PIC18F67J60 questions

[dhouston]

Now that Fred Eady plans to supply PBP drivers for this family of chips I have a few questions.http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=6241
Is it safe to assume we can use Darrel's Instant Interrupts? It seems to be a PIC18F... married to the ENC28J60.

The datasheet says it's possible to "write to program memory" so can we assume that bootloaders will work with it? The ample memory (64K, 96K, 128K models) would seem to make a bootloader written in PBP more practical.

[Darrel Taylor]

It's probably "safe" to assume you can use Instant Interrupts.

But it's probably NOT safe to assume the ethernet drivers will be set up to use them.

It all depends on what Fred does.
<br>

[dhouston]

I wasn't assuming that Fred would even be aware of Instant Interrupts. I'm mostly interested in using interrupts with the timers, the 4 external interrupt pins and the 4 IOC pins. Incoming Internet traffic will be minimal, outgoing traffic will be heavier but I believe incoming traffic is buffered.

[Darrel Taylor]

No problem there.

It should work fine with all 5 timers, 4-external INTs (0-3), RBC and all the normal stuff, USART, MSSP, CCP etc.

However, if he does use interrupts in the ethernet driver, there may be some conflicts to work out.
I guess we have to wait and see.
<br>

[dhouston]

I figure it will be worth the waiting and the seeing and the resolving of any conflicts. The Ethernet Module has its own set of interrupts (described in section 18.3 of the datasheet) which are independent of the ones used by the PIC so I'm hopeful there won't be conflicts. However, this is all obviously over my head else I wouldn't be waiting on Fred to work his magic or relying on your expertise with interrupts.

[dhouston]

I got my Ethernet Mini Kit today.

A bit of searching turned up a commercial bootloader for the PIC18F97J60 family.http://www.brushelectronics.com/index.php?page=software#EBL

[Darrel Taylor]

Looks like a start. (bootloader only)

Still hoping Mr. Eady comes up with something.
<br>

[dhouston]

Still hoping Mr. Eady comes up with something.
It should be in a forthcoming issue of Nuts & Volts.

[dhouston]

I've assembled the Ethernet Mini kit and Brush Electronics has added a bootloader image for it to their Ethernet PIC package. There are still a couple of hardware related issues I need to solve. The board has 2x5 IDC headers for RS232 (non-standard pinout) and ICSP (differs from my EPIC and MEL USB programmer pinouts) - I'll need to design adaptors while waiting for Fred's drivers. I'm going to suggest to Fred that he include a schematic of an MEL adapter for the ICSP connector.

For anyone who wants to follow this route I recommend buying the kit with the PIC already mounted - I had to fix a couple of solder bridges on the SOIC-8W RS232 driver so am glad I didn't try mounting the TQFP-64 PIC. The other components are not too difficult, especially if you've done any previous SMD assembly. The most difficult part was in getting single 805 size components out of the itty-bitty (2-3mm wide) snips of tape. My left hand is partially paralyzed from a spinal cord injury and my eyes are in their late 60s so I usually feel that if I can manage this type of assembly, nearly anyone can.

I hope to use Fred's basic design as the foundation for a larger project. The MagJack he uses is difficult to source but PulseJack gave me a cross reference to their functionally equivalent (Pulse JP011821U) which is stocked by Mouser.

[mister_e]

i'm planning to buy that one
http://mikroe.com/en/tools/lv18fj/

as soon as it is available...

I'm kinda addict to their board now :D

[edtp]

Looks like a start. (bootloader only)

Still hoping Mr. Eady comes up with something.
<br> Just got the 67J60 to come online and I successfully received a frame.. Nothing but PICBASIC PRO mnemonics and one assembler instruction used.. a NOP.. Things should move along very quickly from here as all that's left is to do is enable the protocols and DHCP.. If things go as planned, you can read about my "adventures" in Nuts and Volts very soon via the Design Cycle column.. And, in a week or so you'll have some working code you can apply to your applications. I'm very impressed with the technical skills I've seen in this forum. I'm sure that some of my BASIC hacking in the MINI driver can and will be improved upon :-)

Have fun,
Fred

[Darrel Taylor]

i'm planning to buy that one
http://mikroe.com/en/tools/lv18fj/

as soon as it is available...

I'm kinda addict to their board now :D

I'm getting really jealous of this mikroElekronika.
Anyone that ever though of making the perfect develmoent board to sell, might as well just forget about it. It's already been done. :)


Just got the 67J60 to come online and I successfully received a frame.. Nothing but PICBASIC PRO mnemonics and one assembler instruction used.. a NOP.. Things should move along very quickly from here as all that's left is to do is enable the protocols and DHCP.. If things go as planned, you can read about my "adventures" in Nuts and Volts very soon via the Design Cycle column.. And, in a week or so you'll have some working code you can apply to your applications. I'm very impressed with the technical skills I've seen in this forum. I'm sure that some of my BASIC hacking in the MINI driver can and will be improved upon :-)

Have fun,
Fred

Awesome,

Let us know which issue, so I can run down to the local electronics store and pick up a copy. (don't have a subscription)

Best regards,

[edtp]

Hi, Everybody
The first PIC18F67J60 Ethernet MINI article can be had in the July 2007 issue of Nuts and Volts. The article is geared towards the MINI hardware and the C driver. The C code that I'm translating to PBP can be downloaded from the Nuts and Volts site. You can also get the C source from the EDTP site. I'm basically taking the C code and translating it line by line to PBP.

If you are interested to see what PBP code I have right now, just let me know and I'll send it along to you. ([email protected])

The current PBP code fragment will bring the MINI online and look for an incoming packet. To use the code fragment you can use the arp -s command to stuff the PC arp cache with the MINI's IP and MAC addresses, which are laid out in the code. You must do this because the MINI can't answer an ARP request yet as it can't transmit yet. Once you have loaded up the MINI firmware and stuffed the PC's arp cache, you can ping the MINI and capture the incoming PING frame in debug mode. I am using MPLAB and an ICD2 to do the debugging. Once you capture a frame you can look at it in the file register debugger window. I have examples of an actual capture I can offer to you as well. Keep your eyes on Nuts and Volts as I will be describing the C-to-PBP port in detail there.

I've heard from many of you concerning the MINI and the code already and I'm always happy to provide to you whatever I can to help you be successful. I'm also open to suggestions and corrections to the code.

[rhino]

Fred -
You guys are just too cool! Thankyou for all the work you guys have done over at EDTP, and taking the time to share with everyone. I just read Peter's article in Design Cycle. Very nice work.

[dhouston]

Anyone planning to use the 18F67J60 family of chips needs to study the datasheet as there are several things that are different from the PICs I've used before.

There are no clamping diodes on the inputs so you need to pay attention to max limits which are not the same for all pins.

Some pins sink/source 25mA, others only 8mA, still others only 2mA.

It's a 3.3V device and while some pins are 5V tolerant, others are not. Any other chips used in a design need to operate at 3.3V or may need level translation.

[dhouston]

While searching for something else I came across a mikroBasic project for a UDP bootloader (using the ENC28J60) and 18F PICs.http://www.mikroe.com/en/projects/It seems to be entirely in Basic so it should be possible to convert to PBP although I have no idea, as yet, what changes will be required for the 18Fx7J60 chips.

[dhouston]

i'm planning to buy that one
http://mikroe.com/en/tools/lv18fj/

as soon as it is available...

I'm kinda addict to their board now :D
Nice! But probably overkill for my needs.

I haven't looked at mikroBasic for more than a year. I gave up on them when they seemed to be experiencing interminable delays in supporting the ENC28J60. Now that I've taken a fresh look, they appear to have made great leaps since then - there's already support for the PIC18Fx7J60 chips, including an open source UDP bootloader, and they handle interrupts much better than does PBP. I don't think I'll wait for Fred's drivers. :D

[Darrel Taylor]

and they handle interrupts much better than does PBP. http://www.pbpgroup.com/images/Sobbing.gif

[dhouston]

i'm planning to buy that one
http://mikroe.com/en/tools/lv18fj/
I bought their EasyPIC4 board http://www.mikroe.com/en/tools/easypic4/. To be honest, I think it's quite impressive but nearly useless for anything other than educational purposes. There are no ZIF sockets. no any easy way to connect SOIC adapters, etc. nor can it readily do ICSP.

[mister_e]

Yup the ZIFF socket would be interesting... but erm erm, the prices would be far different...

With recent device programmer prices (i.e. PICKIT 2) i wonder why using it for ICSP anyways?

But yeah, for huge, tricky, serious or long term project, i don't use ANY development board anyways. I do a custom PC-board instead.

I still like their board ;)

[dhouston]

With recent device programmer prices (i.e. PICKIT 2) i wonder why using it for ICSP anyways?
I have a spinal cord injury which restricts my mobility - I'd like an integrated system that does not require a lot of plugging/unplugging/swapping, etc.

[mister_e]

Oups... now it make sense :o

There's still the SIM option.. but... erm, erm, still not a real fan of it yet.

[dhouston]

I have the Epic+ and USB programmers from MEL along with the 8-40 pin DIP and 8-14 pin SOIC adapters. They handle everything I've needed til now. I'll need to build an adapter for ICSP programming the 18F67J60 on the Ethernet Mini board. (See my next post for details.) And I have another board of my own design that has four TSSOP-8 PICs for which I'll need to design and build an adapter. Unfortunately, the EasyPIC4 won't be of much help here.

[dhouston]

Fred's Ethernet Mini board has an ICSP header but it is designed to interface with Microchip's MPLAB. Those of us with meLabs programmers will need to make some changes to the Ethernet Mini board and build an adapter from our programmer to the ICSP header.

The latest software for the various meLabs programmers supports the 18F67J60 but modifications are needed for all but the U2 programmer as these are 3.3V devices.

This is all detailed (in part) on these pages.
http://www.melabs.com/support/icsp.htm
http://www.melabs.com/support/3v_icsp.htm
http://www.melabs.com/support/3v_icsp.htm#icsp

There is a schematic of the Ethernet Mini in the ZIP download on Fred's EDPT page.
http://www.edtp.com/download/mini/ethernet_mini_package.zip

The details vary with the specific programmer but most require a 1K pull-up on MCLR while the Ethernet Mini has a total of 11K. They also call for a 4.7µF cap on Vddcore/Vcap. The datasheet calls for a 1-10µF cap. The Ethernet Mini has a 2.2µF cap on this pin and I'm not sure whether it will need to be changed. I'm hoping that either Fred or meLabs can answer this.

[edtp]

Hi, All
I've got ARP, PING and simple UDP PICBASIC PRO code working on the Ethernet MINI as of today.. I'll post the code in the Downloads area of www.edtp.com in the next day or so. Please keep your eyes on Nuts and Volts magazine as the fun is about to begin!

Have fun,
Fred

[edtp]

Fred -
You guys are just too cool! Thankyou for all the work you guys have done over at EDTP, and taking the time to share with everyone. I just read Peter's article in Design Cycle. Very nice work.

Thanks, Rhino..

Have fun,
Fred

[edtp]

Hi, Everyone
I'm behind schedule. However, I will be posting new Ethernet MINI code this weekend on the EDTP Electronics, Inc. web site (www.edtp.com)..
The new code adds DHCP support and fixes some bugs I found..
I plan to port the TCP portion soon unless one of you beats me to it..
So far we have UDP, PING (ICMP), ARP and DHCP.. All that's left is TCP..

You can read about my exploits in this month's Nut and Volts..

Have fun,
Fred

[ScaleRobotics]

You can find the Nuts and Volts articles here: http://melabs.com/resources/articles/