hserout issues on the 18F26K83

[rocket_troy]

Okay, I think I might have solved this one. I didn't have the TRIS of the transmit pin configured as an output. I was under the erroneous impression the UART controller trumped control of any port setting while active. I misinterpreted page 463 of the datasheet:
"When TXEN is set and the transmitter is not idle, the TX pin is automatically configured as an output. When the transmitter is idle, the TX pin drive is relinquished to the port TRIS control"

Damn these serial issues have been throwing some curveballs at me recently. Just transmitting enough correct data to totally throw me off the scent... damn it...

Troy

[rsocor01]

If you connect a logical analyzer to the serial lines, you know for sure if data is being transmitted or not. That would have saved you a lot of time. I always put in my PCB designs a testing point for all the serial data lines.

[HenrikOlsson]

I've been having some issues lately, not with that device specifically but with MCS Serial Communicator (or so it seems). I'm communicating with my board using simple ASCII commands at 57600 baud. Single letter/digits commands (like '?' works most of the time, multi letter/digit commands (like 'P100' works sometimes but most often not.

Thing is, if I use TeraTerm instead everything works perfectly, same computer, same USB cable, same FTDI adapter, same board. Disconnect Serial Communicator and connect TeraTerm to the same virtual COM port and it just works. I have no idea what's going on, before trying TeraTerm I even changed the PIC chip on the board cause I figured I've damaged the UART pins somehow but needless to say the new chip behaved exactly the same.

Anyone else seen anything like this when using Serial Communicator built into MicroCode Studio?

I'm going to put the scope and/or logic analyzer on it and see if I can see anything different.

/Henrik.

[rocket_troy]

I didn't even realize that MCS & MCSX had a Serial Communicator [blush]. Been using them for... dunno... 20+ years and never noticed. The only defence I have is I'm only an occasional user/coder.

Troy

[Ioannis]

Well, I did knew that but something in my mind was telling me not to use it...

I also am using TeraTerm and from time to time Br@y Terminal that has some nice automations.

Ioannis

[tumbleweed]

...Single letter/digits commands (like '?' works most of the time, multi letter/digit commands (like 'P100' works sometimes but most often not.

This could be due to your code and how the two terminals work. MCS will send the data when you click 'send', or when you hit 'Enter' if you have the transmit window setting 'Transmit on carriage return' checked.

For TeraTerm, this is configurable (char vs line mode), but typically it's set to transmit as the individual chars are entered.

[HenrikOlsson]

Yep, I figured it probably have something to do with that.
Strange thing is that the code has been working fine with MCS for over 10 years but now it doesn't. So I've messed something up.

[Ioannis]

Only a tiny bit is enough to do that!

Ioannis