$20 LCR ESR Transistor checker project

[sdancer75]

Most SPI driven displays got the same signal lines plus power and backlight. So you can't deduce the controller from the pinout.

I am not able to use the display with Adafruit_ST7735 and Adafruit_GFX libraries in my breadboard (standalone Arduino project). Can someone write down the ST7735 controller Pinout following the attached schematic?

[madires]

Simply take the settings for the AY-AT clone:

Code: [Select]

PD0 - /RESET
PD1 - D/C
PD2 - SCL
PD3 - SDA
PD5 - /CS

and correlate them with your display:

Code: [Select]

1 - anode of backlight LED
2 - /RESET
3 - D/C
4 - SDA
5 - SCL
6 - /CS
7 - Vcc
8 - Gnd


[sdancer75]

Simply take the settings for the AY-AT clone:

Code: [Select]

PD0 - /RESET
PD1 - D/C
PD2 - SCL
PD3 - SDA
PD5 - /CS

and correlate them with your display:

Code: [Select]

1 - anode of backlight LED
2 - /RESET
3 - D/C
4 - SDA
5 - SCL
6 - /CS
7 - Vcc
8 - Gnd


Yeap !! It worked !! I finally saw some text in the display. Thanks once again! I attach the pinout table with photos for everyone may need it.

PS: Pin2= /RESET you mean NOT(RESET) enabled and Pin6 = /CS you mean Not(CS) enabled ?

[madires]

The leading "/" indicates that the signal is low active (reversed logic).

[fastguido]

I hope someone can help this analog design guy from the past. I have had a Banggood 328 tester for about a couple of years now, been working fine and use it daily. Last week the display wouldn't show any characters, power LED would come on, if I inserted a LED in the test zip it would flash a few times, checked the power supply, ok.  2.5V reference, ok.  So I borrowed a friends same tester and swapped the 328 from his to mine, (thank God for sockets) and it works, so my 328 is bad. I just ordered a couple of new 328's (one for a spare) to replace mine in case it's not just a software problem. This is where I am at this point, I have no knowledge on programming accept some very basic Arduino stuff, I have only a MAC, all the threads on programing the 328 that I have read on this thread are way over my head, it's all Greek to me. Is there someone on here that could program a couple of 328 for me or another idea. Thanks in advance.

[timelessbeing]

If programming is over your head then just buy another one
Here's one for $6
ebay.com/itm/112224259968

[Cliff Matthews]

If programming is over your head then just buy another one
Here's one for $6
ebay.com/itm/112224259968

Why is it most of these idiot mfg's can never figure out how to weave traces under a simple 14-pin ZIF-socket? This model sure is cheap, and there's only one valid 123 position (upper left row) out of a minimum of 4 easy ZIF configurations.

I'd like to suggest that mikrocontroller.net would add info on optimal PCB routing for ZIF sockets. Anyone agree?
 

[fastguido]

If programming is over your head then just buy another one
Here's one for $6
ebay.com/itm/112224259968

Thats against my old school ways to replace, just throw away not my style.

[Cliff Matthews]

I'd like to suggest that mikrocontroller.net would add info on optimal PCB routing for ZIF sockets. Anyone agree? 

[timelessbeing]

You don't have to throw anything away (except the dead chip). Everything else can be reused.

I don't think anybody will program your chips for you or tutor you on embedded development so I don't see what other choice you have.

[sdancer75]

I hope someone can help this analog design guy from the past. I have had a Banggood 328 tester for about a couple of years now, been working fine and use it daily. Last week the display wouldn't show any characters, power LED would come on, if I inserted a LED in the test zip it would flash a few times, checked the power supply, ok.  2.5V reference, ok.  So I borrowed a friends same tester and swapped the 328 from his to mine, (thank God for sockets) and it works, so my 328 is bad. I just ordered a couple of new 328's (one for a spare) to replace mine in case it's not just a software problem. This is where I am at this point, I have no knowledge on programming accept some very basic Arduino stuff, I have only a MAC, all the threads on programing the 328 that I have read on this thread are way over my head, it's all Greek to me. Is there someone on here that could program a couple of 328 for me or another idea. Thanks in advance.

You tested the ATMega328p chip and you found it bad? In that case, yes you can order new ATMega328p new chips and program them. Its not so hard! You need
an USPAsp programmer + AVR Board

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Programmer-AVR-Minimum-System-Board-ATMEGA16-ATmega32-USB-ISP-USBasp-For-ATMEL/351110426836?epid=2114364063&hash=item51bfcff0d4:g:fNgAAOxydlFSviwG&frcectupt=true

Install AVRdude http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/avrdude and download the mega328_color_kit version below

https://www.mikrocontroller.net/svnbrowser/transistortester/Software/trunk/mega328_color_kit/

Then just use the command below to program flash and eeprom

avrdude -c usbasp -p m328p -U flash:w:TransistorTester.hex
avrdude -c usbasp -p m328p -U eeprom:w:TransistorTester.eep

Finally program also the efuses with the follow command and you are ready !

avrdude -p m328p -F -P usb -c usbasp - -U lfuse:w:0xFF:m -U hfuse:w:0xD9:m -U efuse:w:0xF4:m -U lock:w:0x0F:m

[madires]

I'd like to suggest that mikrocontroller.net would add info on optimal PCB routing for ZIF sockets. Anyone agree? 

I'm not sure if that would help. We have some hints for clone vendors already (even in Mandarin) and haven't received any feedback from Chinese vendors so far.

[fastguido]

I hope someone can help this analog design guy from the past. I have had a Banggood 328 tester for about a couple of years now, been working fine and use it daily. Last week the display wouldn't show any characters, power LED would come on, if I inserted a LED in the test zip it would flash a few times, checked the power supply, ok.  2.5V reference, ok.  So I borrowed a friends same tester and swapped the 328 from his to mine, (thank God for sockets) and it works, so my 328 is bad. I just ordered a couple of new 328's (one for a spare) to replace mine in case it's not just a software problem. This is where I am at this point, I have no knowledge on programming accept some very basic Arduino stuff, I have only a MAC, all the threads on programing the 328 that I have read on this thread are way over my head, it's all Greek to me. Is there someone on here that could program a couple of 328 for me or another idea. Thanks in advance.

You tested the ATMega328p chip and you found it bad? In that case, yes you can order new ATMega328p new chips and program them. Its not so hard! You need
an USPAsp programmer + AVR Board

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Programmer-AVR-Minimum-System-Board-ATMEGA16-ATmega32-USB-ISP-USBasp-For-ATMEL/351110426836?epid=2114364063&hash=item51bfcff0d4:g:fNgAAOxydlFSviwG&frcectupt=true

Install AVRdude http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/avrdude and download the mega328_color_kit version below

https://www.mikrocontroller.net/svnbrowser/transistortester/Software/trunk/mega328_color_kit/

Then just use the command below to program flash and eeprom

avrdude -c usbasp -p m328p -U flash:w:TransistorTester.hex
avrdude -c usbasp -p m328p -U eeprom:w:TransistorTester.eep

Finally program also the efuses with the follow command and you are ready !

avrdude -p m328p -F -P usb -c usbasp - -U lfuse:w:0xFF:m -U hfuse:w:0xD9:m -U efuse:w:0xF4:m -U lock:w:0x0F:m

Thanks for the input, yes the 328 is bad, software and/ports? And yes I already ordered the a couple of chips. But a couple of problems, I didn't see any software for a MAC in the provided link and I don't have a color display. According to the "Comparative table for clone tester pdf" which I found on this thread( thanks to who did that PDF), it's the M328 Kit.

[jreyes]

Thanks for the input, yes the 328 is bad, software and/ports? And yes I already ordered the a couple of chips. But a couple of problems, I didn't see any software for a MAC in the provided link and I don't have a color display. According to the "Comparative table for clone tester pdf" which I found on this thread( thanks to who did that PDF), it's the M328 Kit.

Software-wise, you'll need CrossPack for AVR: https://www.obdev.at/products/crosspack/index.html and the Xcode command line tools: http://osxdaily.com/2014/02/12/install-command-line-tools-mac-os-x/. You can also use an Arduino board flashed with the ArduinoISP sketch rather than a dedicated USBAsp if you already have one.

[fastguido]

Thanks for the input, yes the 328 is bad, software and/ports? And yes I already ordered the a couple of chips. But a couple of problems, I didn't see any software for a MAC in the provided link and I don't have a color display. According to the "Comparative table for clone tester pdf" which I found on this thread( thanks to who did that PDF), it's the M328 Kit.

Software-wise, you'll need CrossPack for AVR: https://www.obdev.at/products/crosspack/index.html and the Xcode command line tools: http://osxdaily.com/2014/02/12/install-command-line-tools-mac-os-x/. You can also use an Arduino board flashed with the ArduinoISP sketch rather than a dedicated USBAsp if you already have one.

I have a Ardunio UNO board flashed with ArduinoISP sketch, but how do you put an external program on to another chip ? It seems that in my searches, they talk about loading a Ardunio sketch, not an external program.

[Southerner]

I have a Ardunio UNO board flashed with ArduinoISP sketch, but how do you put an external program on to another chip ? It seems that in my searches, they talk about loading a Ardunio sketch, not an external program.

Google is your friend.  You will find a gazillion hits telling you how to do this.  In a nutshell,  you build a breadboard and with jumper wires (shown in most of the google hits) to your Uno you "Upload sketch" using your Uno "As Programmer"
OR
If your Uno uses the same AVR chip footprint (28 pin Dip) as the GM328 AVR chip then you simply pull the chip from the Uno and substitute your M328 target chip and load the correct M328 sketch into the Uno.  Once that is done you pull your M328 AVR chip and put the Uno AVR chip back.  If either or both are SMT versions then things change since the ATMega328 smt version is a 32 pin chip whereas the ATMEga328P 28 pin dip version is well 28 pins.  Same chip but one has more pins than the other.

If you can find the ICSP pins on your M328 then your can use an ICSP cable from your Uno to the M328 and program it that way.

Again,  Google is your friend.

[Cliff Matthews]

I'd like to suggest that mikrocontroller.net would add info on optimal PCB routing for ZIF sockets. Anyone agree? 

I'm not sure if that would help. We have some hints for clone vendors already (even in Mandarin) and haven't received any feedback from Chinese vendors so far.

A bit of a shame. Hey, if they're all such good copy artist's, you can fix that by favoring illustrations of products that do it right.. 

[fastguido]

I have a Ardunio UNO board flashed with ArduinoISP sketch, but how do you put an external program on to another chip ? It seems that in my searches, they talk about loading a Ardunio sketch, not an external program.

Google is your friend.  You will find a gazillion hits telling you how to do this.  In a nutshell,  you build a breadboard and with jumper wires (shown in most of the google hits) to your Uno you "Upload sketch" using your Uno "As Programmer"
OR
If your Uno uses the same AVR chip footprint (28 pin Dip) as the GM328 AVR chip then you simply pull the chip from the Uno and substitute your M328 target chip and load the correct M328 sketch into the Uno.  Once that is done you pull your M328 AVR chip and put the Uno AVR chip back.  If either or both are SMT versions then things change since the ATMega328 smt version is a 32 pin chip whereas the ATMEga328P 28 pin dip version is well 28 pins.  Same chip but one has more pins than the other.

If you can find the ICSP pins on your M328 then your can use an ICSP cable from your Uno to the M328 and program it that way.

Again,  Google is your friend.

Thanks for trying to help me. I have been Googling for 2 hours, no luck on a tutorial on uploading an external file that isn't a "Arduino sketch" .  I can do the breadboard no problem, then what's next ? Where is the  "upload sketch" located and what sketch?  All it is uploading is the ISP sketch to the UNO. Where is the "as Programer" located? I have it set "programmer as ISP" in the pull down menu, is this right?I do not see any tester files under sketch folder, all I see is ArduinoISP.ino . I'm missing something for sure, how do you get the tester file folder into the Ardunio world? Also do you need a Xtal on the M328 on the breadboard ?  Google is not my friend today!

[madires]

Tool chain for Mac: http://www.ladyada.net/learn/avr/setup-mac.html

[fastguido]

Tool chain for Mac: http://www.ladyada.net/learn/avr/setup-mac.html

What does that link have to do with Arduino? Or do you have additional software plus the Arduino IDE?

[bitseeker]

fastguido, in short, after you have ArduinoISP loaded on your Uno, you then have to wire up the Uno to the chip you want to program and use avrdude to upload the binary files from your computer to the chip.

The series of blog posts that begin at the page below will show you how to wire it up and how to use avrdude to set fuse bits and upload files. It goes into details about compiling C code and converting to hex, which you can ignore, and then how to upload the binaries.

https://kwagjj.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/using-arduino-uno-as-an-avr-programmer-basic-concepts/

[fastguido]

fastguido, in short, after you have ArduinoISP loaded on your Uno, you then have to wire up the Uno to the chip you want to program and use avrdude to upload the binary files from your computer to the chip.

The series of blog posts that begin at the page below will show you how to wire it up and how to use avrdude to set fuse bits and upload files. It goes into details about compiling C code and converting to hex, which you can ignore, and then how to upload the binaries.

https://kwagjj.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/using-arduino-uno-as-an-avr-programmer-basic-concepts/

So is avrdude included in the Ardunio IDE or is it additional software that I have to download?

[Southerner]

So is avrdude included in the Ardunio IDE or is it additional software that I have to download?

Yes, AVR Dude is loaded with Arduino IDE.

AVR Dude is the back end for the Arduino IDE.  In a nutshell,  Arduino IDE is just the GUI interface for AVR Dude.  One gotcha is that Arduino IDE does not support all functions in AVR Dude.  For example,  one item Arduino IDE will not do is allow you to read a current chip.  You can program that chip (in most cases) but you can't read what is currently programmed into that chip.  AVR Dude does load at the same time as Arduino IDE.  If you look up the commands for AVR Dude you will find that you can instruct it to read that chip you just programmed using the command line commands but again you can't  get Arduino IDE to tell AVR Dude to read that chip so if you look up the commands for AVR Dude you can still do the things like reading the chip.  AVR Dude is a pretty versatile program.

[sdancer75]

I hope someone can help this analog design guy from the past. I have had a Banggood 328 tester for about a couple of years now, been working fine and use it daily. Last week the display wouldn't show any characters, power LED would come on, if I inserted a LED in the test zip it would flash a few times, checked the power supply, ok.  2.5V reference, ok.  So I borrowed a friends same tester and swapped the 328 from his to mine, (thank God for sockets) and it works, so my 328 is bad. I just ordered a couple of new 328's (one for a spare) to replace mine in case it's not just a software problem. This is where I am at this point, I have no knowledge on programming accept some very basic Arduino stuff, I have only a MAC, all the threads on programing the 328 that I have read on this thread are way over my head, it's all Greek to me. Is there someone on here that could program a couple of 328 for me or another idea. Thanks in advance.

You tested the ATMega328p chip and you found it bad? In that case, yes you can order new ATMega328p new chips and program them. Its not so hard! You need
an USPAsp programmer + AVR Board

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Programmer-AVR-Minimum-System-Board-ATMEGA16-ATmega32-USB-ISP-USBasp-For-ATMEL/351110426836?epid=2114364063&hash=item51bfcff0d4:g:fNgAAOxydlFSviwG&frcectupt=true

Install AVRdude http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/avrdude and download the mega328_color_kit version below

https://www.mikrocontroller.net/svnbrowser/transistortester/Software/trunk/mega328_color_kit/

Then just use the command below to program flash and eeprom

avrdude -c usbasp -p m328p -U flash:w:TransistorTester.hex
avrdude -c usbasp -p m328p -U eeprom:w:TransistorTester.eep

Finally program also the efuses with the follow command and you are ready !

avrdude -p m328p -F -P usb -c usbasp - -U lfuse:w:0xFF:m -U hfuse:w:0xD9:m -U efuse:w:0xF4:m -U lock:w:0x0F:m

Thanks for the input, yes the 328 is bad, software and/ports? And yes I already ordered the a couple of chips. But a couple of problems, I didn't see any software for a MAC in the provided link and I don't have a color display. According to the "Comparative table for clone tester pdf" which I found on this thread( thanks to who did that PDF), it's the M328 Kit.

The avrdude works on MAC Os, you can install it following the directions below.
http://macappstore.org/avrdude/

No other software is needed. You have just to buy the programmer (or build it with your breadboard+Arduino you already have) which is pretty cheap. If you have my 328p clone AY-AT then you need the mega328_color_kit (I didn't know either that mine was a color version since from the day I bought it, all I was seeing was just black background with green text) otherwise you can try the other version you will find inside the mikrocontroller.net repository.

You can program the MCU as many times you like (actually there is a limit but this is pretty big), so you can try without fear, just be careful with the fuses, because there is the danger to brick (lock) your microcontroller and in that case, you need to re-program the IC with a method called High Voltage Parallel Programming or just HVPP (in case of Mega328p).

[fastguido]

So, it looks like I have what I need, Ardunio uno, breadboard , Ardunio IDE which also installed Avrdude. But I still do not understand how to get the Hex and eprom file into the ardunio world? Like I keep trying to get across , all the tutorials on using the arduinio as a ISP, show loading the blink sketch into a blank micro which is already in the sketch folder and it's a INO type. I need to know how to get a non INO file into (I guess) the sketch folder, is this right?  Also what is this Makefile thing? Does it have to be loaded into the sketch too. And how do load/start  Avrdude, which you guys say is included in the Ardunio IDE, I didn't see it anywhere in the menu's? Totally frustrated! Why can't this stuff be drag and drop!