Demo compiler Bluetooth

[Cassiopea]

Does the latest demo version of the compiler include any Bluetooth functions?

[temtronic]

'Bluetooth' is a generic term. There's probably 5 or 6 ways to interface a 'Bluetooth' module to a PIC and a dozen or so 'protocols' to choose from.
You probably need to choose the hardware first.
Kinda like asking a car parts store, 'do you have any Ford parts'?


However since CCS does sell a 'Bluetooth module', they may have a 'driver' specifically for it in the examples folder.

Jay

[newguy]

Look in the examples directory for anything named "ez_app*". If they're present, they support the CCS ez-app for smartphones. Having said that, I rather doubt that they ship those with the demo version of the compiler because those drivers are simply huge. There's no way they'd fit within the 2k limit of the demo, so there's no point including them.

[PCM programmer]

I have a question. Why do we keep saying there is a 2K limit, when CCS's
own webpage says:

[Ttelmah]

It depends on the demo version you get.
Historically their demo compiler had a 2K limit.
The current version does not (time, and chip limited instead). However I have seen 2K limited versions still appearing. It may be the educational version?.

[newguy]

The last time I taught, over 11 years ago, we used a student version of the compiler. I seem to remember us paying about $40 per licence at the time.

That version of the compiler supported 3 PICs: 16F877, 18F452, and one more (maybe the 18F458?). I'm not entirely sure but I could swear that the 16F877 wasn't code limited, but one of the other processors was.

At that time the demo version was limited to 2k. I just assumed that the current demo was the same. It's nice to see that they've changed the demo model, but the real power of the compiler is the examples. By currently limiting the examples to 15% of what's currently available, I can't help but think that CCS is shooting themselves in the foot. You want to hook someone with the demo; if you don't reveal 85% of your examples/drivers, I doubt that most demo installs will eventually turn into a sale.

[Ttelmah]

To the original poster, the commonest/simplest way of using BlueTooth, is to let an interface module handle it. A module like the HC05. As such, there then doesn't have to be any code for the PIC (so no examples needed). It is just seen as a serial port talking to a PC.

There are then commands you can use to control it's behaviour (switching it between master & slave, changing baud rate, password etc.), but the basic 'slave device to PC' mode, is by far the simplest way to go.

The ez_app stuff, is to allow you to have a BueTooth connected PICm display it's status on a phone, using a bar graph, gauge etc..

[Cassiopea]

After reading the first reply I was ready to abandon the whole idea of evaluating the CCS compiler. But for some reason I happened to leave the tab open and when I came back here this morning, pressed F5 (just for the sake of it) I was much surprised to find a whole load of completely useful replies. Thanks guys, you've restored my faith in forums.

Actually, after reading the first reply I thought to myself, 'Stuff this for a game of conkers' and fired an e-mail off directly to CCS. I'll let you know what they say - assuming that they reply of course....

Many years ago now I used to develop PIC based electronics solutions for all sorts of things. I worked in the R&D department of a very large UK company. Of all the compilers we used CCS was always my favourite. I have thousands of lines of code squirreled away - somewhere. Templates and all sorts of libraries and things.

I'm now living in Spain - off grid. I need to make a PWM kicker for a fridge I've just bought. I've conceived of a cute way to do this with a PIC (of course) but I would like (ultimately) to throw a whole load of data at my Android phone and Bluetooth seems an eminently reasonable way to do this. Hence the interest in CCS once more.

After looking around I saw that the RN4020 module costs around £7 from Farnell The CCS demo version of the compiler now checks its viability over the web so the 45 day limit is truly 45 days. For that reason, assuming that I were to go ahead and order a RN4020 module, I wanted to check that I could talk to the jolly thing using the CCS demo version of the compiler, one of the most important things being that I know CCS C backwards!

[gjs_rsdi]

I worked with the CCS Demo and 45 days are 45 days.
I even asked for an additional CCS Demo for my new PC and I got
The Demo version includes everything that the standard version includes except examples

Best wishes
Joe