A header wizard

[cncmachineguy]

well Dave,

as it appears I have you at least intrested, do you have any ideas on how to use the wizard? I mean as a plugin, stand alone ....

[mackrackit]

I was thinking something along the lines of SQL with a web interface (python of course).

To add data a form page would be used, so we will need to figure out what all this thing should do so a standard form can be used. Might have to have a couple standard forms, 16Fs and 18Fs.

Then a form for to set the parameters for the header.

Just a bit of planning to do.

Anyone else with ideas?

[mackrackit]

Maybe fuse configuration would be a good place to start?

[Ioannis]

And after we set up all the necessary little things on the form, Microchip(c) wll make this tiny change and screws everything

OK, I am joking, but the Form/SQL may have to be prepared for such a case.

Fuse settings is a good starting point as there is a lot of confussion on this. Every time I change a chip I have to scan the fuse settings which arfe not very obvious sometimes.

Ioannis

[mackrackit]

And after we set up all the necessary little things on the form, Microchip(c) wll make this tiny change and screws everything

OK, I am joking, but the Form/SQL may have to be prepared for such a case.

Go from depreciated to inflated...
We may have to make a script for that.

Fuse settings is a good starting point as there is a lot of confussion on this. Every time I change a chip I have to scan the fuse settings which arfe not very obvious sometimes.

You too? My last big problem was a fuse mistake.
Give me a day or two and I will try to get something started.

[Ioannis]

What a coincidence Dave, yeah me too. Embarrased to confess it...

Ioannis

[cncmachineguy]

If by fuse bits, you guys mean the config bit, I'm not too embarrassed to confess. I have spent hours trying to debug code that doesnt work anymore. Just to realize I didn't set the clk in the settings part of mplab.

So That is a big part of what I hope this will resolve.

I think a database approach is great! To be clear, I won't be any help in its development besides being a tester. I have plenty of experience with lotus notes, but thats about it. I will learn if anyone wants to point me in the direction of the starting point for python. But my startup time may well exceed the time it takes for you pro's to be done.

So I will take a stab at how I see the "work flow" of writing a new PBP program:

click the wizard icon to start the wizard
upon it opening, choose an existing device,create new device, or check for updated db
existing device:
page 1 has config stuff like clk, wdt, etc
next page could be hardware stuff like mccp,a/d,esuart,etc
next page port assignment and I/O choices. also IOC and WPU on this page
next pages, everything else I can't think of right now.
finally after a zillion clicks, hit "print" or "Done" button and a text file is created to load into mcs

check for updates:
not much to say here, wizard will check for updated database

create new device:
form will follow the same format as using an existing device, except all options will be available. (does this make sense?)
when done, option to upload to the master database


A note about new device addition to the database. I feel like a new device should have some sort of flag with it indicating it is new and possibly not complete. This flag should ride with it until such time as it is blessed by some (ideas here?) verification method. This is just to try and prevent any badly built entries from corrupting the database.
The method could be 5 unique users "appove" it. This would get reported back to the master copy of the database.

My vote is to be able to have a local copy of the database so we are not dependant on web access to use the wizard.