Chameleon-PIC Nurve Networks, Chameleon-PIC Datasheet - Page 242

• Manufacturer Part Number: Chameleon-PIC
• Description: MCU, MPU & DSP Development Tools PIC24 & PROPELLER DEV SYSTEM (SBC)
• Manufacturer: Nurve Networks

Specifications of Chameleon-PIC

• Processor To Be Evaluated: PIC24
• Data Bus Width: 16 bit
• Interface Type: USB, VGA, PS/2, I2C, ISP, SPI
• Operating Supply Voltage: 3.3 V, 5 V
• Lead Free Status / RoHS Status: Lead free / RoHS Compliant

32.1 Native Mode / Bootloader mode
Currently, there are two ways to use the Chameleon PIC:
The bootloader mode is convenient since the Microchip DOS console tool can download to the Chameleon (or Arduino)
with nothing more than a serial port. The native mode is nice since you have full control and you can write large complex
programs that take up all the space of the PIC, download them into the PIC and not worry about the bootloader section
getting corrupted, etc.
However, you do not have to use the Microchip bootloader alone… There are a number of bootloaders, in fact, the
Arduino bootloader could eventually be ported to work with the PIC chip so that you can potentially use the Arduino tool to
program the Chameleon PIC. Thus, you can make your own bootloader, use Microchip’s, and so forth along with your
own copy of the GNU GCC PIC tools and then program on Linux, Windows, Mac, or any other operating system the GNU
GCC tools are available on. The bottom line is that all the bootloader does for us, is allow a “serial protocol” to
communicate to the PIC chip and FLASH its memory with a program. This saves you the $29-39 of a PICkit 2 ISP
programmer, that’s about it.
33.1 Developing Your Own Propeller Drivers
Well, the last burning question in your mind should be, “how do I add more functions to the Propeller driver?”. This is a
multistep process, but very easy. As an example, we are going to add a couple messages that allow the client/master
application running on the PIC to control the status LED on the Chameleon (next to the Propeller Local 8-bit port). Before,
we begin, let’s take a quick look at the flow of messages from the PIC to the Propeller once again to review all the
components, take a look at Figure 33.1 below.
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Bootloader Mode: with the Microchip bootloader pre-loaded into FLASH memory.
Native Mode: with MPLAB generating a complete FLASH image.
© 2009 NURVE NETWORKS LLC “Exploring the Chameleon PIC 16-Bit”
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