gnupic: Thread: EPIC Plus Programmer

Hi,

I'm trying to use the EPIC Plus Programmer with Linux. It appears to
read, the light comes on but it reads all FF. It also will not write
correctly using either picprg or odyssey. Under Windows it works fine.

I suspect the problem is the Vpp which only goes up to 7V under linux
whereas under windows it goes up to 13V. 

The pin configuration for odyssey is 
  clkpin=3
  pwrpin=-4
  rdatapin=10
  wdatapin=2
  vpppin=-5

Which should be the correct config for an EPIC programmer, mine is a
PLUS so I'm not sure if its different.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Alex Masidlover

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Alex,

I've got the same programmer (mine is circa 1996) which I recently began
using with odyssey on my linux box.

You didn't mention what sort of part you're trying to use. I used the
16F628 device. I don't know if its definition is included in the pic.conf
file yet (it wasn't there two weeks ago; I wrote one and submitted it to
Odyssey author Mark Aikens, who tweaked it and added it for the next
release). I also have "io.driver=linuxppdev" in my odyssey.conf; which
driver are you using?

I'm not sure why the board would show a different Vpp in linux vs windows,
because a quick trace of the PCB of mine seems to show that Vpp is
controlled by a 2N3906 transistor, switched by the parallel port. I do
remember occasionally getting strange results back when I used 9v
batteries to power the programmer. They'll get low enough to still light
the LED, but too low to do any progamming, and strange things happen. I
recommend using external power rather than batteries.

For suggestions beyond these, it'd be useful to include more information
like what kind of device you're working with, which io driver you use,
etc.

- Greg



On Mon, 7 Apr 2003, Alex Masidlover wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to use the EPIC Plus Programmer with Linux. It appears to
> read, the light comes on but it reads all FF. It also will not write
> correctly using either picprg or odyssey. Under Windows it works fine.
>
> I suspect the problem is the Vpp which only goes up to 7V under linux
> whereas under windows it goes up to 13V.
>
> The pin configuration for odyssey is
>   clkpin=3
>   pwrpin=-4
>   rdatapin=10
>   wdatapin=2
>   vpppin=-5
>
> Which should be the correct config for an EPIC programmer, mine is a
> PLUS so I'm not sure if its different.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help,
>
> Alex Masidlover
>