Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

I had the intermittent data "glitches" with the LEDs as well; the cure was to save sections .tmpdata and MATH_DATA as well as the default PROD in the interrupt handler #pragma. For example:
Also, this may be a stupid question, but is everyone here using the latest version of the IFI loader? The previous version had a problem writing to FLASH bank 1, which might explain why it works just fine as long as it can fit in the 2005 controller. :)

EDIT: What version of the compiler is everyone using?

Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

You beat me to this question. I'm using 2.44 (version can be found in readme.c18) and have seen *none* of the problems teams are seeing. All of the code on my website has been compiled with the 2.44 version. Has anyone had a problem with the pre-compiled code in my .zip files?

-Kevin

Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

Yes. I can regenerate the 8.2V problem with the gyro.hex file from a freshly-downloaded frc_gyro.zip from http://www.kevin.org/frc/, although it doesn't do it every time I upload it.

So far, the IFI folks think that ADC_Int_Handler() is too long, but I'm not sure I agree (since I'm not seeing the RLOD, and it works flawlessly on my 2004 RC).

Oh, and to answer your question, I'm using mcc18 v2.40. (Is an update available to us?)

Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

Yes, we are using v 2.40 as well, this is the version that was supplied in the kit. Did we miss an update? I don't recall seeing anything come across the board...
Perhaps that is the root of our issues,
From the IFI Website:

NOTE: To Compile 2004, 2005 or 2006 code, use MPLAB ver 7.20 and C18 Compiler ver 2.40 (newer versions can not be used)

Kevin...you didnt give us base code compiled with 2.44 did you...? :rolleyes:
Even if so, we do appreciate all the hard work you do to provide us with the code each year, so Thank You! :)

Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

Hmm, I am using 2.40. I wonder if the Microchip folks know about the problem, and have fixed it in 2.44? Where did you get 2.44?

Here's an idea for someone with access to a 2006 controller:
Try compiling your code for the PIC18F8520 instead of the PIC18F8722 and see if that cures the problem. It'll still run on the '8520, but I wonder if it might fix some of the problems (if it is truly a compiler bug, maybe it is restricted to the '8722 compiler). Just a hunch... :)

Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

Kevin, we are using v2.40 17 November 2004. I didn't think we were allowed to use any newer versions. Saturday morning I was showing Dave Lavery the problem at the VCU regional and he went over and talked to the "IFI guy" who said that it was not possible for the user processor code to corrupt the battery voltage reading or the RC to OI comms. And that makes sense to me unless memory is shared between the processors or the MP passes the rxdata structure transparently or something like that. Is there any documentation on the interaction between the user processor and the master processor? The only thing I know is the tx and rxdata structures and the format of the dashboard data which provides clues as to what the OTA format between them is. Our one and only 2006 controller is locked in a crate awaiting the Atlanta regional so I can't do any testing but I do have code that parses through the dashboard output and generates an output file I can suck into excel for analysis. I would be interested in what actually comes out of the dashboard port when this is happening to see if data is skewed by a byte or two. I know when we have this problem, control input that should effect PWM5 turns actually gets coupled to PWM1 or 2 (they used to drive the same motor pair) I can give more details if anyone is interested.

Greg

Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

Thanks to the Wayback Machine (www.archive.org), I was able to find the 2.42 upgrade file here:
http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/e...oc/C18_242.zip

Aha! I found the 2.44 upgrade file here:
http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/e...rade-v2_44.exe

I found this interesting section in the Readme (emphasis mine):
"The following parts have updates and/or corrections:
18F6520, 18F6620, 18F8520, and 18F8620"

Also, it makes mention of the 18F8722 having a problem or two... :)

Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

That makes sense, however why didn't we see this last year if the only change was the user processor? :confused:

Has anyone tried a master update in case some of the RCs have a corrupted master firmware?

Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

At the BAE regional, the IFI person (Corey) at first thought we had a user code bug, but later said that he was of the belief that something was wrong with the RC or the Master CPU code, for the same reasons (user processor code shouldn't be able to corrupt the comms or battery voltage readings). I've given them my code, FWIW. I haven't gotten the 8.2V bug to show up on our 2006 RC with the pure default code dated 2/24 (but I *did* get this code to show the problem with a loaner RC at BAE), but using gyro.hex from frc_gyro.zip I can get this to show up simply by loading the hex code a few times.

Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

If I had the 2006 processor I would reload the master processor bin file. So many things that I normally would have done to narrow this problem down did not happen in the heat of battle.

I asked IFI if they knew what master processor version was shipped but I haven't gotten a reply yet.

Part of post to IFI new problem under gsmith last night...
*******
I ran into a problem at the VCU regional starting last Friday where the communications between the OI and RC were getting corrupted. It looks like the data structure between the master processor and the OI is shifted by a byte or so. We are using the 2006 RC and OI received in the FIRST KOP. We have not re-flashed the master processor and I don’t know what firmware revision it is although I noticed that the date of the Frc_master_v12.bin file, the latest?, is 10/27/2005 so I assume we have the latest master code.

*****

Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

They're referring to version 3.0 of the compiler, which cannot be used for a few different reasons.

Yep, I certainly did. It's not a problem.

As long as you learn something from reading/using the code, it's my pleasure.

-Kevin

Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

Where did you find the Version 12 Update file? The latest on IFI's website is Version 11, dated 4-15-2005.

Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

I'm using 2.40 and I haven't seen any of the problems stated here.. The real test will come on Thursday, when I see if any of these problems have appeared since we put it in the box...

I'm going to check tonight to see if we have a spare 2005/2004 RC that we can bring, but as of the current FIRST rules, they are not allowed. Maybe someone should go post on the Q&A forums, explaining the situation.. maybe we could get the 2005 RC cleared to use until this problem is resolved (It DOES work with the field control system, we were using it at the scrimmage with no problems) It wouldn't even be a tight fit for me.. 55% usage on the 2005 controller :)


Someone with access to a 2006 RC: Disable compiler optimizations... Project->Build Options->Project->MPLAB C18->Optimization (Dropdown), Disable.

If that fixes it, then its a compiler bug (But it can be worked around!)

I can tell you right now I've had all the optimizations enabled since the second week of build, and haven't seen this problem.

Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

It's in the

"2006 RC Code (zip,21-28-2006) Contains both Default/User and Master Code, contains new libraries below."

Zip file.

Re: The 8.2 (or 8.3) Battery Voltage Bug
 

Thanks! :)