dsPIC33CH Curiosity demos

Various demo projects for dsPIC33CH Curiosity board

Hardware Requirements:

• dsPIC33CH Curiosity Development Board
• Micro USB cable (there is no one included with board!)
• ensure that you downloaded data-sheet from:
  • https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/DS50002801%20-%20dsPIC33CH%20Curiosity%20Development%20Board%20Users%20Guide.pdf
• Notice dsPIC type from data-sheet:
  • dsPIC33CH512MP508

Software Requirements:

• MPLAB X IDE v5.50

  WARNING! Version v6.05 freezes right when Slave project is added to Master! From that point even killing it and running again will not help - it will freeze again!

• DFP: dsPIC33CH-MP_DFP v1.7.194
• XC16 v.20
• recommended: Download official Curiosity board example:
  • download: https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/aemDocuments/documents/OTH/ProductDocuments/SoftwareLibraries/Firmware/dspic33ch512_curiosity_demo.zip
  • page: https://www.microchip.com/en-us/development-tool/DM330028-2

For Demos with UART you additionally need:

• 2nd Micro USB cable (not included with Curiosity)
• for Windows < 10 download driver from
  • https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/MCP2221A
  • for example: https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/MCP2221_Windows_Driver_2021-02-22.zip

Curiosity board Notes

Please note that when you create new project you need to select:

• Family: 16-bit DSCs (dsPIC33)
• Device: dsPIC33CH512MP508 for Master Core. If you will create also Slave project you have to select same CPU with S1 (Slave) suffix
• Tool: Starter Kits (PKOB)-SN:BURxxx (you need to have your Curiosity board

Here is brief overview of I/O peripherals on Curiosity board - excluding DC/DC converter parts:

Peripheral	dsPIC33CH pin and/or port
S1 push-button	RE7
S2 push-button	RE8
S3 push-button	RE9
S4 push-button	/MCLR (reset)
R/G/B LED	RB14/RD7/RD5
LED1 red	RE0
LED2 red	RE1
10kOhm pot	RA0

NOTE: To Debug Master core on Curiosity board (with on-board Programmer/Debugger) you have to make following adjustment in MCC Tool:

• System Module -> Easy Setup -> ICD -> Communicate on PGC2 and PGD2

Project list

NOTE: dsPIC33CH has actually two kinds of PWM:

1. High-Speed (HS) PWM (special module available on selected PICs only)
2. SCCP PWM (common module available on most PICs)

List of dsPIC33CH/Curiosity projects:

• RGB_SW.X/ - RGB LED switches demo - press S1, S2, S3 to turn on RGB LED - RED, GREEN or BLUE channel. Additionally LED1 and LED2 are blinking to show that program is alive. Uses Master core only.
  • used components:
    • TMR1 (Timer1 module), period 250 ms - for blinking LED1 and LED2 - complementary
    • 3 GPIO Inputs: S1, S2, S3 (on-board switches)
    • 5 GPIO Outputs: LED1, LED2, RGB LED
• ADC_PWM.X
  • HS PWM example
  • ADC + PWM Example: read potentiometer value using ADC and set RGB LED (Blue) brightness using PWM
  • additionally LED1 & LED2 are synchronously blinking each second using TMR1 to show that board is alive
  • used components
    • TMR1 (Timer1 module), period 250 ms - for blinking LED1 and LED2 - in sync
    • ADC1 Input - to read Potentiometer value
    • PWM1 Output to RB14 Blue LED (and RB15 but that is unused)
    • UART1 Output to PC, 9600Baud, 8-bit,1-stop, no-parity
  • inputs:
    • potentiometer - value read via ADC and used for PWM duty cycle
  • outputs:
    • RGB LED, Blue channel - brightness via PWM, driven by potentiometer
    • dump current ADC and PWM values on UART every second
      • use 9600 Baud, 8-bit, 1 stop-bit, no-parity, no flow control on your terminal (for example Putty)
  • resources:
    • https://microchipdeveloper.com/projects:16bit-adc
    • https://microchipdeveloper.com/pwr3101:pwm-operations
    • https://www.microchip.com/forums/m1181113.aspx
• RGB-PWM-MS/RGB_PWM.X
  • HS PWM example
  • control all 3 RGB channels of RGB LED using PWMs, duty adjustable by S1, S2, S3
  • also show state of S1, S2, S3 on LED1 and LED2 (where S2 lights both LED1 and LED2)
  • we have to use both cores because:
    • HR PWM pins are not remapable: https://www.microchip.com/forums/m1186202.aspx
    • RGB LED, BLUE Channel, pin RP46/PWM1H/RB14 - PWM usable from Master
    • RGB LED, GREEN Channel, pin S1RP71/S1PWM8H/S1RD7 - PWM usable from Slave only
    • RGB LED, RED Channel, pin S1RP69/S1PWM6L/S1RD5 - PWM usable from Slave only, also notice that RED Channel is connected to PWM LOW pin, so other PWM registers are needed.
  • how to use: press S1 to increase RED brightness, S2 to increase GREEN brightness and S3 to increase BLUE brightness. It will wrap on overflow. Please be aware that LEDs are non-linear semiconductors so the brigthness has logarithm like curve (very sensitive to low values change and insesitive to high values change).
• CCP_PWM_LEDs.X/
  • SCCP PWM example:
  • control RGB LED using Potentiometer
  • used components
    • ADC1 Input - to read Potentiometer value
    • SCCP1-PWM SCCP module to drive Red channel of RGB LED
    • SCCP2-PWM SCCP module to drive Green channel of RGB LED
    • SCCP3-PWM SCCP module to drive Blue channel of RGB LED
    • 3 GPIO Inputs: S1, S2, S3 (on-board switches)
    • 5 GPIO Outputs: LED1, LED2, RGB LED
  • how to use:
    1. press and release one of those selection buttons
       • S1 to select RED channel (LED1 will be on)
       • or S2 to select GREEN channel (LED1 and LED2 will be on)
       • or S3 to select BLUE channel (LED2 will be on)
    2. use Potentiometer to adjust brightness of selected RGB LED channel

Notes

Installing MCC in air-gapped environment

I simply had no luck with MPLAB X IDE v5.50 + MCC 5.0.x:

• it seems that MCC Content Selector simply fails to work without Internet access...

You can also download latest library list using:

curl -fL -o mcc_libraries.xml https://www.microchip.com/mcc_libraries_xml

And that way you can get working links to download mc3lib files (unlike Download archive page)

Finally I found that older version works in air-gapped environment:

• download and install MPLAB v5.45 from (tested in Linux VM):
  • https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/MPLABX-v5.45-linux-installer.tar
• download and install XC16 v2.00 (MCC 4.2.1 expects v1.50 but that requires very outdated DFP)
  • https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/aemDocuments/documents/DEV/ProductDocuments/SoftwareTools/xc16-v2.00-full-install-linux64-installer.run
• download MCC plugin release notes:
  • https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/release_notes_mcc.pdf
• download MCC plugin 4.2.1
  • https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/com-microchip-mcc-4.2.1.zip
• follow release_notes_mcc.pdf to install MCC plugin into MPLAB X IDE v5.45
• download libraries and their release notes (I use those):

  curl -fLO https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/release_notes_pic10_pic12_pic16_pic18_v1_81_7.pdf
  curl -fLO https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/pic10-pic12-pic16-pic18-1.81.7.mc3lib
  curl -fLO https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/release_notes_pic24_dspic_pic32mm_v1_169.2.pdf
  curl -fLO https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/pic24-dspic33-pic32mm-1.169.2.mc3lib

• install both *.mc3lib files using Tools -> Options -> Plugins -> MPLAB Code Configurator 4.x -> Install Library
• download and install suitable DFP for dsPIC33CH - this one is XC16 v2.00 compatible:
  • https://packs.download.microchip.com/Microchip.dsPIC33CH-MP_DFP.1.11.240.atpack
  • use Tools -> Packs -> Install from Local Source
• now create new empty project with dsPIC33CH512MP508 and invoke MCC Tool from Toolbar - after while MCC should start properly :-)

Installing under openSUSE LEAP 15.4

I installed those packages

# XFCE4 environment
sudo zypper in -t pattern xfce
# X11 Login manager
sudo zypper in lightdm
# These packages are required by MPLAB X IDE v5.50
# to avoid several IDE crashes:
sudo zypper in libgthread-2_0-0 libXss1