problem with melabs usb programmer

[mjmccarron]

I'm trying to program a pic12f629 with a simple timer program and I keep getting a "Calibration Programming Error" and Erase failed error. If I turn off the erase before programming, I get a Program error at 0000h. Any ideas? Thanks.

[skimask]

I'm trying to program a pic12f629 with a simple timer program and I keep getting a "Calibration Programming Error" and Erase failed error. If I turn off the erase before programming, I get a Program error at 0000h. Any ideas? Thanks.

....Never mind....just saw the title...most of the info is right there

Do you have the chip correctly oriented?

[mjmccarron]

Sorry, I should have included more information. I'm using melabs USB programmer version 4.01 with the ZIF socket adapter, Pic Basic Pro v 2.50A and Microcode Studio v 3.0.0.5

[skimask]

Is there an option button for 'Enable Vpp before Vdd' in there somewhere?
I remember that being a problem for somebody at sometime, somewhere...somehow...

And 4.01 isn't exactly the latest version of the software/firmware out there.
http://www.melabs.com/support/upgrade.htm#U2
Kinda makes me wonder...

[mjmccarron]

Thanks for your help. I upgraded my programmer to the current version (4.23). The problem was actually two, 4.01 doesn't work for some reason and I had a bad connection in the ZIF adapter. Thank you again! --Mike

[boroko]

Hi All,

Having problems with "Calibration programming error", "Erase Failed" still.

Trying on 3 different 10F222's, 2 in SOT23-6 and one DIP. After a couple of successful program tries, I start getting the same problem as in the first post. The SOT's are in a circuit so I tried the DIP without anything else connected, still the same. The erase seems to be working at least some of the time because I have lost the OSCCAL data after a few tries and since it hasn't been able to successfully program, "DEFINE OSCCAL_1K" isn't grabbing it again. I'm using http://www.rentron.com/PIC12C67X.htm load it back in.

<After some time away...a lesson learned:>

I had updated my U2 programming software recently, so I didn't figure that was the problem, but I started thinking about that nag screen and "ding" that you get from using the beta version. I didn't remember getting it since I updated from 4.31 to 4.41 beta. Checked and MCS was still launching 4.31. They are all named meProg.exe regardless of the version, so it takes a bit to determine which one you have if you leave more than one in your directories. There is a .txt file that shows which version you are looking at and I finally decided to do some housekeeping and get rid of all of the older ones. Went into MCS and manually changed to meProg.exe for 4.50 beta and it began launching the correct one (and I actually prefer the familiar "ding", it tells me its ready). Ultimately, it didn't solve my problem, but I thought the above discovery might help someone, so I thought I'd elaborate in case someone else missed it too.

Moral to the story... Still having the issue. The next step is to pull the extra stuff from around the problem boards and give it another try. Tried to skip that as most of the parts are 0402 and a bit small to be playing with.

If anyone has any other paths that I'm not seeing, please feel free to enlighten us.

Thanks
Bo

[prstein]

Late again to the party again, that'll teach me to wander away from the forums for a little bit.

Try reading through this thread: http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=13612&p=92725#post92725

The final final answer was to put everything into for the new U2 into the folder in which the old U2 files had been placed. Not a problem since, includeing when upgrading to the latest and greatest from MEL.

Hope this might help a little.

Best Regards,
Paul