Drivers

[sykic]

Hi
Just brought for evaluation
PIC32-PINGUINO and PIC32-PINGUINO-MX220
Love the quality now want to evaluate them

I am new to the world of pics

Don't want to use Pinguino IDE concept good (like Arduino) but not finished and buggy as far as I can see although they have done very well just seems to be a team of two! Also I want ability to set break points examine variables etc

To test and develop code I also have PICKIT 3 and intend to use MPLAB X IDE
Please tell me if this is a good idea ?

What I can't find are some simply drivers/examples for the boards in C
Olimex has some code for similar boards but uses Plib.h which I believe is no longer supported

Searched the Microchip site but could only find stuff that is complicated. They seem to be pushing Harmony which I think is too abstracted for me

Can anyone direct to some examples/drivers for to help speed me on my way
For example
Analog in; USB, UART , SD car, SPI, I2, RTC (for mx440)


Any advice gratefully received

Sykic

[JohnS]

There are many PIC32 samples scattered all over the net and a decent search engine should find you them.

As I see it you'll make life much harder for yourself if you go stand-alone the way you seem to be saying.

If you're happy with that then go ahead.  You can probably just use MPLAB & PICkit.  I don't think you'll need any drivers at all (but I don't use Windows which always makes its own and ever-changing rules).

There are quite good versions of Pinguino but you have to try one and if it fails for you then pick a different one.  They seem to work quite well under Linux.  Very easy to try and far faster, easier and better than anything Microchip offers.

(Both use gcc more or less under other names.)

If I wanted to go standalone / bare metal I'd perhaps use OpenOCD, mainly to get away from Microchip software tools.

If you've done bare metal on other CPUs then just grab the PIC32 datasheets, some samples off the net and go.

Harmony is probably the worst mess I've ever met on any platform over several decades.  You don't have to use it.

(You don't have to use plib either.)

John

[Lurch]

You should probably go back to Arduino. PICs are really nice, but like many other hardware platforms on the market, you have to invest a lot of time and effort to build up your own code libraries. Most examples from the suppliers and user-groups are faulty and broken from version to version - that's why you need to build your own. Documentation is sometimes also a problem - info is spread all over.

[sykic]

Thank you both

It is all going to need a bit of thought