PIC16F1936 - Can't find CONFIG location (0x8007-0x8008)

[Oleg Antonyan]

op version 0.9 (also 0.8.1)
When programming it gives me an error
Can't find CONFIG location (0x8007-0x8008)
But op is able to read whole chip including config bits written by another programmer. Another chips are OK.

Here is an example hex:
:08000000803102288731FC2F3A
:100F9E002F001208F03909389200FF309800FF3008
:100FAE009900FC3091050C309104FF30A000FF3009
:100FBE00A100FF30A300FF30A400FF30A600FF30D9
:100FCE00A700FF30A900FF30AA00FF3095002000D7
:100FDE0098152F00911720309200843091008030A8
:100FEE0093009401F0309500FB2F7E102000873186
:020FFE00CF2FF3
:020000040001F9
:02000E00A4E963
:00000001FF

It works if I write it by another programmer, config bits are OK, op is able to read it back.

Thanks in advance

[Alberto Maccioni]

hello,
your hex file specifies only config word1 (@0x8007) and its value is not allowed, as 0xE9A4 is not <0x3FFF.
Once you fix that you have to add a config2, which can be 0xFFFF in order to be ignored during write; you can do it by adding the following line:
:02001000fffff0
before
:00000001FF
However you should check if you really want to reset config2.

[Oleg Antonyan]

Hi, Alberto
Thank you, it almost works, but strange.
I'm using Microchip xc8 v1.32 compiler and Hi-tech v9.83 and they generate this hex file. I suppose they just don't bother about those extra bits, you always can (and probably should) mask them.
Anyway, my problem solved by adding one config bit in config word 2
Here is my config in code:

#pragma config FCMEN = OFF
#pragma config IESO = OFF
#pragma config CLKOUTEN = OFF
#pragma config BOREN = OFF
#pragma config CPD = OFF
#pragma config CP = OFF
#pragma config MCLRE = OFF
#pragma config PWRTE = OFF
#pragma config WDTE = OFF
#pragma config FOSC = INTOSC
#pragma config LVP = OFF 

LVP is located in config word 2

Here is a piece of hex generated by xc8 v1.32 linux:

:100E180012140800F40074080139F300F30E2F00CF
:0C0E280021087306EF397306A1000800D2
:041000000034103474
:020000040001F9
:04000E00A4C9FFDFA3
:00000001FF

[Alberto Maccioni]

Actually 0xC9A4 and 0xDFFF are not valid config words, as all words are limited to 14 bits so must be <= 0x3FFF.
I guess the compiler sets the unimplemeted bits to 1 instead of 0 like the assembler.
I will take this into account in the next software release, but for now you should use 0x9A4 and 0x1FFF instead.
Just substitute:
:04000E00A4C9FFDFA3
with:
:04000E00A409FF1F23

[Alberto Maccioni]

I checked the code and all words are limited to 14 bits (AND with 0x3FFF), so the hex file is already ok.