PIC slow speed oscillater problems? -- having trouble

Hemi265

[b][red]This message was edited by Hemi265 at 2005-2-16 1:46:5[/red][/b][hr]
I've just delved into the world of microcontrollers with a Pic16F84a on a development board I made from a Kit. It doesn't seem to be functioning correctly, i'm testing it with a program to just to flash a LED but when I change the delay routine in the code (simple repeat loop) do not notice any difference in flashing speed. (quite slow flashing around -- 1 sec on/ 1 sec off)

It's clock is driven by an RC oscillator, and while the program is running if a turn the variable resistor can get a noticable change in the flashing rate. The board has a jumper setting to run a crystal oscillor instead, but when i select this the program appears not to run (no lighting of the LED, even with a program I made that just turns the led on (incase it was flashing too fast to see it was on) -- meaning the chip doesn't function when runing the crystal? Are crystals easily damaged?

Is it possible i could have damamged the PIC somehow to give it this stage functionality? or do they either work or not?

I'm sorry if my questions seem strage, it's just i'm having a lot of diffiuclty, and considering scapping the whole project?!?

Thanks in advance!


Edit:


1. Erased the chip and 'ran' it, no led activity at all (to confirm the chip was erased)
2. Assemble and program the code shown below:
3. Run proram, and observed a slow even (ON/OFF time) flashing led. NOTE: THERE ARE NO DELAY LOOPS IN THIS?! WHAT IS GOING ON?! As i turn the resistor to obtain the fastest flashing speed, the ON/OFF time of the led moves in facour of the ON state, until there is just a slight off every second or so.

This is confusing?!

;*****Set up the Constants****

STATUS equ 03h ;Address of
TRISA equ 85h ;Address of
PORTA equ 05h ;Address of
;****Set up the port****
bsf STATUS,5 ;Switch to Bank 1
movlw 0Feh ;Set the Port A pins
movwf TRISA ;to output.
bcf STATUS,5 ;Switch back to Bank 0

;****Turn the LED on****

Start movlw 0Feh ;Turn the LED
movwf PORTA ;into the w register
movlw 00h ;Turn the LED
movwf PORTA ;into the w register
goto Start ;go back to

end

Again thanks in advance and i hope there is a simple explaination for all this!

blue_ice

It is possible that in the crystal switch position the PIC is running so fast that you just can't visually detect that the LED is flashed.
With no delay loops, at 1Mhz clock speed, the flash will only (without taking the time to figure it in real time) take approximately 4 microseconds to occur. TOO FAST FOR THE EYE TO SEE!

Take a look at the simulator offered by OSHONSOFT at oshonsoft.com. No, I don't have any thing to do with this company, but he offers a really good simulator that allows you to see all the PIC register contents as your software executes and yes, I know you can also do this with MPLAB, from Microchip, for free. The Oshonsoft simulator is just way easier for a beginner to use! You can try it out for free for 30 days and if you do buy, $25 is dirt cheap for software plus lifetime updates.

blue_ice

Just two more points I wanted to make.

1. Check out picklist.com. Tons of help at this site!

2. Never give up!