How does everyone debug their code?

[Archangel]

This works intermittedly...

HSEROUT [10,13," Increase Gain, ADCIN Value = ", DEC DC_Level_IN]

...about 4 times out of 10, I get a new line!

I've tried changing the baud

DEFINE HSER_BAUD 2400

...but I just get garbage when i do (yes, I'm changing the setting in the UART window too!). therefore I'm thinking this might the general flakiness of the internal oscillator &/or the quirkiness of the Microchip UART window?

Have you tried sending 2 separate lines, 1 to clear or give a newline and the second with your data? I would put a little pause in between too. You might research CHAR_PACING too

[mister_e]

In this order.
hserout [whatever data, 13,10]

this will work all the time as long as you have sufficient delay between all your HSEROUT, and as long as your baudrate is accurate.

What you want is a ANSI terminal, those who accept ESC character, like the boring Hyperterminal, TeraTerm, RealTerm to name only but those. With an ANSI terminal, you can clear the screen, change font color, background color etc etc etc ( see http://www.pbpgroup.com/modules/wfse...hp?articleid=9 for reference)

Unfortunately, PICKIT USART tool is not an ANSI one, so you have to deal with the pain or work around. If you're a bit familiar with Microsoft C#, you could modify Pickit USART tool (as it is open source anyways) to accept ESC characters, or to clear the screen when you receive, let's say, ASCII 225 or whatever else. That should be easy.
<hr>
I'll redo my explanation about USART tool debugging...

Unless your current hardware don't use Serial communication, there's no need to use a switch, no need for HSEROUT either. What you do is to sit your PICKIT on the regular programming pins (MCLR, PGD, PGC) all the time, then you use DEBUG/SEROUT/SEROUT2 on PGD I/O. For this you must use TRUE mode.

Clear enough now?

I may try to post an example before going to sleep.

[Bruce]

Here's a quickie example.

Note: I cut the trace from the pot to RA0 on my board, soldered a wire to the pot output
circuit so I can connect the output from the pot to other A/D input pins.

This leaves RA0 free for serial debugging with the PICKit2 USART tool.

@ device pic16F690, intrc_osc_noclkout, bod_off, wdt_off, mclr_off, protect_off

DEFINE OSC 4

DEFINE DEBUG_REG PORTA
DEFINE DEBUG_BIT 0      ' RA0 = TX out to PICKit2 programmer USART tool
DEFINE DEBUG_BAUD 9600
DEFINE DEBUG_MODE 0     ' 1 = inverted, 0 = true

DEFINE	ADC_BITS 10     ' Set number of bits in result
DEFINE	ADC_CLOCK 1     ' Set clock source Fosc/8 "2uS"
DEFINE	ADC_SAMPLEUS 50 ' Set sampling time in uS

Q CON 1251              ' For 10-bit A/D +Vref = 5V : 5V/1023*256=1.251=Quanta
ADval VAR WORD
Result VAR WORD

OSCCON = %01100000      ' 4MHz internal osc   
ANSEL = %00000100       ' RA2 = A/D in, rest digital
ANSELH = 0
ADCON0 = %10001001      ' Right justify, channel AN2, A/D enabled
CM1CON0 = 0
CM2CON0 = 0

PORTA = %00000001       ' serial out pin idles high
TRISA = %00000100       ' RA2 in, rest out

Main:
   ADCIN 2,ADval
   Result = ADval */ Q
   DEBUG "Raw = ",DEC ADval," Real = ",DEC Result DIG 3,".",DEC3 Result," V",13,10
   PAUSE 500
   GOTO Main

   end

[HankMcSpank]

In this order.

Unless your current hardware don't use Serial communication, there's no need to use a switch, no need for HSEROUT either. What you do is to sit your PICKIT on the regular programming pins (MCLR, PGD, PGC) all the time, then you use DEBUG/SEROUT/SEROUT2 on PGD I/O. For this you must use TRUE mode.

Clear enough now?

I may try to post an example before going to sleep.

I'm hearing what your saying, but without an example to follow, I'm still left wondering how this is achieved.

To set out my stall again - programming is new to me - I'm more of an old analogue electronics type. I can relate to a switch! I took one look a the PICKIT2 UART Tool connectivity diagram....




& one look at the PICKIT2 schematic...



& saw that it only needed two pins switched...then I can simply go between programming mode & UART tool mode with the flick of a switch. In the absence of anything else meaningful 9to me at least), I followed up that path.

I can't believe just how much of a struggle it is for a newbie to get a 16F690 (probably the chip most newbies are exposed to as it comes with the PICKIT2) to do somethign as bland as send some stuff over a serial connection! (I don't mean about the h/w aspect, I mean getting the correct 'include' files & config, the register settings, the quirks about baud rates when using internal oscillators (as most newbies do)...then there's the h/w aspect .....what a lot of work!

[HankMcSpank]

ok,et away with... I've got it working - it did indeed need separate lines with pauses inbetween. This seems to be the least i can get away with...

ADCIN 0, DC_Level_IN ; Read the DC level as presented on RA0 (pin 19)
pause 30
HSEROUT [10]
pause 30
HSEROUT [13]
pause 30
HSEROUT [" Waiting for Threshold, DC Value In = ", DEC DC_Level_IN]

many thanks to all who took the time to help - it really was appreciated.



For the record, anyone finding this thread that's a newbie like me who wants their PICKIT2 board with an onboard PIC 16F690 to send serial data with the HSEROUT command, here's what I did (& to all you old hands, I'm sure there's a lot of stuff in here that ain't optimum - but it works for me!)...


@MyConfig = _XT_OSC & _WDT_ON & _MCLRE_ON & _CP_OFF
@MyConfig = MyConfig & _MCLRE_ON & _BOR_OFF
@ __config MyConfig

Include "modedefs.bas"

DEFINE OSC 4 ; sets the internal oscillator to 4MHZ (best for HSEROUT)

ANSELH=0
ANSEL=0
VRCON = %00000000 ' turns the Vref Module OFF by CLEARING bit7, 6, 4
CM1CON0 =0
CM2CON0 =0
CM2CON1 =0
ADCON0.0 = 1 ' turns the AD Converter OFF by CLEARING bit0
INTCON.0 = 0 ' clears the RABIF Flag (to 0), COULD be 1 on reset (unique to F690)
TRISB.6 = 1 ' some s*** to do with serout that I don't fully understand!
TRISB.7 = 1 ' more s*** to do with serout that I also don't fully understand!

'serial Port stuff...
rcsta.7=1 'SPEN serial port enable bit
define HSER_RCSTA 90h
define HSER_TXSTA 24h
'DEFINE HSER_SPBRG 92
DEFINE HSER_BAUD 2400 ;Set baud rate
DEFINE HSER_CLROERR 1
txsta.7=1 'CSRC : Clock Source Select bit 1 = internal clock
txsta.6=0 'TX9 : 9-bit Transmit Enable bit 0 = 8 bit.
txsta.5=1 'TXEN : Transmit Enable bit
txsta.4=0 'SYNC : USART Mode Select bit 0=asynch
txsta.3=0 ' N/A
txsta.2=1 'BRGH : High Baud Rate Select bit
txsta.1=0 'TRMT : Transmit Shift Register Status bit ( Read only )
txsta.0=0 'TX9D : 9th bit of transmit data. Can be parity bit.


TRISA=%11111111 ; set all Port A pins as inputs
TRISB=%00000000 ; set all Port B pins as OUTPUTS
TRISC=%00000000 ; set all Port C pins as OUTPUTS
PORTA = %00000000 ' Clear the port register latches
PORTB = %00000000
PORTC = %00000000

[mister_e]

OK, try another variant. Use your second schematic, and use the code provided by Bruce few post above.

DEBUG is a software alternative to HSEROUT. DEBUG (like SEROUT & SEROUT2), allow you to use almost any I/O of your PIC. This avoid to use switches if your current design don't use those PGD/PGC pins (RA0 and RA1)... also called ICSPDATA and ICSPCLK on your schematic.

Don't give up!

[HankMcSpank]

OK, try another variant. Use your second schematic, and use the code provided by Bruce few post above.

DEBUG is a software alternative to HSEROUT. DEBUG (like SEROUT & SEROUT2), allow you to use almost any I/O of your PIC. This avoid to use switches if your current design don't use those PGD/PGC pins (RA0 and RA1)... also called ICSPDATA and ICSPCLK on your schematic.

Don't give up!

Thanks for the encourgaement!

Well, I revisited what Bruce posted up ....& what do you know - it worked!

I then decided to incorporate Bruce's code into my own program - mucho grief ensued. However, if I'd taken a bit more care & actually slowly read your bit that I've bolded above, I'd not have lost two hours of my life! (I too cut the variable resistor wiper on the PICKIT2 board...but, alas, I soldered it onto pin RA1). Why isn't is a good idea to use RA1 for AtoD?


Anyway, once I saw what you said, I resoldered the VR wiper onto RA2....everything turned out sweet (& no hardware switches either - that said, I reckon it wasn't totally wasted time, as I want to get some 'serial in' going down on a couple of my programettes soon)


Many thanks to all!


Hanks

[HankMcSpank]

Just a little footnote...the debug command creates delay, which is significant in my PIC program.

Basically, I have a coil winder program (the PIC counts pulses from magnets mounted on a spinning motor & then the PIC pulses out to a stepper which turns a helix (this feeds copper onto the main turning motor - a bit like this from 20secs in )

Anyway, without any debug in my code...I get a nice neat wind of copper. But as soon as I use debug...the helix feeding copper wire onto the main turning motor, doesn't keep up ...end result is a lumpy wound coil - as soon as I take out the debug command...it runs fine again.

This is a real downer, because I was using my new found 'Debug' method to put out important info onscreen (No of turns, number of steps until traversal changes direction etc).

What are my options here?

(I'm trying to avoid having to build a logic circuit to keep track of the PIC output pulses using hardware counters!)