Renard SS24 - Flashed chips not working

robskimeister

robskimeister

Member
Hi! I think I may need a little help with my 2 Renard SS24 controllers I bought back in the first group buy. This is my first year doing Christmas lights, so I'm still learning all this stuff.

After I assembled my SS24s, I read that most of the chips arrived un-programmed, so I went ahead & bought an ICP03 pic programmer & followed Wayne's videos to flash the chips. I had never done any chip programming before, but it "seemed" to be pretty straightforward as long as I followed the videos.

I just recently got around to testing the Renards with an E1.31 bridge (DIYLED) & found that the 2 controllers "mostly" don't work. I say "mostly" because the first 8 channels work on the first controller, but the last 16 don't. However, there are 2 channels that stay ON: 9 and 17.

None of the channels on the 2nd controller work, but it's really weird because the same exact 2 channels (9 & 17) also stay ON! In addition, channel #1 stays on.

I flashed the chips a 2nd time but got the same results.

I have a 3rd WORKING SS24 controller that I bought from a DIYC member. I put one of my chips in that controller (U7; the middle slot) to see if my chip was bad. I expected the middle 8 channels not to work but the last 16 didn't work. Weird! I thought each chip controlled 8 channels, so why would swapping the U7 chip cause the last 16 channels to stop working? Do the chips work together?

So I'm wondering what I did wrong. I'm fairly sure that the 2 SS24 boards are OK, and I even reflowed many solder joints just to be sure, and checked for solder bridges, etc. Everything looks good. ...and the fact that a known good controller would NOT work with my chip indicates to me that my chips are bad.

I'm going to attach a picture of the pic programmer that I used with the chip in the programmer. Could someone please tell me if I have the chip in the correct slots, and do I have the polarity correct (notched end facing the lever). Would I get an error if I had the chip flipped the wrong way, or in the wrong slots?

Also, does anyone know the significance of channels 9 and 17 staying powered on, on both controllers? That's got to mean something.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
20150725_210034.jpg
 
Channels 9 and 17 (or really PIC#2 channel 1 and PIC#3 channel 1) is indicative of a blank PIC - you did program all 3 PICs correct? They should all have the same code on them.
 
budude said:
Channels 9 and 17 (or really PIC#2 channel 1 and PIC#3 channel 1) is indicative of a blank PIC - you did program all 3 PICs correct? They should all have the same code on them.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... that makes sense. 1, 9 and 17 are the first channels of each "group" of 8. So now I'm wondering what I did wrong when I flashed the chips.

BTW, I just removed the 3 chips from the "good" Renard & tested the 2 "bad" controllers with the chips... and they worked! So that means it's DEFINITELY the chips causing the issue!

Can anyone tell me if I have the chip in the correct slot in the pic I posted above. Also, do I have the notch pointing in the correct direction? I'm preparing to re-flash the chips again, but I'm afraid I'm doing something wrong and don't want to repeat the mistake again.

Also, I'm going to attach the ASM and HEX files that I used. Maybe someone can take a quick look & see if they look correct. I would really appreciate it. Perhaps I'm using the wrong files. ?

I found an older link that referenced firmware on the Renard wiki page here:
http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/wiki/index.php?title=Renard_Firmware#DMX_firmware

Can I use this firmware from that wiki page: (Standard firmware for the PIC16F688: renard-20071229.asm)?

Thanks in advance for any help or info.
 

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Anybody? Bueller?

I started over with flashing the chips & followed every step EXACTLY, and even re-downloaded the firmware in case something got corrupted the first time. I don't think I missed anything the first time, but wanted to be sure.

I think I have bad chips. 1 out of 6 works... and I think the other 5 are BAD.

When I flashed the chips with the pickit 2 software the write was successful, and the verify was successful. But when I did a "blank check" afterwards, it said the chip was BLANK! So how did it pass verification?

Has anyone encountered this before?

I guess I need to get new chips. Who do I need to get them from? Waynej?
 
You did a "blank check"? That erases them. You only write the firmware and then use them.
 
Wayne J said:
You did a "blank check"? That erases them. You only write the firmware and then use them.
Click to expand...

OK... now I'm really confused.

I did a "blank check" on the 1 chip that's working, and the program said it was NOT blank. So I did NOT re-flash it, and it's still working. I just tested them all a few minutes ago.

I re-flashed the other 5, did a verify... and all was successful. I did NOT do a blank check. They're still not working. I assume they're blank (the first channel in that group of 8 stays on).

I'm out of ideas because I'm pretty sure I'm doing everything correctly.

The only thing I can come up with is bad chips. Why would 1 work, and 5 not... when I performed the exact same steps for all of them?

Gremlins!?

I have the same programmer you have chip in right spot and notch does face the lever
Click to expand...

Thanks for that info... Glad to know it wasn't "user error"!
 
Wayne J said:
Try this.. take the one that is working, and re-flash it and try.
Click to expand...

Ok... tried that. Here are the steps I performed on the "good chip:

* Downloaded the Renard operational firmware again from here: http://doityourselfchristmas.com/wiki/index.php?title=Renard_SS24_Controller_Board#Firmware
* Used MPASMWIN to generate the hex file
* Plugged in the pickit2 programmer with the chip installed. The blue button on the pickit was in the UP position (UP is for 8-20 pin chips; DOWN is for 28-40 pin chips)
* Opened the pickit2 software; the pickit was detected
* Performed BLANK CHECK - Was NOT blank
* Performed ERASE
* Performed WRITE - Successful
* Performed VERIFY - Successful
* Performed BLANK CHECK - Chip is BLANK
* Tested chip - Now this chip does NOT work (Channel 1 stays on; the other 7 channels don't work)

Hopefully someone has an idea of what may be happening, because I don't.

Do I have a bad pickit?

I've attached 5 screenshots of the steps I mentioned above (limit of 5 per post; will post more after this post). Maybe there's something on the screens that may give a clue as to what's happening.

Thanks again for any help or ideas anyone may have.
MPASM Assembling Hex for Renard SS24.JPGMPASM Assembling Hex for Renard SS24-Success.JPGPickit With Good Chip before doing anything.JPGPickit With Good Chip -Blank Check.JPGPickit With Good Chip - Erased.JPG
 
My question is, why do you keep using the "blank check" feature? It has nothing to do with what you need accomplished.
At this point, you should pick up some new PICs and try.
 
Okay... here is somethings I see.............

First, uncheck the MCLR and try a 4.9 voltage (copy my picture)

Second, In your "Source" box, I never see the firmware loaded. look at my step two pic.

After programming, stop, remove the pic, nothing else needs done.
 

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Thanks Wayne! It may be tomorrow before I can try again, but I'll try what you suggested.

...and I won't do a blank check! :wink2:
 
OK... Finally found time to try again. Success! :biggrin:

I guess the problem was my fault, but it's also due to the fact that the pickit software is NOT very intuitive / user friendly.

Here's what was happening...

I loaded the first chip (of 6). I performed an ERASE because I read that you should always do that first. Then I clicked FILE, IMPORT HEX, and selected the Renard hex file. The SOURCE box in the pickit software showed the hex file as expected. I flashed the chip, and it was successful.

Then I loaded the 2nd chip & performed an ERASE. However, the ERASE function caused the SOURCE box to become blank! ...and I didn't notice it when I flashed the chips in the past. Since I didn't notice, I proceeded to flash the remaining 5 chips with NOTHING! That's why I had 1 good chip, and 5 blank chips.

So when I re-flashed them today I had to re-import the hex file after erasing, and before writing each of the chips. What's up with that? Once I load a file, it should STAY THERE! That's just crappy software IMHO.

When I clicked ERASE, my intent was to erase THE CHIP, not the imported file! Very confusing! :excl:

Hopefully my experience will help other people who run into this issue & find this post.

Thanks again to all who helped!

I can't wait to see all the kids' smiling faces when the lights are shining brightly!:yeah:
 
Here is the deal, if you read the instructions of the pickit, it does an erase before it does the write on it's own. ;) So no need to add the steps you have been adding. Following my video verbatim would give successful results every time. :)

Glad you got it done.
 
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