K8076 Bluew up 4 pic tonight (16F628A)

Kits Microcontroller Programmer - Experimenting Project
1

I got until yesterday a fine working 8076 programmer.
But yesterday it started to give me error’s like no programmer found.
Disconnecting the power en reconnect it solved the problem.

But suddenly i got the message that the pic in the programmer was not the same as the one i would like to program. Thinking of a devective device i got a new 628A en that one worked fine.

I went on debugging today and as a result i got more errors and 3 more PIC that are not reconiced allthough they seem to work fine in the application.

Is this a design flaw or something else.

p.s. I am using a genui RS232 Port on COM2

2

Check your pin connection wires (ICSP1-2 to SK5-6) Sometimes the wire breaks in the shrinkwrap on the pin soldering point.

3

All wires are correct. The problem repeats after programming the device several times and then at one moment the device is not reconiced anymore.

4

Please check if your VPP pin is also used as I/O?
If so…Please do not use the VPP pin as I/O.
Normally the PIC’s are not ‘dead’.

5

VPP is not used as a IO just for MCLR purpose

6

LS,

Number six just went “dead”… Again i got the response that the device in the programmer is not the same as selected. In the meantime i dit not change any configuration settings.

Nore the device was in any electrical circuit. What i dit notice is a small flicker of the red light when i connected the programmer.

I am getting realy pissed now having no devices more to go on developing

7

I now got just one of the PIC’s left. Whilest programming this one using the Velleman program one starts with loading the HEX file. At that moment the program checks for a programmer and if the device selected is the device in the programmer. That works out OK. After loading the HEX file i started programming and got the message that the device in the programmer was not the correct one.

HOW CAN THIS CHANGE IN JUST TWO SECONDS AND THEN THE| PIC IS DAMAGED FOR EVER. :twisted:

8

Do not trow away the assumed defective pics!
I have had a similar problem in the past. I’ve informed the designers of the circuit and they are looking into it. In my case, the pics were not defective, but they got in a certain ‘locked’ state. I was able to ‘unlock’ them simply by reprogramming them with a Microchip ICD2 programmer.
Might work with an other programmer too. Since then, I have not had the problem anymore. Have been a happy user of the K8076 programmer ever since. If you do not have access to a programmer, you can send them to us, and we can try to ‘unlock’ them. There is no guarantee it will work, but it is worth a try. Should you decide to send them in, make sure they cannot get damaged during shipping (bent or broken pins), as we cannot take responsability for that.

9

Thank you for the offer but we just ordered a Microchip programmer and wil be trowing away the Velleman 8076 as this programmer is not realibly anymore.