Part of the challenge of writing a book based on new tools and products is to make sure that the content remains valid and relevant as they tend to evolve quickly in the months and years after the book release. In our case, both the PIC24 product line and most of the tools surrounding it have changed considerably since the book release in March. This is without even considering the fact that most of the actual book content was written on average another 12 months before publication. Think of all the new PIC24 models introduced in 2007 (40+), the new peripherals introduced (think of the Peripheral Pin Select) and the changes in the MPLAB IDE , the MPLAB SIM simulator stimulus interface etc… The recent release of version 3.02 of the MPLAB C30 compiler represents a tipping point for the projects in the book…
We need to go back chapter by chapter and re-check all the projects to provide the new readers a better cleaner experience. In fact we can do this together…
Let’s start. Here are my notes for Chapter 1: The First Flight
1- I had to re-build the workspace. The latest version of MPLAB uses a different window manager. The docking mechanism has changed in particular… so close all the windows (Including the Project and the Output window) and then re-open them again. Reposition the windows as you prefer.
2- Some readers have asked for separate files to be offered for each phase of experimentation in the project. So I have now saved 4 separate files:
- Hello1. ccontains the very first experiment with PORTA.
- Hello2.c contains the fix to make PORTA output pins work.
- Hello3.c contains the test of PORTB.
- Hello4.c contains the fix required to re-gain control of the analog pins on PORTB.
NOTE: A common problem reported by many readers (who did not use the checklists) is the lack of control of 4 pins of PORTA. They are in particular pin RA0, RA1, RA4 and RA5 and they seem to misbehave no matter what they do to the TRISA and PORTA registers. It is the JTAG port that takes control of those pins when enabled. Since we don’t use it, at least none of the Microchip development tools does, disable it setting the appropriate configuration bit.
