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Hardware => Lynx EtherDongle => Topic started by: mykroft on December 29, 2011,

Title: Pic Flashing Failing
Post by: mykroft on December 29, 2011,: Am going over to a friends house later today to borrow his HD camera so I can post pics but to get started and hopefully get a Idea...

Put my 1st ETD together last night - simpile straightforward procedure - nothing hard - good assembly manual etc (thanks for those) and then got the the part about flashing the pic.

Pulled up Pickit3, set the device (last one on the device list) loaded the firmware and hit write - lights on the programmer seem to flash as normal as with all the other pics I have done in the past, but no matter what function - read/write/verify/erase/black check etc I get "operation failed." back from the pickit3 software.

Device selected: PIC32MX795F512L, using the pixelnet firmware listed in the wiki last night

funny thing i noticed, when i load the firmware from the downloaded file, the checksum is always 0000, i thought i remembered when load the firmware like for the SSC, once i loaded the firmware the checksum would update with what was loaded in memory - but i am not sure....

So is there anything obvious to look for am currently reflowing all the solder joints etc

Thanks
Myk
Title: Re: Pic Flashing Failing
Post by: chrisatpsu on December 29, 2011,: make sure you apply power to the pic (in the programmer, it's normally on for me when i do the smart string chips, but when i switched to this chip, it turned off.
Title: Re: Pic Flashing Failing
Post by: jeffcoast on December 29, 2011,: I had trouble last night similar to that, although was getting an error that a file was missing out of the pickit 3 directory. I went to Microchips website, downloaded again and then reinstalled. This time when I picked the PIC it said it was downloading an update and finally programmed it. Although I think it still had a 0000 checksum. I too had to turn on power to the PIC, and did not have the etherdongle plugged in. I have not tested it with an actual sequence yet though, need to make another Cat5 cable to connect it to the network.
Title: Re: Pic Flashing Failing
Post by: rrowan on December 29, 2011,: The current version of the pickit3 utility does not calculate the checksum properly so you will get 0000

Microchip needs to update the program to handle this pic
Title: Re: Pic Flashing Failing
Post by: mykroft on December 29, 2011,: ok, what voltage - when i check it it defaults to 3.5

Thanks
Myk

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I had trouble last night similar to that, although was getting an error that a file was missing out of the pickit 3 directory. I went to Microchips website, downloaded again and then reinstalled. This time when I picked the PIC it said it was downloading an update and finally programmed it. Although I think it still had a 0000 checksum. I too had to turn on power to the PIC, and did not have the etherdongle plugged in. I have not tested it with an actual sequence yet though, need to make another Cat5 cable to connect it to the network.
Title: Re: Pic Flashing Failing
Post by: mykroft on December 29, 2011,: Must be the reason for no checksums on the wiki! :)

Thanks
Myk

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The current version of the pickit3 utility does not calculate the checksum properly so you will get 0000

Microchip needs to update the program to handle this pic
Title: Re: Pic Flashing Failing
Post by: mykroft on January 07, 2012,: Ok, finally got some helping hands w/mag glass from rat shack - and it looks like i might have some bad solder connections on the smaller surface mount chip - what is the best way to try and clean these up?

Thanks
Myk
Title: Re: Pic Flashing Failing
Post by: mykroft on January 07, 2012,: my 2nd board looks 100% cleaner on the surface mount chips so I am gonna put that one together tonight and see what happens...

Thanks
Myk
Title: Re: Pic Flashing Failing
Post by: RJ on January 07, 2012,: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
Ok, finally got some helping hands w/mag glass from rat shack - and it looks like i might have some bad solder connections on the smaller surface mount chip - what is the best way to try and clean these up?

Thanks
Myk

Add some flux and then with the iron hot and the tip clean and no solder added to it touch them to reflow them. If there is too much them some desoldering braid will remove the excess. Just dont put solder on your iron and touch it or you will have bridges like crazy.

RJ
Title: Re: Pic Flashing Failing
Post by: mykroft on January 08, 2012,: 2nd one went together and programmed without a hitch....

Thanks RJ will try that - btw, this one the green LED on the board lighted even before I programmed the Pic, my 1st one the LED dont come on.

Will Update with results

Thanks
Myk
Title: Re: Pic Flashing Failing
Post by: bisquit476 on January 08, 2012,: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
looks like i might have some bad solder connections on the smaller surface mount chip

Same here, RJ's instructions cleaned it up fine.
Title: Re: Pic Flashing Failing
Post by: mykroft on January 10, 2012,: Cleaned up the solder connections on the smaller chip and now have a working eD - 2 of 2 - 100%! <res.

Thanks
Myk