You punched it and it is still working?! Anyway thank
GOD you cleaned your equipment ;)

John

--- Dominic Stratten <dominic.stratten@ntlworld.com>
wrote:

> Well what a week that was last week.
>  
> Finally got the time to build a small frequency
> generator device out of an
> 18F1220 to test another project I've been working on
> that needs a bit of
> debugging. I knocked up a small program and burned
> it into a 1220, hooked it
> all up and it was running well. Modified the program
> slightly, put the 1220
> into my Promate II and hit the burn button - failure
> :(
>  
> Erased device and tried again - same problem.
>  
> Erased device and did a blank check - device not
> blank.
>  
> Cycled power on both PC and Promate II - same
> problem.
>  
> Tried with a 16F84A - worked fine - no problems.
>  
> Tried with a brand new blank 18F1220 - same problem.
>  
> Out came the trusty Picstart + with PUM module - now
> this doesn't normally
> program the 1220 without moaning and today was no
> exception - it wouldnt
> program the part and threw up loads of errors. Out
> with my last "virgin"
> 1220 and into the Picstart - same problem - errors
> on program but this would
> erase the device and blank check came up as device
> blank. Checking the
> "blank" PIC on the PM2 however showed it as having
> config bits set.
>  
> Tried it on a different PC - same problem.
>  
> Tried a working 1220 - I've programmed this at least
> 50 times without a
> problem but it failed again and killed the program
> in the PIC.
>  
> Punched Promate II - didn't make any difference but
> felt a lot better.
>  
> Decided to call it a day and retired from my
> workshop (a nice warm 38.7
> degrees C) to the cooler environment of my house and
> cracked open a beer and
> settled down to browse the Microchip forums and
> Google for some inspiration.
>  
> Came to the following conclusions :
>  
> I might have a duff batch of 1220's
> It might be too hot in the workshop for the kit to
> program properly
> I might have a duff Promate II
> I might be doing something very wrong in the heat
> through sheer stupidity
> I might need to put between 0.1uF and 1uF in
> parallel with the PIC pins
> My version of MPLAB (7.21) might be buggy
> God might want me to have this week off and maybe
> the next one as well
>  
> So ...............
>  
> This morning I forced myself back into the workshop
> - a nice cool (!) 29.1
> degrees C at 9am. Found a 1220 in my parts drawer
> from a different batch and
> tried that - same problem.
>  
> This rules out heat and the 1220's themselves
> Went through everything in the software with a fine
> tooth comb - nothing had
> been changed.
> Upgraded to MPLAB 7.40 - same problem
> Tried with various values of capacitor between the
> supply pins - same
> problem
>  
> Just about to give up at this point and have my 10am
> can of beer when I had
> a flash of inspiration - I took out the programming
> module on the PM2,
> cleaned the contacts and zebra strip with some Video
> head cleaner, took out
> the zebra strip and holder, cleaned the contacts on
> teh PM2 itself as well
> as the other side of the zebra strip, reassembled
> and hey presto all working
> again.
>  
> Just erased, blank checked, programmed, verified
> every single 1220 that I
> had a problem with and they are all fine.
>  
> Well worth cleaning all the contacts and zebra
> strips if you start getting
> random program and verify errors on the Promate 2.
> 
> -- 
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> Release Date: 14/07/2006
>  
> > -- 
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