![att:7] Tom Kibalo has posted a tutorial that demonstrates how Arduino/chipKIT sketches can be converted into traditional PIC32 projects using the MPLAB XC32 compiler and Microstick II development board. In the article common operations are converted into C code using a beta compatibility library that he developed.

Check out the article at circuitcellar.com

Those of you planning to begin a project in using C++, hopefully using the MPLAB XC32++ compiler or the chipKIT platform, already know about the object-oriented programming concept of polymorphism. Essential to polymorphism is the concept of a virtual method, a method whose behavior can be overridden within an inheriting class by a method with the same signature.

Virtual methods are implemented using a virtual method table (vtable). The compiler creates a vtable for each class. When an object is created, a pointer to this table is added as a hidden member of the object. The compiler also generates code to initialize the vpointers of its objects

I have successfully ported the Bluetooth low energy SDK for Arduinoto the ChipKit. I started with the Bluetooth low energy API for Arduino. The ported sketch and library is available from my box account as a zip file. (unfortunately there does not seem to be a way to attach files to this post) https://app.box.com/s/v6ubqa6ta56klcmikm8n  (ble-sdk-chipkit.zip  460.7 KBytes) More details are present in the readme files and documentation in the download.   The shield that I used is here http://www.makershed.com/Bluetooth_Low_Energy_BLE_Shield_for_Arduino_2_0_p/mkrbl1.htm http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/bluetooth-40-low-energy-ble-shield-v20-p-1631.html

A few professionals have published a research paper "A novel concept for configuring online laboratories" with the use of PIC kit in the Experiment International Conference.  (See below abstract)

They are interested in doing this with chipKIT in the future. Abstract---Embedded online laboratories are becoming frequent nowadays, because they can include both the functionality of a data acquisition device and the functionality of a webserver and this, in turn, results in lower implementation costs. However, while it is easy to configure a laboratory server which is located on a computer, the local configuration and control of an embedded laboratory is more challenging,

chipKIT DP32 Deluxe

The chipKIT DP32 is a great little board. Designed to fit in a standard project box and providing a respectable prototyping area to construct support circuitry on, it would be a good choice of board for many different hobby projects or one off custom designs or prototypes. It is also equipped with a potentiometer, four LED's and two push buttons, along with unpopulated footprints for an SPI Memory Chip and a temperature sensor. The basic building blocks for any Microcontroller training course which, when combined with it's keen pricing, make it a good choice for education too.