Programming Problems!!!

Hi all

I'm having problems programming my picaxe. i'm using a 18m2 pic with the 18 Standard Project Board (CHI030). I'm supplying the board with 5v. When I try to programming the picaxe a message comes up on the screen saying "verification error 0x00 transmitted but 0xFFFFFFF0 recieved at byte 0"

Any ideas what I can do to get it working?

Cheers

Hello and welcome to the Forum

Have you tried looking at this page?

Welcome to the PICAXE forum.

Verification errors are usually power supply related but if the supply is sound then it could be an electrical issue. Double check the supply voltage and also check for any shorts, solder splashes or loose wire strands around the download interface and socket. Check that the download cable plug is firmly and fully inserted into the socket.

If you are using something other than an AXE027 download cable there may be some issues with that.

It may also be worth trying a Hard Reset procedure - Turn the power to the CHI030 board off, wait a few seconds, initiate a download, then when the "Connecting to hardware..." message appears, turn the power back on.

I've found that I can programme the chip when I turn on my laptop, open the editor and download something to the chip straight away but after 2 maybe 3 minutes it starts coming up with the error message when I try to programme it. Could there be something on my laptop interfering with it?

It seems more likely the PICAXE program is doing something which is causing the download verification issue, though not exactly sure why. If that's the case the Hard Reset procedure should resolve the problem.

Perhaps try programming from a different PC; if that exhibits the same behaviour it would suggest it's not anything specific to the laptop.

Can you clarify the type of download cable you are using and what the PICAXE power supply is. Have you previously been able to program the PICAXE on this board, or any other, using this laptop and cable ?

5V from where - what sort of supply? Try 4.5V from 3xAA batteries - does the problem still occur?

I got the same results using 3xAA batteries as what I did when I was using the 5v supply. I tried using a friends computer and it work straight away.

Unfortunately it does sound like an issue with your laptop. Perhaps have a look at power and hibernation settings in your OS, see if there are any settings which may be disabling USB and devices after some period to save power consumption.

It might be worth trying it while plugged into the mains if you are running on laptop batteries as that might select a different power profile.

Yeah I thought it was probably the laptop. It is getting on a bit now. Thanks for the help ��

In addition to what Hippy advised, if you go to Control Panel/Device Manager on your laptop and expand the Ports (COM & LPT) section, you should see an entry for the AXE027 cable when it is plugged in to a USB port. When your download fails, it would be interesting to see whether you can see the AXE027 entry, or whether it has disappeared. I have known PCs to "forget" that there is a Picaxe cable connected (possibly due to the issues that Hippy mentioned).

I had a look and it didn't disappear when the download failed.

I'd guess that, for some reason, the laptop is not providing enough power consistently to the USB port. Are you drawing any power from any other USB ports? If so, does unplugging those things allow you to program the Picaxe? If not, I assume that you are running the laptop on mains power and not batteries?