achra Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 Hello, thanks very much for any help that you can give me on this issue. I've never built a midibox before, and my hope is to complete a Midibox Sid when all this is done. I should go ahead and mention that I am by no means new to electronics or soldering, I came here by way of designing nixie clocks compulsively for years..I bought the Core module kit from SmashTV, and assembled it. Everything looks great. I had the PIC18F4685 set to the following ID: 0000 0000 0000 0000. Is this correct?I wired up the power supply, and I'm measuring regulated 5v everywhere I should.. But on my 2x20 LCD, I only get a single row of blocks.. No letters at all. They adjust with the contrast pot, though.I wired it in "4-bit mode", because I read that this is the appropriate way to hook up a PIC18F4685 based project LCD. D0, D1, D2, D3 are not connected to the LCD display, and D3 is pulled high via 1k resistor.Thoughts? What have I done wrong? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philetaylor Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 Hi Achra.Welcome aboard! Well there are no indications from your message that you have done anything wrong :)IIRC, SmashTV programs the MIOS bootloader onto the PIC but not MIOS itself so there is no software to initialize the LCD (a row of blocks means it is powered but hasn't been initialized).This is the point where you will need to hook-up MIDI to it, fire up MIOSStudio and download MIOS to the core.Once MIOS is on the core and booted, you should see "READY" on the LCD, you can then download any of the available apps to it.CheersPhil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nILS Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 All the the row of black block definitely means is that your display hasn't been initialized. The most likely reasons for that would either be what philetaylor just said or the wiring from the core to the pic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryd_one Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 SmashTV PICs recently (at least since he stocked 4685s) have MIOS on them too (as well as the bootloader).... Which hints at a wiring problem. You should see "Ready." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flemming Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 I wired it in "4-bit mode", because I read that this is the appropriate way to hook up a PIC18F4685 based project LCD. D0, D1, D2, D3 are not connected to the LCD display, and D3 is pulled high via 1k resistor.Hmm, my LCD works fine but i have no resistor on D3?? I just cut the wires for D0, D1 D2 and D3 ..... is the resistor needed ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLP Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 -> http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_lcd_4bit.pdf-> http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_sid/mbsid_v2_communication.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philetaylor Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 SmashTV PICs recently (at least since he stocked 4685s) have MIOS on them too (as well as the bootloader).... Which hints at a wiring problem. You should see "Ready."I didn't realise he also puts MIOS on them so ignore my comment :)If you are sure the wiring is correct, it is worth hooking-up MIDI connections to MIOS Studio to check that you are getting an upload request from the core as this proves that the core is booting...Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flemming Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 -> http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_lcd_4bit.pdf-> http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_sid/mbsid_v2_communication.pdfAah, thanks :) i just misunderstood then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
achra Posted February 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 Thanks for all of your help, I appreciate it.Ok, I'll get a midi cable and see if MIOS is installed.Also, is it possible that my lcd display doesn't support 4-bit?Is it necessary for me to use 4-bit lcd display if I am only using a single core single sid setup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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