Finally a Free C Compiler for PIC10/12/16 Now Available

Mike said:

Hey guys, how do you install it (Hi-Tech) into MPLAB?

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I did not do anything special to install it. Just ran the installer whatever it was.

I am going to attempt reinstalling MPLAB 8.14. (It is what I was using).

I seem to remember an option box that needed ticking in order to integrate into MPLAB, it was a while ago when I installed it and so I could be mistaken.

Mike.

Pommie said:

I seem to remember an option box that needed ticking in order to integrate into MPLAB, it was a while ago when I installed it and so I could be mistaken.

Mike.

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I know that was the case for BoostC but I do not recall if there was one for Hi-Tech.

I am all set now
I can compile C programs for pic16F628A using Hi-Tech and for PIC18F1320 using C18. All this from within MPLAB. I am finally getting the feel of microcontrolers the way I wanted it.

pkshima said:

I am all set now
I can compile C programs for pic16F628A using Hi-Tech and for PIC18F1320 using C18. All this from within MPLAB. I am finally getting the feel of microcontrolers the way I wanted it.

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What did you do to fix the problems caused by installing Hi-Tech ?
I am mostly dead in the water and looking at removing MPLAB and installing from scratch.
Unless the info about compilers is stored in registery and then a rollback might fix it.

I was running MPLAB 7.6 so I had to upgrade anyways.
So when I started the install of the latest version 8.10, it asked me to close everything else and to uninstall all prior versions. I did.

After the install, it automatically ran the picc installer and everything was fixed
Now I can see all toolsuites in MPLAB.

MPLAB is fixed

The problem may have been due to several installed versions of MPLAB. Microchip says we should only have one, up to the point where I installed the Hi-Tech compiler it was not a problem.

I uninstalled all versions and the problem was still there after a reinstall of 8.14. I uninstalled, rolled back the system to just prior to the Hi-Tech install and then installed MPLAB again. That seems to have fixed it.

pkshima: thanks for posting about what you did to fix yours. I was enough to get me moving on this.

I would not count this a much of a ding. It may not have happened if I had removed the old version of MPLAB when I should have.

Thanks for ingo' guys.

I found I had several MPLAB installs listed in my Add/Remove Programs list too so I'm going to do my long overdue upgrade from MPLAB 8.01 to interim 8.14.

MPLAB 8.14 now installed.

The Hi-Tech toolsuite still doesn't show up in the pick list for a 16F628/A device.

I downloaded Hi-Tech PICC-Lite 960PL2 and installed it on my hard drive last week. Is there some other step I need to do for MPLAB to recognize it?

Also, the User Manual pdf included in 960PL2 is dated February 2008 and the 16F628/A isn't listed in the supported device list. Is there a more up to date list of supported devices?

Mike

The latest release (v9.60PL2) of HI-TECH C® PRO for the PIC10/12/16 MCU Family includes Lite mode

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Are you installing an older lite product? Now that I have MPLAB back I a going to give the HI-Tech install another try.

Mike said:

MPLAB 8.14 now installed.

The Hi-Tech toolsuite still doesn't show up in the pick list for a 16F628/A device.

I downloaded Hi-Tech PICC-Lite 960PL2 and installed it on my hard drive last week. Is there some other step I need to do for MPLAB to recognize it?

Also, the User Manual pdf included in 960PL2 is dated February 2008 and the 16F628/A isn't listed in the supported device list. Is there a more up to date list of supported devices?

Mike

Click to expand...

I installed v9.60PL2.

Is there a list of supported devices available? The web site says "all baseline devices" but doesn't really say what that means and then goes on to list some additional devices. Can they possibly be any more cryptic? I'm almost at the point where it seems hardly worth the effort to even try to use their compiler.

Microcontroller Limitations
All Baselines New! No Limitations
12F629 No Limitations
12F675 No Limitations
16C84 No Limitations
16F627 2 RAM banks supported
16F627A 2 RAM banks supported
16F684 1 RAM banks, 1K program memory supported
16F690 2 RAM banks, 2K program memory supported
16F84A No Limitations
16F877 2 RAM banks, 2K program memory supported
16F877A 2 RAM banks, 2K program memory supported
16F887 New! 2 RAM banks, 2K program memory supported
16F917 New! 2 RAM banks, 2K program memory supported

pkshima said:

Yeah I installed it yesterday as well and see the same behaviour. Looks like they overwrite MPLAB config files rather than appending/updating them.

Good thing is that I was able to compile a led blink C program for PIC16F628 with it. I am yet to burn a PIC with it and see if it really works

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pkshima,

Are you saying you're able to program for 16F628 or 16F628A using the Hi-Tech Universal ToolSuite language selection?

Mike

Just found the **broken link removed** page so I will check that out. Man, am I dense or what?

Mike

I ran the UniversalToolsuite-1.22.exe file from Hi-Tech and it killed all of my language toolsuites too.

This is after removing all old MPLAB versions and Hi-Tech v9.60PL2 and doing a fresh install of MPLAB v8.14 and Hi-Tech v9.60PL2. On top of all that, the Universal ToolSuite still doesn't show up when I use Project Wizard and try to create a project for a 16F628A.

I give up. This Hi-Tech C can't possibly be worth the effort. What a bunch of screwballs.

Now I have to try and figure out how to get all of my old tool suite selections back.

Mike

I was about to try installing it again. Glad I did not. I have a full CCS PWM I can easily do without it.

Try rolling back to a system restore point prior to the install.

I had system restore turned off so I don't have that option. Also seems Hi-Tech support requests are only allowed for paying customers so that's not an option.

The "dhenry" user over on Forum.Microchip was really helpful (not)...

Mike said:

I had system restore turned off so I don't have that option. Also seems Hi-Tech support requests are only allowed for paying customers so that's not an option.

The "dhenry" user over on Forum.Microchip was really helpful (not)...

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I have been trying to keep civil regarding dhennry's help!

Are you going to try to fix the registry by hand?

I have no idea of how to fix something in the registry...

<added>

Ok, I uninstalled Hi-Tech Lite v9.60PL2 software then uninstalled the Hi-Tech MPLAB v1.22 plug-in software and all of my tool suites are available again in the Project Wizard. Whew!!!

WARNING!!! Do not install the free Lite version of Hi-Tech software and the MPLAB plug-in!!!!

<added>

I sent an email support request around 1700 EST and received an email from Hi-Tech Support around 2300 EST which I thought was very responsive considering I didn't have a valid serial number from a "purchased" product. Anyway, I took the opportunity to let them know about the problem that several of us have experienced and how I fixed it.

It seems that Hi-Tech C compiler has gone free now for ALL PIC10/12/16 and not just the baselines. Just that optimizations and stuff is disabled but then if optimizations were important, one would code in assembly.

Seems like I will finally be able to write in C for PIC16F628

Has anyone tried this before ? any reviews ?

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Here is my vote:

Used Hi-Tech compiler once in 2002 for a painful period of 2 months or so. I originally suggested to do project on Palm, but someone liking PICs outranked me PIC66xx and PIC86xx just came out, so it was enough space. Started in assembly and went pretty well. My former boss convinced me that writing in C would be faster, so I wrote portions in HiTech. Normally I would agree, C would be faster if HiTech compiler did not "forget" to switch banks, if linker did not use forbidden RAM zones, if it evaluated expressions in function calls properly, etc. I spend more time examining compiler output and trying to patch it than coding.

It's been long time, perhaps they improved. But while they were selling that compiler for over $800, CCS was $125. In this case the "You get what you pay for" did not apply. Despite hobby-ish look and feel, CCS had excellent quality of output assembly code. It choked on some arrays of structures, but they fixed it soon after I hit this problem.

I have not used Hi-Tech in recent years. uC C compilers seem to be much better then they were a few years back. I have had very good luck with CCS PCM for the midrange PICs, Microchip C18, and so far BoostC for the PIC 18F's looks solid.