Firmware upgrade disaster!!!

[kurtus420]

just thought I'd do some more snooping around on the pcb board and checked continuity the pic18f2550 while the cable was plugged into the iscp pins, all checked out fine. It's just not responding when I try to use winpic so pic18f2550 must be screwed

[Ken Forgettable]

You are sure the ICSP socket is wired as the diagram in the documentation?

The reason I ask is because some expect the little circles to mean the pin side and little arcs to represent the solder side. Even though pin 1 is shown top right some sockets have indistinct or no pin numbering and getting it back-to-front can damage the PIC.

The doc's should have a label by the connections 'Solder side' - maybe in blue or even red.

PS. PIC pins 17 and 18 just go via the little opto isolator to the ATmega. So you can isolate the PIC by just unplugging the other two chips.

[dmitri]

You can try to load the latest version of the bootloader into Atmega644 which allows crystal frequency selection, load it with 16MHz firmware version and try it with the 16MHz crystal.

You can also try it without re-programming the bootloader. With the 20MHz crystal load 16MHz firmware version over the standard MIDI port then switch to the 16MHz crystal and see if the problem the same as with 20MHz crystal.

Bingo!!! The Atmega644 works perfectly well @ 16MHz (MCT and all other USB operations + standard MIDI) and so does the Atmega32. I'm still wondering how the 20MHz crystal could go wrong while working well except the USB operation. Strange

Is there any other component that could be the reason, knowing that everything works at 16MHz? Something that can go wrong so that it can't handle the higher clock speed?

I can only suspect that you have a bad Atmega644 sample. Maybe they mislabelled a 10MHz chip as a 20MHz chip. But in any case I would try another 20MHz crystal first.

By the way, what's the difference between the 644 at 16 and 20MHz in terms of performance (latency etc.)?

For 32 inputs I don't think there will be any difference.

[kurtus420]

I am absolutly 100% sure it is connected right since I just found the very small numbers on the back of the db9 connector, so that leave bad chip I guess or wrong configurations in winpic which I really don't think it is. Is there a different programming software I could use? Thanks for the atmega tip

You are sure the ICSP socket is wired as the diagram in the documentation?

The reason I ask is because some expect the little circles to mean the pin side and little arcs to represent the solder side. Even though pin 1 is shown top right some sockets have indistinct or no pin numbering and getting it back-to-front can damage the PIC.

The doc's should have a label by the connections 'Solder side' - maybe in blue or even red.

PS. PIC pins 17 and 18 just go via the little opto isolator to the ATmega. So you can isolate the PIC by just unplugging the other two chips.

[dmitri]

I am absolutly 100% sure it is connected right since I just found the very small numbers on the back of the db9 connector, so that leave bad chip I guess or wrong configurations in winpic which I really don't think it is. Is there a different programming software I could use?

http://www.winpic800.com/ if you figure out how to use it.

[kurtus420]

That sound promising haha Thanks dmitri

I am absolutly 100% sure it is connected right since I just found the very small numbers on the back of the db9 connector, so that leave bad chip I guess or wrong configurations in winpic which I really don't think it is. Is there a different programming software I could use?

http://www.winpic800.com/ if you figure out how to use it.

[el-dr]

Bingo!!! The Atmega644 works perfectly well @ 16MHz (MCT and all other USB operations + standard MIDI) and so does the Atmega32. I'm still wondering how the 20MHz crystal could go wrong while working well except the USB operation. Strange

Is there any other component that could be the reason, knowing that everything works at 16MHz? Something that can go wrong so that it can't handle the higher clock speed?

I can only suspect that you have a bad Atmega644 sample. Maybe they mislabelled a 10MHz chip as a 20MHz chip. But in any case I would try another 20MHz crystal first.

I'll try to get a new Atmega644 tomorrow and program it with your bootloader. I prepared the cable, but I remember I read it somewhere that PonyProg wouldn't work for the Atmega644 and AVRdude should be used instead.

Is there a step-by-step description on how to do the programming with AVRdude?

Can the same cable be used for this?

[dmitri]

Bingo!!! The Atmega644 works perfectly well @ 16MHz (MCT and all other USB operations + standard MIDI) and so does the Atmega32. I'm still wondering how the 20MHz crystal could go wrong while working well except the USB operation. Strange

Is there any other component that could be the reason, knowing that everything works at 16MHz? Something that can go wrong so that it can't handle the higher clock speed?

I can only suspect that you have a bad Atmega644 sample. Maybe they mislabelled a 10MHz chip as a 20MHz chip. But in any case I would try another 20MHz crystal first.

I'll try to get a new Atmega644 tomorrow and program it with your bootloader. I prepared the cable, but I remember I read it somewhere that PonyProg wouldn't work for the Atmega644 and AVRdude should be used instead.

Is there a step-by-step description on how to do the programming with AVRdude?

Can the same cable be used for this?

The latest version of PonyProg should be able to program Atmega644 just fine. The cable for programming is an ISP cable shown in http://www.megadrum.info/sites/default/ ... _kicad.png

[kurtus420]

Do you guys think I would be wasting 15 bucks by purchasing an enhanced jdm programmer found here or would this be the same as my icsp cable? http://cgi.ebay.ca/Enhance-JDM-PIC-prog ... 7C294%3A30

[dmitri]

Do you guys think I would be wasting 15 bucks by purchasing an enhanced jdm programmer found here or would this be the same as my icsp cable? http://cgi.ebay.ca/Enhance-JDM-PIC-prog ... 7C294%3A30

It is up to you. The ICSP cable works unless you've made a mistake somewhere. If you asked me I'd say it is a waste of money.