I - Hardware part

I started with the wonderfull pic programmer of JDM, pip02 - big thanks to you JDM. The tools I use on PC to program the chip is the extra  icprog
from BONY GIJZEN (great! thanks a lot) with its nice window interface. The JDM programmer is universal  and unique as it allows you to program 24cxx serial eeproms without   external power supply. Nevertheless, it has not allowed me to program in ciruit the chip  as announced.because there is a negative reference for the ground signal and my scope on the PC made ground loops with it. I have burned many  pic 12c508 with it (one time programmable chip) to build my own uir module. I will would like to thanks here the original author, Ties Bos.

Now, as I wanted to withdraw the chip from the circuit and to put it on the programmer every time of program change , I have optimized the jdm programmer by using ideas in the french electronic magazine , Electronic pratique and adding some features (JTAG, autorestart after code uploading, ...). Moreover, it can programs other microchip controllers, just change chip connections.

Below , here is the component side

The wire on the top is  to be connected to a serial port of   the PC The wire at middle height is the J-TAG to program the chip in circuit The botom 9V type coupler allows to supply the programmer with a voltage at least of 12V. .

Conmément au prelative to the schematic below..


I have many comments to make:

The circuit  is protected through  D10 diode against bad polarisation of the power supply. The max232 has two chanels available that can be used  on the  JP2 connector.The JTAG connector is a HE10 (2 rows*5 pin) .It carries 3 programmation signals  CLK, PROG et DATA and is designed to supply  the target circuit. This will be our case with the target card I called  PICSYS (see next chapter). When the circuit is powered through JP3, the green  led ligths on (power check VERT).  In addition, when the chip has been programmated , it is possible to read the logic levels of RB6 and RB5 through the programmer. During the programmation with  ICPROG or pp2, the red led (ROUGE) should blink.

Be aware that the programmation will fail  if, on your target circuit, you ommit to put  pull-up on the interrupt pins  you use  (this problem is for RB0, RB7, RB6, RB5 or RB4) else let the pin unconnected (not recommended). Never these pins should be on low state (pull down or  load) else the pic16F84   microcontroller will stop  the programmation on its own, as it notices an   interruption. In such case, the programmation fails and a  error message is delivered  on ICPROG.(be sure you check si verify during programamtion checkbox)

I give below the component mapping and the layout side,

Technical Note: All the layout design has be done first on paper by me and  put it clear on Layo1e. Here is the layout file picdev.lmc.  

II -Software part

I have used the combination of two softwares : piclite C ompiler, and   icprog  (to download) . The first is a C cross compiler for the  PICC16X84 meaning that
it compiles C programs on PC for  only this  type de microcontroler . The second is the downloader tool to send  the previous generated  file ( binary .hex) into the target circuit. You will see the result at the end of the programmation.

A) PICLITE:

The interface is similar to Borland C++ on  DOS . When you compile a file for the first time  (by pressing the key  F3) on piclite,
questions are asked to you at the beginning :

-select midrange processor : select 16F84 (F=Flash release)
-select float type: 24 bit (for me it is enough)
-select computer optimization: Full
-select output format: The format to choose  ( icprog compatible) is .hex intel.
-set map and symbol options: F4 - answer by OK , don't change anything.

The comipler will generated from your  file.c (if correct of course) ,a file.hex in the same directory . This is this file, we will upload on the
microntroller (on the targe circuit PICSYS) thanks to our PICDEV programmer.

B) ICPROG

Before you use it, you has to define  by pressing on F3, the serial port you connect the PICDEV programmer without forgetting to declare
the type of the programmer (jdm programmer) . Then, give the chip to program as described below:

In Options form  menu Settings , valid  "verify during programming" ans unvalid  "ask when programming".
Load  your  file.hex (shortcut key: CTRL-O) and launch programmation with F5. If you get an error like "verify failed at adress xxx",
it is due to:

1) your programmer is not conneted to the right port, (try to declare an another one)
2) your  programmer (only for PICDEV) is not powered - The green light is on? power ok?
3) you forget to connect the J-TAG to the target circuit
4) you have a pull-up problem  on your target card as mentionned previously.(the red led lights on and goes off jut after without blinking)

Tip:

There is an faster alternative  for programing the PIC16F84 (upload in 6 seconds only!), the dos  pp2.exe command from JDM .
I have set up piclite like this : under the utility menu ,  choose define user command , and fill as shown :

Menu Entry	Command string
Upload	pp2 16x84 P $(outfile) 1

My programmer is on serial COM1 port of the PC and the program pp2.exe is  in the same directory as the  .c file to compile and  to upload. Just press ALT-F7 to upload the program into the target - much more easier for developments.