PICPIO

Program PIC microcontrollers the easy way — right inside VS Code.

Write clean, high-level C for Microchip PIC chips, build it, and flash to real hardware — with one-command setup, ready-made libraries, and a built-in simulator.

picpio.in · © CURIOUS WORM

PICPIO turns Visual Studio Code into a complete IDE for Microchip PIC development. No hand-written makefiles, no fighting toolchain paths — create a project, pick your chip, write your code, press Build and Upload.

✨ Features

One-command project setup — pick a PIC, get a ready-to-build project with a clean main.c, a per-chip pin map, and an auto-generated REFERENCE.md.
Build & flash to hardware — drives Microchip's MPLAB XC compilers and your PICkit/programmer behind a single click.
High-level HAL — simple, readable functions for GPIO, ADC, PWM, UART, I²C and SPI that work the same across supported chips.
Bare-metal too — prefer registers? Full SFR IntelliSense (autocomplete on TRISB, PORTAbits, …) for register-level teaching and code.
130+ ready-made libraries — add drivers (OLED/TFT displays, LCDs, motor & stepper drivers, ADC/DAC expanders, RTCs, RF/CAN/LoRa, USB-CDC, GPS/GSM, keypads, SD/FAT, sensors, PID, servo, and more) with lib add.
Built-in simulator — no hardware needed — run your sketch and see it work:
- Live pin states, a Signal Scope (DSO) and a Logic Analyzer decoding real SPI / I²C / USART waveforms.
- Rendered parts: SSD1306 OLED, character LCDs, ILI9488/ILI9341 TFTs, WS2812 strips, 7-segment, and P10 32×16 LED panels — all light up live.
- Live sensor data: BME280, MPU6050, DS3231 RTC, VL53L0X, and the TCS34725 (with an on-screen colour swatch) return realistic values.
- W5500 Ethernet web server — serves a real page reachable from a browser on your LAN, right out of the simulator.
Serial monitor, display designer, on-chip debug, and an auto PID tuner built in.

🔌 Supported chips

A growing range across the Microchip 8/16-bit families, including:

PIC16F — classic enhanced-midrange and the modern PIC16F1 core (PPS + ADCC)
PIC18F — classic (4550/452/2550) and modern Q-series / K40
PIC24F, dsPIC30F, dsPIC33E

The New Project wizard lists every supported board; the goal is full coverage of the 16F / 18F / 24 / dsPIC line-up.

🚀 Getting started

Install PICPIO from the Marketplace.
Run PICPIO: New Project (Ctrl+Shift+P) and choose your chip.
Write your code in src/main.c.
Press Build, then Upload to flash your hardware.

Prefer the keyboard? Press Ctrl+P in VS Code and run: ext install picpio.picpio

Requirements

A Microchip MPLAB XC compiler (XC8 for 8-bit, XC16 for 16-bit) installed on your machine.
A PIC programmer (e.g. PICkit) to flash real hardware. The simulator needs no hardware.
A free sign-in the first time you use it, so we know who's using PICPIO.

📚 Libraries

Add a driver with one command:

picpio lib add SSD1306

PICPIO ships plain-C drivers for common breakout boards and writes a usage snippet straight into your project, plus the device's raw communication protocol into REFERENCE.md.

🏷️ About

PICPIO is built and maintained by CURIOUS WORM — Electronics Made Real — to make register-based and HAL-based PIC programming approachable for students and makers.

🐛 Maker: curiousworm.in
🟧 Product: picpio.in

PICPIO automates Microchip's MPLAB XC tools, which remain subject to their own licenses. PICPIO is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microchip Technology Inc.