It has been a good resource in my AVR projects.

The author Elm Cha(N) (as what he calls himself) did a wonderful job in PFS. Thin FAT File System – or simply TFS, for short – is inspired by Petit FAT File System. To cut it short, after several days of troubleshooting fiasco, I still can’t make the PFS work in a PIC16 with at least 368 bytes hence I finally gave up and decided to write my own library similar in functionality (and limitations) to PFS. Note that recursion which is also used in the PFS disk access layer, also fails to compile in CCS C due to limited stack space. While PFS boasts of a really very low RAM footprint ( a 100-byte RAM space is comfortable enough) requirements depending on the configuration, the code simply bends on the banked nature of PIC16 especially. It seems to me that PFS was written without the architecture of both PIC in mind.

However, making the code work in CCS C is another hell raiser. Lately, as the demand keeps on pressing for really good external yet cheap storage for my PIC projects, I came across Elm Chan’s Petit FAT File System (PFS) which fantastically works with AVR MCUs. And while CCS C has a big user-base, even it’s dedicated forum site cannot give specific solution to a non-functioning SD/MMC FAT. Among those is the SD/MMC FAT library that for some really annoying reason, doesn’t work after hundreds of tries and troubleshooting I have done. And being one, I probably share the same frustrations with other users.

Well, I am not in anyway associated with CCS. When it comes to maturity then, CCS C is considered the patriarch of C for PIC MCUs. CCS compilers are easy to use and quick to learn. In their website, CCS C is given the following credit:ĬCS developed the first C Compiler for Microchip microcontrollers over 20 years ago and continues to provide software solutions to developers of embedded applications using PIC ® MCU and PIC24/dsPIC ® DSC devices. One of those development platforms is CCS C – probably the oldest C language development platform for PIC MCU. If you are a PIC ( PIC16 & PIC18) MCU avid user and your preferred language is C, there is an array of programming development platforms that is available for you – from free to commercial ones.

Free c compiler for pic16