Now download your favourite mikroE PIC compiler - if you have not already done so, and try out the easyPIC7 example code (which you can download from mikroE site where the EP7 is advertised)

... oh and read the EP7 manual of course..

 

... and we never saw Rif@@ again...

Enjoy your new board!

It's still me buddy.

 

Congrats!

You'll have lots of fun.

 

Took me one night to familiarize the on board thingies.

 

PS.. My wife said as soon as she saw the board, you will get 1 hr on that every night.
She figured I will be hooked on it. Knowing the time she gets after I get home.

First night I was on it for 3 hrs

What can I say, I am in love again.

 

So I tried to program the linistepper hex to 16F628A..

Took out the BIG pic. Set the MCLR jumper to DIP18B socket as per looking at the data.
Two sockets 18A & 18B. So checked the data for the port labels with what is written on the easypic. PIC data matched the 18B.

Plugged in USB
Opened the mikroprog. Loaded the HEX and hit write.

mikroProg warning came, PIC detected 12F508. Pic selected 16F628A

WTF ?

Tried another PIC, same.
Tried the 18A socket and same.
So I took out all the PIC and hit write, still it says 12F508 detected.

I am lost now.

Please advice.

 

check J1, J2, J8 and J9

These need to be set as indicated inside the GLCD 128X64 space

... and DIP18B socket is correct


Is the "LINK" LED lit?

 

J1 & J2 are in the middle per indication.
J8 & J9 are the same as for 40 pin one.

LINK led is active and as I hit program any way all the LED's work as they are supposed to. But I get programing error.

I checked all the examples and the 40 pin PIC works per example

 

U know I get PIC ID error form my parallel port willempro programmer with these 16F628A's. But the willempro identifies the PIC as 16F628A. After programming it gives ID error.

This was before. So that is why I bought a USB one. WillemPro works in XP well and these days I do not have parallel ports

Could the PIC's be bad. that is both 16F's

 

J1 & J2 are in the middle per indication.
J8 & J9 are the same as for 40 pin one.

LINK led is active and as I hit program any way all the LED's work as they are supposed to. But I get programing error.

I checked all the examples and the 40 pin PIC works per example

This suggests to me that your board and the software is all working well.

Broken PIC16s would seem to fit the symptoms, since you seem to have set the jumpers correctly.

PICs are hard to damage if treated reasonably, but broken PICs would be my favourite guess for what is wrong. I wonder if your other programmer was breaking them? But all guesswork I am afraid.

You could maybe try brand new PICs to be sure.

EDIT: sorry, all of the above is bad advice - see RB's follow-up post

 

The PIC is fine! The 16F628A has a LVP pin, I think it is RB4.

To program it you set the pullups jumper for PORTB to "pull down". Then turn on the dipswitch for RB4, to set the pullup resistor to pull-down RB4 to 0v. That will hold the LVP feature OFF, so the PIC programs normally.


If the RB4 pin is allowed to float it can select LVP mode which causes issues with programming. Or if the RB4 pullup is pulling UP to 5v it forces LVP mode on for sure.

 

Nice catch RB

That works brilliantly.

.. and I have learnt something new...


... and just to add to RBs excellent advice...


Once you can program your PIC - disable LVP (Low Voltage Program) in project settings to avoid future problems and to allow pin B4 to be used for normal I/O

 

Oh ! The Roman Black 4 (RB4 pin).

Gotcha ! Will update soon

 

The PIC is fine! The 16F628A has a LVP pin, I think it is RB4.

To program it you set the pullups jumper for PORTB to "pull down". Then turn on the dipswitch for RB4, to set the pullup resistor to pull-down RB4 to 0v. That will hold the LVP feature OFF, so the PIC programs normally.


If the RB4 pin is allowed to float it can select LVP mode which causes issues with programming. Or if the RB4 pullup is pulling UP to 5v it forces LVP mode on for sure.

I got to hand it to you Mr.RB.
It programed just flawlessly. Both the PIC's.
Thank a bunch, you are a life saver.

And a heart felt thank you to the rest of you guys too.
AAC rocks indeed.

Now to check the circuit.

 

Nice stepper driver I must say.

 

Thank you.

Have you decided on any projects you want to make with your EasyPIC7?

I think I have a simple HH:MM clock code somewhere in MikroC code, using a bresenham timing system that gives you really fine control over clock speed (so you can make a really accurate clock).

That's another thing, you should collect a few different value xtals. You can just plug in different xtal values and that will let you use other people's project code.

I think the EasyPIC7 comes with a 8MHz xtal, but a 10MHz xtal lets you use the max speed of the PIC (40MHz) and many people's codes use 4MHz xtal as thta was the old standard.

 

I have yet to try coding. It seems I still don't get the wordings. Assembly was easy. This is another ball game to me.

Any good books on mikroC pro.

I have plenty of xtals to go around.

I checked the library at mikroE. There are few I wanna learn.

One thing I want to try first is to learn how to use ADC so I can control ur linistepper with a PS3 Analog Joystick part. Want to try to move two motors X & Y in both directions.

Any good tut out there. If you care to point me to right direction.

If I learn ADC then I can try the LCD part. So to say to make a VA meters as such.

But I think I have to first go for the basics.

 

There is a folder of tutorial C code examples that come with the EasyPIC7. I'm sure there is one for the ADC.

Probably the first tutorial you should get going is the 16x2 text LCD. Once that works, you can display things (like the ADC value!) on the LCD screen. It is very easy to do, especially if you found ASM "easy".

I don't mind giving you some tips here if you want to get the C tutorials going, but it might be worth starting a new thread in the "Embedded Systems and Microcontrollers" area of the forum as that is where people normally go to help others with embedded programming tasks.

 

I will post in tht forum should a problem arise.

I am checking all the examples and familiarizing them.
The ebook is quite extensive.

I was studying the library with in mikroE.
It does make coding easier.

 

Sorry I missed this thread, Rifaa.
I also have an EasyPic7 and MikroC Pro for PIC; great combo.

It would be nice if more PICs were supported, but it does support quite a variety. I would suggest that you check the compatibility list before you buy more PICs, unless you have another way to program them - but then, what would be the point of getting the compiler and this board?