Upgrating to PBP3.1

[NickMu]

Hi Team,

I am traveling and have sporadic access to internet.
Yesterday I replayed to Alain on post #5 but it seems that my reply was rejected somehow. This time could be me doing something wrong. I hate phone browsing.

Thank you Alain and Henrik for the important information. I will order my package this week and download all other suggested applications. I will also prepare a Win 10 laptop, make sure it is up to date hoping on a clean install.
I will get back with some questions when I have everything ready.
Just to be clear, on the long run I would prefer to have the latest releases to take advantage of all the new features but I was looking for a proven working combination, like the one suggested by Alain, just to make sure I get started and until I get familiar with the system.
My needs right now are still simple, but it is time to improve and get familiar with the latest.
Thank you for your support.

Nick

[NickMu]

OK.
I’ve already paid for my PBP3.1 and MCSPX-Full and got my activation keys.
I do not have yet a laptop ready for the installation but I will hopefully get one this week.
In mean time, I’m downloading all suggested applications so I have them handy when the time comes:

• PBP 3.1.
• MCSPX 5.0. Is this already included in PBP3.1 download?
• MPLAB_IDE_8_92 suggested by Alain.
• MPLABX-v2.35 suggested by Alain.
• MPLABX-v3.55 suggested by Henrik.
• MPLABX-v3.60 latest release available just in case.
• PICkit_3_Programmer_1_0_Setup_A. Not sure if needed yet and for what.
• PICkit3 Programmer Application v3.10. Not sure if needed and for what

Few questions now:

1. Do I need to download anything else?
2. What are my choices / combinations of installing a working package?
3. What are the advantages of one combination over another?
4. Is there a particular order in which the components should be installed?
5. Can one of these combinations run in Windows XP?

More questions might come as we go.

I will still be using my old setup (PBP 2.xx and the free version of MCS) until I will feel comfortable enough to fully migrate. That might take some time due to the limited time that I can allocate to this transition and my limited expertise.

As always thank you for your attention and support.

Nick

[HenrikOlsson]

Hi Nick,
I think perhaps you might be overthinking/overcomplicating this. Don't randomly install everyting you find. Install what you know you actually NEED.

For example , I personally wouldn't bother installing MPLAB 8.92 untill you find yourself in need of doing so. Using PBP2.6 MIGHT be a reason, I'm not sure. Assembling UMC bootloader files WILL be a reason for installing 8.92 but untill you know you need it don't bother.

I personally wouldn't bother installing MPLABX v2.35 either. Especially if you're NOT going to use MPLABX as your IDE (which I suspect you're not since you payed for MCSPX). And even that argument now SEEMS to be moot since PBP 3.1 comes with a new MPLABX plugin to setup the toolchain. I still haven't tried this though.

Having multiple versions installed certainly is possible but can get confusing if you're "not on top of it" when the compiler sends the program to the assembler from the "wrong" version of MPLAB and you have no idea why something no longer works or now seems to work differently than it did "last month".


So, here's what I'd do:

* Install MPLABX, 3.55 or 3.60.

* Install PBP. If it doesn't pop up automatically, find the Activation Manager and run it to activate.

* Install MCSPX. The install utility is (typically) in C:\Program Files (x86)\PBP3\Mecanique\mcsp-si.exe, run that and it will download the appropriate files, it'll ask you for your license key.

With MPLABX comes MPLAB IPE which is the new unified software for all of Microchips programming tools, including the PICKit3. That's really all you need in order to use your PICKit3. There's a command line tool which you can invoke from withing MicroCodeStudio and there's a stand alone GUI based application you can use if you prefer.

/Henrik.

[NickMu]

Hi Henrik,

I don’t know how to thank you. This is what I was looking for.
I’ve downloaded all listed applications only to make sure I have the right ones when someone confirms the best combination. I did not intend to install all of them. The older PBP is running on a different, older laptop and I keep it just in case I have an emergency before the new setup is ready.
Also, I wanted to make sure that I’m doing the install in the best recommended order and things will not get confused.
After reading your post I started seeing things much clearer (it doesn’t happen too often and it doesn’t last too long).
You are correct about my intent to use MCSPX and not MPLABX as my IDE so I will only be dealing with MPLABX 3.55 or 3.60. Add to that PBP3.1 and MCSPX and I should be good to go. Just waiting until my laptop will be ready.

Thank you again. I’ll be back with my report in a couple of days.

Nick

[HenrikOlsson]

I don’t know how to thank you.

Stick around, ask interesting questions and try to help others with answers to their questions when you can - that works for me :-)

/Henrik.

[richard]

just tried trial version in mplabx(3.55) while it does function its no improvement on previous offerings .

it still can't debug anything but byte vars [ and manually at that] . quite disappointing in my view

[Ioannis]

I can only congratulate you for reaching so far Richard. I never managed to write basic code and compile it in the, so complicated, MPLABX IDE. More to this, I face a pile of problems when trying to program chips with ICD3 or PICKIT3, through the MPLABX IPE environment.

Ioannis

[pedja089]

just tried trial version in mplabx(3.55) while it does function its no improvement on previous offerings .

it still can't debug anything but byte vars [ and manually at that] . quite disappointing in my view

There is way to way to debug bit, word and long variables...
Maybe this will help
http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=18520