Chameleon-PIC Nurve Networks, Chameleon-PIC Datasheet - Page 255

• 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

Appendix F – Porting HYDRA and Parallax Development Board
Applications to the Chameleon
There really isn’t much to say here other that porting from the HYDRA or Propeller Development board is usually a few
lines of code that needs to be changed. The things to watch out for are:
Other than those 3 areas, I find that it takes a few mins to port anything from the HYDRA or a Propeller Development
board to the Chameleon and use it in Stand-Alone mode, so pretty cool!
Appendix G - Running on the Mac and Linux.
Currently MPLAB and Microchip’s other software development projects have been exclusively made for Windows OS.
This causes some problems for those who run Linux and/or Mac OS X operating systems. Now there is always the option
to run a Virtual Machine on these platforms but that almost defeats the purpose, however it does work even when using
the PICkit 2. We have spoken with Microchip about this and they have agreed to start porting over their tools to Linux and
Mac; this is great news! They estimated having something ready around Q1 2010. If you are reading this and we are past
Q1 2010 please don’t complain to me .
Since Microchip doesn’t formally support Linux or Mac OS it doesn’t mean we are completely left out in the dark. There
are a number of 3
the dsPIC and PIC24 microcontrollers. The HI-TECH C compiler contains the following features:
This is an impressive list and it is comparable to Microchip C compiler for PIC24. The only problem is that they do not
have a free lite compiler for the PIC24 processor. This means that you can acquire a 45-day free trial and after that you
need to purchase the software. The software costs $895 at the time of this writing. Well beyond the range of any hobbyist.
Like I said let’s all hope for an early release of Microchip’s C compiler for the PIC24 that we can use as a student version
for free.
In order to acquire the HI-TECH C compiler for a 45-day trial you will need to register on the HI-TECH website
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Make sure that you are using the same clocking and XTAL – If the HYDRA/Dev Board application you are
trying to port uses a 10MHz XTAL and the 8x mode, then make sure you change it to 5MHz and 16X mode in the
source code.
I/O port assignments – The Chameleon’s Propeller interfaces are almost the same as the HYDRA and Propeller
Development boards, but there are differences for example in what pin bank is used for the NTSC video or what
pin for audio, etc. so when porting something, make sure you look at the pinouts of the source, and change them
to match the Chameleon’s.
Peripheral devices – The Chameleon does not have a NES game port for example, so any game or program on
the HYDRA that you want to port, you will need to delete that peripheral code, or swap it for something else. Of
course, you can always hack a connector to the Propeller Local port and connect the controller there and switch
the pins in the source code. Also, the Chameleon’s uses a 2 line version of the keyboard and mouse drivers, the
HYDRA and other Propeller development boards might use a 4 signal version, so watch out for that. And lastly,
the Chameleon has a single sound PWM sound pin that routes to the RCA header, some Propeller dev boards
use stereo sound, so in those cases you will want to route one of those pins to the Chameleon pin and leave the
other dead or maybe out to the local 8-bit port.
ANSI C, full featured and portable, supporting all standard data types (IEEE floating point, long data types, etc...)
Reliable - based on mature, field-proven technology used in our PICC and PICC-18 compilers
Unlimited number of source files
Multiple optimization levels and types
Comprehensive C library with all source code provided
Mixed C and assembler programming
Listings showing generated assembler
Optimizing assembler
Compatible - integrates into the MPLAB
Includes Native Trace support for MPLAB REAL ICE.
Runs on multiple platforms: Windows (up to Vista64), Linux and Mac OS X
rd
party compilers that support these other platforms. One such compiler is the HI-TECH C compiler for
®
IDE, MPLAB ICD 2
© 2009 NURVE NETWORKS LLC “Exploring the Chameleon PIC 16-Bit”
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