I stated in my first log that this one will be only PIC16F1xxx programmer and nothing else. Well and now it isn't true. I added support for PIC18F25K50 and friends, see on github. Believe or not, this MCU is used in #Badge for Hackaday | Belgrade Conference, what a coincidence.

For now the sources are just quick hack of my PIC16F1xxx programmer (which was quick hack on itself) with added functions for PIC18F devices. Oh yes and now the programmer crunches hex files directly, no need to convert it into bin files anymore!

Blink a LED HOWTO, Linux

First, we need to prepare something to be flashed into PIC, then connect hardware and finally flash the binary..

Step one, SDCC

Download and build gputils

$ svn co https://gputils.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/gputils/trunk/gputils gputils_svn
$ cd gputils_svn/
$ ./configure
$ sudo make install

Download latest snapshot SDCC and install it: Extract the binary kit to a temporary directory, let's name it sdcc-temporary. Jump here and copy all files to /usr/local, perhaps with root access

# cd sdcc-temporary 
# cp -r * /usr/local 

Then test both of the components:

# gpasm -v
gpasm-1.4.0 #1107 (Nov 11 2015)
#sdcc -v
SDCC : mcs51/z80/z180/r2k/r3ka/gbz80/tlcs90/ds390/pic16/pic14/TININative/ds400/hc08/s08/stm8 3.5.5 #9380 (Linux)
published under GNU General Public License (GPL)

So far so good.

Step two, build target binary

Take this source

#include "pic18f25k50.h"		//inculde MCU specific headers

#pragma config XINST=OFF		//good old instruction set, don't change this
#pragma config WDTEN = OFF		//we don't need WDT here
#pragma config FOSC = INTOSCIO		//internal oscillator, IO on RA6,7

volatile int i,j;			//declare them volatile, we don't want the compiler to optimize out the delay

void main(void) 
{
    OSCCON = 0x70;			//switch the internal oscillator to 16MHz
    ANSELC = 0;				//make all C IO digital
    TRISC = 0x00;			//and make them IO outputs
    while (1)
    {
        LATC = ~ LATC;			//flip all C pins to opposite state
        for (i=0;i<20000;i++) j++;	//and burn some time
    }
    
}

name it sdcc_blink.c and enter

# sdcc --use-non-free -mpic16 -p18f25k50 sdcc_blink.c

this should result into a few generated files, but we are interested in hex file, in my case looking like

:020000040000FA
:1000000002EF00F017EEFFF027EEFFF0F86AA68E81
:10001000A69CE9680E0EEA6E0068ED6A0050FDE1EC
:10002000EE0EF66E000EF76E000EF86E0900F5CFBC
:1000300005F00900F5CF06F034D00900F5CF00F047
:100040000900F5CF01F00900F5CF02F00900090021
:10005000F5CFE9FF0900F5CFEAFF09000900090023
:10006000F5CF03F00900F5CF04F009000900F6CF41
:1000700007F0F7CF08F0F8CF09F000C0F6FF01C095
:10008000F7FF02C0F8FF03D00900F5CFEEFF03062B
:10009000FBE20406F9E207C0F6FF08C0F7FF09C05B
:1000A000F8FF0506CAE20606C8E258EC00F0FFD7E2
:1000B000700ED36E946A0F015D6B8B1E0001606B36
:1000C0000001616B00016151800F320F03E1200ECE
:1000D0000001605DF2E20001623F02D00001632B8B
:1000E0000001603F02D00001612BECD7120001003B
:0E00F000FC00000064000000010000000000A1
:020000040030CA
:0100010028D6
:010003003CC0
:010006008574
:00000001FF

Now we need to setup the programmer itself

Programmer

Take source of pp3.c and build it

# gcc pp3.c -o pp3

This should run quietly and produce executable pp3. With no parameters it should print banner and finish.

Take arduino and connect A3 to MCLR, A1 as PGD (RB7), A0 as PGC (RB6) of target PIC, plus ground and power from Arduino, for example. I used pololu p-star board with PIC18F25K50

Flash programmer sketch into your arduino.

Now you should be ready to flash the PIC

FLASH, Gordon!

Run command

# ./pp3 -c /dev/ttyUSB0 -s 2000 -t 18f25k50 sdcc_blink.hex

and you should get something like

Opening serial port
Sleeping for 2000 ms while arduino bootloader expires
pp
Device ID: 5c20 
Programming FLASH (32768 B in 512 pages per 64 bytes): 
4 pages programmed
Programming config
Verifying FLASH (32768 B in 512 pages per 64 bytes): 
4 pages verified

...and LED should blink.

Rinse and repeat

Now you can make changes in the sdcc_blink.c source and run those two commands to build and reflash the firmware

# sdcc --use-non-free -mpic16 -p18f25k50 sdcc_blink.c
# ./pp3 -c /dev/ttyUSB0 -s 2000 -t 18f25k50 sdcc_blink.hex

Enjoy.