Another "no hardware found"

[servodriver]

Hi all,
I am getting back to the Picaxe world after a few years, with the idea to control servos on my railroad.
But, I can not program any chips. I already had a AXE027 cable, and chips, and the programming setup is fairly simple;
should work, but now I suspect some simple error on my hand.
I have installed driver as per instructions,
loop test passes, which should indicate drivers work,
22k/10k setup chacked and rechecked,
tried hard reset, with no result,
also tried other chips.

Now I'm out of ideas...... what did I miss ?
Appreciate any suggestions.
Peter

 

[hippy]

Seems to me you are doing everything right so it's hard to tell what the problem is beyond perhaps having lost the 'muscle memory' of executing a Hard Reset, getting the timing right in power-cycling the chips and starting the download.

Is the correct COM port selected, or has it fallen back to COM1 ?

 

[servodriver]

Seems to me you are doing everything right so it's hard to tell what the problem is beyond perhaps having lost the 'muscle memory' of executing a Hard Reset, getting the timing right in power-cycling the chips and starting the download.

Is the correct COM port selected, or has it fallen back to COM1 ?

Thanks, very prompt anser, appreciate that.,
Downloading drivers resulted in "com2"' , and that''s what I'm using.
A little bit unsure about the hard reset routine; I started up my pc, connected axe027:s usb, then started Picaxe.
Clicked on "program..." and after a few seconds disconnected/connected power to the picaxe circuit.
Correct ? One more thing, it is a 32 bit windows pc, any problem with that ?
And,I tested 2 pcs 08M2 and one 14M2

 

[hippy]

Clicked on "program..." and after a few seconds disconnected/connected power to the picaxe circuit.
Correct ?

Not quite - Turn off power, wait a couple of seconds, click download, wait a second, turn on power.

You often don't need to wait after turning power off but that allows the power rails to collapse if they have reservoir caps, ensures the PICAXE definitely has reset.

It's the timing between clicking download and turning the power back on which can take a bit of practice. Too soon and the PICAXE may be running its program and ignore the download. Too late and PE6 will think the PICAXE isn't connected.

 

[servodriver]

Not quite - Turn off power, wait a couple of seconds, click download, wait a second, turn on power.

You often don't need to wait after turning power off but that allows the power rails to collapse if they have reservoir caps, ensures the PICAXE definitely has reset.

It's the timing between clicking download and turning the power back on which can take a bit of practice. Too soon and the PICAXE may be running its program and ignore the download. Too late and PE6 will think the PICAXE isn't connected.

Fantastic, doing it right it worked promptly !
Just so I get it right, this is due to an old program present ? I thought the chip should automatically handle a new load.....
Anyway, many thanks for the fast solution. Now for actual testing of servos....
Regards Peter

 

[Aries]

There is always a program on the Picaxe, even if it is only "Hello, I am your Picaxe xxxx"

 

[hippy]

Fantastic, doing it right it worked promptly !

Yay! Glad it's sorted and you're back on track again.

Just so I get it right, this is due to an old program present ? I thought the chip should automatically handle a new load.....

Almost certainly due to what was already in the PICAXE. Many PICAXE will download without a Hard Reset but the program can prevent that, especially if blocking commands are used, SERIN, IRIN etc.

A good tip is having a "Pause 2000" at the start of the program which will allow the PICAXE to more likely see the download even if the Hard Reset timing isn't quite right. The downside is it delays start-up which can be a pain during development but will help when you've been away from it for a while and need to re-remember how things work.