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PICTUTOR NOTES - 22FEB03

Some of this information may update that given in the published EPE TK3 text.

Always check the Updates file for any information that affects these notes. It is normally issued whenever an update to TK3 is released and is accessible via the "Latest Updates" button at the bottom of the main TK3 screen.


These notes refer to the original PICtutor, not to the Assembly for PICmicro V2 (the updated and renamed revision of PICtutor introduced in May 02), for which TK3 does not provide access, but which uses MPASM ASM files rather than PSF files.

TK3 has been modified to access the version 2 board designed for use with Assembly for PICmicro V2, treating it in the same way as TK3's own board without modification.

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PICtutor was the original CD-ROM based commercial version of the EPE PIC Tutorial of Mar-May 98. It has now been replaced by Assembly for PICmicro V2 (obtainable as advertised in any current issue of EPE).

PICtutor includes a Virtual PIC facility that allows you to do simple simulations of PIC code and to see the results on screen. The files used are in a format specific to PICtutor and have an extension of PSF. They are not directly usable for actually loading code into a PIC.

The facility provided here with TK3 allows PSF files to be translated to an MPASM-based ASM format so that, having written experimental code via PICtutor's Virtual PIC, you can then make use of it functionally.

However, do not regard the Virtual PIC as a full simulator, such as is available through Microchip's MPLAB facilities. It is only a simple aid aimed at helping those who are comparatively new to PIC programming.
 
The Virtual PIC has a limitation of 128 commands (addresses 0 to 127) and 47 Equates (0 to 2Fh). There also some commands which cannot be simulated, as stated in PICtutor's text.
 
By using the normal Copy/Paste options offered via the text editor through which you view the ASM conversion code, it is possible to assemble code files much longer than 128 commands long.

You may also make use of simple code structures written as an ASM file and then convert them to a PSF format for experimentation though PICtutor and the Virtual PIC. Again, beware of the limitations of the Virtual PIC - helpful messages will be displayed if you exceed its abilities (although it cannot be guaranteed that all situations have been catered for in the conversion process).

The colourful PICtutor icon on the conversion screen allows you to directly access PICtutor when it is installed on your PC. Since different users may have installed PICtutor in folders of their own naming, the facility to specify the access path used by TK3 has been provided. Click on the PICtutor Path button and read the text displayed (the file is named TK3PicTutRoute.txt).

CAUTION - DO NOT make any changes to PICtutor's Virtual PIC PSF files. If you want to modify the code they contain, make a copy of them under a different name. If you do make a mistake and change a PICtutor PSF file, you can always reload it from the CD-ROM (they are held in its PICPROGS folder.)

Also beware that some of PICtutor's demo ASM and OBJ files may differ slightly from the files of the same name suppied with the EPE PIC Tutorial disk. With PICtutor the emphasis was placed on principally using switches with PORTB, whereas the original EPE version provided greater demo use of switches on both PORTA and PORTB.

PIC TUTORIAL

THe PIC Tutorial button allows you to read a slightly edited version of the original EPE PIC Tutorial (Mar-May 98). Whilst the Tutorial was based around a custom-designed PCB, there is much information in the text which is of interest in its own right. No attempt has been made to suit the software experiments discussed to the Toolkit Mk3 PCB published alongside TK3.

The software referred to can be downloaded FREE from the EPE FTP site or obtained on 3.5-inch disk from the EPE Editorial office (a nominal handling change applies for the disk - see the latest copy of EPE for details).

It is recommended though that if you have not already done so, you should obtain the EPE PIC Tutorial V2 of Apr-Jun 03. For copyright reasons it cannot be included with TK3's software.

ADDING YOUR OWN NOTES

These notes are displayed via an "Active" text editor and you may add your own notes to them, saving them to disk in the usual way.
