Ascii debug issues?

[Dick Ivers]

Do you have a null modem in your PIC to PC cable?

[achilles03]

I have pin 2 (PIC side) connected to pin 3 (PC side), and pin 5 (GND) on both connected. I also have pins 7 and 8 connected on the PC side.

[milestag]

Achilles,
A little while back, I saw a post by Melanie that stated you MUST use a crystal or resonator for reliable PIC to PC async comms. I would say this is ESPECIALLY true for a PIC12F629. Might do better with a 12F683 which has 1% accuracy internal osc (factory calibrated) without the need for reading and restoring an oscal value.

I ended up doing some last minute changes to my PC board design (luckily BEFORE I did a production run) in order to incorporate the resonator.

BTW - sorry...I feel like I hijacked your thread. But we may have similar problems. I see similar nonsense characters on HYPERTERM and on the TINY BOOTLOADER terminal.

Mister_e, Dick,
Thanks, I'll try the HS OSC setting. But, as I said, the HSEROUT works fine at 9600 baud and the bootloader works fine at 19200. Same project....I'm just trying to add the SEROUT command to my program for debugging.

I am going through a MAX232, and using TRUE mode. I've tried true and inverted. It is a straight-through cable, and I don't change any connections between HSEROUT and SEROUT. I just comment out all the HSEROUT DEFINEs while I try the SEROUT command.

I also tried DEBUG, but for some reason MPASM (which I must use for 18F2525) generates an error that I am attempting to redefine "DEBUG".

Ultimately I will probably have to start with a simpler program with no bootloader, etc. That way I can isolate the PBP commands and PC interface. I think I am dealing with too many variables at this point (hardware AND software).

Thanks for the help so far, guys. I'll try these things this weekend and post back here with results.

-Jim