HIDmaker code generator for MikroE PIC compilers

[DrBob_HIDmaker]

Hi, folks! I am the author of the HIDmaker code generator software, that rapidly generates matched, custom software for both a PIC device and a matching PC program, so you can easily control hardware from a PC.

We are looking to add add support, in our HIDmaker code generator products, for MikroE PIC compilers. I would really appreciate your suggestions. I hope it is OK to post my questions here in this forum.

We originally made HIDmaker because we were really frustrated with the difficulty of working with those demo programs from the chip manufacturer. I got mad and did something about it, so now people can literally get a USB HID project running, end to end, sending the custom data you specify, in only 10 minutes.

We have happy HIDmaker FS and HIDmaker 32 customers all over the world, and those who have bought it really love it, so we'd like to add support for MIKROE compilers now.

But here's the problem. Because everyone wants to use different compilers and different processors, we originally made HIDmaker work with as many different compilers as possible, on both the PIC side and the PC side.

Unfortunately, doing that made the product more expensive than if we could have delivered a version that only works on, say, just 1 PIC compiler and 1 PC compiler.

Here is what we are considering for MikroE users:

• 1 -- Provide some free sample projects you can try for yourself. We cannot give away our proprietary generated source code, so we would give you a hex file, an exe file, and an experimenters guide (PDF).
  2 -- We also see all sorts of misunderstandings about HID, all over the web. To correct that, we are thinking of offering a low cost online course, with experiments you can run yourself, on your own MikroE boards.
  3 -- Offer several less-expensive versions of HIDmaker, that generate code for just 1 or 2 compilers on each side (Host vs PIC device side).

For us to get this right, your feedback would really help:

• * Would these offerings be of any interest to you?
  * Which MikroE compilers would you want it to generate code for ?
  * Which PC compilers would you want it to generate code for?
  * Which PIC devices would you want to be able to work with?
  * We want to give you some interactivity, so you could press a button on your PIC board and see something happen on the PC program. To do that, we need to know what resources are available on your PIC board, and what pins they are connected to.
  * So please tell us which MikroE boards you would like us to make demos for. (Only PIC based boards at the moment.)
  * It would help us to help you, if you could tell us what aspects of USB and HID class give you the most trouble: how can we help you overcome those problems?
  * We would value any other comments or suggestions you would care to make.

Please post your comments below, in this thread. Thanks in advance!

[alvaroevc5]

Hello.

Thanks for your reply at: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=76436.

And yes, this was sort of what I was asking for. To be more specific, I was asking about the means to get to what your software does by programming on whatever language you are supposed to use for this case. However, after a long research, I realized that is something quite big, it is something a software engineer would get into after knowing a lot about his machine.

I saw the promotional video, and the software looks promising. It is definitely the bridge between a custom embedded system an a way to control it and visualize any parameters through a computer.

I don't know if I am being finicky, since I don't know much about creating software for a PC, but since I am into Android applications' programming and PIC micronctrollers programming, I would definitely would love to see something like that for your software; something like an "Android Studio" or "Visual Studio" but specifically to create code and GUIs that help the user or developer to interact with their embedded systems more easily. Including libraries for USB or I2C protocols for example.

Maybe I am getting ahead of myself, but it's just and idea.

I would love to see more of this in the future.

[DrBob_HIDmaker]

Hello.

Thanks for your reply at: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=76436.

And yes, this was sort of what I was asking for. To be more specific, I was asking about the means to get to what your software does by programming on whatever language you are supposed to use for this case. However, after a long research, I realized that is something quite big, it is something a software engineer would get into after knowing a lot about his machine.

I saw the promotional video, and the software looks promising. It is definitely the bridge between a custom embedded system an a way to control it and visualize any parameters through a computer.

I don't know if I am being finicky, since I don't know much about creating software for a PC, but since I am into Android applications' programming and PIC micronctrollers programming, I would definitely would love to see something like that for your software; something like an "Android Studio" or "Visual Studio" but specifically to create code and GUIs that help the user or developer to interact with their embedded systems more easily. Including libraries for USB or I2C protocols for example.

Maybe I am getting ahead of myself, but it's just and idea.

I would love to see more of this in the future.

You are quite correct that doing something like what you asked for WAS quite big. It took me several years to create the first version of HIDmaker.

But it is NOT a big thing to USE HIDmaker to do what you want to do. Our customers can make a first version of a project in only 10 minutes, mainly by telling HIDmaker what data items they want to send to or from the PC, possibly in multiple data channels ("USB Interfaces") and telling HIDmaker which compilers they want to use on the PC side and the PIC peripheral side.

The main thing you have to do next, with the code that HIDmaker has generated for you, is to CUSTOMIZE the PIC side code and the PC side code, to make each side do exactly what you want. HIDmaker will send the data you want, but it is up to you to customize both sides to look and behave exactly how you want. For most people, that is a LOT easier than building the whole thing from scratch!

So let me ask you for more details about what YOU want to do.

• 1. First of all, which compilers would you use -- on the microcontroller side, and on the PC side?
  2. Are you familiar enough with your chosen microcontroller compiler to make code modifications to, say, read a button press, or read a pot, or turn an LED on or off?
  3. Are you familiar enough with your chosen PC compiler to be able to lay out a user interface and connect button presses to variables that could be sent to the microcontroller by HIDmaker's generated code?

That's all you would need.

As far as your "Android Studio" comment is concerned, the closest thing we could do would be to add a code generator for an Android compiler, that would be a new item in the list of host side compilers we already support.

Let's keep talking, OK?

[alvaroevc5]

So let me ask you for more details about what YOU want to do.
1. First of all, which compilers would you use -- on the microcontroller side, and on the PC side. On the PC side, I have only used software that manages serial connections?
2. Are you familiar enough with your chosen microcontroller compiler to make code modifications to, say, read a button press, or read a pot, or turn an LED on or off?
3. Are you familiar enough with your chosen PC compiler to be able to lay out a user interface and connect button presses to variables that could be sent to the microcontroller by HIDmaker's generated code?

1. I would definitely use MikroC Pro on the microcontroller side, it is easy to use and very intuitive.
2. I am familiar with my chosen microcontroller and how it works, PIC micros are excellent. As I mentioned in my post, I have done a few projects including USB, mainly using HID drivers, but I was only able to see data streams and control the micro via Putty or TeraTerm.
3. This I am not familiar with, but I guess it is just about learning how a new software works.

You should make this a survey, a lot of people would with no doubt respond to those questions.

[DrBob_HIDmaker]

So let me ask you for more details about what YOU want to do.
1. First of all, which compilers would you use -- on the microcontroller side, and on the PC side. On the PC side, I have only used software that manages serial connections?
2. Are you familiar enough with your chosen microcontroller compiler to make code modifications to, say, read a button press, or read a pot, or turn an LED on or off?
3. Are you familiar enough with your chosen PC compiler to be able to lay out a user interface and connect button presses to variables that could be sent to the microcontroller by HIDmaker's generated code?

1. I would definitely use MikroC Pro on the microcontroller side, it is easy to use and very intuitive.
2. I am familiar with my chosen microcontroller and how it works, PIC micros are excellent. As I mentioned in my post, I have done a few projects including USB, mainly using HID drivers, but I was only able to see data streams and control the micro via Putty or TeraTerm.
3. This I am not familiar with, but I guess it is just about learning how a new software works.

You should make this a survey, a lot of people would with no doubt respond to those questions.

I would LIKE to believe that a lot of people would respond to those questions, but I posted here to try to get info from MikroE users and placed "feeder posts" in all the MikroE forums for PIC compilers, to request that people go to my main post. My main post has gotten 83 views so far, but the only reply I have gotten has been from you!

I'm open to suggestions on how to get people to actually respond -- to these posts or to a survey. What can you suggest?

[DrBob_HIDmaker]

3. Are you familiar enough with your chosen PC compiler to be able to lay out a user interface and connect button presses to variables that could be sent to the microcontroller by HIDmaker's generated code?

. . .
3. This I am not familiar with, but I guess it is just about learning how a new software works.

Here's what I meant here. As you undoubtedly know, modern PC development environments let you use drag and drop techniques to build up a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that connects to your code. For example, you can add a button to the main "form" (window) of your program, and double click on that button to create a routine into which you can type program code to do something when the user clicks that button. You continue that process to add, for example, text boxes to display a result, check boxes, images, whatever makes sense in the project you are trying to build.

HIDmaker generates working GUI code for a PC program that is ready to compile and run, and which can send and receive the data that you specified, between your PC program and your microcontroller device.

However, when I created HIDmaker, I could not guess what kind of data you would want to send, nor could I guess how you would want your PC program to look. So HIDmaker generates a rather bland looking UI for the PC side, which you can modify easily, using modern PC development environments, to display the data in a way that looks better.

If you have some experience with PC programming, you will be able to do that easily, by moving components like buttons and text boxes, adding informative titles, and maybe adding components that could draw a graph of the data.

If you do not have any experience with PC programming, you can get free "Community Editions" of Delphi or Visual Studio, both of which I would highly recommend.

I hope this clarifies what I had meant.

[alvaroevc5]

Everything is clearer now.

Suggestion on how to get more responses...Maybe try social media and advertise it over there, you are going to catch a broader audience. In the end, these forums are related to a specific group of people that use a specific piece of software, and mainly come in here to solve problems related to their projects or software bugs. Out there, is everyone else, all other developers who might also use MikroE software (or any other software) but don't come into these forums.

[tormod]

I am developing a larger project for collecting data fraom tetra network using mikrocontroller card from Mikroelectronika PIC MX32F512, where I am sending data in HID format through the USB port. I am considering to write a PC program gathering this data and process it, preferably in Lazarus or Delphi pascal. It need to be integratable as part of a larger program.

tormod skaret