Download Eclipse for C/C++ developers from the eclipse web site.

I have been testing under V3.7 (Indigo) as I did not like the subsequent version. I now see that a new version (4.3, Keplar) is the latest but, although it should work, I have not done any testing under that environment yet.

You will need a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to run eclipse, this can be obtained from Oracle if you do not already have it installed.

Java download

The Java installer has this annoying habit of wanting to install some web browser plugins so be sure to uncheck the optional installs if you don't want them.

I'm not planning on writing any tutorials on using Eclipse. A prerequisite for using the ConVEX library is a certain familiarity with tools like Eclipse, if these tools look complicated then, as I said before, ConVEX is probably not something you should be using, stick to ROBOTC (or EasyC if that's all you have).

Information on using eclipse with ChibiOS/RT can be found here.

Setting up eclipse for ChibiOS/RT

Ignore all the parts concerning debugging, unless you have a JTAG debug interface and know where to plug it in inside the cortex then it's not applicable.

If you previously installed ChibiOS and convex under c:/Projects then create a new workspace at that location when starting eclipse.

A new plugin is now available that simplifies the process of making a new ConVEX project. Drag the plugin from the convex/plugins folder to the eclipse plugins folder and restart eclipse to activate. The plugin is used when new->project->other is selected from the file menu in eclipse.

If you create ConVEX projects in a location other than the default you will need to modify the paths to the ChibiOS and convex subdirectories in the setup.mk file.

# uncomment these if running from default project location
# Path to ChibiOS
#CHIBIOS    = ../ChibiOS_2.6.0
# Path to convex
#CONVEX     = ../convex/cortex

# uncomment to use the optional code like the smart motor library
#CONVEX_OPT  = yes

# User C code files
VEXUSERSRC = vexuser.c

# Uncomment and add/modify user include files
#VEXUSERINC = myfile.h

This file also needs to contain any user "c" and header files that are added. Sorry for the awkward process but I wanted it to remain close to the default ChibiOS make system so future ChibiOS updates work without modification.