Re: Trouble With my PIC Programmer



Luhan wrote:

Brick wrote:
Hello,

I just purchased a baseline flash microcontroller programmer for

I had a problem with the PIC16F627A. It turns out the 'A' version is
not program compatable with the non-A part! I got all zero's all the
time until I updated my programming software for the newer part.

Luhan


Also some radical differences between respective FLASH prog. methodologies of
16F877 and 16F877A .... much to my surprise and annoyance. I learned this only
after repeated prog/verify failures at word 0x0000 of a handful of brand new
16F877A chips. Read the chip; "Chip seems to be erased". Program the chip;
ka-boom! Read the chip; "Chip is code protected". Say WHAT? Made no sense.
The free programming software I was trying to use wasn't telling me the whole
story. Decided to write my own &%$@! programming software! I D/L the latest
Flash Prog. Spec. for 16F877, which, it so happened, covered the 877A. Once I'd
digested that, the root cause of my problem was clear.

Code protected program memory reads out as zeros, but in my (admittedly limited)
experience w/ PICs, the device ID loc. (and user ID locs?) should read as what
they actually are, regardless of code protection. So if a programmer/software
shows you the actual ID loc. data as zeros, I would tend to suspect the
programmer and/or the software that runs it before suspecting the chip. Too, if
prog. software reports that it doesn't recognize the PIC and *does*not* report
the actual ID data that lead to its conclusion then you know only that something
is amiss; you haven't enough diagnostic data to decide, with certainty, whether
the PIC, the programmer, the software, or any adapter is at fault.

The 877A prog. s/w I ultimately wrote is very verbose! :-)

--
Michael
.

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