Can't get ISIS/Proteus VSM to work with PBP3 and MPLABX

[chicowoodhill]

Hi - I see some folks here use PBP, MPLAB and Proteus VSM together. I do too, and it's a very powerful development system. I love being able to emulate PBP on my hardware design with all the tools available within MPLAB.

I recently started playing with MPLABX 1.3. I can get all my C source projects to compile and work with Proteus VSM, but for some reason my PBP 3.0 projects compile within MPLABX but refuse to simulate in Proteus.

What happens is that the PBP program compiles, then MPLABX opens ISIS/Proteus, then won't connect. Here's the VSM Viewer output:

Connecting
Starting ISIS...
null
Disconnected

Has anyone here gotten PBP3, MPLABX and Proteus VSM to play together? Any tips? I know this is probably an issue for the MPLABX folks but most on that forum don't have both PBP3 and Proteus set up and running.

Thanks in advance....

[Darrel Taylor]

Proteus does not work with MPLAB-X yet.

You'll need to run Proteus by itself, or use MPLAB 8.

It's my understanding that it will work with MPLAB-X once Proteus 8 is released.

[chicowoodhill]

Proteus does not work with MPLAB-X yet.

You'll need to run Proteus by itself, or use MPLAB 8.

It's my understanding that it will work with MPLAB-X once Proteus 8 is released.

Do you mean PBP3 does not work with MPLABX+Proteus yet?

I'm happily using Proteus 7.10 with MPLABX C source. I can compile with XC, HiTech and SourceBoost compilers within MPLABX, and MPLABX fires up Proteus and simulates just fine. It's only with PBP that I can't simulate.

[chicowoodhill]

Do you mean PBP3 does not work with MPLABX+Proteus yet?

I'm happily using Proteus 7.10 with MPLABX C source. I can compile with XC, HiTech and SourceBoost compilers within MPLABX, and MPLABX fires up Proteus and simulates just fine. It's only with PBP that I can't simulate.

I guess I take that back somewhat. I find that some of my C projects do work with Proteus, others don't. And I find that some of them that DID work with Proteus STOP working at other times (like after I try to use a PBP project). I get the error message:

Connecting
INIT Error: Simulation Failed
Disconnected

So I guess the problem is not PBP specific, it's something to do with MPLABX and/or Proteus.

I'll keep hammering at it to try to find out what makes it work and/or break, and post any results. If anyone else has a clue about this, I'd love some help.

Later....

[Darrel Taylor]

I downloaded MPLAB-X 1.3 this afternoon, and had another go at Proteus.
It seems to be working better than 1.2 did.
It's still a bit flakey, but I was able to get a simulation running.

In your .dsn, try setting the Program File in the properties for the PIC chip to the .cof file.
The .cof file is in ... your MPLAB-X project \dist\default\debug
Then save the .dsn

Press the debug button in MPLAB-X.
Let me know if that runs.
I don't know if that's what got it to run or not because there were so many things I tried.
That's the last thing I remember changing.

[chicowoodhill]

Let me know if that runs.
I don't know if that's what got it to run or not because there were so many things I tried.
That's the last thing I remember changing.

Nope, didn't work. Proteus starts up, loads the correct design file, then times out trying to connect to it.

The strange thing is that I have several projects (non-PBP) that work fine with MPLABX and Proteus, but several that don't. I haven't yet figured out what the difference is between the projects that work and those that don't. Like you, I keep trying different things. I think that at some point we'll find what is preventing MPLABX from communicating with Proteus. I'm surprised such info hasn't yet appeared online.

But I'm glad to hear you got a PBP project to work with MPLABX and Proteus, so that would indicate it's not a PBP issue...although perhaps there's a PBP-Proteus driver that needs updating. If I make progress, I'll post here. I think MPLABX has enough feature updates that it'll be worth getting fully operational.

[chicowoodhill]

Quick update:

I was able to get a different PBP project to work correctly with PBP3, MPLABX and Proteus. But I still have some projects (both PBP3 and C) that refuse to connect to Proteus after MPLABX brings it up. So there's got to be something different in the settings or configuration in Proteus or MPABX between the working and non-working projects. I'll keep hammering at it.....

[chicowoodhill]

In your .dsn, try setting the Program File in the properties for the PIC chip to the .cof file.
The .cof file is in ... your MPLAB-X project \dist\default\debug
Then save the .dsn

That didn't work for me. In fact, I got it to work by blanking out the file property of the processor in the .dsn file. It seems that MPLABX instructs Proteus which file to use when simulating. But I haven't yet found out why some projects work while others don't...

[Darrel Taylor]

I got 3 new projects to work today.
After creating the project, setting all required options and seeing that it either would not compile or would not simulate ... in all three cases closing MPLAB-X and reopening fixed the problem and each project then compiled and simulated.

Fortunately, I can now un-install MPLAB-X.

[chicowoodhill]

I got 3 new projects to work today.
After creating the project, setting all required options and seeing that it either would not compile or would not simulate ... in all three cases closing MPLAB-X and reopening fixed the problem and each project then compiled and simulated.

Fortunately, I can now un-install MPLAB-X.

Yeah, what a relief!

I don't think it's ready for prime time yet, either. Maybe it never will be. Too bad, because NetBeans has some nice features. But it's definitely a struggle to work with at this point. And it's been out for a while now.

I have a number of projects that just won't function with Proteus yet. So the challenge is to see how much I can take before the frustration makes me do the uninstall too. We'll see.

[chicowoodhill]

Darrell, I'm sorry you've uninstalled MPLABX because I'm still struggling with it and have nowhere else to turn!

I know I should give up but I'm stubborn.

Anyway, I found that one of my projects with a 16F886 just wouldn't connect and simulate in Proteus. But it WILL connect and simulate if I change the chip to a 16F876A (of course, to do so I change the chip in Proteus, the MPLABX project settings, and the necessary minor code changes in the PBP source file). Both versions of the project work fine in MPLAB 8.x, but in MPLABX I just won't get the 886 project to connect to Proteus and simulate. Interestingly, if I load the resultant .hex file directly into the Proteus processor properties, it simulates from within Proteus, so PBP is correctly compiling...but MPLABX can't connect to or control Proteus.

Now why would the processor change have that effect?

[mackrackit]

I am curious.

If the project works using MPLAB 8.x, why are you messing with MPLABX ?

[chicowoodhill]

If the project works using MPLAB 8.x, why are you messing with MPLABX ?

Good question. I'm starting to wonder. There are a lot of features in MPLABX that, after using it for a while, show MPLAB's age. The MPLABX editor is much better, version management is better, project handling (renaming, copying, moving, archiving) is better, workspaces are gone (yay!) in favor of projects, you can have multiple projects open at once (even using different compilers), etc. Plus Microchip won't be maintaining MPLAB any more.

But MPLABX is still pretty ragged. For all its promise, it's not ready for prime time yet. So to answer your question, I guess I'm trying to take it as far as I can to see if it's usable for me. I'm trying to get past issues such as the one in this post and then decide. Plus, if someone doesn't bring up these issues for examination, they might not be addressed by the MPLABX development team. The sooner the problem can be demonstrated in a repeatable manner, with as many clues as possible, the more likely the next version of MPLABX will have addressed them (that's assuming this particular issue is the fault of MPLABX, not Proteus or PBP).

[mackrackit]

Plus Microchip won't be maintaining MPLAB any more.

I have not heard that. So you have heard that 8.86 is the last version? Darn, I hate NetBeans.

[chicowoodhill]

I have not heard that. So you have heard that 8.86 is the last version? Darn, I hate NetBeans.

So they say. But there's widespread dislike of MPLABX (mostly because of its instability) so if they're smart they'll at least keep publicly supporting MPLAB for those whose business depends on it.

I can live with NetBeans if the IDE is stable. At the moment it's a real pain to use.