Now get: The chip could not be detected.

[pamB]

Using Win7 SP1, Flowcode 6.1.2 and EB-006-00-9 board programming 12F675 and all was working great for some weeks.

Made another modification to the program yesterday and all I get now is 'The chip could not be detected. Click OK to use specified chip (12F675).

I tried an old version of the program which previously worked and every time still get this error.
Tried new chip still bad. If you click ok to 'chip not detected' msg you get: File sent with 1 warning: Flash memory not verified - may be due to code protect.
Appears to write chip as blank chip get the program and appear to work.
Tried de-istalling Flowcode and re-installing latest 6.1.3 but still same.

Any thoughts? Has the EB-006-00-9 gone bad?

Thanks

[Benj]

Hello,

Does the 16F1937 device that came with the EB006 still work? It could be a problem with the 12F675 devices.

What do you have connected to the EB006.

Are you powering from a PSU or via USB. Have you tried the other method to see if this changes anything.

If your using a PSU then what voltage are you using? 12V is known to make the board run a bit hot especially if you have additional load on the voltage rails and so we recommend a voltage of 9V.

[pamB]

The 40pinPic which came with it works ok.
My PSU (Matrix) was set to 7.5V and I've uped it to 9V as per your post.

Now something really strange...
I took a untouched 12F675 and burnt it with a simple binary count on a couple of ports. It reconnised the chip and the counter could be seen running via the EB083 display board.
Went to burn it with my CatFlap program and I got the original error - chip not detected. Kept the chip in and the binary program gives the same error.
Tried my catflap with a new chip, got the error....

I suggests to me that the CatFlap progam, despite being quite basic is doing something which it shouldn't.

I have attached the program if that helps?

Thanks Phil

[Benj]

Hi Phil,

I found something here which might be relevant.
http://www.microchip.com/forums/m23901.aspx
and
http://www.microchip.com/forums/m55772.aspx

They are basically saying on the 12F675 you can have internal MCLR or internal OSC but not both?! Seems a bit odd but could potentially be a bug in the silicone or a problem in the EB006 programming timings for that device in that mode.

You may be able to work around the problem using a PICkit on the EB006 but this kind of defeats the purpose of the EB006.

I will investigate for you and see if there is anything we can tweak to try and improve this.

[Benj]

I also notice that your program immediately does an output operation on pin A0, one of the three pins used for programming (A0 & A1 & MCLR (A3)).

What about if you add say a 200ms - 1s delay before this to try and ensure that the pin in not being used as an output while trying to program the chip.

[pamB]

I tried the initial delay and using the ext MClr but still the same.

If you find any more out, I'd be very interested to hear.

Thanks Phil