This was challenging for me to get into Python programming and setting Raspberry Pi to my own needs. I know this is overkill but also this is a path for future projects for example info display which can display time, the temperature in your place, and maybe turn on lights in the living room and the list goes on and on.
The TL866A universal programmer is a chip programmer that allows us to write or read chip memory such as microcontrollers, EEPROM memory, etc. This very popular device, unfortunately, comes with software only for the Windows operating system. But there is an open-source alternative that allows the use of this device on the Linux operating system, thanks to David Griffith and his project on GitLab.
Now that we have the software installed and ready to use, it is time to get familiar with the basic commands to successfully load the program into the microcontroller. So let's get started!
To install PICkit 2 Development Programmer / Debugger on Raspberry Pi OS, we are gonna first prepare our system by installing dependencies, download source code for PICkit 2 command-line application, compile it, and at the end verify test installation.
To install PICkit 2 Development Programmer / Debugger on Debian 10 Buster 64-bit, we need to install library packages for i386 architecture. That we can do with Multiarch. What is Multiarch? Multiarch lets us install library packages from multiple architectures on the same machine.
// *********************************************************
// Program: NEC PROTOCOL INFRARED REMOTE SENDER
// Version: 1.0
// Author: Elvis Baketa
// Description:
// *********************************************************
// definitions of constants
#define pulseTime 560 // duration of carrier pulse
#define irLed 2 // ir led connected to digital pin 2
#define YAMAHA 94 // device address byte
#define STANDBY 248 // device command byte
// standard Arduino setup routine
void setup()
{
pinMode(irLed, OUTPUT); // set irled pin as output
digitalWrite(irLed, LOW); // turn of ir led
// send test command to turn on/off yamaha av receiver
sendCode(YAMAHA, STANDBY);
}
// standard Arduino loop routine
void loop()
{
}
// routines to create a carrier pulse
void carrierPulse(unsigned int duration)
{
for(int i=0; i < (duration / 35); i++)
{
digitalWrite(irLed, HIGH); // set irled to high
delayMicroseconds(13); // duration of high pulse
digitalWrite(irLed, LOW); // set irled to low
delayMicroseconds(13); // duration of low pulse
}
}
// routines for sending code
void sendCode(byte addressByte, byte commandByte)
{
// preparing the code for sending
unsigned long code = 0;
code = addressByte;
code = code << 8;
code = code | addressByte ^ 0xFF;
code = code << 8;
code = code | commandByte;
code = code << 8;
code = code | commandByte ^ 0xFF;
// start sending code
// send AGC pulse approximate to 9ms
carrierPulse(16 * pulseTime);
// space pulse approximate to 4.5ms
delayMicroseconds(8 * pulseTime);
// send bits one by one, MSB first
for (int i=31; i>=0; i--)
{
if (bitRead(code, i))
{
carrierPulse(pulseTime);
delayMicroseconds(3 * pulseTime);
}else{
carrierPulse(pulseTime);
delayMicroseconds(pulseTime);
}
}
// send stop bit
carrierPulse(pulseTime);
}
// *********************************************************
// Program: VFD display control (PT6312)
// Version: 1.0
// Author: Elvis Baketa
// Description:
// *********************************************************
#define DAT 2
#define CLK 3
#define STB 4
#define displayMode 0x01 // 5 digits, 16 segments
#define dataSettings 0x40 // Data write & read mode settings
#define incrementAddress 0x40 // Increment address after data has been written
#define fixedAddress 0x44 // Fixed address
#define addressSettings 0xC0 // Address settings command
#define startAddress 0x00 // start address of ram memory
#define endAddress 0x09 // end address of ram memory
#define displayControl 0x8F // Display settings ON/OFF
// standard Arduino setup routine
void setup()
{
// initialize vfd display
initDisplay();
// send some data to display
updateFixedAddress(startAddress, 0b01110111);
}
// standard Arduino loop routine
void loop()
{
}
// routines for sending commands
void sendCommand(unsigned int command, boolean data)
{
digitalWrite(CLK, HIGH);
digitalWrite(STB, LOW);
for(int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
{
if(bitRead(command, i) & 0x01)
{
digitalWrite(DAT, HIGH);
}else{
digitalWrite(DAT, LOW);
}
digitalWrite(CLK, LOW);
digitalWrite(CLK, HIGH);
}
if(data) digitalWrite(STB, HIGH);
}
// routines for sending data
void sendData(unsigned int data, boolean last)
{
for(int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
{
if(bitRead(data, i) & 0x01)
{
digitalWrite(DAT, HIGH);
}else{
digitalWrite(DAT, LOW);
}
digitalWrite(CLK, LOW);
digitalWrite(CLK, HIGH);
}
if(last) digitalWrite(STB, HIGH);
}
// routines for set ram address
void setAddress(unsigned int address, boolean data)
{
sendCommand(addressSettings | (address & 0x1F), data);
}
// routine cleaning of display memory
void clearDisplay()
{
sendCommand(incrementAddress, true);
setAddress(startAddress, false);
for(int i = 0; i <= endAddress; i++)
{
sendData(0x00, false);
}
digitalWrite(STB, HIGH);
}
// routines for initialize display
void initDisplay()
{
delay (200);
// define communication pins
pinMode(DAT, OUTPUT);
pinMode(CLK, OUTPUT);
pinMode(STB, OUTPUT);
// clear display ram memory
clearDisplay();
// set display mode to 5 digits, 16 segments
sendCommand(displayMode, true);
// set display on and maximum dimming
sendCommand(displayControl, true);
}
// routine to update fixed memory addresses
void updateFixedAddress(int address, int data)
{
sendCommand(fixedAddress, true);
setAddress(address, false);
sendData(data, true);
}