Designer 5
Category: Dave Van Ess
Monday, July 21, 2008 15:06Well I upgraded to PSoC Designer 5 ans frankly I'm impressed.
First of all they got rid of the User Module view (I call it the useless view). It is now one surface with windows on the side. I don't like splitting up a project between hardware and software. (I have spent a lot of time in the middle trying to troubleshoot). With 5 I can be changing hardware and software without having to switch from screen to screen.
So for those that haven't already upgraded, give it a try.
For those who have upgraded I would be interested in hearing your opinion.
Tuesday, July 22 at 00:33 (GMT -8:00)
Hi,
The interface is just awesome! writing code is fun with the collapsable functions....
But there should be a way to add UMs without placing them.... is there ?
Thanks
Angad
Friday, July 25 at 18:57 (GMT -8:00)
Hi Dave,
Tried out Psoc 5.0 today and I am sorry to say that it has to be a step backwards.
It looks and feels like it is based on "Eclipse" which would account for how terribly slow it is.
I converted an existing project which has 2 custom user modules based on the UART standard one.
I have to do this because the standard UM for Uarts is not suitable for what I want to do.
After a long wait the project finally loaded but was missing the two UART placements. Of course
I can't place them as there seems to be no way to add custom ones.
From my point of view being able create one's own user modules was a great feature and I am very
mystified by Cypress lack of support for this.
All tyhe recent hype about UML and auto generated code is actually harder to use than having
some good low level tools to help write your own. The move to the Hi-Tech compiler has been a big
step forward.
Sorry "thumbs down" from me and back to 4.4.
Best regards,
Noel Divioney.
Monday, July 28 at 13:35 (GMT -8:00)
Noel
Thank you for your input. You are correct. I have about a dozen of my own User Modules and I don't have a clue how to get them in. I have talked to the head of the Tools team and we will find a fix.
Dave
Saturday, August 2 at 02:25 (GMT -8:00)
Its great not having to remember to switch back to editor mode after a debug session, in order to edit. I used to forget to do that EVERY time!
Its a shame better use has not been made of floating windows, for example it would be nice to be able to open a window displaying RAM and another window displaying Register banks, but there is only one shared window possible (correct me if I am wrong) for RAM, Flash, Register banks.
Biggest downer is the slowness, single stepping is painfully slow.
Saturday, August 2 at 19:46 (GMT -8:00)
Hi Dave,
Great to hear that you are talking to the PD 5.0 dev people.
With reference to the Custom UMs I have been in the habit of creating my own subdirectory called CustomUM as a sibling to StdUM and this is able to be picked up my the Refresh Manifest button. This is very convenient as it keeps my lot separate from those of Cypress. Also if you are again talking to them I would like you to discuss being able to add C templates in addition to the Assembler. Now that we have an efficient C compiler all the API stuff could be written in C. I am currently working on a RS485 UM that is fully interrupt driven and using CRC16 generation and checking built into the ISR's. I am using binary Packet format which which makes it impossible to use the normal UART.asm API. I am using a C API which uses a Device Control Block similar to the traditional File Control Block (FCB).
With reference to the IDE there is now a much better open source IDE than Eclipse. see
http://codelite.org/ . It runs on all platforms and is written in C++. As well as having all the latest goodies like ctags, code completion etc it also can use standard Makefiles. I now use it for my other embedded endeavours.
Do you have any influence on the state of the Cypress Website. It is truly the Pits. Try downloading something that has multiple files. After the first one is complete it is usual to hit the back key to get back to where you were to get the others. Not with Cypress, one has to nagitate all way back, painfully, to find the place again to do the next one etc. Also the Search Engine does not work very well. At least I don't have to cut and paste my password anymore ( my password is too complicated to remember, at least for me.). I could go on for ever on this. These people need to understand that we are engineers and not vaguely interested in "Eye Candy".
Cheers Noel Diviney.
Sunday, August 3 at 12:02 (GMT -8:00)
I do hope standard UMs are not written in C in the future. The current UMs are generally well-written well-commented pieces of assembler. Generally easy to understand and therefore customize.
The Hi-Tech compiler is not some holy grail which should be used as a reason to do everything in C. Its not much better than the Imagecraft and still has to live in an 8-bit environment.
Completely agree about the Cypress website though!
Sunday, August 3 at 15:20 (GMT -8:00)
Hi Andyw Dave,
I am not suggesting that Cypress stop doing API's in Assembler only that they provide the option of having a C implementation. What versions of the C compiler are you comparing Andyw?
The good news is that I have figured out how to use C in User Modules. It is all made possible in the XML files. All that is required is to edit the device dependent XML files (ie TestUart27.xml) as follows :-
Cheers,
Noel Diviney.
Sunday, August 3 at 15:31 (GMT -8:00)
Ooops looks like my Cut and paste did not work so I will try again.
Hi Andyw Dave,
I am not suggesting that Cypress stop doing API's in Assembler only that they provide the option of having a C implementation. What versions of the C compiler are you comparing Andyw?
The good news is that I have figured out how to use C in User Modules. It is all made possible in the XML files. All that is required is to edit the device dependent XML files (ie TestUart27.xml) as follows :-
Cheers,
Noel Diviney.
Monday, August 11 at 15:02 (GMT -8:00)
Noel,
You're XML change still didn't come thru.
try "quoting" the text before you, post-it...
;-) Tom
Monday, August 11 at 15:30 (GMT -8:00)
Thanks Tom.
Now giving your suggestion a try.
I am planning to post a whole project using custom user modules in C as soon as I free up from the project I am now working on. BTW C modules work well.
""
""
""
""
""
""
""
""
Note that an empty TestUartINT.asm is required just to have the Interrupt vectors added to Boot.asm
Ok here we go!!
Cheers Noel.