritzing users, the code found under the "code tab" will only be stored inside Fritzing, all previous bindings to a Platform/toolchain may have been lost.

Save the imported Source Code to your Platform/Tool chain

Create an empty text file, in your preferred folder for source files, and copy the "content" from the Fritzing "code tab" to it. Use the same filename as found in the tab, and use the file extension .c.

Choose Import Code ... in the Code menu and browse to the just created source file. Click on Open. The source file will be imported to a new "code tab" in the Code View window.

To avoid missunderstandings, you can now close the orginal tab. (Select the tab, and in the Code menu choose Close Tab and then check Also delete the file, as this orginal tab will not need to be used any moore).

You will now be able to use Upload in the Code View with midrange PIC processors.

printf-debugging

If you have an USB-to-Serial converter you can use the Fritzing Serial Monitor to display texts and variable values from different locations in the program code with a printf() function. This will be a useful debugging tool.

(If you are a Windows user, you may prefer to use the UART Tool inside the PICKit2 Windows program directly without the need of an external serial converter).

PICKit2 Windows program Download PICkit 2 V2.61 Install with .NET Framework (30 Mb)

USB-to-Serial-5V converter FTDI TTL-232R-5V

(Workaround if Fritzing lacks support for PK2CC5X toolchain)

Example sketch with PIC 16F690 wrapped as Arduino pic_example_ino.fzz

Example C-code wrapped as Arduino hello_blink\hello_blink.ino

If the Fritzing version does not support this PK2CC5X toolchain, as a workaround the C-code could be "wrapped" as Arduino code (Arduino is actually using C++ code, which C is a subset of).

Change the Platform Support for Arduino by browsing to the batfile picino.bat in the toolchain folder. The PIC C-sourcefile now has to be stored as a <name>.ino file inside a folder named <name>. This is a neccessary Arduino requirement!

The batfile picino.bat will copy the sourcefile and change the extension to *.c and then run the tool chain. The Arduino selections made in Fritzing (Platform and Board) will be ignored, and the PIC-processor type will be hardcoded to PIC16F690 inside the batfile.

NOTE! This is just a workaround. The Arduino platform can not by itself upload to PIC processors, and the PK2CC5X toolchain can not upload to Arduino boards.

Don't forget to change back the Platform Support to your Arduino location, when you want to use Arduino.

Usage on Linux

Cc5x compiler

To run the Cc5x compiler you need wine. All major linux distributions includes wine so install it using the package manager. On ubuntu/debian:

sudo apt-get install wine

Now download and unpack the Cc5x compiler to the Cc5x directory as described in the Windows instructions or from the command line issue the following commands:

cd Cc5x wget http://www.bknd.com/cc5xfree.zip unzip cc5xfree.zip

(If you do this be sure that you agree with the terms of use)

PK2Cmd

To use with Linux download PK2Cmd for linux from Microchip into the PK2Cmd folder and unpack it into it. On the command line this equals:

cd PK2Cmd wget http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/pk2cmdv1-20Linux2-6.tar.gz tar zxf pk2cmdv1-20Linux2-6.tar.gz

Toolchain setup with Linux

In settings (see Windows instructions) use pk2cc5x.sh instead of pk2cc5x.bat.