Quote Originally Posted by koossa
Hi Keith

Thank you very much for your reply.
I have setup my PCB as described in this thread:
http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/show...ght=bootloader

But I did not build the reset button in, I have connect MCLR to the 10uF capacitor and the capacitor then goes to Pin9 on the MAX232.
Must I put the reset button in, as described on the thread above?
If so, when do I press the reset button?

Thx
Koossa
Hi Koossa,

I hadnt heard of the capacitor coupled version. It is exactly the same circuit except for the 10u capacitor instad of a 100R resistor. The difference being that instead of pulling MCLR permanently low it will only provide a short pulse. Maybe it is not pulling it low enough or for long enough.

The Reset button *shouldnt* be needed but having it gives the option of manually resetting your PIC at any time.

When the bootloader is displaying a message saying it is waiting for a reset, connect the MCLR pin to 0V momentarily and it should then reset the PIC and bootload the new program.

Just had a few more thoughts.....

1. When you programmed the bootloader into your PIC did you make sure that the MCLR pin was set as MCLR and not an IO pin ?

2. Is your MCLR pulled up with a resistor or have you tied it directly to +5V ?

3. Is Microcode loader set to "Auto" baud rate or is it fixed at the wrong speed?

4 Try the bootloader circuit with 100R instead of 10uF !

Other than that I cant think of anything else

Regards