So I got a Bus Pirate v4 for Christmas and while I don't have all the time in the world to devote to projects with it, when I finally found some time to play with it, it was a buzz kill that the process of compiling and loading the firmware didn't seem to be especially well supported from Linux, and open source tools couldn't be used at every step (please correct me if I'm wrong!).
It seems like everyone is using (1) Microchip's proprietary IDE to drive the (2) patched up GCC toolchain that includes (3) proprietary Microchip libraries.
If this is in fact the case, I'd love to help add additional options:
#1 already has easy alternatives so I don't think any real work needs to be done there outside of perhaps documentation.
#2 seems mostly good to me. I do think it might be nice if installing the pic30 toolchain was a little easier. To that end I've put together a $10 bounty on an OpenEmbedded package for it on gun.io. I know it's small reward to start with but I'm hoping to grow it over the months.
#3 is still a pretty fuzzy item for me. I'd be interested in hearing about the extent that Microchip's non-free libraries are leveraged by the BP firmware (and plan to go look myself). When I was doing PIC18 coding for school I threw in the towel and used their libraries in a couple places, mostly because I wasn't experienced enough to write my own replacements very quickly.
After building there's also loading and debugging which I haven't really looked at yet.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Hi cov,
BPv4 was only recently release so there isn't as big of a Linux ecosystem as there is for v3.
Yes, we use Microchips IDE and GCC-based toolchain. As far as I know there is no 100% open toolchain that supports the PIC24F family. There is now an official Linux IDE and compiler too though.
We use no proprietary libraries. We tested with their USB stack, but did not launch the Bus Pirate v4 until a completely open source USB stack replacement was available.
A Bus Pirate v3 or v4 can program a Bus Pirate v3 or v4 using open tools. The bootloader and apps are open source too. I don't think there is a open way to do on chip debugging though.