Sorry for making my first post a direct question and/or asking something too bothersome, but I guess I am not picking up the knowledge myself very well, and you seem to be a very active board .

For a school (College) project, me and a friend have picked up a WDS Hardware/Software Development Kit given to the school for free. We are trying to expand our knowledge on Embedded Systems and we've run into a few snags along the way.

My question is about the ProSDK that comes with the WDS Kit, the original one we received was from around the 2000 year and the CD we have that came with the software either doesn't have a Security Key, or I have no way of activating the drivers properly to work . We tried the 30-day trial but of course, that needs a license to actually compile/assemble/transfer to the IO chip that was supplied with the hardware.

I'm trying to find an alternative, and I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for. As much as I'd love a hand-in-hand answer to this, i know it's not the way to learn. Where would I go about finding out what software I need, and how to transfer the information (via Parallel Port) to the chip? The software, so far, had required me to have an OS older than Windows 2000 (I haven't found one for Mac yet, and I'm beyond new to Linux, though I should learn that too), so I have a working computer with Windows 98 on it, but I'm just a little confused as to what needs to happen to go from C-code to ??? to the chip.

From what I've read, it needs to be put to assembly and then possibly put to Binary?, then transferred over? Any help would be greatly appreciated. None is accepted, as it is always an opportunity to learn.

After further observation and documentation, i found that there was a sentinel dongle that was missing. Recovered it today, so hopefully this will solve all of my issues. Thanks though!

Since I'm not familiar with the dev system you mention, I was going to wait and see if anyone else could help, and if not, ask what you're trying to do with it, since there are several ways to skin a cat.

My own opinion is that beginners usually try to immediately elevate the process too high a level with simulators and debuggers and things that just aren't necessary, and are a liability in the long term instead of a benefit. If anything, they keep them from really understanding the processor well and from ever developing good programming practices that avoid the bugs in the first place and make code that's manageable and maintainable. (Just a little philosophy-- See my Tip of the day, #37 at viewtopic.php?t=342&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=37 .)

Ever thought about the tip of the day being a column or a continuing article series on here? Some of those look down low useful

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"My biggest dream in life? Building black plywood Habitrails"

I suppose I should go back and add pictures and diagrams to them now that I can, since I have a digital camera, scanner, and photo-editing software, and can host them on our son's website. That capability also makes other tips possible and practical that were not back when I wrote the ones that are there. I have so many articles and projects I've started for this website and never finished though!

Sounds like me. So many projects, so little time.

Least the pinball gig is going strong

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"My biggest dream in life? Building black plywood Habitrails"