flashforth-devel

Re: [Flashforth-devel] PIC18F66K22

[craig b. <dab...@ya...>]

I've been playing with FlashForth for a while and using it for device implamentation for a couple years.  I enjoy the interactivity that assembler doesn't have by itself.  I haven't used the high pin-count chips either (they don't have dip packages that fit my prototyping boards), but I've been very happy with the 26k22 and 46k22 performance.  Getting them up under FF-50 is a lot easier than FF-3.8 was, the config files are much more consolidated now.  I still recommend explicitly defining all the chip config bits, especially for the muxed pins.  Grep through the source for peripheral setups and feature-pin assignments.  Start simple disabling extensions you don't need (like multitasking and program interrupts) and figure these more obscure capabilities out as you need them.  The docs available actually have enough info, but they aren't quite a walk-through guide yet.

If you have a history with FORTH, you know how close to the hardware it runs...  Mike's implamentation is impressivly clean.

The second UART is a small wonder in its own right.  I recommend keeping the console on UART1 so you can concentrate the processor's attention on UART2.  My PC couldn't deal with anything above 460800 baud but a half-dozen 26K22-s and a BeagleBone White could all converse at 921600.  Not shabby at all and the embedded assembler makes it fairly easy to implament.  The 9-bit mode helped a lot.

Have at it!  Good luck, and have fun!

craig bair

OBTW: Banging the SPI config of the MSSP is impressive for an 8-bit processor (grin).  And it can even bit-bang at almost 1 M-bit...

Re: [Flashforth-devel] PIC18F66K22

[<zd...@al...>]

Finally I had time to start from the scratch, check everything once more 
and now I have "FF 18F66k22 must do list":

project>add files to project> p18f66k22.cfg

-p18f-main.cfg
constant clock=d'64000000'  ; Hz

-p18f66k22.cfg
         constant flash_write_inner_loop = d'64'
#define PLL ENABLE	         ; ENABLE or DISABLE

-ff-pic18.asm
3x replace
PIR2, EEIF, A -> PIR6, EEIF, A


         clrf    PIE1, A         ; Disable all peripheral interrupts
         clrf    PIE2, A

Should we clean the new additional PIE registers? I guess so.
clrf PIE3-PIE6.

@Peter:
Thanks for locating the missing 'forget' command.

@Mikael:
Right, clock frequency has to be specified in p18fmain.cfg but it wasn't 
enough to get correct baud rate as PLL was disabled in p18f66k22.cfg. I 
changed a few things simultaneously so I got confused when it finally 
started working.
I'll send you updated register definitions for 65K22 66K22 85K22 86K22 
in mail as pic18f_regs.txt is not really usefull for me.

@Craig:Interactivity is the exact reason why I'm trying to turn to Forth 
again. Number of different sensors and modules that I have to put in 
function has increased recently and I have a serious bottleneck with 
drivers and testing.
If you (or anyone) need 64 pin in DIP, I can solder TQFP or QFN on 
adapter or just send you empty adapter if you prefer. Still have 5-6 
left unused from some previous project.
TBH I am not so much interested in xxK22 chips, but (pin compatible) 
xxK90 as my instruments need LCD driver. That's the reason why I'm 
asking for UART2 because UART1 shares pins with LCD. I'll try to patch 
this soon.

Thanks to everyone for your input,
Zdravko