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1. Introduction to mikroBasic PRO for ARM mikroBasic PRO for ARM® organizes applications into projects consisting of a single project file (file with the .mbpar extension) and one or more source files (files with the .c extension). The mikroBasic PRO for ARM® compiler allows you to manage several projects at a time. Source files can be compiled only if they are part of the project.
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3. Creating a New Project The process of creating a new project is very simple. Select the New Project option from the Project menu as shown below. The New Project Wizard window appears. It can also be opened by clicking the New Project icon from the Project toolbar. The New Project Wizard (Figure 3-1) will guide you through the process of creating a new project. The introductory window of this application contains a list of actions to be performed when creating a new project. 01 Click Next.
Step 1 - Project Settings First thing we have to do is to specify the general project information. This is done by selecting the target microcontroller, it’s operating clock frequency, and of course - naming our project. This is an important step, because compiler will adjust the internal settings based on this information. Default configuration is already suggested to us at the begining. We will not change the microcontroller, and we will leave the default LM3S9B95 as the choice for this project.
Step 1 - Project Settings If you do not want to use the suggested path for storing your new project, you can change the destination folder. In order to do that, follow a simple procedure: 01 01 Click the Browse button of the Project Settings window to open the Browse for Folder dialog. 02 Select the desired folder to be the destination path for storing your new project files. 02 03 Click the OK button to confirm your selection and apply the new path.
Step 1 - Project Settings Once we have selected the destination project folder, let’s do the rest of the project settings: 01 01 Enter the name of your project. Since we are going to blink some LEDs, it’s appropriate to call the project “LedBlinking” 02 02 For this demonstration, we will use the default 16MHz clock. Clock speed depends on your target hardware, and whether you are using PLL or not.
Step 2 - Add files This step allows you to include additional files that you need in your project: some headers or source files that you already wrote, and that you might need in further development. Since we are building a simple application, we won’t be adding any files at this moment. 01 Click Next.
Step 3 - Include Libraries Following step allows you to quickly set whether you want to include all libraries in your project, or not. Even if all libraries are included, they will not consume any memory unless they are explicitely used from within your code. The main advantage of including all libraries is that you will have over 500 functions available for use in your code right away, and visible from Code Assistant [CTRL+Space].
Step 4 - Finishing After all configuration is done, final step allows you to do just a bit more. 01 There is a check-box called “Open Edit Project window to set Configuration bits” at the final step. Edit Project is a specialized window which allows you to do all the necessary oscillator and PLL settings. We made sure that everything is described in plain English, so you will be able to do the settings without having to open the datasheet.
Blank new project created New project is finally created. A new source file called “LedBlinking.mbas” is created and it contains the main: function, which will hold the program. You may notice that project is configured according to the settings done in the New Project Wizard.
4. Code Example Time has come to do some coding. mikroBasic PRO for ARM® has the unique libraries that enable you to do complicated tasks in a single line of code. Built-in GPIO library enables you to set configure each PORT and enable pins that you need, without worrying about complex procedure that this operation requires.
Figure 4-2: This is how the code looks written in compiler code editor window Page 13
5. Building the Source When we are done writing our first LedBlinking code, we can now build the project and create a .HEX file which can be loaded into our target microcontroller, so we can test the program on real hardware. “Building” includes compilation, linking and optimization which is all done automatically. Build your code by clicking on the icon in the main toolbar, or simply go to Build menu and click Build [CTRL+F9]. Message window will report the details of the building process (Figure 5-2).
6. Changing Project Settings If you need to change the target microcontroller or clock speed, you don’t have to go through the new project wizard all over again. This can be done quickly in the Edit Project window. You can open it using Project->Edit Project [CTRL+SHIFT+E] menu option. 02 01 To change your MCU, just select the desired microcontroller from the dropdown list.
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