Pic-a-Star software
All of the software, documentation, and lot's of resources are freely available by joining the Pic-a-Star users group on Yahoo. You can find lots of webpages put up by hams that have already built one. Most of the programs needed to test the DSP (the most complex part of the project) require running on the Windows operating system. Even worse though since Pic-a-Star is now starting its' second decade (and still going strong) is that these tools need to run on a previous version of Windows, or MS (PC) Dos.
The Analog Assembler is an older package that was written for the command line. It runs on 16/32 bit windows or DOS. Unless you want to experiment with the DSP software to add new functions the assembler isn't required though. Just download the binary available binary images. The same is true for the PIC code. The source is available, but the provided hex files will get you going. If you want to make changes you will need an assembler for the PIC. Microchip's current version of their tools are available for Windows, and will run on Linux under the WINE emulator. There is also a new suite of development software from Microchip that will run natively on Linux. Their Pickit2 programmer is supported by a command line Linux interface program.
Peter's test software is written in Quick Basic, which runs on the same operating systems as the Analog Assembler. You might be able to run the older DOS stuff on 32 bit XP, but forget about Windows Vista, Win-7 or Win-8. I'm running Linux (and MAC users are just as much out in the cold). You could dig up an old PC that has a real com port (Required!) and install the old OS (do you have an old CD of windows 98SE or ME?). I did set up an old Pentium-4 box initially with Win-ME but it was awkward. I wanted to use my desktop machine. My current computer dual boots between Windows 7 home premium 64 bit and Linux Mint 64 bit. But Windows 7 isn't any help here.
My solution was to use two free (one as in beer, and one as in beer and speech) programs. VMware's VMplayer is a virtual machine emulator that emulates a 16,32, or 64 bit machine running on a 32 or 64 bit OS. It's available for Windows, Linux, and MAC-OS. I installed VMplayer on Linux. I then downloaded a copy of FreeDos. FreeDos is an open source replacement for MS-DOS. It is installed under VMplayer (use the MS-DOS settings for VMplayer). I then run QB45 under FreeDos. Since VMplayer cannot share the host file system with DOS (it CAN with Windows), I had to make an ISO image file of my Star programs and mount this file as a CD-rom. This virtual drive now appears as drive "D:" to FreeDos (read only). I could copy the contents of drive "D:" to the emulated virtual disk drive "C:" if I needed to edit these files under FreeDos. I also needed to configure VMplayer to use my computers serial port. Here you can use a USB serial port AS a virtual com port inside of DOS, if your PC does not have a REAL physical com port. (Mine does). On a laptop this would com in handy!
The Analog Assembler is an older package that was written for the command line. It runs on 16/32 bit windows or DOS. Unless you want to experiment with the DSP software to add new functions the assembler isn't required though. Just download the binary available binary images. The same is true for the PIC code. The source is available, but the provided hex files will get you going. If you want to make changes you will need an assembler for the PIC. Microchip's current version of their tools are available for Windows, and will run on Linux under the WINE emulator. There is also a new suite of development software from Microchip that will run natively on Linux. Their Pickit2 programmer is supported by a command line Linux interface program.
Peter's test software is written in Quick Basic, which runs on the same operating systems as the Analog Assembler. You might be able to run the older DOS stuff on 32 bit XP, but forget about Windows Vista, Win-7 or Win-8. I'm running Linux (and MAC users are just as much out in the cold). You could dig up an old PC that has a real com port (Required!) and install the old OS (do you have an old CD of windows 98SE or ME?). I did set up an old Pentium-4 box initially with Win-ME but it was awkward. I wanted to use my desktop machine. My current computer dual boots between Windows 7 home premium 64 bit and Linux Mint 64 bit. But Windows 7 isn't any help here.
My solution was to use two free (one as in beer, and one as in beer and speech) programs. VMware's VMplayer is a virtual machine emulator that emulates a 16,32, or 64 bit machine running on a 32 or 64 bit OS. It's available for Windows, Linux, and MAC-OS. I installed VMplayer on Linux. I then downloaded a copy of FreeDos. FreeDos is an open source replacement for MS-DOS. It is installed under VMplayer (use the MS-DOS settings for VMplayer). I then run QB45 under FreeDos. Since VMplayer cannot share the host file system with DOS (it CAN with Windows), I had to make an ISO image file of my Star programs and mount this file as a CD-rom. This virtual drive now appears as drive "D:" to FreeDos (read only). I could copy the contents of drive "D:" to the emulated virtual disk drive "C:" if I needed to edit these files under FreeDos. I also needed to configure VMplayer to use my computers serial port. Here you can use a USB serial port AS a virtual com port inside of DOS, if your PC does not have a REAL physical com port. (Mine does). On a laptop this would com in handy!