For some of you this may be not big deal, but for me it is like that, and for all who helped me to reach this (early) stage in this forum, I would like to say thanks. Special thanks to Nigel Goodwin for his tutorial soft and hard wares.
After lost of one LCD module last month. I ordered a new three units, received them and spent one week of attempts to get it work and failed to do so. Today I've good news, my LCD is working.
The reason is me and my Programmer, I'm using DIY K128 PICmicro Programmer, v141204, it sets the Oscillator to IRCIO, so when I press program button, Error massage appears says: " Fuse error 0x2007, Good 0x3D18, Bad )xF18). I used to change the Oscillator into IRCCLK and does not receive any message.
This seem the problem with LCD tutorial, when I left it as it is IRCIO, received the error message but got the LCD working fine.
I have just got a PIC programmer (the 3128 from Quasar Electronics) and am getting the same problem trying to program my 16F628. However the only difference between 0x3D18 and 0x3F18 is the state of bit 9, and on reading the datasheet this bit doesn't actually do anything. This is probably why your circuit still works [I'm hoping that mine will too, but currently don't have a supply with suitable voltage ]
That is a lot of money for a programmer with no debug ability. If possible I would send it back and get a unit with debugging. A good choice would be the PICkit2. They were on sale in the UK through EPE recently. I am not sure if that offer is still good.
While I fully understand "buyer be ware" I have little good to say about a company that is selling obsolete equipment and calling it professional. They should at least offer the good stuff too but then the junk would not sell.
I have just got a PIC programmer (the 3128 from Quasar Electronics) and am getting the same problem trying to program my 16F628. However the only difference between 0x3D18 and 0x3F18 is the state of bit 9, and on reading the datasheet this bit doesn't actually do anything. This is probably why your circuit still works [I'm hoping that mine will too, but currently don't have a supply with suitable voltage ]
Thanks 3v0. I did actually check out the Pickit 2 originally, but couldn't find it sold with (what I could 100% verify was) the ability to program your own chips (only ones presoldered into boards etc). Hence I got this 3128 which seems to work. It does have a ICSP connector so I might be able to get a Pickit 2 later and use its debugging feature.
If you stick any PIC into a solderless breadboard and run a few wires to a pin header you can program it. I made a PCB with an ICSP header and several differnt sized sockets to save time. But 99% of programing is done in circut these days. It saves wear and tear on the chip's pins (if it has any).
It is nice to have another PIC person here. What language(s) do you program in?
Thanks 3v0. I did actually check out the Pickit 2 originally, but couldn't find it sold with (what I could 100% verify was) the ability to program your own chips (only ones presoldered into boards etc). Hence I got this 3128 which seems to work. It does have a ICSP connector so I might be able to get a Pickit 2 later and use its debugging feature.
If you stick any PIC into a solderless breadboard and run a few wires to a pin header you can program it. I made a PCB with an ICSP header and several differnt sized sockets to save time. But 99% of programing is done in circut these days. It saves wear and tear on the chip's pins (if it has any).
It is nice to have another PIC person here. What language(s) do you program in?
Well being completely new to PICs in general, I was most put off by the fact that Pickit 2 only appears to have a female connector for ICSP so I have no simple way of wiring that to my breadboard (that and the fact that it appeared to come with presoldered modules as I mentioned before). I'm sure I could figure out how to do ICSP but I'm very scared of damaging the chips
Anyway, I'm writing programs for my PIC16F628 in that chip's assembly language. I do however also know Basic, C and Delphi.
Microchip has a very good free student version C compiler. It is about the same as their commerical version execpt some optimization stops working after 90 days. BoostC is another good C compiler and reasonably priced.
The 18F's are a bit easier to work with and tend to have more memory. Price is about the same.
In time the fear will pass. You can distroy them but they are fairly tough.
Check to be sure you disabled the WDT on your code (other thread)
Well being completely new to PICs in general, I was most put off by the fact that Pickit 2 only appears to have a female connector for ICSP so I have no simple way of wiring that to my breadboard...
OK I'm officially a noob then. I spent £60 on a debug-less programmer when I could have paid £30 for the pickit 2 and one of those cable things
I just tried doing ICSP on a breadboard and it worked, so I'm a little less afraid now Thanks for the help all. I think I'll just stick with my overpriced programmer now I've got it - as I often write buggy code, my debugging skills are very finely tuned (I have a simulator program to test code with).
I don't think you can hurt a pic with a pickit2 if you hook it up wrong it will not power up the chip or program it and it dose a lot of cool things. uart tools logic tools you can make
a board to plug in to it with a 5 pin header male type and a socket on a piece of bread broad for about $3.00
It is all part of our drive to become a 3rd world nation. The dollar is so weak that the good people from Mexico are doing their Christmas shopping in the US.
3v0
EDIT: Maybe in a very small way that will help with the trade imbalance.