Recommended IDE

[TucsonDon]

• Windows 11
• MPLab X v6.2
• xc8 v2.41, v2.45
• Mikro EasyPIC v7 (2)
• PICKit3, PICKit4
• PIC18F47Q84, PIC18F47K42
• Various Mikro click boards

I have a personal project that I have been working on for years using the above hardware. As of late it has become a point of frustration in that I keep having bugs appear in code that has been debugged and that I am not working on. I believe that a lot of the issues is coming from MPLab. My frustration came to a head yesterday and I tore it all down and threw it in the closet!

After the frustration had subsided, I started to think about how to move on with my project. One of the thoughts was to utilize a different IDE.

I believe that Mikro has an IDE and was thinking of giving it a go and wanted to get some input. I was thinking of upgrading one of the dev boards to EasyPIC v8 for PIC24/dsPIC33 and upgrade one MCU to a PIC24. My thought was if I use the Mikro IDE then I could utilize the EasyPIC onboard debugger instead of the PICKit.

 

[Ian Rogers]

I like MikroE IDE.. It takes a lot of learning away though. All the mundane stuff is done.. Kinda idiot proof!
( no offense to anyone using this IDE)

I'm old school.. Hardly ever use an IDE I tend to favour text editor's I use VSM with the Proteus software mostly. But Textpad4 onwards has compiler availability.. I sometimes use Elipse..

You will like MikroE but its not free. I have it for PIC32

 

[TucsonDon]

You will like MikroE but its not free. I have it for PIC32

Ian Rogers Thanks for the feedback! I downloaded NECTO Studio and installed, it said it was free for non-commercial use.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

I use the CCS compilers, they work really well. Not cheap, but worth it if you do any serious PIC programming

 

[Ian Rogers]

I didn't even know they released that.. Thanks for that

 

[Wp100]

No idea what your project consists of or what your Bugs are, but ever thought about moving your project to a different system like C++ Arduino ?

Might sound like a lot of work, but would a rewrite actually be a good thing and help sort out existing problems properly ?

Arduinos were simple micro controllers but they are now far more advanced with BT , Wifi and vast libraries.
The Ardunio IDE also allows other boards like ESP and Rasp Pico and there are alternative more advanced IDEs you can use alongside like PlatformIO .
No need for programmers, or having to buy a new version of Pickit to match the new chips, just USB booloaders or OTA for wifi devices

We used Pics etc for many years and learnt a lot from them, but never looked back from moving our code and hardware to C++ & Arduino.

 

[aliarifat794]

I think MPLAB X is good if you can solve the issues you are facing. https://www.theengineeringprojects.com/2014/10/how-to-install-mplab-software-in-windows.html
If you do not want to use MPLAB at all, you can think about MikroC PRO for PIC.

 

[ZipZapOuch]

I believe that a lot of the issues is coming from MPLab.

This is surprising to me. You may need to read the latest datasheet (or addenda to the datasheet) for issues with your chip but doubt there are general bugs in the IDE.

 

[Ian Rogers]

This is surprising to me. You may need to read the latest datasheet (or addenda to the datasheet) for issues with your chip but doubt there are general bugs in the IDE.

LOL.. MPLABX is still fraught with issues.

The big problem is giving people to have more than one project open in a session.

I can write code in the MPLABX IDE with XC8 or XC16 and have compiler issues. YET! take the exact same code to VSM, compile, then upload to a chip with no issues... MPLABX definitely has linker issues.. Once I had to remove a header file rename it and put it back in.. The text editor had bugs... still has..

I think MPLAB is still on JAVA 8, at least until 5.4. JAVA is not maintained by SUN... its never been the same since Oracle. But that's my rant.. I have no problems when I develop with VSM.

Every time I compile with MPLABX I get an "alignment" warningwhere there isn't one..

 

[granddad]

I have been using MPLAX since it was released or did it escape, I probably need a medal, 6.2 has a few 'what' issues, reported, so not tried, sticking to 6.15, also OS linux.mint , and using MC snap for most of the chips, 18 and 24 and ds33 , still has a few bugs, but i have got used to them.