Yet Another PIC Programmer for the Raspberry Pi

[Techmeology]

Hello, all!

I've been working on (yet another) PIC Programmer for the Raspberry Pi: http://www.techmeology.co.uk/rpipic/. This particular one features:

• The ability to program 12 bit and 14 bit PICs
• Autodetection of 14 bit PICs
• A modular architecture that could be extended to support other chips
• Diagnostic LEDs and a simple test circuit (with two more LEDs)

Comments/bug reports are welcome

Enjoy,

Techmeology

[meltwater]

Looks like a great project.
Would be interesting to have a go with it and perhaps feature an article on it in the MagPi.

Would a standard serial programmer work with the Raspberry Pi too (via a USB-RS232 adaptor)?

[Techmeology]

If you want to do a magpi article, sure! Let me know if I can help with that. The board itself isn't designed to use RS232, but I designed the software to be reasonably modular - you might well be able to use an RS232 adapter.

Techmeology

p.s: Damn, I didn't notice a notification email about your reply - sorry for the delay:p

[avstomusic]

Screen Shot 2013-04-20 at 9.20.13 AM.jpg (47.04 KiB) Viewed 10696 times

Thank you, this seems like a a great circuit. Although I'm a little confused as how this connects to the Raspberry PI. I'm new to the pic controllers programming but it doesn't take a degree in electronics to notice that the numbers of the GPIO headers don't quite match. For example in the little table chart says VPP control should be pin 9, which according to the Raspberry PI documentation has no connection, while according to the schematic GPIO numbers, VDD control for example is on pin 4 which again has no connection on the Raspberry GPIO. What are all those numbers referring to? See attached screenshot.

[cae2100]

I thought about doing a design like this, but instead, using a design like the old K150 programmers. Due to the lack of working software in linux, I kinda abandoned the idea. Its something to think about bc it has dc/dc converter for 12v and everything built in, no need for external stuff, but the software is the real issue.

Neat idea for your programmer btw, a little observation is that your using a seperate 5v regulator, why not just use pin 2/5v out on the rpi? The pic chip uses a few uA and maybe a few mA at most, so it wouldnt even be any drain tbh. No use reinventing the wheel and it'd cut down on cost to make it/parts.

The 12v, you can maybe use a seperate chip to run as a pwm generator to use a buck/boost converter to convert the DC up to 12/13v needed, then you wouldnt need any external regulators or anything like that. Just make it into a self contained shield for the rpi and it'd be good to go for your projects. I believe roman black has a buck/boost converter that just uses like 2 transistors and some other components to raise the 5v to 13v for the chips.
http://www.romanblack.com/smps/conv.htm
There's the converter I was talking about.

Edit: Just a question, why use 6v dc when most chips can only handle 5v?

[Techmeology]

Hi

avstomusic: The VDD control pin is used to control whether power is received by the PIC. The circuit itself is not powered by the Pi.
cae2100: Thanks for the suggestions. If I were to make many of these, I might well try to power it from the Pi alone. Some of the design of the programmer arises from the fact that I constructed it from parts I had (or thought I should have). There's a certain CompSci urge to solve a generalised problem in a systematic way:p

Thanks

p.s: Hopefully I'll get notified next reply:p

[mano1]

Can I program a PIC12F629 with this setup? I am interested to do this (instead of buying a programmer already built), but haven't programmed a PIC before

[danjperron]

Hi Techmeology,


6 month ago ,

I post a universal pic programmer in python.

I don't have so many leds and I was using the Raspberry Pi to program the I.C. Way simpler

I thing Walter Fukuoka has a nice package about it.

Please have a look before and after this post.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewt ... 69#p429669

Daniel

[FLYFISH TECHNOLOGIES]

Hi,

I am interested to do this (instead of buying a programmer already built), but haven't programmed a PIC before

You might think about a circuit/chip with pre-programmed bootloader. It should be the proper start, when you're becoming familiar with this area (one typical trap are fuses, which you can avoid by using this "prefabricated" approach). Later on, you'll quickly find out that in-circuit debugger is worth every cent spent for it...


Best wishes, Ivan Zilic.

[hampi]

One more PIC programmer

http://holdenc.altervista.org/rpp/

http://mujweb.cz/tlc/rpp/

and my PCB for it

https://github.com/oh7bf/PiPIC/tree/master/RaspiPICprog

The programmer code is plain C if you like the unix command line interface.

[rtek1000]

hello,

I would like to make a programmer for eeprom w25q128.

I found a library for Arduino to this memory (SPI):
https://code.google.com/p/winbondflash/

have some way to use this interface to program eeprom using the RPI?

[picpgm]

Hello together,

if you are looking for a PIC programmer for the Raspberry Pi, have a look at PICPgm:
http://picpgm.picprojects.net

The Linux version which is supporting more than 650 different PIC microcontrollers has been ported to the Raspberry Pi. It uses the GPIO pins to program the PIC.

Regards!

[indula]

Hi, I have a PIC which has a 26 pin raspberry connector, can you help me in the process of connecting the raspberry pi with my PIC board? And can I get data from the PIC to the raspberry pi and save it in a database in the Pi.?? Please help me with the steps? Do i have to follow the steps in your blog or what?

[NiaDebesis]

Techmeology

Hello at all
Ill try to revive this old topica
I want to know if I can program a pic16877a with this circuit (that I have already built)

[BirchJD]

The following are the devices I have programmed with my Raspberry Pi PIC Programmer, details can be found here:
http://www.newsdownload.co.uk/pages/RPiPIC.html

Code: Select all

#/* Currently supported devices:                                             */
#/*                                                                          */
#/* 12F629          12F675          12F683                                   */
#/*                                                                          */
#/* 16F88           16F627          16F628A         16F630          16F684   */
#/* 16F690          16F876A         16F877A         16F886          16F887   */
#/* 16F18313        16F18323        16F18324        16F18344        16F18325 */
#/* 16F18345        16F18326        16F18346                                 */
#/*                                                                          */
#/* 18F2420         18F2455         18F2520         18F2550         18F4420  */
#/* 18F4455 18F4520 18F4550 */

[NiaDebesis]

Why all the other circuits use pnp and npn transistors and the circuit that is been posted here use only npn transistors

[BirchJD]

Sourcing or sinking current, sink current to ground with NPN source current from +V with PNP.

[mahjongg]

For example in the little table chart says VPP control should be pin 9, which according to the Raspberry PI documentation has no connection, while according to the schematic GPIO numbers, VDD control for example is on pin 4 which again has no connection on the Raspberry GPIO. What are all those numbers referring to? See attached screenshot.

the DNC descriptions in this table are nonsense, do you really believe there are GPIO pins that should not be used (except pins 27 and 28, which are I2C pins exclusively assigned for HAT boards).

this is a real GPIO overview:


as you can see pin 9 is simply a GND (ground) pin, and pin 4 carries 5V.

I do agree the GPIO assignment is a bit weird, or not explained well. does "1" means GPIO1 or pin 1 (pin 1 is 3V3). pin 6 is GND however...

I think the GPIO's numbered 1 to 6 in the schematic are wrong, or simply describing a pinheader, but the table above it is correct
with:

Code: Select all

1 = VDD Control	GPIO pin 11
2 = VPP Control	GPIO pin 9
3 = Clock Control	GPIO pin 8
4 = Data Out Control	GPIO pin 25
5 = Data In	GPIO pin 24
6 = GND         (any GND pin)

but that is my own guess....

[NiaDebesis]

Sourcing or sinking current, sink current to ground with NPN source current from +V with PNP.

Oh thanks

So for what is the button in your circuit? Is some sort of reset button?
And if I have buolt already the pcb for the circuit above can I use your software or not?

[NiaDebesis]

For example in the little table chart says VPP control should be pin 9, which according to the Raspberry PI documentation has no connection, while according to the schematic GPIO numbers, VDD control for example is on pin 4 which again has no connection on the Raspberry GPIO. What are all those numbers referring to? See attached screenshot.

the DNC descriptions in this table are nonsense, do you really believe there are GPIO pins that should not be used (except pins 27 and 28, which are I2C pins exclusively assigned for HAT boards).

this is a real GPIO overview:


as you can see pin 9 is simply a GND (ground) pin, and pin 4 carries 5V.

I do agree the GPIO assignment is a bit weird, or not explained well. does "1" means GPIO1 or pin 1 (pin 1 is 3V3). pin 6 is GND however...

I think the GPIO's numbered 1 to 6 in the schematic are wrong, or simply describing a pinheader, but the table above it is correct
with:

Code: Select all

1 = VDD Control	GPIO pin 11
2 = VPP Control	GPIO pin 9
3 = Clock Control	GPIO pin 8
4 = Data Out Control	GPIO pin 25
5 = Data In	GPIO pin 24
6 = GND         (any GND pin)

but that is my own guess....

I think that the numbers from 1 to 6 in the schematic are only to make some sort of order
And the numbers in the chart above indicates the GPIO's
Because if can I use a Pi or a PI 3 is easy to use the GPIO's numbers to indicate correct pins

[mahjongg]

I think that the numbers from 1 to 6 in the schematic are only to make some sort of order
And the numbers in the chart above indicates the GPIO's
Because if can I use a Pi or a PI 3 is easy to use the GPIO's numbers to indicate correct pins

yes, that was my thought also, the numbering probably stems from a 6-pin pinheader which connect to the PI with six wires.
if the chart is in the same order as the wires, it should work with the supplied software.

[BirchJD]

Sourcing or sinking current, sink current to ground with NPN source current from +V with PNP.

Oh thanks

So for what is the button in your circuit? Is some sort of reset button?
And if I have buolt already the pcb for the circuit above can I use your software or not?

The button and one of the LEDs is for the test code supplied in the following directory:
https://github.com/BirchJD/RPiPIC/tree/master/TEST_ASM

Each time I do a release of the source code, I go though each of the PIC devices and program the test code. The test code will flash the LED when the switch is pressed. It's a way of making sure he programming process is working. Both for when I do a release and for if a program doesn't seem to be working, the programmer can be ruled out if the test code can be programmed onto the device and it works.

It may be possible to get the programmer this post is about working with my Python programming script, but some of the signals may be inverted because of the way the circuit is made. So you might need to adjust the code in places.

Jason