Vasi

This is awesome, thank you Alberto!

Hi Alberto, I posted before realising I was not logged in. And before discovering this thread so, I will repost here my wish. hope you don't mind. I would like to have support for dsPIC33EV series that are 5Vcc native, in a new version of the programmer if possible. As I want to make a development board with such a microcontroller, and being a development board it must have the maximum amount of flash memory, I intend to use the dsPIC33EV256GM002. Thank you, whatever the outcome! Also, thank you...

It makes sense to replace the USB communication with Serial? The firmware will be smaller and hopefully will have no problems on Linux... and is easier to be ported on other languages/compilers. The board will need a Serial to USB converter, but that component is very common these days.

"Can you also post the Kicad source?" Yes, no problem (PCBs are made with relaxed DRC rules, to be able to manufacture them manually, with toner transfer method, but is a good start for someone that want to modify them) "However, one thing I would change is the reference to pickit: this project is not related to it in any way." :) the chicken and egg problem. You still need a programmer to program the micro. PicKit 2 is popular and I have it. So I added a PicKit2 ICSP compatible header. The other...

It simply is not worth using SDCC for those micros. Some simple apps will work, others might not fit. Better go with a good compiler from start. Right now I use SDCC (v3.6.8 - smaller code size than v3.7.0 and v3.8.0) for PIC18F46K22 and PIC18F4550 (even if I have other better alternatives) but I'll consider it also for STM8 and MCS51.

If you are restricted to using PIC10, PIC12, PIC16 microcontrollers only; If you want a free compiler; If you can learn even simpler languages than C; Then, there are much better free alternatives to SDCC that simply is not up to the task regarding these micros. 1. Pic Micro Pascal - Windows only (Professional grade - Dead Code Removal); 2. Jalv2 with Jallib library - crossplatform Windows, Linux, OS X (Professional grade - Dead Code Removal); 3. Great Cow Basic - crossplatform but warranted mainly...

"As I know, SDCC PIC port is for re-writing to support other kinds of "PIC-LIKE" CPU." Can you be more specific?

Regarding MPLABC18 I refered to the binary compatibility with further Linux distros that surely will have different versions of C libraries and kernel. With portable code, you can assure the survability of your project long before we are gone.