EEVblog #411 - MiniPro TL866 Universal Programmer Review

[dexters_lab]

Put a 'scope on Vcc. Some of those old chips are quite power hungry and may be pulling Vcc too low.

i did think of that and powered it (the PROM) directly from my bench PSU and it didn't seem to make much difference... i will have a probe with a scope though and see if i can see anything odd

[oPossum]

Checking Gnd at the ZIF socket would be a good idea too.

[rastro]

Put a 'scope on Vcc. Some of those old chips are quite power hungry and may be pulling Vcc too low.

i did think of that and powered it (the PROM) directly from my bench PSU and it didn't seem to make much difference... i will have a probe with a scope though and see if i can see anything odd

How do you know the PROMs are not the problem?  Does the equipment you took them from work/boot OK?

[dexters_lab]

Put a 'scope on Vcc. Some of those old chips are quite power hungry and may be pulling Vcc too low.

i did think of that and powered it (the PROM) directly from my bench PSU and it didn't seem to make much difference... i will have a probe with a scope though and see if i can see anything odd

How do you know the PROMs are not the problem?

I don't, but i will consider that when I've exhausted all other possibilities.

[rastro]

... Most of the devices i am reading are much smaller in size so any unused address lines are just left unconnected and i make the appropriate conenctions for the chip select. ...

Don't leave the Address lines floating tie them to low if they are unused.  Floating inputs/address lines can create inconsistencies since they are in an unknown or unstable state.

...However i am having issues reading an AMD AM27S29 (512*8 PROM), i am getting very inconsistent reads, sometimes large portions differ on each read and sometimes it's just a few bytes...

I would do about 10 or 20 reads and compare them. 
- In the cases where they differ by only a few bytes are they the always same bytes? 
- Could the problem be with a particular data bit on these problem bytes?  For example changing one bit would make them match.

On the hardware side. 
Is it possible to replace the programmers crystal with a slower one without breaking the USB communication to the host.  This would be an unlikely long shot...

[Circlotron]

... Most of the devices i am reading are much smaller in size so any unused address lines are just left unconnected and i make the appropriate conenctions for the chip select. ...

Don't leave the Address lines floating tie them to low if they are unused.  Floating inputs/address lines can create inconsistencies since they are in an unknown or unstable state.

Those unused address lines are programmer output pins, not chip input pins.

[katarakt]

I'm new here, saying hello 2 all 

I've updated my TL866CS to T866A v6.85 described in the post on page 51. I've never done a FW update before, so everything was original (have this programmer laying around for about a year or so). It worked really great and everything is working fine i think, no error warning after starting the minipro software. Haven't burned something yet. Thanks a lot to radioman 

As the tutorial says nothing about changing the bootlader to A i've leaved it as CS ...should i flash the bootloader to A too ? If i should flash it to A, simply start the flashtool again and only write A bootloader ? Is it necessary to select update.dat again and reflash again because the advanced tab is not available...i'm not sure about the steps for only changing the bootloader.

[radioman]

You don't have to reflash the bootloader if you don't want.
The only advantage of doing this is that you can update your firmware from minipro because if you have an CS model flashed with the A firmware and the bootloader is still CS then the minipro software will revert back to CS after the first firmware update. No big deal in this as you can use my tool again to flash whatever version you want.

On the other hand if you want to use only the minipro software to do the future firmware upgrades then you must reflash the bootloader.
But i think that there will not be any firmware updates for this model.
 Here's the link you'll need: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-411-minipro-tl866-universal-programmer-review/msg383943/#msg383943

And welcome to the forum btw!

[katarakt]

Thanks a lot radioman, followed your guide and steps from the link and flashed to A bootloader. Looks like everything works perfect, thanks a lot 

So, where can i check, which bootloader i have on the minipro now?

[radioman]

So, where can i check, which bootloader i have on the minipro now?

If you followed my instructions then you should have the A bootloader. However if you click the reset button then you should have the same device version in both normal and boot mode. There's a video tutorial about the firmware upgrade made by one of this forum members. Here is:
https://youtu.be/JM_2fd9YtFk

[malagas_on_fire]

Hi there.

Does this programmer also supports the older Microchip PIC_14000 series?

[BrianG61UK]

Hi there.

Does this programmer also supports the older Microchip PIC_14000 series?

Don't know about the new TL866II model but the TL866A and TL866CS do not support the PIC14000.

[mcinque]

Does this programmer also supports the older Microchip PIC_14000 series?

I'm afraid not since not even the XGecu TL866 II (which supports 2.000 devices more) does, see http://www.autoelectric.cn/MiniPro/TL866II_List.txt

[oPossum]

The PIC14000 is a somewhat obscure old PIC. The PICSTART Plus can program it.

[malagas_on_fire]

The propic2 also can program this old pic... but uses parallel port , old software, old drivers... PIC start plus is no longer available on the microchip website, but i'll check other alternatives...:

https://www.microchip.com/Developmenttools/ProductDetails/DV003001

[malagas_on_fire]

The propic2 also can program this old pic... but uses parallel port , old software, old drivers... PIC start plus is no longer available on the microchip website, but i'll check other alternatives...:

https://www.microchip.com/Developmenttools/ProductDetails/DV003001

My first attempt....
https://www.olimex.com/Products/PIC/Programmers/PIC-MCP-USB/

Obsolete...

[oPossum]

I don't think you will find any current products that support it. It was a short lived little known chip. There is a chance the Microchip PM3 may support it. You would have to ask Microchip.

I have used the PICSTART Plus with a USB to RS-232 cable without problems. An older version of MPLAB is required.

[Circlotron]

Updated to WINE 4.11 yesterday and now both MiniPro Programmer and Xgpro TL866II Plus won't start! 

Code: [Select]

me@my_pc ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/XGpro $ wine Xgpro
Dll Loaded.
Found Xgpro v8.51
Base Address = 0x00400000
Code section = 0x00401000,0x0020E000
Open Devices found at 0x004649D0
Close Devices found at  0x004647C0
Usb Handle found at  0x006A8C14
WinUsb Handle found at  0x006B0248
Devices count found at  0x006B0000
wine: Call from 0x7bc6d971 to unimplemented function setupapi.dll.SetupDiGetClassDevsW, aborting
0037:fixme:ntdll:RtlNtStatusToDosErrorNoTeb no mapping for 80000100
0037:err:user:load_desktop_driver failed to load L"C:\\windows\\system32\\winex11.drv"
0037:err:winediag:nodrv_CreateWindow Application tried to create a window, but no driver could be loaded.
0037:err:winediag:nodrv_CreateWindow The explorer process failed to start.
Open devices.
Close devices.
0037:fixme:ver:GetCurrentPackageId (0x33fe94 (nil)): stub
Dll Unloaded.


Code: [Select]

me@my_pc ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/MiniPro $ wine minipro
Dll Loaded.
Found MiniPro v6.60
Base Address = 0x00400000
Code section = 0x00401000,0x000A2000
Open Devices found at 0x0044A850
Close Devices found at  0x00461AB0
Usb Write found at  0x00461920
Usb Read found at  0x004619C0
Usb Write2 found at  0x00461970
Usb Read2 found at  0x00461A70
Usb Handle found at  0x004E78EC
Patched brick bug at 0x00401C1C
Patched RegisterDeviceNotification at 0x7EB1E650
wine: Call from 0x7bc6d971 to unimplemented function setupapi.dll.SetupDiGetClassDevsW, aborting
003b:fixme:ntdll:RtlNtStatusToDosErrorNoTeb no mapping for 80000100
003b:err:user:load_desktop_driver failed to load L"C:\\windows\\system32\\winex11.drv"
003b:err:winediag:nodrv_CreateWindow Application tried to create a window, but no driver could be loaded.
003b:err:winediag:nodrv_CreateWindow The explorer process failed to start.
Open devices.
Close devices.
Dll Unloaded.


[radioman]

Updated to WINE 4.11 yesterday and now both MiniPro Programmer and Xgpro TL866II Plus won't start! 

This is outrageous! 
The last wine 4.11 implemented a new feature which messed up my wrapper.

wine: Call from 0x7bc6d971 to unimplemented function setupapi.dll.SetupDiGetClassDevsW, aborting

Aha! this is correct. None of setupapi functions are implemented in my wrapper but wtf is 0x7bc6d971 ? well the new winex11.drv who want to call functions from my setupapi to "enumerate displays".
Ofcourse  this will lead to a crash because the target functions are not implemented.
However i fixed this issue by redirecting all the needed functions to the original setupapi.dll .
@Circlotron please try the new wrappers from my github repo.

[Circlotron]

@Circlotron please try the new wrappers from my github repo.

The new .dlls seem to work properly!
I read and wrote a M27C801 1Mx8 eprom on both programmers.
I didn't look at the terminal output though.

Github location for the benefit of others: https://github.com/radiomanV/TL866/tree/master/wine

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

So I have buggered my programmer. Radioman's software was the beginning. Yes I have used it before for 6.82 and its woes, and no problem. I was trying to update it to 6.85 and that's where things went sideways.
All this is because I couldn't ID, read or program a PIC16F877 in a DIP package.
I found a stash of CCS & melabs DIP & ICSP programmers and both work properly.
Now for my dilemma. I tried to use the saved hex files the Radioman's software makes (4 in all) to program via the ICSP. It wouldn't program the PIC. So I erased it and it programmed just fine.
Well, not really, as the code is there in the internal PIC, but it does nothing. Not even connecting to the USB.
My question is this, does anybody have a raw hex file that I can program on this? Of course it can be a random serial. Whatever works, Please.
Attached is a screenshot of the config screen for which I have no clue if it picked up from the hex dump or is it all wrong. More less frustrated minds are really needed.
Again any help would be appreciated.

[malagas_on_fire]

So I have buggered my programmer. Radioman's software was the beginning. Yes I have used it before for 6.82 and its woes, and no problem. I was trying to update it to 6.85 and that's where things went sideways.
All this is because I couldn't ID, read or program a PIC16F877 in a DIP package.
I found a stash of CCS & melabs DIP & ICSP programmers and both work properly.
Now for my dilemma. I tried to use the saved hex files the Radioman's software makes (4 in all) to program via the ICSP. It wouldn't program the PIC. So I erased it and it programmed just fine.
Well, not really, as the code is there in the internal PIC, but it does nothing. Not even connecting to the USB.
My question is this, does anybody have a raw hex file that I can program on this? Of course it can be a random serial. Whatever works, Please.
Attached is a screenshot of the config screen for which I have no clue if it picked up from the hex dump or is it all wrong. More less frustrated minds are really needed.
Again any help would be appreciated.

What about flashing a bootloader such as the tiny bootloader
And communicate with the serial program. ;

http://www.etc.ugal.ro/cchiculita/software/picbootloader.htm


or a led blinking :

https://circuitdigest.com/microcontroller-projects/led-blinking-with-pic-microcontroller

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

Yes. But I'm trying to program the PIC18F87J50 in the TL866 right now not the 877. If I had a good dump, I could test it. It's not a matter of programming the PIC18F87J50, it's a bad hex file.
But thanks for trying though...

[oPossum]

Hex file from my TL866 attached. Also fuse settings from that file.

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

It came right up with that file!
However, there's always one of those... It won't recognise or read an 877 or 876.
I can read a M328P, 8518 etc. Just not this PIC

You have saved me pulling out the rest of my remaining hair.
So now that I have a good (CS) dump that's okay too, I can fiddle with Radioman's software and try to put (I hope) v6.85 on.
Please feel free to stop me if that's a bad thing.
Again many thanks.