I think voodoobot may have
I think voodoobot may have identified at least one problem.
As you can see in the picture above, both ICs need to be installed with the notch in the chip facing the top of the board.
okay, that second chip(the
Okay, that second chip(the one on the right in the image), have you tried pulling it off of the board when you’ve tried connecting it. if not, I would try that. Also, the image looks a bit fuzzy but it looks like that notch on the second chip is on the bottom. Thisis opposite of what you want and could be causing the issue. If you pull this chip off and it works, try plugging it back in with the notch matching that of the picaxe notch, that being both nothces up or matching the boards silkscreen notch indicator.
Edit: reworded some lines to clarify what I’m saying.
I just tried that and
I just tried that and nothing different happened - same verification error. Still, that would’ve given me grief down the road (it’s a darlington driver). Thanks!
Ah man, I dunno at this
Ah man, I dunno at this point.
- two different computers and same results
- resistors are correct.(I would seriously doublecheck them at this point use a multimeter too)
- two two different chips and same result
- darlington driver removed.
- batteries are good
maybe the cable?
yeah, maybe I’ll try wiring
yeah, maybe I’ll try wiring up my own serial cable (as scary as that sounds, haha) just so I can see for sure everything’s doing what it should. I found this: http://dave.fraildream.net/picaxe/pxhwser.shtml and I should be able to scrounge up an unused serial plug, a stereo plug, and some heat-shrink tubing.
One other suggestion, verify
One other suggestion, verify all solder points are solid. if one isn’t secure it can cause issues.
what do you mean by solid?
what do you mean by solid? like, the piece doesn’t wiggle?
Yeah, just make sure the
Yeah, just make sure the solder points aren’t loose, thats all. I’ve seen it happen before.
yeah, alright. thanks.
yeah, alright. thanks.
I tested the cable I have,
I tested the cable I have, it seems to be working perfectly according to the pinout diagram that’s in one of the picaxe datasheets, so I guess I’m not gonna do that.
However, I managed to find my digital camera, so I took some better pictures. Does anything stick out to anyone as broken?
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5917/img3426.jpg
http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/4474/img3425n.jpg
P.S. in the second one, it looks like the wires in are crossing; they aren’t, it’s jus the angle
The 3 solder points near the
The 3 solder points near the bottom right look a bit rough(img3426.jpg), but I don’t think they would be the problem. Regardless, I would try to resolder them to just to be sure.
I have noticed that as well.
I have noticed that as well. Looks like wayland spent some time with iron there… I’m not really sure if one can burn and shorten a capasitor by applying too much heat, but I’d add one more step to voodoobot’s suggested troubleshooting: desolder capasitor and try download a program before soldering it back.
By the way, why did you shaded pin#8 of picaxe chip on the picture? You do not have to answer, I’m just curious 
I shaded it because the
I shaded it because the pin bent and broke once when I was pulling it out of the socket, to be honest. But I figured it shouldn’t affect programming and, besides, besides, I can work around it, right? I was hoping no one would notice, haha.
And yeah, that soldering mess was from when I decided it must not be programming because the capacitor is in backwards. It didn’t help switching it around. Maybe I will try leaving it out; what’s it there for anyway?
So on the topic of giving
So on the topic of giving up: do you guys think if I bought a different board (or the breadboard adapter and a breadboard), I would have better luck?
**honestly, I don’t know… **
honestly, I don’t know… I mean, it doesn’t appear as anything obvious is wrong…
The pin you broke shouldn’t have any affect on the working of the proc so…
Honestly, I’d actually go the route of breadboarding first before getting another board. I think that would be the easiest way to troubleshoot.
Yeah, I think that’s what
Yeah, I think that’s what I’ll do. I’ve pretty much established that it’s not the computer or the cable.
Alrighty, sounds good. Keep
Alrighty, sounds good. Keep posting here cause I’m curious to know if you get things to work. Also, do me this one favor if you have a multimeter. Do a reading on all of the resistors. It’s a remote possibilty, but maybe one is bad.
I only have an analog
I only have an analog voltmeter from a long-ago science fair project… but I’m pretty sure there’s a way to get ohms from voltage across something, only I can’t find it. Hm. But yeah, I’ll post when/if I get this all to work. Thanks for all the help.