Picaxe verification error

Community General Discussions
1

So, before, I got the error: No hardware on com 1.

I have tried the hard reset, it starts downloading, and I get :

"Download For Picaxe on com1 failed

Error:

Verification error - 0x00 transmitted but nothing received at byte 0"

occasionally, it is "...nothing received at byte 37"

I get this with both my 14m and 08m. What am I doing wrong?

 

2

Could be the battery if it’s

Could be the battery if it’s low.

Could be you’re download circuit if you built it yourself.

Could be a stray wire if your soldering job isn’t up to spec.

Have you tried just trying to ident the chip in the picaxe programmer setup?

what is your board setup like? is it one of the picaxe dev boards? which one?

 

3

I have the picaxe 14 proto

I have the picaxe 14 proto board. all the pieces are where they should be and all make contact with the circuit board. I don’t know what you mean by the ident thing, but it read the firmware version if I plug in the battery as soon as it starts looking. It’s definitely not the battery being low, it’s a steady 5v from a regulator.

 

4

Did you build the board

Did you build the board yourself? did you put the resistors for the serin in the correct location?

Are you using USB or just the serial cable?

You’re having this issue with both 14m and 08m? are both proto boards?

You are correct with the firmware version, I always call it ident for some reason. can you retrieve the firmware ver multiple times without it giving you an issue?

 

5

The cap should be fine in

The cap should be fine in either direction as I don’t think they are polarized. I guess it could be likely that the cap is bad, but I’ve never heard of it giving this type of issue.

Did you solder all of the pins for the socket connector, that could be an issue as well if you missed one and it’s making a bad connection.

Does the 5vreg get hot while you’re using it?

6

I don’t think the cap’s bad,
I don’t think the cap’s bad, i just tested it and 5v runs through it no problem, and every pin goes through. The 5v regulator does not get hot.

7

Not sure at this point. have

Not sure at this point. have you ever had issues with your serial port before?

is it set to the N81, no hw handshaking, etc?

You really shouldn’t have difficulty hooking this up…it’s pretty strait forward…

Do you have access to another computer?

 

8

yeah, I’ve tried other

yeah, I’ve tried other computers and have never had serial port trouble… this is pretty frustrating, I’m not gonna lie. What is N81?
It’s either the board or the cable, right?

9

it’s the settings for the

it’s the settings for the serial port.

it usually goes Parity: N , Data bits: 8, stop bits: 1 , N81 flowcontrol: none

10

can I change these settings
can I change these settings somehow if they’re something else? I’m not sure what you’re saying

11

You can change those
You can change those settings, but you wouldn’t want to. They are usually the default, if anything you just want to make sure that they are set like that.

12

You can check it this way
You can check it this way (assuming you run WinXP): Right Click on MyComputer -> Manage -> Device Manager -> Ports (COM&LPT)-> COM1

13

The parity is none, so I
The parity is none, so I guess that is N? And all the other ones are right.

14

I honestly have no idea
I honestly have no idea where to go from here. I would be grateful if someone could tell me, even if it’s that my board is probably broken. Or could it be the cable? I really have no idea.

15

Would you be able to get

Would you be able to get some decent quality images of the board, front and back to see if maybe a visual look could discover something?

Also I wasn’t clear as to your answer on using another computer, were you able to use another computer and did it work? I just want to make sure I’m not barking up the wrong tree in helping to solve your issue.

Are you using a laptop or desktop?

16

com ports

just a random thought,
can you check what com port the picaxe cable is actually attatched to???

you might need to change the port in the options tab

17

I used another computer and

I used another computer and it did not work, I got the exact same error. Both computers were desktops; I also have a macbook without a serial port and a serial-to-usb adapter, but I’m not sure how to pick the usb port for axepad, and that’s a different story.
The picaxe cable is definitely connected to com1, I can check the firmware number with the editor.
Here are some pictures (I scanned it):
it’s a little out of focus, sorry.
and here’s the other side, still kind of blurry:
You’ll notice there are two resistors missing from the bottom; in the data sheet, is says these are optional fornif you need a 3.3v output.
Thanks!
18

I have also tried the

I have also tried the serial-to-usb adapter and it seems to be entirely not working. Huh. So that makes the fifth thing I’ve tried with these things that hasn’t worked. Sigh. Is this supposed to be this difficult?

edit: sorry for sounding whiny, just I’ve been working on this for what seems like forever and have not gotten anywhere.

19

Take a deep, calming breath.

Take a deep, calming breath. I find when I am stuck like this, it helps to do things by the numbers.

Check all the physical layer stuff first. Check every solder connection on your protoboard. Verify the power while connected to the circuit. Are you using a Picaxe Serial programming cable purchased online or is it one you fabricated yourself? Check the cable.

Test the serial port on your computer with another device and verify that it is working. Double check when you get this device working that it shows up on the Com port you expect (Com 1).

Check the settings in the Picaxe Programmer software. Ensure it is set up for the right com port and the right Picaxe chip. For the 08M chip, make sure you have the programming jumper set correctly.

You are right, this shouldn’t be too hard ,but sometimes it is. Hang in there and good luck!

20

Thanks. I will go try these
Thanks. I will go try these tomorrow.