Firmware Issue

[RJ]

I have had a number of people telling me that even when they downloaded the firmware for the express it did not work correct. We had just uploaded fresh firmware thinking we had fix it.

Well, Think again!!!!!   

I am not going to go into the long story but after about an hour of Bill, Keith and I scrathing our heads and messing with it we found the issue.

So if you now download the firmware from any place such as the wiki you will get the correct firmware and the crc is update on it to show the crc from the pickit utility.

Hope this ends the strange firmware issues.

RJ

[austindave]

Thanks RJ.

Ummm... I know you said it's a long story, but are there any simple "take-aways" from your investigation that would help the rest of us in the future (with the PICKit or uploading firmware or whatever)?

Thanks again,
Dave

[Christmasaddict]

I just finished my first LE.  I bought mine in the first coop earlier this year.  Do I need to download updated firmware or am I good to go?  (I have never been so proud to see 2 green LED's light up)   

[RJ]

Fire it up and find out. If it scrolls the text real slow like one letter every 5 seconds then you need to update it. If it starts right up you are likely good to go.

RJ

[Christmasaddict]

When I plug it in it scrolls through some text very rapidly (in fact it is so fast I don't know what it is saying) then stops on "1".  Sound like I am OK??

[RJ]

you are    ......  Congrats!

RJ

p.s. it says "Lynx Express  60HZ" in the best you can with number leds.   

[Christmasaddict]

One last question and I will stop as I'm afraid I am getting off topic...   As I mentioned the display says "001" which if I understand correctly means this LE has channels 1-16.  When I push the select button the LED for channel 16 lights up.  My instinct tells me that channel 1 should light up.  Comments?

[RJ]

Nope that led will always light when you push the select as do to not having an extra pin I used a trick and used it for a channel output and an input from the select button.

RJ

[Christmasaddict]

I finished my second LE and when I powered it up before installing the chips the 5V and 3.3V LED's worked OK.  After installing the chips not only were those LED's on but the Data link LED and one of the channel LED's were on.  I noticed that the letters scrolled very slowly which I knew meant I needed to update the firmware.  I reflashed the PIC and now the letters scroll normal but the Data Link LED is still on.  The channel LED did go off after reflashing.  Any thoughts?

[RJ]

I finished my second LE and when I powered it up before installing the chips the 5V and 3.3V LED's worked OK.  After installing the chips not only were those LED's on but the Data link LED and one of the channel LED's were on.  I noticed that the letters scrolled very slowly which I knew meant I needed to update the firmware.  I reflashed the PIC and now the letters scroll normal but the Data Link LED is still on.  The channel LED did go off after reflashing.  Any thoughts?

It will not hurt anything if the unit works. I have had a few users report that certain Rs485 chips are doing this. I have been looking into it but could not duplicate it. One of the users is sending me one of his chips that does this so I can check it out. You would expect the same part to work the same all the time but that is not always the case.

RJ

[Christmasaddict]

As a test I took both RS485 chips out of my first LE (which seems to be working perfectly) and put them in my second LE (the one with the Data Link LED that won't go out).  Now the data link LED on my first LE stays on but the one on the second LE is out.  Apparently the problem is with the RS485 chips as you said previously.

[tstewart]

I had that same issue with the hex file that was downloaded from the wiki.  I then downloaded the hex file from the sticky post and it seems to work fine.


Todd

I was having some odd behavior on two of my Lynx Express v5 controllers so I flashed the firmware on them.  I downloaded the firmware from this link:  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login which is on this page:  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login with the file name of "LE_Firmware_03_2010.hex".  After flashing the firmware I continue to get the "slow roll" display issue.  Here is a video showing the process I am using to flash the firmware incase I am doing something wrong:

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

One note - it seems like the checksum listed on the webpage of 5AF8 does not match that in MPlab of 5C56.

[RJ]

Ok,

   With keith and I looking at it the problem appears to be using MPlab to program instead of the utility. The Mplab is for some reason changing configuration bits to the default which is causing the issues.

Until I have a reason why it is doing this, those of you using the pickit3 or mplab to program will need to add this step to your process.

In mplab after you open the hex file hit the configure menu up top and then click on configuration bits.

Then uncheck the "configuration set in code" check box on the top of the window and then using the picture attached to this post, click on each setting that does not match and choose the matching setting.

Then when yours matches the picture program your express pic and you will be fine then.

I will look more into it when I get home.

RJ

[jem5136]

Ok, this may have nothing to do with the firmware, but I  have been having problems with my LE v4.

I just finished building it, and when I plug it in, sometimes the LED display does not display anything at all, but if I press the MODE button twice, and then hit select, it runes thru the test, but the display does work about 9/10 times. I also am having problems with channel 5,6, and 7. I run the test multipule times, and channel 5 worked all but once. The LED on channel 6 flickers and fades in and out, and usually doesnt work at all but the lights I have pluged into channel 6 are always on, and then I don't get anything on channel 7. I am working on doing some re-soldering joint, maybe some of the first joints I made when I first started building the board did not work right.

Would this have anything to do with the firmware, or just bad soldering.

I just got a new soldering iron yesterday, and it works way better than the old on I had, and I dont have solder balls all over the board.

Any help?

Thanks,
Jesse

[RJ]

Ok, this may have nothing to do with the firmware, but I  have been having problems with my LE v4.

I just finished building it, and when I plug it in, sometimes the LED display does not display anything at all, but if I press the MODE button twice, and then hit select, it runes thru the test, but the display does work about 9/10 times. I also am having problems with channel 5,6, and 7. I run the test multipule times, and channel 5 worked all but once. The LED on channel 6 flickers and fades in and out, and usually doesnt work at all but the lights I have pluged into channel 6 are always on, and then I don't get anything on channel 7. I am working on doing some re-soldering joint, maybe some of the first joints I made when I first started building the board did not work right.

Would this have anything to do with the firmware, or just bad soldering.

I just got a new soldering iron yesterday, and it works way better than the old on I had, and I dont have solder balls all over the board.

Any help?

Thanks,
Jesse

start by touching up your solder joints first. This sounds like too many issues and not reliable enough to be firmware.

RJ