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wot's low voltage programming

2017-12-23
2017-12-23
  • stan cartwright

    stan cartwright - 2017-12-23

    Why so much effort into programmers and low voltage programing? I looked it up and it's microchip optional using pgm pin (??) . I use uno bootloader and pickit2 icsp.
    I wonder as a beginner what you developers are up to and am I missing something.OK flashing in under a second is cool but I don't know why you encourage use of pics that need pins setting up first and are just low ram ordinaire pics like the xpress board pic. A nano mega328 works so easy with GCB. Competent pics are easy to. What am I missing by not using lvp?

     
  • Hugh Considine

    Hugh Considine - 2017-12-23

    Low voltage programming basically allows the programmer to be simpler. For high voltage programming, the programmer needs a source of about 13V to put the chip into programming mode. That has to come from either an external power supply, or from a charge pump circuit that boosts 5V from a USB port to the appropriate higher voltage. Either way, it makes the programmer more expensive.

    GCBASIC has always defaulted to turning off low voltage programming. This makes more I/O pins available for the user, which is ideal for high voltage programmers. But turning LVP off upsets low voltage programmers. By knowing if it is dealing with a low voltage programmer, GCBASIC can keep the programmer happy and avoid the need for the user to set something. The aim is always to reduce the number of things that someone has to learn to get a program working, so this is what we want.

    Even before the craze for the NSDS programmer began on here, I was already thinking that the compiler should be able to automatically call the right programmer in some cases. It bothered me that I had to manually select either my PICkit 2 or my USBtinyISP when the compiler should know perfectly well if it is dealing with a PIC or an AVR.

    These changes should resolve both of these annoyances, and providing a simple GUI to switch programmers should also make things easier for anyone who doesn't feel comfortable editing batch files.

     
  • stan cartwright

    stan cartwright - 2017-12-23

    Thanks for the reply. Eventually I'll use newer pics and have to sort lvp. I was aware of the 13V from building parallel programmers.
    Editing the ide avr/pic batch file is ok if it's just the com port. I don't have to understand batch script to do that.
    pics now come in lvp by default and gcb sets the config to hvp ??
    It's probably just me that thinks gcb is getting more complicated.
    Has NSDS any relevence to avr? Is NSDS a lv only programmer?

     
    • Anobium

      Anobium - 2017-12-23

      If you are using one pic and one avr then things are ok.
      Not everyone can edit or even attempt to edit batch files - so, we are removing complexity to make things easier not more complicated.
      NSDS not applicable to AVR. No NSDS can program LVP and HVP with some external components.

       
  • stan cartwright

    stan cartwright - 2017-12-23

    The 26s flash and 6 second assemble for avr on my old laptop is unbearable. I'm taking up knitting and speling.

     

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