Goodbye

[queenidog]

You and I are on the same wavelength. I remember your name from previous posts I made when I was a PIC user.
I think MikroElektronika would be the way to go. They have the best development system ever made (I had one), with support for their Basic, C++, etc. They also have "modules" though not as extensive as Arduino chaps. I didn't like the Mikro because the Basic was too structured, yet I have to adhere to that structure with my Arduino C++ !! Who knew? Despite that, Arduino is still the better "system" for quick development. I too added LCDs to my repertoire and use the same codes in most of my software for troubleshooting. Also, since even the lowly UNO has dedicated lines for I2C (clock and data), I have now migrated to I2C capable LCDs. Only 4 wires (inc power and ground) required to the LCD now instead of that ribbon cable mess we are used to.

[khoog]

We use Arduino as a tool to quickly check out sensors and other components. It's great for making blinky lights, but it's terrible for learning embedded systems programming. All you're doing is running programs and libraries that someone else wrote, no one knows how they work, and it's almost impossible to track down all the nested routines and libraries that are called for even the simplest tasks.

We don't use PB very much anymore, but we invested in PB3 to help support the product and stay up to date. When we found that none of our existing programs would compile with it (getting error messages that said "unspecified error" didn't help) we decided it wasn't worth spending the time to get it all running. Our PIC development is now all done in C, and we dropped back to 6.1 for the quick test routines.

[Art]

Hmm.. how do you suppose any commercial product could have ever competed with free development environments and compilers?
From my point of view it was about time to quit developing PBP about the time Arduino became a thing,
not that I ever have, or ever will use one, so long as proper C platforms are also free.

I don’t think anyone is surprised. New generation controllers started arriving long ago, but without any support.
After ten years, and having to learn a new language anyway, you might as well adopt a real IDE & compiler for whatever mcu of choice.

PBP was never going to become an Arduino like platform because it’s an expensive commercial product,
but I wouldn’t even compare the two for what they are (or were) in their time.
The Arduino platform hides what you don’t need to know (which is actually what you do need to know), and shields serve to shield people from learning any electronics,
At the end of the day, many so called hobbyists get to plug one board into another, and get to say they made something.
That’s why Arduino represents the dilution of two hobbies to me.

The worst thing about PBP is the manual, which tells you how not to use it, and for me, the best thing was a good avenue to learning assembler,
for which, the last few remaining popular low resource controllers, are probably going to be the last reason to ever do so.

[Alberto]

Well boy, let me jump into this thread with my experience. As a pure hobbist, I moved to raspberry 3
And I have forgotten pbp3 and pics. Don't know why arduino never attracted me.
With raspberry and linux I had to learn python language, but now I am happy to have done it! The few project I have put together with this new hardware, are beyond anything I could ever dream last year using pics and pbp3. So, now and then I pop into the forum to see if something new happens but sadly I see less and less activity all the time. What a pity!

Alberto

[Ioannis]

Alberto,

not all tools are the solution to every problem. If you want just to write a few lines of code and run the code then OK. But you have a full featured computer to blink a led or do some other simple tasks.

Maybe I am seeing this from pure economic-technical aspect, but if one wants to do something in big scale, sure cannot rely on such platforms.

As already said, all these are very good to learn to walk. Then, if you feel ready, you have to run to compete others and these platforms (arduino, raspberry etc) are not the right shoes for it.

Ioannis

[mpgmike]

My approach to moving upward & onward is to learn to use XC8 and MPLAB X. Bought a couple books and have been devoting just a few hours per week learning. The advantage I see is access to all of the MPLAB X tools (like Microchip Code Configurator; MCC for short), simulator, debug, and the various code libraries that abound. Furthermore, the Proteus Studio hasn't kept up with PBP3 and no longer works very well. However, it is fully compatible with XC8.

We are blessed by having so many wonderful options available. Imagine attempting any of the projects you've done in the past 2 years using the tools available in 1995 (UV light to erase the PIC, Assembly programming, multiple pieces of software & hardware to do what is bundled into just one of each now...). I encourage anybody interested in trying something new to have fun. It may not work out, but I bet you learn a whole lot; principles that would help you better with PBP3, and/or whatever you decide to try next. Most of all, enjoy yourself. Few of us use these tools professionally, so it probably isn't that important. Spend some time with whatever you decide to try. You won't "get it" in a day or three. There will be frustrations. And remember, no single platform will be all things to all folks.

[Scampy]

Regarding the comments about having a full featured single board computer to blink LEDs, but that I'm sorry to say is what people want these days. The days where programming a PIC and then using strip board to build a project with supporting timing xtal and associate discrete components has sadly passed. I'm talking about the hobbyist hear, where often than not all they want to do is plug in board X to board Y and load up a sample script and then let it do its thing. For me the Arduino language was very alien after BASIC but I picked it up by cutting and pasting bits of sample code for each device (RTC, TFT, DHT11 etc) to make up the full code for my project, and learnt by debugging the code. It was quick (compared to attempting the same - if at all possible - with PBP) and cheap. But then where plug in boards are concered, MikroElectronika did that decades ago with their EasyXXX development boards, perfecting it with the latest versions where the small modules plug directly into the development board.

The problem is as others have said, PBP has been left behind. I visit this forum daily and sometimes it's weeks between posts in the PBP section. 5,6,8 years back it was sometimes hard to keep up with the posts on all the topics there was that may members contributing. Someone said that what do people expect, PBP is a commercial product and can't compete with an open source platform such as the Arduino, but then again MikroElectronika is also a commercially based product, but they appear to have kept their hardware and software up to date and cater for modern devices as the hardware came out (TFT's for example where simple include files do the basics, or you can use a GUI interface tool to produce the code). I don't know how MikroElectronica compare to MelLabs in terms of size, (Is it just Lester or is/was there a team behind it), but they seem to be the goto platform for the hobbyist who still wants to program in BASIC.


It is a shame really.... but PBP ha shad its day IMO

[keithdoxey]

My approach to moving upward & onward is to learn to use XC8 and MPLAB X. Bought a couple books and have been devoting just a few hours per week learning.

Could I ask what books you bought. I bought a couple of books about C but they dont seem particularly suited to Microcontroller particularly with regard to libraries and hardware.

Thanks

Keith

[lester]

I do not think waybackmachine can trawl and store the forum