Programming dsPIC30F4011 on ET-PGMPIC

[nick_f]

Hi All,

I decided to buy a USB programmer and the ET-PGMPIC USB revision r3 made by ETTeam seemed very nice. I bought it from ebay at a decent price. The programmer has two ZIF sockets, one is 40 pin, the other 20 pin.
I used it to program PIC16F628A and PIC16F876A and it works nice.
The problem is the programmer apparently can't program dsPIC30F4011 (and probably any other 40 pin dsPIC), when connecting the dsPIC to the ZIF socket. From what I can see, the designers of the board hard-wired the PGD, PGC (Serial Clock Serial Data) signals to pins 39 and 40 (which is fine for PIC16F876, etc) but they didn't do anything about the dsPIC series, which has the Serial Clock and Serial Data on pins 25, 26.
As far as I can say, these pins are not connected anywhere, as well as pins 20, 21 (VSS and VDD), necessary for dsPIC 40 pin.
If I am not wrong, the conclusion is that the dsPIC 40 pin series can't be programmed on the ZIF sockets mounted on the programmer board. I hope that my dsPIC chips are still ok, due to the fact some signals were applied to the wrong pins. Unfortunately the documentation doesn't warn not to plug dsPIC into the 40pin ZIF socket.

The good news is that using the 6 pin connectors on board, we should be able to program dsPIC on their own PCB.

If anybody has some experience with this programmer, maybe they can confirm if what I said here is right.

Regards,
Nicolae

[hobbes_lives]

I can't speak for that particular programmer, but I can tell you that the dsPIC30F4011 uses a different algorithm that other PIC devices, including some of the other dsPIC30 devices. It's not a simple matter of wiring up the pins correctly. The programming software and device must be able to support the new algorithm for it to work.

[nick_f]

I can't speak for that particular programmer, but I can tell you that the dsPIC30F4011 uses a different algorithm that other PIC devices, including some of the other dsPIC30 devices. It's not a simple matter of wiring up the pins correctly. The programming software and device must be able to support the new algorithm for it to work.

Hi Hobbes,
dsPIC are 16 bit microcontrollers, as opposed to the "other" ones, which are 8 bit. The programmer I am refering to is a clone of the PicKit2, made by Microchip. It uses the same firmware as the PicKit2 and same programming software from Microchip. And although I haven't tried it yet, I am confident it will program dsPIC using the VDD, VSS, PGM, Serial Data and Serial Clock signals applied to the corresponding pins (because I can program PIC16F628, it means the hardware works fine, while the programming software will take care of the different algorithm). I will confirm this later.

Regards,
Nicolae

[hobbes_lives]

Hi Nicolae,

If you do build a board to use the ICSP connection to program these chips, you should be aware of this...

http://www.microchip.com/forums/fb.aspx?m=42373

I ran into issues with a home-made programmer I built prior to following the instructions there. After adding the resistor and caps, all was well.

[nick_f]

Hi Nicolae,

If you do build a board to use the ICSP connection to program these chips, you should be aware of this...

http://www.microchip.com/forums/fb.aspx?m=42373

I ran into issues with a home-made programmer I built prior to following the instructions there. After adding the resistor and caps, all was well.

Hi Hobbes,
Thank you very much for pointing that subject. It has to be taken into consideration.
In the meantime I got confirmation from the guy who sold the programmer on ebay. The dsPIC series can't be programmed on the ZIF socket (or "Text Tool" as they call it for who knows whatever reason). It only works via ICSP.

Interestingly, the programmer I bought on ebay is the same as the one sold by Futurlec: http://www.futurlec.com/PIC_Programmer.shtml
I only paid about $20 less for it than from Futurlec (I bought it from ebay user micro4you http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....=STRK:MEWNX:IT)

They don't even mention the programmer can be used to program dsPIC (and other families) of circuits. Probably they realised it would create too much confusion for the people who would try to program them in the ZIF socket.

Regards,
Nicolae

[Altra]

Hello Nicolae,

What compiler do you plan to use? I just picked up this evaluation board
on ebay.
http://www.mikroe.com/en/tools/pic32...timedia-board/

It uses a pic32, I not very good with C, but think its time to dig in.

Regards

Mark

[nick_f]

Hello Nicolae,

What compiler do you plan to use? I just picked up this evaluation board
on ebay.
http://www.mikroe.com/en/tools/pic32...timedia-board/

It uses a pic32, I not very good with C, but think its time to dig in.

Regards

Mark

Hi Mark,

I've had success coding in assembler on PIC16F628A. I used assembled for the critical bits (timings) because you can control very accurately the parameters of the signal. But it was a pain to make a larger program, with a complex functionality.

For dsPIC I downloaded the educational version of the C compiler from Microchip (MPLABC30ComboLite_v3_23.exe) but I haven't tested it yet. For the future, I consider combining the C and assembler. dsPIC has the advantage of a richer set of assembly commands, which is better for aseembler code, as well as faster execution time and 16 bit of data bus. dsPIC seems to me a wild beast, with huge power, speed and resources.

Regards,
Nicolae

[nick_f]

Hi Nicolae,

If you do build a board to use the ICSP connection to program these chips, you should be aware of this...

http://www.microchip.com/forums/fb.aspx?m=42373

I ran into issues with a home-made programmer I built prior to following the instructions there. After adding the resistor and caps, all was well.

Hi All,
I was able to read, erase, blank check, write on the dsPIC30F4011 on my programmer ET-PGMPIC. I connected the pins VDD, VSS, MCLR, PGD, PGC to the chip.
Because I connected the chip to a 40 pin socket with no external power supply, I had to place a short accross the three pins marked T - B, to supply power to the dsPIC.

Regards,
Nicolae