README

lpicp: The embedded Linux PIC programmer
Copyright (c) 2011 Eran Duchan <pavius@gmail.com>
http://www.pavius.net/2011/06/lpicp-the-embedded-linux-pic-programmer

---------------------------------------------------------------------
This program is free software; you can redistribute  it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2, as
published by the Free Software Foundation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

:: About
lpicp allows reading/writing/erasing the program, configuration and eeprom memory of
PIC devices from an embedded Linux environment. It allows you to turn any board running
embedded Linux with 4 spare GPIOs into a PIC programmer.

lpicp currently only supports a small set of PIC devices (PIC18F2xx/4xx and PIC18F2xxx/4xxx) 
but is extendable in such a way that keeps all device-specific code in device-specific modules 
(e.g lpicp_dev_18f_2xx_4xx.c). As more devices are supported, the shared code will undoubtedly 
change but will still atempt to eliminate the zillion "if (device == DEV_ID) {} else {}" that 
plague so many PIC programmers.

lpicp requires a custom ICSP kernel driver compiled into the kernel and instantiated with:
> mknod /dev/icsp0 c 245 0

:: More info and kernel driver
http://www.pavius.net/2011/06/lpicp-the-embedded-linux-pic-programmer

:: Compiling
The build environment supports both running on x86 (for testing purposes, without the ICSP
driver) and ppc, but more support can be added as needed by writing a cmake script.

To compile debug load for ppc:
- cd to build/ppc/debug
- cmake ../.. -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../tc-eldk-ppc-8xx.cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
- make

:: For future versions
- Program at offset/selective program
- Dump from device to HEX file (currently only prints the data to stdout)