Introduction

This tutorial will lead you through setting up a project in MPLabX for the PIC18F57Q43 Devkit and programming it.

Resources

• Microchip
  • PIC18F57Q10 Microcontroller
    • PIC18F57Q43 website
    • PIC18F57Q43 datasheet
  • PIC18F57Q10 Curiosity Nano Board
    • Curiosity Nano website
    • Curiosity Nano hardware user guide
  • MPLabX IDE

Parts Required

Critical Information and Concepts

Before working through the tutorial, it is important to answer some key questions about the board. Open up the curiosity nano hardware user guide to find more detailed answers to the following questions:

Instructions

1. Install MPLabX if you haven’t already.

   1. Say yes to installing Microchip Code Configurator and the XC8 compiler if asked.

2. Open up the Curiosity Nano box. Inside the anti-static bag, you should find one curiosity nano board and two 32-pin male headers.

   1. Insert the male headers into the two rows of offset holes running along the board. See figure 4-2 of the hardware user guide to see how to attach the pins.

   2. Solder the pins to the board

      Note: Because the holes are offset, this permits the header pins to establish a fairly solid press-fit. Regardless, you should solder the pins to the board, since you will be using it all semester.

   3. plug the USB cable into the curiosity nano, and then plug the other end of the cable into your computer.

3. In MPLabX, select File -> New Project to create a new project.

   Create a new project

4. Select Microchip Embedded as the category and “Application Project(s)” from the Projects list

   Select “Application Project(s)”

5. Select the PIC18F57Q43 as the “device” and the PIC18F57Q43 Curiosity Nano as the programmer

   select the appropriate device and programmer

6. Select the XC8 compiler

   Select the XC8 compiler

7. Name your project something like “hello-world-uart” and select your project’s parent directory.

   provide project details

8. Your project will open. Select “next” to create a MCC profile using “Melody”, the current MCC engine.

   Select next

9. Based on the device settings entered during project creation, MPLabX may need to download additional files. Wait for this process to finish. (Ensure you have an internet connection or the process may not work)

   Download Support Files

10. MCC Should open.

    MCC Configuration View

11. In the pins window, click on port F3 in the GPIO output row to enable RF3 as a digital output.

    Add an Output

12. Click the “generate” button to generate your MCC configuration

    generate MCC

13. Open main.c in the project explorer. Inside the curly brackets after the while(1) statement, insert

    __delay_ms(500);
    IO_RF3_Toggle();
    

    modify code

14. Select the “clean and compile” button to verify your project compiles.

    Clean and complile

    Why Clean and Compile? After generating a new MCC configuration, MCC generates the code necessary to support those changes. Cleaning your build files before compiling will ensure that old symbols are removed in the case that subsystems were removed or swapped out in MCC

15. Select the “download” button, ensuring your Curiosity Nano device is connected.

    download code

16. Observe what happens.

Continue on to the next tutorial, Enabling UART in MPLabX