I'm just creating this thread to gather everyone who are having the same issues with updating their PIC in one place in order to gain a better understanding of the problem and perhaps find a solution.

So please - everyone who are experiencing the problems I am about to describe, let yourself be heard.

So here goes:
As a few of you might have read on this board, I have yet to have any luck updating my ACube-built MiniMig v1.1 with the new firmware from Jakub and Dennis - despite using a PIC already containing the TinyBootloader code.

Just this morning I received my second pre-programmed PIC from ACube and much to my dismay, I am experiencing the exact same problems as with the first one. Needless to say, after months of waiting to get this damn thing to work, I didn't know whether to burst into tears or smash the board against the wall, swearing to never indulge myself in an Amiga-related hobby project ever again. I counted to ten and decided to do neither, but instead give it one last chance and see if the community can help me out.

Finding a couple of other posts regarding the same issue neatly sprinkled over the many MiniMig threads on the site (none of them apparantly resolved) gives me meager hope that at least I am not the only one.

To sum up my trials and tribulations, I have followed every description to the letter.

- No jumpers on the Spare I/O or on the row behind the joystick ports.
- Jumper set to MCU and not FPGA.
- PIC seated perfectly (and the right way around)
- No peripherals are connected to the MiniMig (neither mouse nor keyboard)
- Null-Modem cable connected to the serial port of my PC and to the serial port of the MiniMig board.

As I power up the MiniMig, the drive light starts to blink when there is no SD card in the reader, and glows constantly if one is present (I have tried both). Then I start the TinyBootloader app on my PC, make sure it is set to the correct COM port (there is only one) as well as the correct baud rate (115200).
I press the CheckPIC button in the TinyBootloader app and immediately after I press the PGM RESET hardware button on the MiniMig.
Then I get this:

Connected to \\.\COM1 at 115200
  Searching for PIC ...
  pic sending unknown data:  "K" <>  0h=
Check baudrate & Start Write while PIC is not sending serial data (e.g. in reset)
  ERROR!

The "0h=" part of the string varies depending on how many milliseconds I wait between button presses.

To sum up my experience, I have tried:

- 2 different pre-programmed PICs
- 3 different Null-Modem cables (I even hand-soldered one myself to make sure the wiring was correct), all three tested perfectly as Null-Modem in a cable tester borrowed from the IT department at work.
- 3 different computers (all running Windows XP and using TinyBootLoader, v1.9.7)

In addition I have tried with and without an SD card, changing the jumper from 15KHz to 31KHz, and trying it with and without an attached monitor (not that any of those things would make any sense, but I was desperate).

Using the TinyBootloader software I have tried several hundred times with a various timing, prayers, chanting and incantations, but nothing works. I am still treated to the same array of error messages every single time.

The only thing I have left to assume is that I have a broken board. It seems to work just fine while playing the few games it supported properly out of the box, but obviously there is something wrong with it, since I am getting nothing but garbage in return when I try to communicate with the PIC.

I am prepared to handsomely reward anyone able to come up with a solution, because with the poor compatibility achievable without the recent microcontroller update, the board is all but useless to me.

Kind regards,

- Anders

i updated my pic yesterday and i did not touch the PGM reset at all.
first i did power on my minimig then Check pic and shortly after that write flash.
This worked fine and i did not have any problems at all.

My guess is that you have a hardware problem on your hands.

It sure seems like the Com: port hardware on the PC is the fault.  You indicate that you set the tinybootloader to 115200.  Have you gone into the Windows settings and pushed the hardware up to 115200 as well?

I had a few problems when I flashed until I reset the hardware and made sure it stayed at the proper baud.

beller wrote:
It sure seems like the Com: port hardware on the PC is the fault.  You indicate that you set the tinybootloader to 115200.  Have you gone into the Windows settings and pushed the hardware up to 115200 as well?

Thanks a lot for that tidbit. Checking the ports in my settings revealed the COM ports were set to 9600 baud. However, after setting them to 115200 I get the exact same results. Both on my workstation and the missus' PC.

Man. I was really getting myself worked up there for a second.

But could it be something related to the interrupts? In modern PCs, IRQs can be shared by many devices at once. Could that have something to say?

Kind regards,

- Anders

After you reset the com: port to 115200 did you reboot?  You might need to do this to fully configure the port.


Hope this helps!  

Bob

@Odin22

Where do you live? i have a PIC programmer and a minimig at home, So if you send me the PIC i can try to help you.
I live in Finland.

yaqube wrote:
If we assume that at least one of the PIC's you have got is programmed with valid bootloader (I hope you have tried both with my suggestions) the serial connection might be faulty.

Hi Yaqube. Yeah, I tried both of them.

To verify this please remove the PIC from its socket, connect pin 17 and 18, power on the board without the PIC, run terminal program and check if you get remote echo of typed characters.

Ok, I might need some more info here. Do I connect the socket holes on the board where pin 17 and 18 were supposed to go? And with what - a paperclip or piece of wire? Won't that short circuit it?

Have you tried screaming "UPDATE YOU USELESS *#&!ING PIECE OF %&$@!" at it?