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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Help with compiling maximite code
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| Dave Everett Regular Member  Joined: 24/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 43 |
Hi Guys, I just finished building up a maximite from a PCB purchased from Trippy Ben. Tonight I tried compiling the maximite code in MPLAB, I am getting "Link Step Failed". I'm an assembler programmer so this is my first foray into C so I might be doing something stupidly easy to fix, but it is eluding me. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Dave |
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| aargee Senior Member  Joined: 21/08/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 255 |
Dave, Are you trying to compile it for a reason, or just want to load the PIC with the Maximite code? If the latter, all I did was to download the 2.1 + Bootloader hex file from Geoff's site and program the PIC with the PicKit3. I then upgraded to 2.4 via the method Geoff outlines. No compiling is needed. See here, the procedure is the same, even though the hardware is a bit different.. - Rob. For crying out loud, all I wanted to do was flash this blasted LED. |
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stuarts Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 199 |
Dave, I ran into a similar problem. I cant remember the exact details, but there are 2 different c compilers on the website. you might also want to check a post I made about problems that I had compiling code. you cant use a compiler more modern than 1.11b. Geoff left a message in the other topic with a link to the older versions of the c compiler. I seem to remember that I had to install the compiler before mplab. I dont think I am using the compiler that comes packages with mplab. Stuart Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. |
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| Dave Everett Regular Member Joined: 24/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 43 |
Excellent, thanks guys. I will just download the hex file for now. I have another 4 PIC32 chips that I plan to use for some robotics projects so I need to get the compiler going, I will check out the V1.11b compiler, I think I installed 2.0. Dave |
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| Gadget Regular Member Joined: 22/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 70 |
Hi Dave, Once you have mplab and C32 installed there are instructions in the main.c source that details the required parameters that need to be set in MPLAB, also depending on whether you are within the 60days evaluation period for C32 you will need to change the optimisation from level 2 to level 1. Terry |
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| Dave Everett Regular Member Joined: 24/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 43 |
Now I remember why I was compiling the code. I could not get the correct micro so I got the upgraded version 795 and needed to recompile with the correct include file. Now I'm stuck getting the pickit3 to talk to the micro. I'll have to power the board on my bench and probe around. I'm getting a "could not get devide ID" error. Gadget thanks, I changed the optimisation to 1. Dave |
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| stuarts Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 199 |
Dave, you dont need to recompile, the hex file works fine. Stuart Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. |
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ksdesigns Senior Member Joined: 25/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 143 |
You have to careful with the pic32's with the pickit 3 some of them will only program once and get "PK3Err0035: Failed to get Device ID" and never work again search the microchip forums lots of people with the same problem so always program the usb bootloader first so you don't need to use pickit 3 i had the same thing happen with a microchip pic32 touch eval board programed 3 times then dead but also have a pic32 starter kit II that i have reprogrammed 100's of times ken |
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| Dave Everett Regular Member Joined: 24/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 43 |
Thanks Stuart. I installed 1.11b and can now compile the source, although I will use the hexfile once I work out why I can't talk to the chip. ------------------------------------- Hooray, It's programmed and verified. I had made up a special cable to connect the pickit3 to the maximite, I checked the orientation again and again and all along it was around the wrong way. Doesn't boot up, but now I can move forward. Dave |
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| stuarts Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 199 |
Dave, I had a lot of trouble getting mine to go with the boards that I purchased from batchpcb. It appears that the capacitor from Vcap to ground must be a low ESR tantalum. Not knowing this I was probing around the supply rails one day and shorted Vcap(pin 56) to vdd(pin 57) +ve end to pin 57 and it booted. As a workaround, I ended up adding a 22uF tantalum capacitor from Vcap to Vdd +ve end to pin 57 . This simulates Vcap being briefly shorted to Vdd and it boots fine. I've done it on both with great success. You can connect it between the +ve ends of C5 and C8. Stuart Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. |
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| Dave Everett Regular Member Joined: 24/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 43 |
Stuart, Brilliant! I didn't have a 22uf handy but I tacked a 47uf across the pins and the power LED came on, connected up to my monitor it's working. Now I just need to find a PS2 keyboard. Thanks mate and thanks everyone for their help. I'll pick up some low ESR caps on Monday and replace the one on the PCB. Dave |
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| stuarts Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 199 |
Dave, I could only get a 25v tantalum for my original boards, and it appears that the 16v one specified would have worked ok. I haven't had a chance to swap it out and see if that negates the need for the extra capacitor. Stuart Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. |
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| Dave Everett Regular Member Joined: 24/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 43 |
I have a 16v 10uf tant in my board. Looking on element14s site, I can't find a tant of that description less than 5ohms. Altronics have low ESR electros listed but don't mention the actual resistance. Dave |
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| Dave Everett Regular Member Joined: 24/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 43 |
Just installed a 10uf ESR electro in C5, everything boots fine. Don I see you have the tip about C5, I should have looked there first. Dave |
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| seco61 Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 205 |
Hi All. I have 3 of the PCB's that Ben (trippyben) supplied fitted with PIC32MX795F512H chips. All of these boards would not run MMBasic when first loaded. After some trouble shooting using a dummy program, I determined that the chips would not run if the clock speed was greater than about 40MHz. This led me to investigate the power rails and decoupling. The power rails are VERY noisy and good decoupling is essential. The power rails are just a thin track running around the board. After some experimentation, the solution to my woes was to add a low ESR ceramic SMD 10uF capacitor between the Vcap/Vcore line (pin 56) and ground. I placed it by scraping of some of the solder resist from the track and soldering one end of the cap to that and then ran a wire from the other end to the bottom of JP2. (PCB Picture) I have also added some other caps around the PCB, including one across the USB power rails. I also have an Altronics kit and it worked with the standard parts. Comparing the PCB's, there appears to be slightly more space between parallel tracks on the Altronic's PCB. I would also like to know what copper weight the PCBs have been made with. As an aside, I would like to implement serial comms on the maximite (and also PWM), but the 26 pin IO connector does not provide access to appropriate pins on the MCU to use the on chip modules. As can be seen in the photo link above, I have added a couple of extra connectors to the PCBs and have soldered the spare IO pins on the MCU to the connectors (using wire wrap wire - I find this great for soldering to 0.5mm spaced pins on TQFP chips). This provides me with access to the on-chip resources. regards Gerard Regards Gerard (vk3cg/vk3grs) |
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| Dave Everett Regular Member Joined: 24/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 43 |
Good info Gerard. I spoke too soon, I did get one boot, but it stopped booting from then on. I have had to put the 47uf back in. I'll apply the scope later and see if I can sort out the power rail noise. Hopefully that will help. Dave |
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trippyben Regular Member Joined: 26/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 91 |
G'day Guys. The PCB's I had made and sold recently are 35um copper weight on 1.6mm thick FR4 fibreglass. More on their way very soon - just been shipped from the supplier! I've found 0.25mm enamelled copper wire good for adding extra (and fixing routing errors!) on SMD boards. It's fine enough to solder on without getting in the way and no insulation stripping issues. It can also be routed and glued in place quite well. Regards Ben |
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| trippyben Regular Member Joined: 26/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 91 |
Hey Gerard, secondary question - what chips are Altronics supplying with their kits pre-loaded on the PCB? Ben |
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| stuarts Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 199 |
Altronics are supplying PIC32MX695 chips. Stuart Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. |
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| trippyben Regular Member Joined: 26/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 91 |
Does anyone with homebrew maximites have C5 troubles using a 695? |
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