2 copies

[echase]

Can I have full working copies of both v3 Pro and v5 Pro installed on same partition? I have just upgraded but I don’t want to loose v3 yet until I have fully learned v5.

[medelec35]

I have got V3 V4 and V5 pro installed on the same partition with no issues and can use either to compile to hex or send to chip.
There are two things to check/sort if V3 is installed after V5.
1) Compiler failure when message:

Code: Select all

Current license key has expired. Please visit http://www.sourceboost.com for updates.
Return code = 100

If that happens then:

Though it is unlikely, in case anyone else has this problem the fix is to delete: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MatrixMM\FlowCodeV5\Info\SourceBoostVer. The v5 code will then reapply its licence and should work OK.

It may not happen with you, but I was forever reinstalling different versions for beta testing.

2) If clicking on a flowchart to open it, then it would have been associated with V3.
So you will need to change what default program is opened by it.

I just right click on the flowchart, select open with, then Choose Default Program (My OS is Win7)

Martin

[dazz]

One other thing to note is if you install V4(not sure about V3) after V5 ,then you may get in V5 some odd behaviour things like Flowcharts failing to open with an error message about not being able to load components and a few others .
The answer is to reinstall V5 and click on the repair option ,do the same with the V5.1 patch and it will all be good to go hth

[echase]

Now installed and activated but what happened to all the 24F, 33F etc 16 bit PICs?

There is confusion here http://www.matrixmultimedia.com/flowcode.php with the list for V5 http://www.matrixmultimedia.com/softwar ... V4_PIC.txt
really being a v4 list. What is going on? I bought V5 because the Marketing sheet says it covers loads of 24Fand 33F.

The chips I am really interested in are PIC24F32KA302 and PIC24F16KA302 but they are not on any list I can find of yours. A lot of yours are PIC24FJ series ones. What does the J signify? PIC24FJ256GA106 is another possibilty and that is on the marketing sheet.

[medelec35]

Now installed and activated but what happened to all the 24F, 33F etc 16 bit PICs?

Those are not for PIC version, they are only with dsPIC version.
If you look at the datasheet on page 13 you will see:

devices.png

(192.05 KiB) Downloaded 2696 times

Martin

[echase]

Oh dear looks like I bought the wrong version as did not realized the 24F chips were on a completely different version. Can I get the version swapped?

Will there be a v5 of the 24F version any time soon?

[DavidA]

Hello,

v5 ds PIC is at least another couple of months away, im not sure about swaps, that would be one for the commercial team

[echase]

There is confusion here http://www.matrixmultimedia.com/flowcode.php with the list for V5 http://www.matrixmultimedia.com/softwar ... V4_PIC.txt
really being a v4 list. What is going on? I bought V5 because the Marketing sheet says it covers loads of 24Fand 33F.

Please can you sort out these lists as they are far from clear? The v5 list is headed/entitled v4. Also wrong here http://www.matrixmultimedia.com/product ... PHPSESSID=

What chance that the extra 24F chips I mentioned will be added?

[Benj]

Hello,

v5 for dsPIC is well underway and nearing the Alpha stage, ARM and AVR are already there. At the moment one of the main remaining chunks of work is device support and DSP functionality for the 16-bit PIC range.

I can confirm that I have already added the PIC24FxxKA30x, PIC24FJ256GB2xx and PIC24FJ128GB2xx devices to the target list.

Just having a look now at the 24EP and 33EP devices which can run up to 70MIPs. There are 80 of these devices planned so quite a large addition if we manage to get these all in too. All depends on whether we can update the compiler we are currently using to support the EP range.

[echase]

Personally I don’t think many here would use the 24EP and 33EP range as the clock speeds are so high that it is difficult for the non expert to lay out a PCB that works at that speed. Anyone with that expertise probably does not need Flowcode as he/she would know how to programme in C or would work in an organisation that has the skills. Same may apply to the 24H range although I am the last person to claim I know exactly what these 16bit chip ranges do. I'd say please concentrate on releasing V5 rather than adding those chips.

I was hoping for a Flowcode component/function that enables the Real Time Cock feature in many 18F/24F/33F chips to be used. I only need the basic clock, not the alarm. You have published an example of a clock using TMR1 but is there any sample C code out there for using the internal RTC? Microchip do have some for their 16bit range. Most code I find on internet is geared to external RTC like the Dallas DS1302.

Is there a free/demo version of the v4 dsPIC Flowcode available that I can try out? Not sure whether to get it or wait for v5. Or do you do V4 with auto update to v5 when ready? What is the code size limit in the Home version?

Finally I see you have added the ability to change acquisition time and conversion speed of A/D in v5. Excellentissimo, but can't quite relate the terminology you use for conversion speed based on PIC clock against the term “TAD” used on PIC datasheets. Say the specified minimum TAD is 1us are you saying in your help file that Flowcode can actually drive it faster than that at a reduced accuracy? Or are you saying that the accuracy will degrade as you get down to 1us? And how do I relate that 1us to the list of speeds based on Hz that you give?

Similar for aquisition time. How do 10 units on your screen relate to microseconds?

[Benj]

Hello,

Thanks for your input.

Personally I don’t think many here would use the 24EP and 33EP range as the clock speeds are so high that it is difficult for the non expert to lay out a PCB that works at that speed.

These are no different from standard dsPICs or 8-bit PICs, they have inbuilt PLL so the high frequency is generally inside the chip only meaning PCB designs are same as always. I know many applications that would benefit massively just from the speed and memory advantages these chips provide.

RTC internal and external is on the list and was going to go into the v5 release but we made the decision to add extra components like this once the component creator interface was complete. I think there are some examples in the forum about how to use it with C code. Maybe even an article in our learning center.

We are currently in the Alpha stage with AVR and ARM, dsPIC is not quite at the Alpha stage yet. Alpha stage means internal testing. The next stage would be Beta testing which is external testing. Once both of these are ok we will release demo versions etc.

Regarding the ADC.
Acq time is the number of instruction cycles to charge the ADC cap before sampling. eg approx 1 / (xtal speed / 4)
Conv speed is the rate of conversion eg (xtal speed / 4) / conv speed

[echase]

Hello,

These are no different from standard dsPICs or 8-bit PICs, they have inbuilt PLL so the high frequency is generally inside the chip only meaning PCB designs are same as always. I know many applications that would benefit massively just from the speed and memory advantages these chips provide.

we made the decision to add extra components like this once the component creator interface was complete. I think there are some examples in the forum about how to use it with C code.

Regarding the ADC. .... Conv speed is the rate of conversion eg (xtal speed / 4) / conv speed

In that case it’s 24E for me maybe as I need high A/D speeds. (Interestingly at no point in the datasheet for PIC24EPXXXGP/MC20X does it specifically say what crystal to use although it is implied that maybe it’s in the 1-8Mhz range or 4Mhz or 25Mhz max or 60Mhz max. I think though the latter 2 are without the PLL being used and 60Mhz only for clock inputs rather than crystals.)

Does V5 for PICs have a component creator interface?

Did you mean conv speed in seconds = 1/ (xtal speed / 4)? Is that the speed for one bit or the whole lot, as usually it’s 10 bits +1 cycles for a conversion on a 10 bit A/Ds.

[Benj]

Hello,

Yep the 16-bit range of PICs are indeed very useful and useable which is good news.

v5 was originally designed to have the component creator interface. We then decided this would be released in a later free update so that we were not delaying the release.

At the moment I'm not really sure what is happening with this as I'm just an embedded techy and don't really touch the Windows side of things, I think everything is still going ahead but it's become a lot more complex then we originally anticipated and as such is taking a lot longer.

[echase]

Ben, did you get my email about swaps?

[Benj]

Hello,

Yes I got your email. I'm currently talking it though with sales over the best way to handle this. I'll make a note to contact you again on Monday when we have reached a decision over what to do. I think the best way currently is going to be to diable your v5 license code, give you a v4 license for dsPIC and give you a free upgrade to v5 when it is released, any thoughts on this? The only problems with this is that we have to ensure we remember to give you the update when it's available and we don't really want to encourage anyone else to go down this path just yet.

[echase]

Ideally I'd like V5 of both PIC and dsPIC but can't afford it. Might be able to manage on Home dsPIC though.

[JohnCrow]

Hi

Ideally I'd like V5 of both PIC and dsPIC but can't afford it.

Dont know if you are aware, that if you have a licence for one version (In your case PIC) of FC you get a discount on say the dspic version. Just put your serial number in when you order it and the website will calculate the discount.

Might be able to manage on Home dsPIC though

The home version of all the flowcode variations is quite limited in which components it allows you to compile. Mostly things like LED, LCD, ADC. The more advanced components will simulate but not compile (Where simulation is possible).

[echase]

Hi

The home version of all the flowcode variations is quite limited in which components it allows you to compile. Mostly things like LED, LCD, ADC. The more advanced components will simulate but not compile (Where simulation is possible).

That limitation probably would not matter to me at moment as don’t use an exotic components and the one I do want to use (RTC) is not available. More worried about the code size limit. Current code in 8bit PIC is 1800bytes. When directly converted to 16bit does that become more like 900bytes or are 16 bit byes still 8 bits long? I plan to expand the programme. What is that code size limit in Home version?

[JohnCrow]

Hi
If you look at the Flowcode 5 data sheet
Free version = code size 2k
Home Version = 4k
Pro Version = Unlimited
If you do decide to buy the home version amd then find its not suitable, you only pay the difference in price to upgrade to the pro version.

[Steve]

John's correct about the code size limitations, but please be aware this only applies to the 8-bit PICmicro variant of Flowcode. None of the others, including the dsPIC/PIC24 variant, have code-size limitations. The datasheet is not clear on this point and I have requested a change to the text.

And I would also like to reiterate John's second point - buying the "home" version and upgrading to the "pro" version costs the same as buying the "pro" version. Although this may be a little "muddied" when factoring in a crossgrade.

[echase]

Hello,

I can confirm that I have already added the PIC24FxxKA30x, PIC24FJ256GB2xx and PIC24FJ128GB2xx devices to the target list.

Just having a look now at the 24EP and 33EP devices which can run up to 70MIPs. There are 80 of these devices planned so quite a large addition if we manage to get these all in too. All depends on whether we can update the compiler we are currently using to support the EP range.

Will you be adding these to v4 as well?

Is there anyone answering posts in the MIAC thread as I put something there a few days back and it's not answered yet?

[Benj]

Hello,

Will you be adding these to v4 as well?

No sorry there will probably not be any further additions to v4. I'll have a look at your post and see if I can give you an answer.