Proton PICBASIC vs MeLabs PICBASIC

[tenaja]

For those who don't know, Swordfish was written by the same guy who wrote MicroCode Studio (PBP IDE) and also the IDE for Proton.

[dhouston]

mikroBasic for PIC is another procedural basic. It's very advanced in some areas (e.g. handling interrupts), less so in others. It has a ton of libraries although they tend to be 18F oriented. It's worth investigating if you're trying to decide on a PIC development language. It costs less than PBP and you don't need a license for apps that are smaller than 2K.

[bcd]

I have a copy of MikroBasic, but find it frustrating that it does not have equivalents to SerIn2 command with time-outs if there is no data. So for any serial you need to write an interrupt routine otherwise the serial receive is a blocking command...

But on the other hand it does support GLCD, Ethernet parts and CF or SD Cards out of the box.

bill

[Luciano]

I have a copy of MikroBasic, but find it frustrating that it does
not have equivalents to SerIn2 command with time-outs if there is no data. So for
any serial you need to write an interrupt routine otherwise the serial receive is
a blocking command...

Hi Bill,

I have never used the MikroBasic compiler but after a quick
look at the PDF manual I have a solution for your software UART
timeout problem.

Best regards,

Luciano


From page 257 of MikroBasic for Pic.
(This is the original sample code).

' Here's a loop which holds until data is received:

error = 1

do
  data = Soft_Uart_Read(error)
loop until error = 0

Here is a version with timeout using BREAK to exit the Do loop:

' Here's a loop which holds until data is received
' or the timeout value has reached 10000. 

Dim MyTimeOutCounter as longint
Dim MyError as byte
Dim MyData as byte
....
....

MyError = 1
MyTimeOutCounter = 0

Do

  MyData = Soft_Uart_Read(MyError)
  
  MyTimeOutCounter = MyTimeOutCounter + 1 ' increment our timeout counter
  
  If MyTimeOutCounter = 10000 Then ' you will have to adjust this value
     Break  'Exit the Do Loop
  End if

Loop until MyError = 0

If MyError = 0 Then ' Optional IF 
  ' Serial transfer was successful
Else
  ' Timeout occured
Endif

[dhouston]

I have a copy of MikroBasic, but find it frustrating that it does not have equivalents to SerIn2 command with time-outs if there is no data. So for any serial you need to write an interrupt routine otherwise the serial receive is a blocking command...

But writing an interrupt routine is a piece of cake and examples are easy to find - I think they are even included.

[tenaja]

I don't use Mikrobasic, but here is an easy way to do it without interrupts...just translate the code to proper syntax. (And set the symbols of cTxReg etc. to the appropriate values. Leading characters are: c=constant, b=byte.)

bDelayTime = 0
CheckForData:
if cTxReg = cDataWaiting then 'check hardware Tx register for incoming data.
serin = bSerialDataIn 'get data...
goto SerialDataReceived
else 'no data waiting...
pause 1 'wait 1ms...change to match your baud rate, since some speed may overwrite
bDelayTime = bDelayTime + 1
if bDelayTime = cMaxWaitTime then
goto NoSerialDataReceived
endif
goto CheckForData
endif

[tenaja]

For those wanting to do it with interrupts, do a quick search for "buffer" on the Proton forum. ( http://www.picbasic.org/forum/ ) Les, the PDS author, wrote a subroutine for 18F's to buffer all incoming serial data. It should be possible (given enough ingenuity) to convert it to PBP or Mikrobasic.

[dhouston]

For those wanting to do it with interrupts, download the Soft Uart for P12 by Warren Schroeder project from http://www.mikroe.com/en/projects/

It's an excellent tutorial as well as an interrupt driven full-duplex software UART. The code is quite simple and easy to follow.

[Luciano]

I don't use Mikrobasic, but here is an easy way to do it without interrupts...just translate the code to proper syntax. (And set the symbols of cTxReg etc. to the appropriate values. Leading characters are: c=constant, b=byte.)

bDelayTime = 0
CheckForData:
if cTxReg = cDataWaiting then 'check hardware Tx register for incoming data.
serin = bSerialDataIn 'get data...
goto SerialDataReceived
else 'no data waiting...
pause 1 'wait 1ms...change to match your baud rate, since some speed may overwrite
bDelayTime = bDelayTime + 1
if bDelayTime = cMaxWaitTime then
goto NoSerialDataReceived
endif
goto CheckForData
endif

Hi,

Your code does not work with software UARTs.

Software UART routines use bit-banging techniques and can use almost any I/O pin
of the microcontroller. Software UARTs have big limitations and if the microcontroller has
hardware UARTs just use them!

Best regards,

Luciano

[tenaja]

Your code does not work with software UARTs.

This is absolutely true.