My clock works! Thank you for all of your help. I wound up
using the Microchip PICkit2 programmer and the software went in
perfectly. Not nearly as difficult as I first imagined it would be.
Best wishes Mike Burch Apache Junction, AZ
Reply by Grant Edwards●September 1, 20082008-09-01
On 2008-09-01, Mike Burch <mburch46@mchsi.com> wrote:
> I have two files 1 master and 1 slave. Two boards get the
> slave version. If I do get an off the shelf programmer, is
> this module smart enough to take the hex file and send it
> where it needs to go or is there another program that does
> that?
You'll need to run a program on a host that operates the
programmer interface and uses it to program the contents of the
hex file into the target.
> How long would the controller retain the programming without
> power applied? I have seen one state that it should last for
> 40 years. Is that correct?
Probably. Nobody knows for sure. Accellerated life testing
(running devices at high temperatures) is used to estimate
things like that. 40 years sounds reasonable.
--
Grant
Reply by Mike Burch●September 1, 20082008-09-01
Thank you for all of your replies as they helped me a lot! The author
of the project was kind enough to give me the hex files. He has been
very gracious with me up to this point and I didn't want to annoy him or
step on his toes plus I thought that if he had wanted it out there he
would have posted it. But I asked him and he said ok. This guy is
really ,really sharp! And I am out of my league but
I'm going to make it work or else. Now I have to get the programs into the
controllers. I have two files 1 master and 1 slave. Two boards get the
slave version. If I do get an off the shelf
programmer , is this module smart enough to take the hex file and
send it where it needs to go or is there another program that does that?
How long would the controller retain the programming without power
applied? I have seen one state that it should last for
40 years. Is that correct?
Thanks again for your time
Mike Burch
Apache Junction, AZ
Reply by andersod2●August 31, 20082008-08-31
I'm not the guy to listen to, but I have to agree with Tim's original
suggestion. This person obviously wants people to succeed in this
project, so at the very least he would know of and be willing to
suggest an appropriate programmer. He would also want to list it
there in the project site, so you are probably doing him a favor by
asking him the question.
I have an AVR-ISP board which is a simple parallel port to jtag
programmer and is pretty cheap and works on my Win xp machine (it came
with an eval board that was $35)...yes, there are sync issues that
make it so it doesn't work perfectly every time, but the issues aren't
a big deal...I gotta believe there is a PIC equivalent to that
somewhere...
Reply by Tim Wescott●August 31, 20082008-08-31
Stephen D. Barnes wrote:
> Tim Wescott wrote:
>> RumpelStiltSkin wrote:
>>>
>>> "Tim Wescott" <tim@seemywebsite.com> wrote in message
>>> news:S5mdnS-nkLjEPyTVnZ2dnUVZ_oLinZ2d@web-ster.com...
>>>> andersod2 wrote:
>>>>> The schematic shows a programmer port on there, so you might not need
>>>>> an eval board to do the programming...may just be able to plug the
>>>>> cable in and program the code right into it...PIC should have a lot of
>>>>> different tools you can download for compiling and programming it
>>>>> yourself...I would look for a PIC developers site that is for
>>>>> beginners which should exists somewhere I'm guessing given the
>>>>> popularity of PICs. With the right compiler (which I'm guessing there
>>>>> is a free version of) and programmer (also should be a free one), you
>>>>> could do it yourself without much trouble I have to believe. I only
>>>>> know AVR's which is basically the equivalent, and it has all the above
>>>>> mentioned tools for free. And there is a lot of support on
>>>>> avrfreaks.com specifically for that, so I gotta believe someone could
>>>>> help you do this easily from a PIC equivalent site.
>>>>>
>>>> The cheapest way to get a PIC programmer is to get one of the
>>>> paraller-port ones -- but that requires a compatible parallel port.
>>>>
>>>> Eval boards have programmers built in, which is what motivated that
>>>> suggestion. The ones you get from Microchip are very very nice, and
>>>> cost lots of $$.
>>>>
>>>> There's gotta be a usable, cheap USB/PIC programmer out there, though.
>>>
>>> Its called the ICD2. Can debug or program PICs.
>>>
>> Eh. Those are cheaper than I thought. Still not hobbyist cheap, but
>> pretty darn close.
>>
> Check out www.microchip.com and look at the PicKit II. I think it is
> about $35 USD. USB pic programmer for almost the entire range of pics.
> You can get MPLAB there as well which is the programming IDE.
>
> Regards,
> Steve
The PicKit was what I was thinking of for the OP. Unfortunately that
doesn't get him compiled code to load; the Microchip compiler is very
nice but it defines hardware accesses differently than the CCS compiler
does so it'll choke on code written for that compiler.
--
Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com
Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" gives you just what it says.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
Reply by Stephen D. Barnes●August 31, 20082008-08-31
Tim Wescott wrote:
> RumpelStiltSkin wrote:
>>
>> "Tim Wescott" <tim@seemywebsite.com> wrote in message
>> news:S5mdnS-nkLjEPyTVnZ2dnUVZ_oLinZ2d@web-ster.com...
>>> andersod2 wrote:
>>>> The schematic shows a programmer port on there, so you might not need
>>>> an eval board to do the programming...may just be able to plug the
>>>> cable in and program the code right into it...PIC should have a lot of
>>>> different tools you can download for compiling and programming it
>>>> yourself...I would look for a PIC developers site that is for
>>>> beginners which should exists somewhere I'm guessing given the
>>>> popularity of PICs. With the right compiler (which I'm guessing there
>>>> is a free version of) and programmer (also should be a free one), you
>>>> could do it yourself without much trouble I have to believe. I only
>>>> know AVR's which is basically the equivalent, and it has all the above
>>>> mentioned tools for free. And there is a lot of support on
>>>> avrfreaks.com specifically for that, so I gotta believe someone could
>>>> help you do this easily from a PIC equivalent site.
>>>>
>>> The cheapest way to get a PIC programmer is to get one of the
>>> paraller-port ones -- but that requires a compatible parallel port.
>>>
>>> Eval boards have programmers built in, which is what motivated that
>>> suggestion. The ones you get from Microchip are very very nice, and
>>> cost lots of $$.
>>>
>>> There's gotta be a usable, cheap USB/PIC programmer out there, though.
>>
>> Its called the ICD2. Can debug or program PICs.
>>
> Eh. Those are cheaper than I thought. Still not hobbyist cheap, but
> pretty darn close.
>
Check out www.microchip.com and look at the
PicKit II. I think it is about $35 USD. USB
pic programmer for almost the entire range of
pics. You can get MPLAB there as well which
is the programming IDE.
Regards,
Steve
Reply by Tim Wescott●August 30, 20082008-08-30
RumpelStiltSkin wrote:
>
> "Tim Wescott" <tim@seemywebsite.com> wrote in message
> news:S5mdnS-nkLjEPyTVnZ2dnUVZ_oLinZ2d@web-ster.com...
>> andersod2 wrote:
>>> The schematic shows a programmer port on there, so you might not need
>>> an eval board to do the programming...may just be able to plug the
>>> cable in and program the code right into it...PIC should have a lot of
>>> different tools you can download for compiling and programming it
>>> yourself...I would look for a PIC developers site that is for
>>> beginners which should exists somewhere I'm guessing given the
>>> popularity of PICs. With the right compiler (which I'm guessing there
>>> is a free version of) and programmer (also should be a free one), you
>>> could do it yourself without much trouble I have to believe. I only
>>> know AVR's which is basically the equivalent, and it has all the above
>>> mentioned tools for free. And there is a lot of support on
>>> avrfreaks.com specifically for that, so I gotta believe someone could
>>> help you do this easily from a PIC equivalent site.
>>>
>> The cheapest way to get a PIC programmer is to get one of the
>> paraller-port ones -- but that requires a compatible parallel port.
>>
>> Eval boards have programmers built in, which is what motivated that
>> suggestion. The ones you get from Microchip are very very nice, and
>> cost lots of $$.
>>
>> There's gotta be a usable, cheap USB/PIC programmer out there, though.
>
> Its called the ICD2. Can debug or program PICs.
>
Eh. Those are cheaper than I thought. Still not hobbyist cheap, but
pretty darn close.
--
Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com
Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" gives you just what it says.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
Reply by Grant Edwards●August 30, 20082008-08-30
On 2008-08-30, Tim Wescott <tim@justseemywebsite.com> wrote:
> You used to be able to make a really cheap PIC programmer that would run
> off of a PC parallel port, but parallel ports (and Windows) aren't what
> they used to be. Microchip has some inexpensive eval boards that'll let
> you program a chip and test it on the board, then plug it into your
> project & give it a whirl.
www.sparkfun.com is a good source for both cheap programmers
and cheap eval boards/kits.
--
Grant