Snap programmer

[Dick Ivers]

Hi,
I picked up one of these low cost programmers at the current 50% discount offer price from microchipDIRECT making the part extremely cheap. Now trying to get it to work and could use some help.

I have Microchip's dedicated programming software installed, i.e. MPLAB X IPE v5.00. The Snap is plugged into a USB and the green Active led is on. However, when attempting to select a programming device from the software's Tools screen there are no choices listed on the drop menu. Why is this?

Further examining the Tools > Plugins tab I see 27 Installed and Active devices, including one called "snap", but again, nothing come up on the Select Tool drop down.

[mpgmike]

It sounds like you're trying a "back door" approach. First, what IDE are you using? MicroCode Studio? MPLABX?

From MicroCode Studio you should have the option of adding a Programmer to the list. Last option, use MPLABX IPE to burn the Hex file to your PIC.

The Snap is just another programmer; like PICKit3, U2, etc. It needs to be added to your "tool box" just as any other programmer.

What programmer have you successfully used in the past? How did you incorporate it into the IDE you use (PBP uses MicroCode Studio)?

[HenrikOlsson]

I don't have a Snap-programmer so I don't have any personal experience but I would try to update MPLAB X IPE since 5.0 is fairly old. Current version is 5.30 and the release notes mentions some USB-driver stuff at v5.05.

IMO you're doing it 100% correct, get it working with IPE as it IS the official software tool for the programmer. Get it woring from within IPE first.

/Henrik.

[towlerg]

Get it woring from within IPE first. Good advice, but having got it working with IPE why bother with MPLabx? From memory theres a CLI (or similar) within IPE to allow programming from PicBasic IDE (ala PK2 et al)

[HenrikOlsson]

Good advice, but having got it working with IPE why bother with MPLabx?
No reason, but IPE comes as part of the MPLAB X download/installation - I don't think you CAN download IPE by itself...


From memory theres a CLI (or similar) within IPE to allow programming from PicBasic IDE (ala PK2 et al)
Yes, and I'd bet that under the hood the IPE application calls upon that same CLI when programming so once the Snap is working from within the IPE application setting it up in MicroCodeStudio shouldn't be too hard.

[Dick Ivers]

Yes, I now have MPLAB X IPE version 5.30 installed and there is some progress. The Snap programmer is now recognized and my connected PIC device is correctly identified. However, I have more work to do as the basic programming functions are not behaving as expected, i.e. Read, Erase, Program

Yes, of course I would like to get the Snap programmer to work within MicroCodeStudio . What is a CLI?

[HenrikOlsson]

CLI is Command Line Interface, how you would "drive" the programmers software from the command line.

[Dick Ivers]

Update: All the programming functions are now working when I use the Snap programmer from MPLAB x IPE v5.30. I found that the Snap device must be run from the Advanced Mode in order to view the program memory and eeprom memory fields on the output screen.

Where can I find the CLI text in order to insert it within MicroCodeStudio? Is this idea really feasible at all? To me it seems unlikely given that the MCS software is so old.

[HenrikOlsson]

Hi,
Like I said, I don't have a Snap but if I'd venture a guess something along the lines of:


-TPSNAP -P$target-device$ -F$hex-filename$ -E -M -OL
Programmer exectuable is ipecmd.exe

In your MPLABX installation path you'll find a subfolder called docs. There you'll find a file, Readme for IPECMD.htm, take a look at that.

/Henrik.

[Dick Ivers]

Final summary on the Snap programmer:

1. The programmer works well when using MPLAB X IPE as long you have the latest version (5.30) running. (Thanks Henrick)

2. The device does not work under MicroCodeStudio, at least not for me. MCS requires a named executable. None could be found for this part.

3. For the $7.48 discount price the programmer is not bad as a back up. Note that this item does not supply power to the target … must be powered separately.

[HenrikOlsson]

The executable is ipecmd.exe.
Are you saying you don't have that even though you have the full blown IPE tool installed and working?

/Henrik.

[Dick Ivers]

Henrick …. I tried the executable you suggested but it didn't lead to a useable result. Perhaps something else is needed ??

In any case I don't want to spend more time working on the snap programmer. It would only be a backup device for me and for that it works fine with the MPLAB X IPE.

[richard]

http://support.melabs.com/forum/picbasic-pro-compiler-3-0-and-later/microcode-studio-ide/1017-curiosity-board-pkob

i had issues with curiosity boards with cmdline from mcs , it worked ok using the tSBURxxxxxxxxx option the snap is pretty similar.

the number for your snap can be read from the MPLAB X IPE