Flash PIC Programmer Software

Introduction

I get many requests for better software to go with my simple PIC programmer designs:

If you've never come across them before, more information on some of them, including my old DOS software, is available from several sites.

The designs are so simple because all the intelligence needed to program the PIC resides in the PC. The programmer hardware is just a way of interfacing a PIC directly to the PC via either a parallel (printer) port or a serial port. Basically the PC must arrange for the PIC to be placed in programming mode (though for extreme simplicity this can be done manually) and then it waggles a couple of PIC pins to download the program to the PIC from a hex file representation. On the early EEPROM PICs (such as the 16C84) programming mode is entered by applying approximately 12V to the /MCLR pin, but the latest chips can also be programmed without the need for a 12V supply. Apart from memory size differences most flash PICs look the same to the programmer software (there are exceptions like the 16F74 - currently this program doesn't work with those). All the software needs to do to control virtually any simple PIC programmer hardware setup is to generate or accept these logical signals:

OUT -- data from the PC to the PIC (usually RB7)
CLK -- clock from the PC to the PIC (usually RB6)
VDD -- turn on the PIC +5V supply (not always needed)
MCLR -- control the PIC /MCLR pin
PGM -- used (with MCLR) to establish programming mode
READ -- high when PIC must be read
IN -- data from the PIC (RB7 again) to the PC

That's what my software does. It also provides a way of specifying which port pin carries which signal. Not all the signals need to be generated to program a PIC. For example, to control the "quick-and-dirty" programmer only OUT and CLK are required. That's because programming mode is established manually (by connecting /MCLR to 12V) and the PIC cannot be read.

In its present state, alhough not complete, the software has enough functionality to be useful (I hope). I've supplied a Win32 executable (FPP.EXE), a DOS executable (FPPDOS.EXE) and a batch file (FPP.BAT) for running the Win32 software from MPLAB. When the Windows software is run for the first time it will need to be configured by hitting the setup button to specify the programmer hardware (and other things).

Running FPP under NT/Win2k/XP

FPP fiddles with I/O ports directly and while this is tolerated under Win95/98/Me, it is a definite no-no on NT-like versions of Windows. To get around this the program looks for and uses a special driver called "GIVEIO.SYS" which can be downloaded as directio.zip from the Dr Dobb's Journal archive. You only need this driver if you use Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP. The driver can be installed in a variety of ways but I used a program called "LOADDRV.EXE" (one source of this program is loaddrv.zip). The method I used was as follows:

Copy GIVEIO.SYS to a folder (for example SYSTEM32 in the Windows system folder)
Run LOADDRV, specify the full path name of GIVEIO.SYS, and hit install
Reboot
Run the Device Manager (from the hardware tab of the System control panel item)
Select the menu option to show hidden devices
Look for "giveio" under non-plug&play drivers, right click and select properties
Using the driver tab of the properties sheet select Automatic
Reboot

Using FPP

To be completed ...

Command line options

To be completed ...

Using FPP with MPLAB

To be completed ...

All schematics and pictures

Russian translation of this article by Yuri Lysenkov you can see here

Используются технологии uCoz