EiBot board firmware for free toolchain

[spth]

Apparently, building the EiBot firmware currently requires the non-free toolchain.
I would be good, if a free toolchain could be used instead. AFAIK, the only free C compiler supporting the µC on the EiBot board is SDCC. Unfortunately, the pic16 backend in SDCC is currently unmaintained, but at least it is still there.

[EmbeddedMan]

@spth There is at least one fairly easy workaround for this that I've found. You can use the time limited demo of the C18 compiler. It will allow full optimizations for I think 90 days. This allows you to build both the application and the bootloader with full optimizations. What I've done in the past is create a Windows VM, install the compiler and git on it, build, and then once the 90 days is up just delete it and rebuild the VM the next time you need to build the firmware. This is definitely not ideal but it does allow for development.

I believe the only difference between the paid for version of C18 and the free version is that several (but not all) of the optimizations are disabled for the free version. Unfortunately, we rely on some of those optimizations to fit the bootloader in the reserved memory section, so you need the full version for that. However, I believe the application will build with the free version of C18, although I haven't tried it recently.

[EmbeddedMan]

I just confirmed that the Win VM approach works. Also, interestingly, the install of C18 3.47 did not ask for any license code, as I've seen it do before (maybe I'm remembering incorrectly). I can't find any way to determine which version (free, paid-for, etc.) is running. I believe previously there was some type of license manager application. I can't find any now. It's been so many years since I installed the compiler that maybe I'm just forgetting some steps or something. But maybe the 'free' version is now unlimited in time? I guess I'll have to fire up the VM in 91 days and see what happens.