How to setup a PIC microcontroller development environment in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot with piklab + sdcc

Hi! In this blog entry I'll show you how to setup a development environment to develop and compile code for Microchip's PIC microcontrollers. We'll need three main packages:

1. gputils - a collection of tools for the Microchip (TM) PIC microcontrollers. It includes gpasm, gplink and gplib.
2. sdcc - small device C compiler
3. piklab - an integrated development environment (IDE) for applications based on Microchip PIC and dsPIC microcontrollers similar to the MPLAB environment. It integrates with several compiler and assembler toolchains. It supports the most common programmers (serial, parallel, ICD2, Pickit2, Picstart+), the ICD2 debugger, and several bootloaders (Tiny, Pickit2 and Picdem).

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How to add custom keyboard shortcuts in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot +xdotool

(Click the photo for better resolution in Picasa Photostream)

In Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot it is pretty easy to add a custom shortcut. Just clink the icon on the upper right of the screen, then System Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Custom Shortcuts ( I'm not sure if this names are exact since my Ubuntu is in portuguese, but it should be something like this ). Then you just have to click the "+" to add a new shortcut, name it and write it's command. After that, apply and then define the keypresses that will call such command. As an example, I defined a shortcut named Banshee which calls the command "banshee" when I press Shift+F4.

Pretty easy, right? However, if you use desktop effects you won't be able to add a shortcut that runs a script the same way, since metacity is not your window manager. Compiz is.

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How to install OpenCV 2.3.1 in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot with Python support

OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision) is a library of programming functions for real time computer vision. It is written in C/C++ and is used worlwide in many computer vision applications.

This "how to" is a mix of two other great tutorials on OpenCV installations: A Compreehensive Guide to Installing and Configuring OpenCV 2.3.1 on Ubuntu from ozbots.org; and the OpenCV Installation Guide on Debian and Ubuntu from the OpenCV Wiki. I used this procedure to successfully install OpenCV on two amd64 computers (a laptop and a desktop) running Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. However, if you find any problem you can check the Comprehensive OpenCV Installation Troubleshooting Guide from ozbots.

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