IR Board Problem

[RyanN]

Originally Posted by DarkJedi613

I have a pretty detailed post here about that.

Man... beat again at a good idea!

[idahorobot]

Thanks! Ours went down last night and I cannot find a pic programer. I will give this a try.

[DarkJedi613]

Originally Posted by iambujo

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. Is it possible something is wrong with that file? Or am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

[iambujo]

Humm, sorry to hear that. Did you unzip the hex file?

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]

Originally Posted by iambujo

Humm, sorry to hear that. Did you unzip the hex file?

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]

what programmer are you using? (ICD2?)
what software do you use with it?

[iambujo]

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]

Originally Posted by 3dude_2231

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.

Originally Posted by iambujo

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]

The IR PIC hex file has also been posted by FIRST on their Additional Technical resources page
http://www2.usfirst.org/2008comp/Manual/FIRSTIR.HEX

[Binome]

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]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

The IR PIC hex file has also been posted by FIRST on their Additional Technical resources 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...

[tpage22]

i have the same problem as DarkJedi613
No luck so far.

[DarkJedi613]

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!