AI, Claude Code and CCS PIC-C

[guy]

What's the current status of using Claude AI to write PIC-C code? please share your experience as I am about to start a big dev. project and I want to know if AI can take some of the load off.
PLEASE no extreme comments in favor/against AI, just real world experience with Claude (other chats give really poor results AFAIK)

Thanks!

[Ttelmah]

Artificial Intelligence == Real Stupidity

They can write some bits of reasonable code. However I set several tests
to write PIC-C code, and all resulted in common faults in the chip setup,
detail configurations, and peripheral setup.
If you setup the peripherals in advance, and just get them to write the
main code, and are very careful to specify the task carefully, and the actual
connections and peripherals carefully, then you may get reasonable results.
A few users here have had success with several of the AI engines.
Claude is better than most, provided you define the problem with care.

[temtronic]

AI == Absolute Idiot

I trust them as much as I do Proteus and other 'simulators'.

As Mr.T points out ,it's the 'setup' AND verification where AI has problems.

You also lose control over how code is cut. Pretty sure AI has never read 'Tips & Tricks'.
Kinda curious now, IF it could handle the 'Out of ROM, program too big for a segment' error code.

I looked at Claude,but it wanted by email and such.....so didn't actually get any further.

[guy]

Generally I agree with both of you, and thank you for bringing up the weak points. It's very appealing to use it, assuming I supervise the process and give the AI specific tasks, treating it as a rookie.

Assuming I am letting AI handle algorithms with 99% pure C code, are there tools for it to test the code, run QA and find the bugs itself?

Thanks

[temtronic]

No 'simulator' or 'computer testing computer' is the REAL WORLD.
It's in the details.....

Say your program has a keypad. How does an AI generated test program handle 'wrong key' presses, two keys pressed at once ? Something a human can and will do.

If the program reads a temperature sensor, can the AI test program handle a bad reading or see a disconnected sensor ?

Can any AI test program deal with a power supply drop or a 'glitch' from the toaster int he other room popping up ?

[Ttelmah]

I think that is the key distinction. Years ago, I used a smart system to perform
optimising on a FPGA. Using a real FPGA, with a 'learning' algorithm, to run
all the combinations. It came up with a solution, that theoretically would
not work, by 'cheating' using the internal propogation delays to allow it
to save a gate, and get a solution that ran faster than should be possible.
So set the problem carefully, and sometimes smart systems can perform
surprising answers, but you need to be sure that you are testing on real
world values not just theoretical combinations.....

[elcrcp]

I can't say for PIC-C but I made it make a good work with mplab-x. Used claude code to prepare a project with my custom design hobby card with dsPIC33CH512MP508 which is a confusing microcontroller. ADC, DAC, SPI, IIC, UART, DMA, double core for different tasks, message passing between cores, oled screen menu, keypad inputs, messaging with an esp and a browser page coded in that project. That was coded for mplab-x But I'm sure it can write a good code for ccs-c for too. Key points are supplying with documentation, a good project explanation, hardware explanation and so. After supplying these, manual tests and feedbacks makes you reach to goal.

But of course you need to know what you are doing and have to have knowledge to check the code written by ai.

As a reminder, since you have to make ai learn coding with ccs-c, you need to feed detailed PIC-C documentation for functions and microcontroller files to ai and it may be really costly. I don't know since I haven't tried it but claude or gemini might already know ccs-c functions and might write a decent code for PIC-C.
_________________
There is nothing you can't do if you try

[guy]

elcrcp, it sounds like a big project! Although (if I understand correctly) you didn't use the CCS compiler, please share some more details about the process of working with AI ?
I tried using simple AI models, they consumed more time than it would have taken me to write or copy-paste-edit the code myself. Sometimes they could never even follow my instructions through and I had to finish the job myself. Did you also experience this?

[temtronic]

curious, it'd be interesting to see if AI can take a working PIC program from another C compiler and successfully convert into PIC C.

[elcrcp]

[elcrcp]

[Ttelmah]

The big question then is "does it work"?.....
Again as others have posted, I have found even the best AI's, can do
many things but as yet, building a complete program, or converting
working code, usually results in little bits that don't quite work.

[elcrcp]