My ren64's are dieing

[smartalec]

Originally Posted by g2ktcf

well you need to wait for your programmer IMHO. With that, we verify the osciallator and the internals of the PICs. And, you may have had some surge that zapped the programs.

Ive just asked Wjohn if he has a pic with the diagnostic software on it for sale, so hopefully i'll know soon.

why would only one board get the spike if 4 was connected an the first one stopped working in the chain.

[g2ktcf]

Originally Posted by smartalec

Ive just asked Wjohn if he has a pic with the diagnostic software on it for sale, so hopefully i'll know soon.

why would only one board get the spike if 4 was connected an the first one stopped working in the chain.

are you feeding all the boards off the same supply? If so, Phil was warned me about that as I wanted to run several boards off the same PS. He said we have no control over the balance in the power between the two. Could this be it?

[smartalec]

does'nt a power supply just supply the power, its up to the boards to take what they need? like house wiring!
an having a computer power supply run them showed me no faults, until recently.
i thought it might of been the ZC circuit, since i know it does'nt work when that transformer is'nt working to supply the ZC for the PWM.

i guess i'll only find out when im able to get a pic.
i swapped pic 1 with pic 4, but that made no differance.

it does have me puzzled tho.

Originally Posted by g2ktcf

are you feeding all the boards off the same supply? If so, Phil was warned me about that as I wanted to run several boards off the same PS. He said we have no control over the balance in the power between the two. Could this be it?

[David_AVD]

Alec, it sounds like you have some bad solder joints. Maybe inspect them all and resolder anything that looks even slightly dodgy.

[smartalec]

me an bad solder joint's, i doubt that.
but i'll put a board under the microscope tonight an inspect it anyway.

Originally Posted by David_AVD

Alec, it sounds like you have some bad solder joints. Maybe inspect them all and resolder anything that looks even slightly dodgy.

[smartalec]

checked my soldering, thats decent like i thought it would be.
but i have been advised the st485bn 8pin ic's can easly stuff up.
i now have a couple on order.

[Matt_Edwards]

if it is the st485bn, you may want to check the earthing between your computer and the controller. I blew a number on driver chips in my first year when computer was about 30m away from the first controller. I run RS 485.

This may not be your problem, but it is worth a look.

[WWNF911]

If I were you I'd invest in a pic programmer. Get used to using it and have some extra pics around for trouble shooting. Including one with Diag firmware. Additionally, this sounds to me like a classic case of unintentional static electricity damage to your pics. The symptoms you describe are what happens when for some reason one or more of your pics were damaged in the handling process. i.e. they'll work ,... for a while but will ultimately fail as the damage doesn't kill the chip at first but sooner or later the symptoms will start to show. In the right environment, the mere act of standing up with a tie on can generate as much as 10,000 volts. No current, but enough static energy to damage a chip. I learned early when I moved to Nevada that I had to be careful as everytime I got out of my car I needed to touch the chassis of my car with my arm. To forget to do so could really be painful if I accidently touched it with my finger tips.

Hope this helps.

Leon

[rjchu]

While you're waiting for either a programmer or a diag pic from someone, why not take out pic1 from one of the "bad" ren64's and replace pic1 from a "good" ren64 with it? If the first 8 channels of the "bad" ren64 now work, then you've isolated the problem to needing to reflash the pic's. I don't think you need all of the pics to be "good" for it to show signs of life, just the first one. More seasoned guys, please correct me if I'm wrong as I haven't even done my first year's show yet so I know I'm not an expert!

-joni-

[BillAd]

Well alternately take a good board and swap in one chip at a time from the bad board. When things stop working then you've found a part that is bad. This approach helps in the event there are multiple chips that are bad. If after all chips have been swapped from the bad to the good and the board is still working fine then recheck the solder joints and start taking measurements. Good luck.

Bill