After exactly a month looking and playing with OP, and reflecting on the subject of microcontroller low level flash programming, I finally got a "big picture" for the whole thing/matter and a nice high level overview of OP and its components...
There are MANY subjects on a MCU programmer like OP, and I can list, at least the following:
MCU Flash Programming
Intel HEX format
USB Communication Protocol (HID)
Programming Control Protocol
Assembly Language
Voltage Booster
Hard and Soft Tools for Microcontrollers (MCUs, Compilers, Utilities, etc...)
Basic Knowledge/Tools for Electronics (breadboard, transistors, etc)
PC Development Tools
Cross Platform, Linux/Windows Development
Each one, considered in insulation, is an interesting subject in itself, with its own level of complexity/challenges which demands its own quantity of time and attention...
The "whole" of an MCU Programmer, thus, is a subject that requires a certain level of commitment if one is to proper understand it, enough to make sense of all items/subjects implicated in the matter...
I am not an expert in MCU programming, but, so far, OP is the most complete project I have knowledge of, when we consider, code, code comments, docs, tutorial material, supported target devices, PC control/Firmware interaction software, etc...
Given the number of years and volume of supported devices, the whole of the project is quite big, and with size comes inevitably complexity...
I believe that moving forward now poses challenges that where not so important issues in the past...
For my use, and in my point of view, OP Project is a very nice programmer with a rich set of interesting elements, and I am now convinced that I will be using OP for some of the need I have to program PIC MCUs.
Also, I am convinced that I will be playing with the ideas that I have described in the previous posted "slides/presentation", perhaps going ahead and trying actual prototypes of some of the ideas exposed there, not just as an intellectual exercise, but rather, a quest for practical pieces of hardware and software for real usage in real issues...
Because I believe that small MCUs are, STILL, important devices, so I believe that a project like OP is an interesting hardware/software system...
Perhaps, somewhere around 5 ~ 7 years from now, things like RISC-V, (open)MIPS, small ARMs MCU and others alternatives, will "shift" the importance of small PICs/AVRs MCUs... but, for now, I believe that an open MCU programmer like the OP represent an nice alternative to some more expensive commercial alternatives (depending of course, of the category of the user)...
Nice job,
regards,
Valter
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After exactly a month looking and playing with OP, and reflecting on the subject of microcontroller low level flash programming, I finally got a "big picture" for the whole thing/matter and a nice high level overview of OP and its components...
There are MANY subjects on a MCU programmer like OP, and I can list, at least the following:
Each one, considered in insulation, is an interesting subject in itself, with its own level of complexity/challenges which demands its own quantity of time and attention...
The "whole" of an MCU Programmer, thus, is a subject that requires a certain level of commitment if one is to proper understand it, enough to make sense of all items/subjects implicated in the matter...
I am not an expert in MCU programming, but, so far, OP is the most complete project I have knowledge of, when we consider, code, code comments, docs, tutorial material, supported target devices, PC control/Firmware interaction software, etc...
Given the number of years and volume of supported devices, the whole of the project is quite big, and with size comes inevitably complexity...
I believe that moving forward now poses challenges that where not so important issues in the past...
For my use, and in my point of view, OP Project is a very nice programmer with a rich set of interesting elements, and I am now convinced that I will be using OP for some of the need I have to program PIC MCUs.
Also, I am convinced that I will be playing with the ideas that I have described in the previous posted "slides/presentation", perhaps going ahead and trying actual prototypes of some of the ideas exposed there, not just as an intellectual exercise, but rather, a quest for practical pieces of hardware and software for real usage in real issues...
Because I believe that small MCUs are, STILL, important devices, so I believe that a project like OP is an interesting hardware/software system...
Perhaps, somewhere around 5 ~ 7 years from now, things like RISC-V, (open)MIPS, small ARMs MCU and others alternatives, will "shift" the importance of small PICs/AVRs MCUs... but, for now, I believe that an open MCU programmer like the OP represent an nice alternative to some more expensive commercial alternatives (depending of course, of the category of the user)...
Nice job,
regards,
Valter