SO IS THE DRO-350 AND THE 16F876 PIC REALLY A DEAD-END STREET?

Several reasons for the DRO-350 being at a dead-end are given. I discuss some of them below.

A compiler for the PIC series of processors is too expensive.

While the “Official” compiler from MicroChip, the compiler with which the original code for the DRO-350 was developed (Scott had access to it at one of his employers/clients/friends), is very expensive, there are several high quality C compilers available for as little as several hundred dollars. These compilers utilize the same libraries as the MicroChip compiler (the libraries are free from MicroChip).

Several hundred dollars is not pocket change to most of us, but not particularly out of line when you are talking about keeping the DRO-350 alive in it’s present state (i.e. price).

In addition, MicroChip offers a very sophisticated Assembler as a part of it’s free Integrated Development Environment.

I have one of the third party C compilers as well as the free PIC IDE. I don’t think there is anything that can be done with the MicroChip version that can’t be done with the third party versions. Mine (the C compiler) even has support for the various In Circuit Debuggers that are available from MicroChip and other vendors.

Moving from one compiler to another is not an trivial task, but again, when we are talking about extending the life of the DRO-350 for what is probably 1000’s of existing users, a bit of effort is worth while. Portability, not just for moving from one platform (computer type, MPU type, etc) to another, but also moving from one compiler to another, is one of the reasons we use high level languages like C.

The 16F876 is “maxed” out.

Yes, the 16F876 is stretched to the limit when it comes to memory. But there is a bit of room available, and certainly enough room to correct bugs. And if the software were made Open Source (it’s supposedly been made obsolete by the DPU-550 which offers Open Source software), there would be many hands that would gladly apply their effort and imagination to getting the last few drops of functionality out of the current MPU. This has already been done by members of the group who have disassembled the DRO-350 code to make changes.