Matrix user forums

Hi

PPPv3 (3.7.10.23) is refusing to send a hex file to my v2 PIC dev board.
First of all, it says that it has been unable to erase the PIC installed in the board (a 16F84A) - this appears to have been in error, since the program that was previously in the PIC - and which was running merrily away immediately prior to this attempted programming - is now no longer running.

My presumption is that though PPP says no erasure has occurred, that is in error, and that the erasure has happened anyway.

Attempting to send a hex file to the device (all parallel ports set up just fine, no problems there) I see:
"Could not ID the onboard chip - assuming it is the one specified in the configuratio screen, i.e. PIC16F84A"

I hit OK (the only button showing) to see:
"PICMicro has not been erased. Continue?"

I choose yes, and see the following message:
"Programming failed: Program(0)"

In Options menu>options>autodetect the correct board is found, no problems.

In Configure PICMicro>autodetect:
"Could not ID the onboard chip"

Well, the board is fully powered up, the previous program on that same PIC was running fine, so no power problems. I can't however download any files to the PIC.

Any ideas?

Cheers!

Firstly check that the PSU is atached and switched on.
the PSU should be 13.5V for programming. If you have changed the PSU you may ned to check the voltage.

Do you have any other PIC chips you can test with? I.e. has the PIC chip blown, or is it a board issue? If the chip has gone it may still work, but not be programmable.

Check you have the correct chip set up in the PPP config screen, and that in the case of the 16F84 family check to see if it is a 16F84A chip which has auto id capability, or a 16F84 none A chip which does not have auto id on it.

If none of that works contact me via the support@matrixmultimedia.co.uk email address and I will look into it.

I changed the voltage on my adjustable PSU Unit from 9V to the 13.5V as you advised. Initially it seemed not to have any effects, but after I went back through the various settings in PPP (some of which had been changed by me in my prior debugging endeavours), the PIC was auto-ID-ed successfully, and all is now well.

Thank you very much for your assistance!

H