What have I done now?

[Hylan]

So I use one pic (18F6520) on one board and I use Microcode Studio Plus 3.0.0.5, PB Pro Compiler 2.50 and a MELabs usb programmer.

I set all this up about 2 yrs ago and haven't changed the set up at all. I regularly change the firmware, load it, run it and don't give it much thought.

Until today...

I grabbed a board to load a program onto and everything indicates that it loaded fine but it doesn't work. I was loading a known program so that wasn't the issue. I regularly load this program to work with. I tried several other programs same problem.

I finally went back to several known hex files that weren't compiled by Microcode Studio recently (but were compiled by it in the past) and they loaded fine. There are no known changes, to me, so I'm completely stymied.

I also tried to just compile the program and then open it from my programmer.

If you haven't guessed by now, I'm not a professionally trained programmer so I know just enough to be dangerous.

Any help is hugely appreciated.

Thank you,

[Hylan]

I've been trying to narrow this down a bit further. I have 2 programmers from MELabs. A usb powered one and a older db9 one. I dusted off the older one to rule out the hardware. It functioned the same as the newer usb programmer.

I found a hex file that I compiled a couple weeks ago and it loads and runs fine on the board. However, the same program now compiles with no errors and it says that it successfully loads, but then nothing.

I can reload the other hex file and wall-ah, back in business. So I'm thinking this is a configuration issue but can't find anything that looks out of place. I pretty much only use this computer for programming and pcb layouts and haven't used it since the last time and it worked.

Thoughts on where to start poking?

[Archangel]

Does it work on 16f chips ? My JDM won't do 18F chips, that's why I bought PICKIT2.

[Hylan]

I don't know about 16F chips. I only have/use the 18f6520 chip. I went back and double checked my .inc folder to make sure it's settings were the same.

The odd thing is I can program a hex file that I compiled 2 weeks ago onto a board and it works fine. I'm pulling the hex file straight from the folder using the MELabs Programmer software. But if I then try to compile and program the same program through the PBP and MicroCode Studio Plus (which I used two weeks ago), it compiles with no errors, and programs with no errors but the code doesn't run???

I can turn around and reload the other program onto the same board and it's fine???

I'm not sure what changed over the last two weeks. I even quized the 5 year old as to whether he "played" on Daddy's computer which he said no and I believe him. No jelly on the keys.

[skimask]

I can turn around and reload the other program onto the same board and it's fine???

By any chance, did one of those 'updates' include updates to PBP?

[Archangel]

So when you program and it does not work, can you read back the hex from the chip and see the information ? How do you select the programmer when you load an old hex? Is that the same way as you load a new hex? Are you sure your programmer is using the correct COM port when called by MCS ? Same programming software in both instances ? Have you tried saving the new hex and then loading it the same way as the old hex? I am just throwing out some troubleshooting ideas, no answer required.