Support for the PIC24E family

[Remy]

Hi,

I was working on a project with the PIC24H family and ended up running into space issues, fortunately Microchip recently released the PIC24E family with much more RAM and program memory, but I noticed that there's currently no support for the E family. I was wondering if there are any plans for the libraries in the code examples to include any support for the PIC24E family. I've tried editing the current files, but I'm a tad unaware of what to do with the "_ports.h" files. Has anyone else attempted to use these libraries for the E family yet?

Remy

[Bob]

I started working on this but it turned out to be tougher than
expected, and has been shelved until the May when I have more free
time. I hope to add this before the summer semester starts in June.
At this time, I am not sure how many devices this will encompass.

[Remy]

I totally understand, I'm converting from the hj256gp206 to the ep512gp806 and the size difference between the processor include files alone looks pretty significant. So far I've mostly just added a few defines that make the E family read as a valid chip. Would you happen to know where I could start with editing the pic24hj256gp206_ports.h file to work with the new chip? Are most of the options reusable? I also have to work on getting the programmable pins to match up with the old guy.

Remy

[Bob]

FYI, the code archive has been updated with initial support for the
PIC24E/dsPIC33 family. However, in the version of the compiler that I
have (v 3.30c), I don't see the .gld file for the 24ep512gp806
device. I have the latest academic version of the compiler and it may
be that the commercial version has these files. However, this device
is listed in the version of MPLAB that I have.

If you are still interested in this, send me the .h/.inc/.gld files
for this device, and I can update the library to support it (it is
just a matter of running a couple of scripts to generate the library
ports files).

I will also investigate the commercial version of the compiler and see
if it has these files.

[Bob]

I just noticed that the academic version of the compiler is V3.30c,
while the non-academic version is V3.31. I will install the non-
academic version and update the libraries to support all of the PIC24E
devices in that release.

[Remy]

Bob,

Thank you! I've started a little bit, I can give you what I have and can help a little bit if you want. I noticed that the support for the gp806 didn't start until V3.31. I've attached the files you requested.

Remy

[Remy]

Oops, looks like you already have them! I can still give you the parts I've worked on or can help you if you need anything.

[Remy]

Oops, looks like you already got it.

If you need any help with the update, I can help out!

Remy

[Bob]

Remy,

Installing the V3.31 compiler did the trick -- it has all of the
needed files -- I should have done that in the first place. I will
have the code archive updated in a couple of hours and will post when
I do so. I have compiled an example with the 24ep512gp806 device and
it at least compiles -- I could not test it since I don't have that
device but I tested most examples with the 24ep64gp202 so I feel it
will be ok.

One thing about the 24ep512gp806 device is that you will get a warning
that our default heartbeat LED pin does not have an open drain
capability -- I don't know if you are using a heartbeat pin or not or
what configuration you want from that pin. You may want to edit the
pic24_libconfig.h file and disable the heartbeat pin capability if you
don't use it to get rid of that warning message (set USE_HEARTBEAT to
0).

One other thing -- the internals of our port macros for the PIC24E/
dsPIC33 have changed fairly dramatically in that the family changes
for port configuration bits (analog and change notification) now allow
these macros to be generated in a generic fashion for ports A-H
instead of the piecemeal internals used for the PIC24H/PIC24F
families. The macro names have not changed, just the internal
implementation. This was a good change in the PIC24H/dsPIC33 family in
my opinion.

Thanks for your patience,

Bob

[Bob]

The code archive has now been updated with the devices included in
the V3.31 compiler release. Let me know if you have any problems
compiling for the 24ep512gp806 device.

[Remy]

I didn't have any issues other than the heartbeat one you mentioned. I ended up adding in some higher frequencies (60M and 70M) for the 8MHzPRIPLL. Thank you!

[Robert Reese]

Ah good. Thanks for sharing the new clock macros!