Need a group for the BP2?

I'm currently playing with the BP2. My interest is its Arduino layout.

I have no interest in BASIC, so I am programming in C using MPLAB and programming using a PicKit3.
The board is really playing up.
My suspicion is reset - MCLR. Looking at the schematic it appears to be connected to a capacitor but otherwise is floating.

Shouldn't there be some kind of pull-up even if 100k (so as not to interfere with the DTR reset circuit)?

--Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2014 08:42PM by migry.

Why you would not want to use the lovely ByPic is beyond me :). To use the BP1 with a PICKits is straight forward, you can use the prototype area an put a socket, or pins there. You will need a 10k resistor to go from pin 1 to pin 2 of the PICKit socket. ** You will also need to ground pin 2 (RA0) here is what I use:

The PICKit socket is soldered to the prototype area
PICKit-socket       IC Pin  BP1       10K
1                    1  (MCLR)          Y
2                    3V3              Y
3                    GND
4                    21 (RB10)
5                    22 (RB11)
6 not used
**** PIN2 (RA0) to ground ****

Thanks for the reply Jim.

I have the *BP2* in which you thoughtfully put holes for a PicKit3 connector. I populated it and it programs OK.
I will probably put a 100k resistor to pull up MCLR, but I am in the middle of a move and without my soldering iron or components!
I'm using some of my time to play with the BP2.
I have a plan but more news later.
If you do create a BP2 specific section I will post information to help others who might also be using MPLAB.
I have already wasted several days tracking down a problem caused by the wrong config settings. Stupid me for not checking more closely!

--Gary

Sorry, Gary. I should have read your post more carefully, you did say BP2, forum created for BP2 and boards with the PIC32MX3nn processor created as requested.

Hi Jim,

this is the wrong section to ask, but here goes.

I read in some old files that you were happy to release the source code of BV_COM, the version in Python.
I had a search bit didn't find anything.
I have an old uP board which has a trivial boot loader and I need to send some data via RS232 in the required binary format. I toyed with writing my own similar tool to BV_COM, but failed to find a window manager or Python comms package.

I tried to download Qt but was competely confused as to how to use this library.

I downloaded a Python comms library, but couldn't get it to work.

I'm getting too old for all this, and I get frustrated when tools and libraries don't just work out of the box without having to spend hours, days or weeks getting the damn software working.

Anyway if the Python code is available I would be very interested as I could probably tweak it to format the data in the required boot loader format.

regards...

--Gary

Gary,
if you mean BVserial Python code then this is available here [www.byvac.com] (bvserial link). The boot loader code is is only available as an exe and is in the zip file at the link.

** From the above post you have removed the boot loader on the PIC. The code for the boot loader that goes onto the PIC is not available.
Jim

Hi Jim,

thanks for the reply and link. I did visit this page the other day and didn't spot the obvious link to the Python source code.

I have a homebrew uP board (built in the 80's) which has a custom but trivial boot loader. I have been looking for an easy way to download code to it. After installing some libraries I do have bvserial working in a DOS window and I see my debug LED on TX is flashing! I just can't get my head around Python, but I will give it a go as I think modifying your code could be the quickest way to get my project working again.

I really think that the PC is missing some kind of idiot proof programming environment in which you can easily launch Windows like applications. I have used Visual C++ in the distant past, but I don't have it loaded on this PC, and there is a steep learning curve before you can do anything useful.

I do like Perl, and downloaded a serial comms module. Of course it didn't install and I wasted several hours trying to work around the problem that it expected COM1 to exist (and this was not possible to change as it was hard coded in the main install script). Even when I got it installed and tried some code, the debug LED indicated that no data was being sent.

Visual Basic might be another framwwork, but again I do not have it installed and I'm not even sure if there is a free version.

regards...

--Gary

Gary,
For me Python is the way to go as it has lots of libraries and works on Windows and Linux without modification. It is also interpreted which is a much easier programming environment.

For a terminal I started with PySerial and wxTerm and that grew into bvserial.

Jim