FIXED - 'operation failed' error when trying to program new etherdongle

[dandyman]

FIXED - WORKING NOW !!

Well, I've spent a few hours troubleshooting, doing solder touch-up on the board itself and on the SMT chips with no luck in getting the Etd programmed.

I'm on Win XP, sp3, i7 processor w/4gigs of ram, pickit 3 (that I used last year to program 32 SSC's and a couple of Active Hubs - no problems there).

I downloaded and installed the pickit 3 software again (just in case... and tried to program the PIC on two different computers... same result) and it gave me the 'update' message for the PIC.

I spent some time inspecting the SMT chips for solder bridges and cold solder joints w/ a 10X eye loupe. I found what looked like a few cold solder joints, so I used some liquid rosin flux and a dry soldering iron to touch all of them up... tried programming again w/the same result.

Pickit 3 seems to be operating fine... I did notice that when I tell it to 'write', the 3.3V power checkmark on the 'Target Power' box appears for a couple of seconds, then unchecks itself and gives the 'operation failed' error.

I've attached some pics... but I'm at a loss as to what to try next... anyone have any suggestions?

(also, can someone check the attached pk3.jpg pic against what their 'about' says for their pickit 3... device file version of 00.00.00 seems suspect to me...)

thanks !

Dan

[chrisatpsu]

can you read any other pics? like an express? or even the ssc?

[keitha43]

Did you plug in the power supply? I had this until I did that. I didn't have to on my usb lynx dongle or smartstring stuff so I didn't think to do it on this but it worked after I did. Also I didn't see any kind of a checksum.

[dandyman]

Haven't tried to read any of the already programmed PICs... but I will... good idea to see if the pickit 3 is working...

I didn't plug in the power supply... didn't think you needed it just to program the PIC... but I'll try that, too !!

thanks !

[peteandvanessa]

Looking at your screen shot, it says the source file is Etherdongle+1_32.hex

Looking in the Wiki you should be flashing either:

Etherdongle2.hex        (if it's for Pixelnet only)
Etherdongle_DMX.hex  (if it's for DMX only)

Are you trying to flash incorrect firmware?

[chrisatpsu]

Etherdongle+1_32.hex is a test firmware Rj is having some people try.  I would not reccomend it when you're trying to get it working in the first place.

[dandyman]

Yeah.. I tried all of the EtD hex files... same w/all of them...

I used the pickit 3 to read in the hex file from one of the SSC's... worked fine...

I also tried programming with the EtD power supply connected... same result - 'operation failed'...

thanks anyway for the suggestions...

[chrisatpsu]

try following this...
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[dandyman]

Thanks, Chris...

Already tried all of what was mentiond in that thread...

[sjb]

Have you upgraded the firmware for the PICKit3 itself?

Steve

[dandyman]

I re-installed the software... how do I check on the firmware version?

[chrisatpsu]

Step one, close out of the pickit 3 programmer software, open MPLAB, and choose your programmer in the programmer menu
Step two, if an update is available, it should ask you to update, click yes
Step three, once done, click ok,   let it refind your programmer.
Step four, exit MPLAB, and continue using the Pickit3 tool to program your pics.

[chrisatpsu]

note: in the last picture, i got an error simply b/c i didn't have anything connected to the pickit 3.

[caretaker]

Some other things you can check out in this thread: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login  Make sure you check the Xtals and double check the connections on the PIC, I had problem with mine and it was the Ethernet SMD chip which took me a couple times of touch up to get it working.

[dandyman]

I checked the firmware and it was already the latest...

Jeff... I don't understand why the crystal would cause trouble programming the PIC... is it needed just to program the chip? (I know its needed to run the EtD... )
thanks for the suggestions... no luck yet... still getting an 'operation failed' error from the pickit 3...