on your desk-top and
connect the
Multi-Chip Programmer to your serial port.
A little Background
The '508A is an 8-pin microcontroller with 5 input/output lines and one
input-only line. It has an internal 4MHz clock and can be used for many
different applications.
The days when an 8-pin chip was just a timer, oscillator, amplifier or op-amp, have gone.
An 8-pin chip can now be a complete dialing
alarm or the heart of a random sequencer, a battery monitor or
security-code identifier, just to mention a few.
For simplicity, let's say you want to modify the Robot Beacon project.
The Robot Beacon project is in our "FREE Projects" section.
Here is what you will need: (Some of the items are in the PIC Programaming
Course. The
CD containing this
course is available for $9.95)
Have the project
you wish to develop on your work-bench.
1. Put Notepad,
MPASM and
IC-Prog
on your desktop.
2. Put the blank template:
BlankF84.asm into Notepad and rename
it: Beacon-2.asm
3. Read the project:
Robot Beacon.
4. Here are the data sheets and files you will
need:
PIC12c508A Instruction-Set
PIC16F84 Instruction-Set
Library of Circuit
Symbols
Hex Addresses.
A full list of sub-routines can be found in our
"Library of Routines".
Almost all the routines you will need for a program are included, such as
"Change direction, Compare,
Decrement, Delay, FSR, Increment, Input, Mask, Move, Output, Poll, Return,
Rotate, SetUp, Shift, Swap, Table, Toggle, TRIS, Wait, XOR, Zero Flag, and
many others.
To place these instructions into your program, you need them in a text-file
format. This has been done in
our
"Copy and Paste"
library. It is in WordPad format.
It also includes a template. This is your starting-point. Copy and Paste
the template into a new WordPad screen and add instructions as needed by
Copying and Pasting. This makes the job of creating a program, very easy.
5.
To create a program, you can pull-apart
Beacon-1.asm, or start a-fresh by
getting the "template" mentioned above or the code for
SetUp
and put it in the file: Beacon-2.asm
It's always easiest to pull-apart a previous program, however if you are
starting from the beginning, use our preferred method of layout: (SetUp,
sub-routines, then Main) and put
sub-routines in alphabetical order, to make them easy to find. Keep Main at the end of your program.
6.
Any program you create will be loaded into a PIC16F84A and tested in the
project via the
8-pin to 18-pin
adapter. This means you must only use
instructions that
are common to both chips. All the instructions in SetUp can be understood by
a PIC16F84A and PIC12C508A.
The layout below shows how to write a program that can be read by the
assembler to produce code for both a '508A and 'F84A. Click
HERE for a
program you can copy and paste into Notepad.
;NewIdea.asm
;Project: "Rotating xxx" - for F84A and then for a
508A
You don't have to put anything here for: (__CONFIG) as the program
below will be assembled in
MPASM
by selecting
16F84A
as the "Processor" (Click on Default for Radix,
Warning Level, Macro Expansion, and Hex Output.
Click Error file and List file. Tab size: 8) and the
CONFIG values will be produced. Load:
Source File Name into the window as "NewIdea.asm"
and click Assemble. You will get a NewIdea.hex
file. Burn a PIC16F84A and put it into the Adapter
Socket in your project and keep modifying the file
until the project works perfectly. When it works
perfectly, select 12C508A in
MPASM
and burn a '508A. |
SetUp
Main
|
ORG 0
MOVLW 08
TRIS 06
OPTION 0DFh
GOTO Main
BSF 06,5
NOP
NOP
etc
GOTO Main |
;Start of memory for program
;Load W with 0000 1000
;Make RB3, (GP3) input
;Make GP2 an output & disable weak pull-ups
;Make GP5 HIGH |
|
If your program requires less than 256 bytes of space (half the memory of a
'508A), you will have no problems with the CALL limitation of a '508A.
If your program requires more than 256 bytes (instructions), the simplest is
to use the first 256 locations and if any more sub-routines are required,
they are accessed as a GOTO. At the end of the sub-routine you place a GOTO
to take the microcontroller back to the Main program. Remember this: any
sub-routine with a GOTO can only be accessed ONCE from Main. If you want to
access a sub-routine many times, put it in the first 256 locations and use
CALL (with RETURN at the end of the sub-routine). Always put Tables in the first 256 locations.
7. To burn a PIC12C508A,
Open IC-Prog from your desktop.
Select PIC12C508A as the processor and select
Oscillator: IntRC.
Untick: WDT, CP and MCLR. (MCLR
is pin 4 and if you tick the box when programming, this pin can only
be used as a RESET pin. It is then an active LOW pin so that when it is
taken LOW, the chip resets. You lose GP3 - the "in-only" pin.)
Click on the file ICON at the top left of the screen.
A window will open up and show .hex files (if not, find a folder with the
files).
Click on the file you need and click OPEN.
The .hex values will be loaded into the window.
Click the icon with the lightening arrow and the chip will be “burnt.”
8. Re-burning a
PIC12C508A.
We have said the PIC12C508A is a one-time programmable chip and this is
true. But it means that each "cell" or "location" or "bit" can only be
"burnt-down" once.
Suppose you burn a new chip and the chip does not work. It could mean the
cells (bits) have not been correctly burnt down. You can try re-burning
again.
You can also re-burn the chip (with exactly the same program) and replace
any instruction with a NOP. You can re-burn a chip and make any bit a
"zero." To do this, you have to write the binary value of the instruction
and see if the new instruction can be created by making any bit or bits a
"zero."
Finally, you can move a program "up-memory" by counting the number of
instructions (bytes) and placing an equal number of NOP's in the new program
(add say 2 more).
If you have used CALL (and RETURN) instructions, you can move your program
up memory until the end of the program reaches 0FFh.
If you have not used CALL instructions, you can move the program to 1FE (the
highest location for a '508A).
Remember, we are teaching you how to START programming. There are lots
of larger, more advanced, microcontrollers and you can select one
of these AFTER
you have confirmed your ability at "burning."
FEEDBACK
A reader recently sent us a program that does not produce an output and
asked us to fault-find it.
His program used "equates" and a number of expressions such as: Goto $-1.
While these "short-cuts" are ideal in theory, we come to a point where
the program does not work and we have to find a solution.
Our answer in all cases, is to go back to the simplest programming
techniques as shown in all our programs, and use ONLY the instructions
supplied for the chip.
Do not use any short-cuts or "clever" instructions or an instruction you
"think" will work.
Only use those things you are familiar with.
Start with a simple program that sets up the ports correctly and some of the
lines as outputs.
Turn on a line, call a delay, turn off the line, call the delay and loop.
Make sure the delay is long enough (say 0.5 seconds - 500,000 instructions
long) and connect a LED to the output via a resistor.
Make sure the LED illuminates when the line goes low by checking the circuit
with the chip removed.
Make sure the chip is clocking (working) and is not in a "frozen stage" via
one of the lines.
Once you have the LED blinking, you can change the program to "equates" and
observe the LED again.
You can now start to build your new program.
Add only a small amount at a time and check its operation. When it works,
save it as "-1" and continue.
This is the only way I can guarantee you will be able to produce complex
programs similar to those I have produced for this website.
It's all in the secret of "starting correctly."
For now,
Colin Mitchell,
Editor
TALKING ELECTRONICS Interactive
Click to
subscribe to TALKING ELECTRONICS Interactive.