PIC32-Project-Template

A PIC32 project template for working outside MPLAB X

This project uses a custom Makefile to build .elf, .hex and .a files with xc32 compiler. Tested under Windows 10, 11 and Ubuntu 20.04.

The new TestProject-CMake provides a CMakeLists.txt file for building with CMake. It uses FreeRTOS as a library with it's own CMakeLists.txt.

You can work in any text/code editor you want.

Debugging is possible outside mplab and is easy to work with, but you will need to install MPLAB X. Same with flashing your chips, you will need ipecmd or MPLAB IPE.

Issues

• Currently, for this makefile there's no support for c++ source files yet.
• Currently, for this makefile there's no support for custom linker scirpts yet.

Working on windows

Git Bash needed for building. The Makefile utilizes find command not available on Windows shells (Windows has its own version of find command not suitable for this Makefile). MPLAB installation provides GnuBins, you can use make from this directory to build your projects.

WARNING this project looses all compatibility with MPLAB X projects

Project Directory Structure

The project structure consists of one directory and two subdirectories: src and build:

project
│   Makefile
│   makefile_defs.mk
│   compiler.mk
|
└───src
│   │   file1.c
│   │   file2.h
│   │   ...
|   |   
│   └───subsrc1
│       │   file11.c
│       │   file12.h
│       │   ...
│   └───subsrc2
│       │   file21.c
│       │   file22.h
│       │   ...
│  
└───build
    │   ...

All source and header files must be placed inside src directory. The build directory is created at build.

Configuring the Makefile

You must configure makefile_defs.mk to build the project correctly.

1. Project name: set the PROJNAME variable, output files will be assigned this name.
2. Compiler path: set CC_PATH to the compiler path in your system:
   • Ubuntu: /opt/microchip/xc32
   • Windows: C:/Program Files/Microchip/xc32
3. Compiler Version: set XC32_VER to your compiler version: x.yz
4. Target Processor: set PROCESSOR to your target processor. Example: 32MZ1024EFM100, without PIC in the name.
5. DEBUGGER: set to target your hardware debugger only when building for debug.
6. Optional variables:
   • OPTIMIZE: set compiler optimizations. If you don't own a license, valid optimization values are -O, -O1.
   • USE_LEGACY: set to TRUE or FALSE to use -legacy-libc or not.
   • OUTPUT_DIR: set a directory to place output files: .elf and .hex when building target/debug, or .a files when building library.
   • LIBRARIES: specifies the directories of libraries used in your projects. Makefile will get every .a file inside the specified directories as object files for compilation.
   • INCLUDEDIR: specifies the directories of external header files.
   • UFLAGS: set this variable with user definitions and extra compiler flags.

Makefile targets

Note: If OUTPUT_DIR is not defined, output files are placed inside build directory.

default, all

Builds a .hex file from a binary .elf file.

library

Builds a library .a file

debug

Builds a .hex file from a binary .elf file for debugging. Output file is named $(PROJNAME).debug.hex.

clean

Removes build directory

print-%

Outputs a Makefile variable value for Makefile debugging purposes.

Configuring the CMakeLists.txt

Things needed to configure the CMakeLists.txt file:

1. path to XC32 Compiler
2. path to DFP
3. set device
4. set user flags
5. set user definitions.