Got MIOS to upload via MIOS Studio... but now it hangs..

[moogah]

So, I've gottan MIOS uploaded into a pic now, it flases the "MIOS v1.8" screen and then displays "fixed BOR setup" and hangs right there...  Worse yet, powering off and then on again MIOS studio doesn't seem to receive the request for upload anymore...

[TK.]

Hi,

the BOR feature is a brown-out reset, which resets the core if Vdd is too low.

Which value do you read at the Vdd pins? It should be >4.5V

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[moogah]

Hmm... Checked that, reads ~5v with a bench supply, ~4.6v with a 9v battery.  With the PIC in and the LCD connected thr Voltage is still stable.  Here is a copy of an email sent to SmashTV:  In order to troubleshoot this further I'd like to know if there's anything that MIOS uses that the bootloader doesn't. 

**See update below**  It seems that once MIOS got uploaded the midi out went on the fritz. 

Now, here's

what happened.  I used the auto feature in MIOS studio so that once I

switched on the core, the upload began right away, once finished the

LCD showed the OS message and then froze on the "fixed BOR setup"

thing.  Assuming this was normal and that a reset was prolly needed

for MIOS to take over I switched the PSU off then on again.  Nothing

but blocks on the LCD, no incoming messages at all in MIOS studio.  I

figured something was wrong, but this was why I bought 2 more pics.

SO, I loaded up the next one and repeated the process... and the

process repeated ;(  This time I didn't turn the power off but began

searching for BOR, I as well found nothing.  Curious that it was

possibly just trouble with MIOS studio or the LCD screen I opened

MIDIox and tried to upload the seq hex.  The result was the same as if

there was nothing connected to the midi cable.  I tried sending it a

send/receive with the request for flash memory.  "waiting for

receive", or whatever the message is, but nothing coming in.  SO, this

is where I'm at in the troubleshooting:

-The midi interface/cable coming from the computer works.  However, the core schematic

shows pins 1&3 of J12 as both being M-.

-MIOS studio/Midi-OX are working, to the best of my knowledge.

-Information was certianly getting out of the CORE, further yet, it

was the correct information, So, the core was/is prolly working, and

the MIDI out is prolly working**.

-At first I had the midi diode backward, which didn't affect the out

port (apparantly, the request was getting through just fine).  This

was before being able to upload anything (duh).  I've traced the

schematic of this whole area now, all looks good.

-I don't recall wheather MIOS studio really waited between sending 1k

blocks.  I used the auto feature, in the Docs it mentions a 750ms

pause between blocks, the whole upload took no more than 3 seconds.

-IF the bootloader is COMPLETELY incapable of overwriting itself than

there is some set of processes that MIOS uses which the bootloader

doesn't, one or all of these are causing perhaps even the bootloader

to hang, perhaps just screwing up the midi out so that the 'loaders

message never gets through.  I'm assuming the root of this is in a bad or incorrect connection.  I've been over the board at least 10 times now, with a magnifying glass.  I've found nothing and would like something  specific to begin troubleshooting.  Is it possible to see if anything is being sent to the opto?  I've got test equipment.

**UPDATE**

I've now tried this with the third PIC.  I added the bypass caps first, and was able to get MIOS into the pic.  I can now reboot and everytime I get the "MIOS v1.8 T.Klose" screen followed by "Ready."  Except MIDI Out is still completely mute.  Nothing AT ALL coming out.  Stranger still is that this time as soon as MIOS got uploaded the core began spitting out LOTS os sysex messages.  However, I then tried to upload the SEQ software, which never got anywhere.  I tried the request for flash memoery again, which never got further than "waiting for input". 

Using the LCD debug in MIOS Studio works now.  How would only the midi out stop working..  particularly if both were working before?     

I'm stumped.

[TK.]

Thanks for the detailed description, it really helps to imagine what is going on!

In theory following scenario could be possible: if MIOS is uploaded partly, but not completely due to an MIDI interface issue, then something unexpected can happen. Something, which is out of my control (I've no solution to catch such a case).

One unexpected thing is, that the incomplete code branches into a flash programming routine with random parameters, and this could erase anything. Not only code, but also the configuration sector (which specifies criticial flags like clock frequency, write protection, etc).

Something like this is normaly very unlikely, I only know one person who had such an issue before. You could be the second one.

The only possibility to prevent this in future could be an extension in MIOS Studio which verifies MIDI transfer with some dummy writes to uncritical memory regions before starting the upload of MIOS. But such a feature won't help you now.

No MIDI Out: this remembers me on an issue which was reported some time ago - no MIDI data was received anymore after an endless stream of random MIDI events. The root cause was a bug in the MIDI Driver of the soundcard (it was a Terratec card) - a reboot of the PC helped.

Why random MIDI events? See above --- something unexpected can happen once a single block has not been uploaded correctly. MIOS Studio retries the upload 3 times, it gives up if there wasn't any success and then *boom*

So, in general there could be a problem with your MIDI interface - if you've luck, a driver update will help. If not, I've no solution.

However, maybe there is somebody in your area who could burn the bootstrap loader again, and who could upload MIOS + the application for you - where do you live?

Best Regards, Thorsten.