Programming PIC 16F628A

John, is not the worth to use a Chipkit to program a PIC ? I am curious.

Hi Enrico,

While experimenting with a small frequency counter kit I latched up the input on the 16F628. I ordered a couple more blank chips and found the original program on the internet but I do not have the programming hardware to install the program on the chip. Unless you know another way I was hoping to get it done with out buying the programmer at this time. I hope this answers your question as I did not perfectly understand it.

Thanks John

Here's some info on the Chipkit:

  ChipKIT MAX32 Development Platform

Hi Max14,

Thank you for the link with the good information on the Chipkit. I have looked it over but I do not see the connection between the ChipKit Development Platform and my need to have a PIC program installed on my PIC 16F628A  uPs ICs. Perhaps you or Enrico could clue an old guy in.

Thanks John

John,

let me know the PIC device model, I should check if I can program it.

BTW, to save money, despite who you find or contact, I suggest to correct your proposed strategy. If someone has a PIC programmer this means he is able to use it (or is a collector, sound strange ):

• The programmer buy the chips from a distributor (cheaper and faster than you ship from the US)
• You send the software by wetransfer (zero cost and almost zero time)
• He program your chip and you refund him the cost (hard to think he needs a fee, should invest about 10 minutes of his time but it is ok)
• He ship the programmed ones to the US (only one shipment, cheaper and faster)

What do you think ?

Enrico

Ignore the request for the model, it's in the title of your discussion

Hi Enrico,

You are correct I could send the program to someone as an email attachment and they could program a chip they obtained locally thus needing only the cost of one mailing. It was just my attempt to keep the process as simple and low cost for whoever helps me as possible. As always thank you for your insights and support.

John

I purchased three of these frequency counters on eBay and  they seem to be  accurate enough for my product.  they run for about 10 seconds and they turn off and then they blink for half a second every five or eight seconds. 

What can I do to have them stay on permanently? 

Brian

Hi Brian,

I found that there needed to be some termination on the crystal input when not in use. For this purpose I plug a 1 nF cap into the crystal socket. If you aren't going to use the crystal tester you could also just decouple it from the circuit by removing the capacitor that ties the crystal oscillator to the input of the PIC.

Let me know if this doesn't correct your problem. If you have three units all doing the same thing there must be a systematic problem.

John

Hi John, 

Thanks for your response.   I went from 1 nf to 15 pf and the counter went bonkers. 

68 pf was the only value made it steady.   Even the first time I tried 68 didn't work.  

Now it seems steady as a rock and the frequency is right on.   But from what I've seen how do I trust it if I get this in the field.  I always thought that there was a timer that I could turn off in the circuit .    The second counter the frequency was off by 30 or 40 Hz and nothing helped.   I guess I can start changing values of those small capacitors. The tuner is such a small range that doesn't mean a thing.  Is there a schematic of this counter?

Brian

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