HP-488 set-up / chip type issue

[Ralph]

Hi,
I just set up my HP-488 board. The USB driver installed fine and PPP V3 can see the board and identifies the firmware as version 7. The PIC processor that came with the development board is marked PIC16F877A-I/P. Here is the problem, if I click "Configure Pic Micro" and then "Autodetect" the PIC and I get a warning message that reads "PIC16F74 was not found in this list - please use the "expert" config screen."

Well, I just manually selected the PIC16F877A.

Next in FlowCode I fust wrote a simple program to turn on all of the port B LEDs on and selected "Compile to chip". Part way through I get an error message " The chip selected in the config screen does not corrispond to the on board chip. Please select the correct chip..." and it gives 2 options: PIC16F74 and PIC16F88.

Note: Using PPP I have tried to select each of the chips above and erase them with no luck. (PIC16F88, PIC16F74 & PIC16F877A)

I am using windows XP, and the USB port is version 1. I don't think that this should matter as I can read the firmware version.

I hope that you have some ideas on how to fix this one.
Thank you,
Ralph

[Benj]

Hello Ralph

Sounds like your using an older version of PPP.

We are currently on version 3.9.12.26 of PPP. If your PPP version is older then this then downloading the latest version should fix your problem.

http://www.matrixmultimedia.com/softwar ... _12_26.zip

[Ralph]

Hi Ben,
I am presently using version 3.9.12.26 as shown in the Help - About screen. Do you have any other ideas?
Thank you,
Ralph

[Benj]

Hello Ralph

Ok it sounds like the auto ID on board the chip may have become damaged or locked.
The fact that the auto detect feature is trying to assign a wrong PICmicro is a good indication of this.
I use 16F877A chips here all the time and have never really had a problem with them although you do get the occasional one that will need replacing.

Do you have another PICmicro device that you can try.

[Ralph]

Hi Ben,
I do not have another PIC 16F877A other than the one that came with the board. I do have a PIC12F675. Will that device work on the development board? If so, I assume that it goes in the U28 socket. Since it is an 8 pin device, does pin 1 of the chip go to pin 1 of the socket, or does pin 4 of the device go to pin 14 of the socket.
A few other things that I tried was:
1) switched to a PC with a USB2 port - no difference
2) Removed the PIC 16F877A , powered the board (power supply & USB). Ran the auto chip detect with PPP and it thinks that there is a PIC16F88 there.
3) I tried the "Erase Pic Micro" feature and it does this sucessfully with no chip.

I will order a few more PIC 16F877A. Do you think that it could be a problem with the board based on the above?
Thanks,
Ralph

[Ralph]

Ben,
I just tried the PIC12F675. By looking at the pin out, I put it in the U28 socket, pin 1 to pin 1.

PPP could not auto detect the chip, so I manually selected the PIC12F675 from the expert screen. Next I tried to erase the chip, no luck even after the 10 re-trys.

Ralph

[Benj]

Hello Ralph.

Just had a thought.

Please can you try this for me.

Right click on My Computer and select Properties. Click on the hardware tab and then click on Device manager. Then open up the Universal Serial Bus devices and find the Dev Board. Then double click the Dev board and goto the Power management tab. There untick the box that says allow Wondows to power down this device. Click Ok and close down all the windows.

Now try using PPP to do an autodetect and a program.

[Ralph]

Hi Ben,
I just tried it with no luck. Note, +5V and ground are getting to the correct pins on the chip for analog and digital piwer.
Ralph

[Ralph]

I have ordered additional PIC16F877A chips and will try them out this weekend.
Ralph

[Ralph]

Ben,
I have just tried the new PIC16F877A and still get the same results as posted above. Through PPP I can read the SW and FW versions so the PC is talking to the board. The autodetect still thinks the chip is a PIC16F74. I can manually enter the PIC16F877A, but can't erase it or program it.
I Flowcode Pro and the HP-488-00-3 board through MicroController Pros Corporation. How can I return this board to have it repaired or replaced?
Thank you,
Ralph D'Ambrosio

[Steve]

Hi Ralph,

Sorry to hear of the problems you have been having. I have never heard of a problem such as this and it does not sound like a hardware problem - when there is a problem with the hardware, it generally either works or doesn't. It seems very strange that the chip is being ID'd as a different chip.

So I've got 2 more suggestions before we initiate a return procedure:

1) I know it sounds obvious, but is there definitely only 1 chip in the "slave" PICmicro sockets (not including the "PPP" chip)? If you put more than 1 slave PICmicro, then there will be unpredictable results and you are sure to damage one or more of the chips.

The reason I'm asking this is that we supply the board with an '88 as standard. And when you removed the '877a, PPP autodetected an '88 and managed to erase it. So, is the U18 slot definitely empty?

2) Are you able to try the board on another PC? This would be a great help because we could then be sure that it is a hardware problem rather than a problem with the PPP software installation.

Please let me know the answers to these questions, and then we'll take it from there.

[Ralph]

Steve,
Your first suggestion was the answer!!! I figured that the U18 chip was part of the development board. I removed the chip and PPP was able to identify the PIC16F877A. I was able to erase the chip but have not tried loading a program yet.
Thank you!!!!
Ralph

[Steve]

I'm glad it was a simple fix. But do be careful when using any of the chips because their i/o lines may have been damaged.