Mplab Install on MAC

Mplab on MAC

One of the reasons that I chose to use the MPLab X IDE is that it is available as a free download allowing student to use it on their own computers. This supports an important pillar of my teaching philosophy; to enable students to work independently to explore and solve interesting problems. Unfortunately, many engineering programs are PC only, leaving MAC users with awkward solutions to work off campus. Fortunately with a little work, MAC users can install and use the MPLAB X IDE. What follows are some guidelines to help you through the process - as a PC user I have not tested these! Hence, if you find these instructions lacking in any way, please send me an email at coulston@mines.edu with concrete suggestions on how to improve them. Support your fellow and future MAC users. That said, thanks to Nick for providing these.

Preliminaries

These preliminaries are needed before installing MPLAB or XC8 compiler.

If you don’t have Xcode and its dependent Command Line Tools, you can download Xcode for free from the 'App Store' on your mac. Or, you can install Command Line Tools (CLT) without Xcode (its big) by opening 'Terminal' located in Applications/Utilities/. In a new Terminal window enter:

  xcode-select --install

Followed by the return key. You'll be asked if you want to install CLT, say yes. See http://osxdaily.com/2014/02/12/install-command-line-tools-mac-os-x/ for more help.

You will also need Java (JRE6). To see if you already have it installed, enter the following into a Terminal window:

  java -version

If Java is already installed, you will get an output indicating which version. An example output (as of Sept 2017) looks like:

  Java version "1.6.0_65"

If you do not have Java installed you will need to download and install it from https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572?locale=en_US You may want to visit http://microchipdeveloper.com/install:mplabx-macos10-7-plus for more help.

Now you should be able to install MPLab X and XC8 compiler from the links on the class website.

Using Terminal instead of PUTTY

For a significant portion of the semester, you will be using a terminal interface to your development board. A terminal interface traditionally consists of a text display device and a keyboard. In our class we will use a PC (or MAC) as the terminal and connect it to our development board through the USB port on the development board. The FT232 chip on the development board will create a virtual communication port (VCOM) with the PC. This VCOM port acts as a serial port, meaning that data is transmitted one bit at-a-time across the interface. While I can use the terms "VCOM" and "serial port" interchangeably, I prefer the term "VCOM" when I want to emphasize the USB-ness of the connection and "serial port" when I want to emphasize the bits being pushed to and from the PIC. To create a terminal interface to the development board, you will need to run a terminal application on your MAC and then point the terminal application at the VCOM port.

After plugging in the development board to your MAC, you need to determine the name given by your MAC to the serial port associated with the VCOM port. You can list all serial devices available by entering the following into a Terminal window: ls /dev/tty.* One development board that was plugged into a MAC provided the following output:

  /dev/tty.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port	/dev/tty.usbserial-A505PQE1

You will get a slightly different address. Consider copying the portion /dev/tty.usbserial-<myAddress> to a text document or my code for quick reference. To connect to your development board, enter:

  screen /dev/tty.usbserial-<myAddress> 9600 -L

and work away with the terminal interface.

Important You have to release your serial port to end the session! To do this:

 control  a
 control \
 Y <to confirm>

Finally, if you'd like to log your Terminal session to a file, you can enter

  script -a -t0 myLog.txt

followed by your normal screen /dev/tty... command To stop logging, Press control d The file, myLog.txt will be saved to your home folder.