ECT358L – Microprocessors II Laboratory Setting up and Using the Microchip MPLAB IDE

MPLAB Installation

1. Download the MPLAB 8.33 application (MPLAB_IDE_8_33.zip) from the course
   website under Lab 1
2. Extract the MPLAB_IDE_8_33 folder and select the “Install_MPLAB_8_33.exe” file to
   start the installation process as shown in Figure 1.

3. Do a complete install of all the MPLAB components as shown in Figure 2 using the
   default destination directory as shown in Figure 3. Make sure to accept all licensing of the
   MPLAB application.

4. Do not install the HI-TECH C compiler by selecting the No option as shown in Figure4.
   The Microchip C18 compiler will be used in this class, however note that the executable
   to install the HI-TECH compiler will be installed for future installation if desired.

5. Once the installation completes restart the computer as shown in Figure 5. Upon restart,
   the window shown in Figure 6 will open, allowing the user to read from a variety of
   documents.

MPLAB Usage, Project Setup, & Building

6. Open the MPLAB IDE using the desktop icon or by selecting the “MPLAB IDE”
   option from All Programs >> Microchip >> MPLAD IDE v8.33. The IDE environment
   should open as shown in Figure 7 and the “Select Device” option should be selected from
   the “Configure” menu.

7. The “Select Device” window should be identical to the one shown in Figure 8. Make
   sure the PIC18F4520 device is selected.

8. Create a new directory (folder) ECT358L off the root C:\ drive with a new subdirectory
   LAB1 (C:\ECT358L\LAB1).
9. From the “Project” menu select the “New” option to create a new project titled “LAB1”
   and browse to the new folder created in step 8, as shown in Figure 9.

10. From the “Project” menu select the “Select Language Toolsuite…” option to choose the
    MPASM tool suite as shown in Figure 10. This tool suite will provide the necessary
    assembler to provide the PIC18 instructions needed for programming.

11. Add the source file provided on the course website to project (LAB1.asm) under the
    “Source Files” virtual project folder. It is a good idea to keep all project files together in
    the same directory (folder) under C:\ECT358L. Also add the “P18F4520.inc” header file
    from the c:\Program Files\Microchip\MPASM Suite\ directory. Note that the source files
    end in *.asm and include files are *.inc. The project file structure should look like that
    shown in Figure 11 (the linker script shown, 18f4520_g.lkr, is not needed and will be
    discussed later).

12. Open the “P18F4520.inc” header file to see all of the specific constants and Special
    Function Registers (SFRs) defined for the PIC18F4520 microcontroller (this will be gone
    over in more detail in later labs).
13. With all needed files added to the project, build the project by selecting the “Make”
    option under the “Project” menu, by pressing F10, or by selecting the button on the
    toolbar. Make sure the build configuration is set to “Debug” and not “Release” as shown
    in the toolbar.
14. A window will pop-up asking if the code should be generated as absolute or relocatable.
    Select the “Absolute” option as shown in Figure 12.

15. The output window within the MPLAB IDE will show list all actions being executed by
    the “Make” operation and the concluding result should be “BUILD SUCEEDED” ads
    shown in Figure 13.

MPLAB Project Debugging using Simulator

16. A debugger must be selected in order to test the project code. From the “Debugger”
    menu select the “Select Tool” option and pick item “4 MPLAB SIM” to use the simulator
    for debugging the project.
17. Before a program is run it should be placed into the reset state by pressing F6 or selecting
    the button from the toolbar. This will move the program counter to the start of the
    program.
18. Start running the program by pressing F9 or by selecting the button from the toolbar.
    When the program is running the bottom of the MPLAB window will have a message
    “Running” along with a green moving fill bar.
19. A running program can be halted by pressing F5 or by selecting the button from the
    toolbar.
20. The program can be “Animated” by selecting the button on the toolbar. When in
    animation mode a green arrow will move through the source code window, pointing to
    the current instruction being executed by the simulator. To manually step through the
    program use the “Step Into” option by pressing F7 or selecting the button from the
    toolbar. This will execute a single line of code then move to the next line of code to be
    executed.
21. Breakpoints can be added to a program to halt execution at a particular location.
    Breakpoints can be added by pressing F2 or selecting the button from the toolbar to
    open the breakpoint management window, shown in Figure 14. Breakpoints can also be
    added manually to the program by double-clicking on any line of code to either add or
    remove a breakpoint. Each line with a breakpoint will be indicated by a red circle in the
    left margin.

22. Program and data memory location can be viewed in debug mode. Program memory can
    be viewed in a separate window by selecting the “Program Memory” option under the
    “View” menu and is shown in Figure 15. Data memory can be viewed in a separate
    window by selecting the “File Registers” option under the “View” menu and is shown in
    Figure 16.

23. Users can also monitor the SFRs specifically by selecting the “Special Function
    Registers” option from the “View” menu as shown in Figure 17. Finally, users can
    monitor specific SFRs and program symbols using a Watch window by selecting the
    “Watch” option from the “View” menu as shown in Figure 18.

24. The animate operation will allow the user to view the program memory, file registers,
    SFRs, or specific symbol values in real-time as the program executes. These values are
    not updated while the simulator is being run without halting first. Furthermore, when the
    program is halted or being animated, the current value of a symbol can be read by
    hovering over the symbol name in the code as shown in Figure 19.

25. A simulator trace can be performed as shown in Figure 20. To run a simulator trace,
    select the “Simulator Trace” option from the “View” menu. This window will show the
    raw instruction in program memory along with the original associate assembly code.

Source: ECT358L – Microprocessors II Laboratory Setting up and Using the Microchip MPLAB IDE