View Full Version : IR Board Problem
Akkifokkusu
16-02-2008, 20:06
We are trying to train our IR board. We connected it to the power and hooked everything up. When we turn it on, the error light flashes for a second and turns off. After that, pushing the little button achieves nothing. Every time we turn the power on, the same thing happens. Can anyone tell us what the problem is and how we can solve/fix it?
Sunshine
16-02-2008, 20:09
Read Update 10
I believe you have the same problems that we just discovered today. Our board worked fine until this evening right before we head to a final mini regional :(
We have the same symptoms that update 10 explains.
Hope you have better luck.
Akkifokkusu
16-02-2008, 20:14
Thing is, this is the first time we've plugged in the board (to my knowledge). So maybe it was already corrupted when we got it?
Sunshine
16-02-2008, 20:17
Unfortunately there were reports earlier of IR boards not working out of the box too :(
3dude_2231
16-02-2008, 21:26
refer to this thread (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=64285), which solves the problem
Richard McClellan
17-02-2008, 10:26
Read Update 10
I believe you have the same problems that we just discovered today. Our board worked fine until this evening right before we head to a final mini regional :(
We have the same symptoms that update 10 explains.
Hope you have better luck.
We discovered the same problem last night after we got back from our mini regional practice competition :eek:
I guess this is what happened to our IR board at first. It corrupted itself. Now I worry about our new one, even if we do add a switch, I don't know if that will help. Our robot pulls so many AMPs that it often goes below 5V while running, which could cause it to corrupt. I wonder if a large, in-line capacitor, before the switch for the IR board, isolated from the rest of the power system with diodes, will solve this problem.
Also, does anyone know where to get the code that the update was talking about? They mention it, but there is no link, and I cannot find it under the competition manual or IFI.
Mark McLeod
17-02-2008, 11:09
Also, does anyone know where to get the code that the update was talking about? They mention it, but there is no link, and I cannot find it under the competition manual or IFI.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showpost.php?p=700503&postcount=5
Thanks for the help.... Now to figure out the ICSP programmer stuff...
Richard McClellan
17-02-2008, 12:31
Does anyone know where to get an ICSP programmer or how to make one? We'd like to figure this out before ship day so we can see if this is going to work.
eugenebrooks
17-02-2008, 13:03
We have had our IR board quit as well. Our board had the voltage regulator removed and bypassed and was powered from the 5 volt rail where signals from it were connected. It was working when it was hooked up yesterday, but we power cycled the robot a number of times last night during testing. There were no wiring adjustments so we are sure it was not miss-wired since the last time it worked. When we came in this morning, after patching in an in-line power switch first that was suggested in the team update, and the IR board was not responding. If we put it in learn state it goes through the learn sequence until you get to the fourth light and then it freezes during the second check on the fourth light.
Eugene
3dude_2231
17-02-2008, 15:14
Thanks for the help.... Now to figure out the ICSP programmer stuff...
hey, you might wanna purchase / find someone who has
an ICD2 programmer, or a PICKIT2 package
their'e great!
Ran.
We had success with it today as well. I used winpic to program the chip with a custom serial cable I made late last night based upon a whole lot of googling and research. I too erased before programming to get it to work. For teams in need of doing this that don't have fancy PIC programming hardware or time to order some, attached is the harness schematic I made. I used a PC serial port (and not a laptop) because most of what I read said that the laptop voltage levels are not high enough on the serial port to program it.
Best of luck to everyone. NOTE - I take no responsibility if it does not work for you, damages your IR board further or the PC you use to program it. I can promise it worked flawlessly for me. Just in case, I would not have the IR board connected to your main robot controller while programming the board; in the event there is a problem, it won't hurt your robot.
Also, if I may make a recommendation... we are now using a Spike to turn the IR board on and off. Whenever the robot is in autonomous mode, it turns on, and when autonomous is off, it turns off. It's a little more complicated than a switch, but I think it is a little smarter of an idea, since you don't have to remember to turn it on and off, and it serves the same purpose.
DarkJedi613
17-02-2008, 23:23
Also, if I may make a recommendation... we are now using a Spike to turn the IR board on and off. Whenever the robot is in autonomous mode, it turns on, and when autonomous is off, it turns off. It's a little more complicated than a switch, but I think it is a little smarter of an idea, since you don't have to remember to turn it on and off, and it serves the same purpose.
I have a pretty detailed post here (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64309) about that. :)
I have a pretty detailed post here (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64309) about that. :)
Man... beat again at a good idea!
idahorobot
18-02-2008, 10:34
Thanks! Ours went down last night and I cannot find a pic programer. I will give this a try.
DarkJedi613
18-02-2008, 21:40
We had success with it today as well. I used winpic to program the chip with a custom serial cable I made late last night based upon a whole lot of googling and research. I too erased before programming to get it to work. For teams in need of doing this that don't have fancy PIC programming hardware or time to order some, attached is the harness schematic I made. I used a PC serial port (and not a laptop) because most of what I read said that the laptop voltage levels are not high enough on the serial port to program it.
So I did this, I was able to initialize (once I used a desktop, not a laptop) and I was able to erase the program currently on there. But when I go to load the FIRSTIR.hex, it gives me an error saying there is a problem with the file. If I ignore that fact and try to load it onto the PIC then it goes through and fails during verification. Any ideas? I'm using the FIRSTIR.hex posted here (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showpost.php?p=700489&postcount=3). Is it possible something is wrong with that file? Or am I doing something wrong? Thanks.
Humm, sorry to hear that. Did you unzip the hex file? :yikes:
I didn't have any problems and I used the same file you mentioned. Can you read from the device without error? I wonder if your PC serial port voltage is too low, I saw mention that that could cause problems when I was researching. I guess since it worked for me, I don't have much insight into figuring out what can go wrong.
DarkJedi613
19-02-2008, 10:27
Humm, sorry to hear that. Did you unzip the hex file? :yikes:
I didn't have any problems and I used the same file you mentioned. Can you read from the device without error? I wonder if your PC serial port voltage is too low, I saw mention that that could cause problems when I was researching. I guess since it worked for me, I don't have much insight into figuring out what can go wrong.
Yes I unzipped the hex file. I can read from the device without error (although now its empty!). I don't think the serial port voltage is too low, it erased the device fine. As soon as I open the hex file (before loading it into the device) I get the following error:
LoadHex: Ignored 316 locations at addr 0x000400...0x002008 .
Also though, do I need to manually select the device (PIC1687)? Is anything to be changed in Device config? When I select the device that it says:
Couldn't find "devices\PIC16F87.dev", please borrow/copy from MPLAB !
3dude_2231
19-02-2008, 16:14
what programmer are you using? (ICD2?)
what software do you use with it?
Check out the screen shot in my powerpoint slides. Under the interface tab I selected "JDM (2) for serial port" under Interface Type, and then I loaded the ElCheapo_PCB.ini for the definition file. This was via trial and error before I got "success". Maybe that will help if you didn't do that.
DarkJedi613
19-02-2008, 16:53
what programmer are you using? (ICD2?)
what software do you use with it?
I'm using iambujo's method of a serial dongle connected to the board.
Check out the screen shot in my powerpoint slides. Under the interface tab I selected "JDM (2) for serial port" under Interface Type, and then I loaded the ElCheapo_PCB.ini for the definition file. This was via trial and error before I got "success". Maybe that will help if you didn't do that.
Yes, I saw that and set both of them. Maybe I'll try again on a different computer. Thanks for your help. Its strange because I can connect, erase, read, verify, etc. I just cannot write the hex file. Perhaps it is the voltage levels.
Mark McLeod
19-02-2008, 19:21
The IR PIC hex file has also been posted by FIRST on their Additional Technical resources (http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=482) page
http://www2.usfirst.org/2008comp/Manual/FIRSTIR.HEX
To anyone with IR board problems that's coming to the oregon regional, team 2273 (shameless plug) will graciously give you a hand in getting it to work. It'd be a shame for any teams to not get their robot to do at least SOMETHING in hybrid. We have a PicKit2 and the know-how to get your boards up and running.
DarkJedi613
19-02-2008, 21:42
The IR PIC hex file has also been posted by FIRST on their Additional Technical resources (http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=482) page
http://www2.usfirst.org/2008comp/Manual/FIRSTIR.HEX
Thanks. The files are identical. So that's not the problem.
I'll keep fiddling with it and post if I have any success...
i have the same problem as DarkJedi613
No luck so far.
DarkJedi613
23-02-2008, 18:16
I got it to work!
The things I changed (note I don't know if all these are necessary):
Devices Tab:
Choose PIC16F87
Options Tab:
Provided the MPLAB devices directory (you really only need one file - "PIC16F87.dev" and it was asking for a 16F716 algorithm, but also providing PIC16F716 didnt help).
Interface:
Interface type: JDM (2) for serial port
Custom interface definition file: ElCheapo_PCB.ini
And that was it! Note: it gave me LOTS of errors, but the device works now (through test it with a remote) so I'm not sure whats up with that. I just tried it again on my laptop (through a USB to serial adaptor -- I changed the Option "I/O Port Access Driver" to "no direct access at all, only use win API"). This DID NOT work however -- I could not even erase the board. It is possible a true serial port would work however. Good luck!
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