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[on:]

Are there any options like arduino for the PIC microcontroller? I looked at PICAXE but looks like the bootloader is not opensource  :-[ Or is there a opensource bootloader to work with PICAXE? Also is there any open source hardware for PIC?

[Reply #1 on:]

IMO, the critical link that makes the Arduino possible is the avr-gcc compiler, which is open source and cross platform.  There is no such creature for the PIC, so one is left with proprietary windoze-only core components to make a PIC do anything in a high level language.

-j

[Reply #2 on:]

There is an open bootloader for pic called ZPL (zero pin loader), and an arduino-like system built around it called Dwarf Boards.  There's a main Arduino-like board with the PIC and some headers that connect to shild-like daugher boards.  It doesn't have a USB or Serial port, so you'll need an ISP, which is also available from the same designer (WISP628).  And he provides a pascal-like programming language called JAL (just another language).

The website is www.voti.nl.


I started out with PIC (and still have an almost full rail of 16F628A chips as well as a couple of dozen assorted other pic chips).  

I've read that the pic chip architecture doesn't allow it to run c well at all (which leads to the lack of a gcc compiler).  As well, the pic chips are simply less capable.  For a given clock frequency, the ATmega can execute 4 times as many instructions.  As well, ATmega has native multiplication which PIC lacks and there are other reasons the PIC simply can't handle what the Ardunio requires.

Out of curiosity, what are you interested in using the PIC for this?  I was very reluctant to move to the AVR platform, but once I read about what Ardunio could do, and do so easily, I made the move very quickly.

[Reply #3 on:]

Well, I started with arduino and it has been great ever since and  i've built different projects around it. Now I ran into a client who wants to get some stuff done but he wants it to be done only in PIC as it is all they've used and are comfortable with. Now I did work on PIC before arduino and it wasn't as great as it is with arduino so i wanted to check if there is something for the PIC.  

I Love Arduino & Arduino Rocks!

[Reply #4 on:]

Pick a professional ($$) C compiler for PICs and go ahead ad rewrite the Arduino libraries for it.  There are many C compilers for PIC, and some of them are reasonably priced or have freeware versions.  I'm sure the PIC community would appreciate Arduino-like libraries if you choose to make them open source.   But as kg4wsv says, the lack of a "standard" set of open source development tools probably makes distributing something like the Fully-contained Arduino (AVR) environment so tricky as to be not worth doing.  (You MIGHT be able to do it for PIC24/PIC30/PIC32 using the "free" gcc distributed from microchip...)