MPLABX registering

[large_ghostman]

I i have installed mplabx 3.55 (because apparently latest mplab has issues with icd3.

On the screen of mplabx it is asking me to sign into my microchip account, which i have done, then it asks for my host id and wants me to register it and get a key! the trouble is i use vm's so my host id file is huge. is it really needed to register mplabx?

My other gripe is ICD4 dosnt work very nice with machines that are USB 3, i called MC and aasked about this, they said to use USB 2. I explained most modern machines dont have usb2 anymore so why update a tool with an outdated usb protocol?

If i seriously cant use mplabx on the new pc's without registering and signing in every time, i have a huge number of pics and pk3's icd 3's and icd4 for sale if anyone is interested

 

[tumbleweed]

I've never registered it or signed in for that matter.

Not required.

 

[large_ghostman]

I've never registered it or signed in for that matter.

Not required.

really odd it popped up! I have ignored it, its updated the IDE which i didnt want! So uninstalling and putting the old one back on!

 

[large_ghostman]

PITA but for this project it looks like i am stuck with using mplabx and xc8.

 

[be80be]

i have no problems with 4.15 on Linux Ubuntu 17 It works way better then windows 10.
And as side note I run swordfish on windows 10 no problems there at all.

All the tools work great on linux for Mplab X the thing about Linux is it way fast then windows has been and my windos box is 4 core the linux box is just 2 core.

 

[large_ghostman]

The interface has also changed from the red one!! I need to find the docs and see how you set up projects, unfortunately i got a tiny job to do and its a pic or nothing for this, also need to use the PSP for the first time!! I thought that was dead with matrix printers!!

 

[granddad]

You don't have to register MPLABX , did you install MPLAB xpress perhaps , the cloud based IDE , ?

 

[be80be]

I think what Little Ghostman is talking about is If you register with Microchip you login in what that does I really don't see myself.
But with MPLAB xpress it keeps all your code and let's your start where you was.

I like both they kind of grow on you and if you do the month to month thing you get to use the full xC compiler.

On both.

 

[tumbleweed]

Or perhaps you're talking about the 'Start Page'?

When you first install MPLABX it defaults to opening the Start Page, which is where it shows "My MPLABX IDE", Recent Projects, Microchip login, etc.
You can just close that tab (click 'x' on the Start Page tab) and it'll be gone.

If you want to get it back then click 'Help menu | Start Page'

 

[large_ghostman]

Bingo tumble weed!! The last mplabX i used was all red! the newer one is blue and totally threw me! I couldnt get rid of the front page, i have worked out the stupid fuse setting thing, although why it dosnt auto paste it into your code is a puzzle! So now I have my project and project folder, i have my file with fuses set..... Do i just put main in this file or are you supposed to do a separate main file?

Why on earth does this blue version seem so alien to the other red one??? I havnt a clue what files to put anywhere!! I cant find any of the libs either although i dont mind doing my own. Anyone got a tiny blink led project for a 18f chip? I just want to see how you set up the files etc.

Whats real annoying all i got to do is take a older C18 program i did ages ago, and change a few things, maybe add 15 lines more!! Its a tiny job and so far its been a mare. I am also going back to a PK3 for this, the icd3 keeps throwing errors. I binned the ICD4, i got usb error after usb error with it. This is a brand new office machine we got as part of a local new business scheme, really nice computer and i have put windows 8.1 on it as win 10 triggers the network protection on the server.

No idea what win 10 tells microsoft about you but the server we have dosnt like the activity from win 10 machines and shuts them out. We got the server from the local council, it was a old server for there systems, we have kept alot of the network security stuff on it. Only big problem i have is i cant get into the network from home now, because i have a ever changing ip address i cant white list it or use a tunnel. So reading emails i have to go into town!

Hats off to the local council however, for £25 a week we now have a office. Which means i can move all the **** out of the two rooms i take up at home for off u . Th lab is staying here.

 

[tumbleweed]

If it's an older program with an 18F and C18, can't you just use MPLAB 8.92 instead of dealing with the hassle of MPLABX?

 

[large_ghostman]

If it's an older program with an 18F and C18, can't you just use MPLAB 8.92 instead of dealing with the hassle of MPLABX?

I could, but i got to jump at some point, just been reading the MC forums, i cant believe MPLABX is as old as it is and still as buggy as the day it was first beta!! why on earth dont they just give up on it!! They had good tools at one time and now it seems the have gone down hill completely, certainly not the company they once were.

Thats one reason i like sil labs, that and they have some amazing chips, many of there 8051 chips knock the pic 18f's out the ball park. main downside is size, they tend to use BGA etc

 

[tumbleweed]

but i got to jump at some point

The only time I use MPLABX is when I absolutely have to. It's still just way too flakey for my liking. Most of the ICSP/ICD tools won't run properly on any PC I've tried it on, and I've used all versions of MPLABX since V1 (both home and work, so that's quite a number of different setups)

For 15 lines of code I'd punt and get it over with.

 

[large_ghostman]

The only time I use MPLABX is when I absolutely have to. It's still just way too flakey for my liking. Most of the ICSP/ICD tools won't run properly on any PC I've tried it on, and I've used all versions of MPLABX since V1 (both home and work, so that's quite a number of different setups)

For 15 lines of code I'd punt and get it over with.

I think i might.....I tend to stick with older chips anyway. Reading up on the parallel 8 bit interface, looks like we need to this. I havnt ever used this before, i thought 8 bit parallel was ark stuff . Trouble is the only schematic of the system we are linking to, all it shows is a 8 bit parallel buss. Looking at the data sheet the pics are slave, i wish people would give me all the info! Having said that it should be fast for shifting data.

I might dust off a 18f4685 and see what i can do. I will look to download a old c18 compiler and mplab, at least i knew my way around that.

 

[large_ghostman]

I dont believe this! The only C18 compilers i can find now are all upgrades, i cant find any of the old free c18 compilers on MC.

I did find mplab using google, if you use MC seach you get a stupid 404 error page offering you some board for $4.04

EDIT
Found one!

 

[granddad]

My only recommendations for nearly free MPLABX , only have one project loaded, clear / delete all , in the watch window and break points, if not needed, wait till 'user program finished '
( in left corner ) before you build / debug / run again.
Happy C-ing ...

 

[large_ghostman]

My only recommendations for nearly free MPLABX , only have one project loaded, clear / delete all , in the watch window and break points, if not needed, wait till 'user program finished '
( in left corner ) before you build / debug / run again.
Happy C-ing ...

I downloaded the old mplab 8 and C18 i will run them in a VM, what you mean nearly free MPLABX? do you mean they charge for that ****?

I am trying to get the school where do my club thing with, to buy a single license for sword fish to try out, once i prove its upto the job they will happily buy 30 licenses, but i am so sick of buying stuff up front then waiting 4 months to get the money back off them.

Trouble is they wont buy one license until i prove it will do the job, i cant do that without a full license!! Typical school thinking.

I have to use C for work stuff, long long boring story, but we got tied into using C, dosnt matter what C we use but has to be C. I must have a look around and see who else does MC C compilers these days apart from Mikro rip off C

 

[tumbleweed]

I assumed you had all the old tools already. Did you get what you need?

If you don't have to rebuild it with C18 you could always try XC8 in free mode.
It's slightly better than it used to be, but free mode still doesn't completely optimize things so that leads to folks saying "they purposely cripple it".
They don't... but without the latter passes thru the optimizer the first run passes can produce some pretty inefficient code.

It'll take some converting between the two versions to get it to compile (which is why I suggested just using C18 again).

XC8 can be installed to run with mplab 8.92, you just need to manually register one of the dll's.
To do that, open a cmd.exe window as admin and run regsrv32

cd  "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microchip\xc8\v1.34\bin"

regsvr32 mplabxc8.dll

Modify as appropriate for your version

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

It's slightly better than it used to be, but free mode still doesn't completely optimize things so that leads to folks saying "they purposely cripple it".
They don't... but without the latter passes thru the optimizer the first run passes can produce some pretty inefficient code.

I would disagree, it produces code that is deliberately (and often stupidly) bloated, not merely 'poorly optimised' - on the contrary it's often 'de-optimised'.

 

[large_ghostman]

I assumed you had all the old tools already. Did you get what you need?

If you don't have to rebuild it with C18 you could always try XC8 in free mode.
It's slightly better than it used to be, but free mode still doesn't completely optimize things so that leads to folks saying "they purposely cripple it".
They don't... but without the latter passes thru the optimizer the first run passes can produce some pretty inefficient code.

It'll take some converting between the two versions to get it to compile (which is why I suggested just using C18 again).

XC8 can be installed to run with mplab 8.92, you just need to manually register one of the dll's.
To do that, open a cmd.exe window as admin and run regsrv32

cd  "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microchip\xc8\v1.34\bin"

regsvr32 mplabxc8.dll

Modify as appropriate for your version

i had the tools on my old pc, we have just traded up. what i didnt know was part of the deal they took the older ones. I ave a old laptop with them on but it wanted to upgrade the icd3, which broke everything, to top it off i couldnt find the old exe's on the computer. thinking back we did a refresh a while back. hence why we dont have the older tools. my mplab x was well out of date by the look of it. We had win 10 on the new machines, so spent 3 days removing that and putting win 8.1 on.

Tthis project i will sort with c18, then maybe try and work out mplabx on a linux box

actually its c18 i miss, i dont like xc8 much.