Aurora 9 bar - The Essence of Aurora

Step 8: Electronic Check & Programming the PIC

Check carefully for bad solder joints and parts placements errors. Before moving on further, take out your multi-tester and check the Ohm reading of the power connector and ICP connector pads. Make sure there are no shorts.

Then fire up your PC, launch Microchip IDE and program the PIC microcontroller on the PCB with the HEX file provided. You need to connect a 5V power supply. I use a straight 5 pin header to connect (square pad marks the MCLR pin) the programmer. Mine is ICD 2, but any compatible programmer such as ICD 3, PICKit 2 and 3 should work.

Just use the PCB holes/pads as though they are the female connector. Give a bit of tension sideways to make sure the electrical connection is stable.

You need to use "high-voltage programming" mode. IDE defaults to low-voltage programming mode for the device, so make sure to change the mode. You will find this option in IDE, under "Programmer" menu -> "Settings". On "Program Memory" tab, check "Use high voltage on MCLR".
(If your programmer is an older one like mine, you also need to make sure that the programming voltage for high voltage programming mode is below 9V. Microchip suggest using high-speed shunt regulator on MCLR pin to clip the voltage - I found this overkill - I just put a 8.2 V zener diode between MCLR and GND. It works!

If you get the following:

"The following memory regions failed to program correctly:
Configuration Memory
Address: 00f8000c Expected Value: 0000007a Received Value: 000000fa
Programming failed"

then you are not using high-voltage programming mode. Please double check the setting (see the screen shot) and try again.

If all is well, you'll see the IDE reporting successful programming. If not, go back to more inspection.

Comments

[blinkyblinky]

Could you place the source code for this project so I could mod it for use with the PIC16C55?

[ledartist]

(removed by author or community request)

[blinkyblinky]

Did you remove the zip file? I recently learned a new programming language and want to try this project out with it. I downloaded it before but I have upgraded to a new OS and so, lost the file.

P.S. What is the music used in the video?

[ledartist]

I don't know what happened, but I uploaded the file.

The music on the video is one of the tracks that came with the video editing suite (Final Cut Studio). The name of the track is "Reverse Chill".

[blinkyblinky]

Could you upload it on your website or something like a Google Docs drive? Thanks.  

[ledartist]

It's already uploaded - under step 8.

[blinkyblinky]

Thanks a million.

[blinkyblinky]

Thanks so much. Will try.