mLoader and EB006v9 not working issue and solution

[Ras]

If you just start with an EB006v9 you may run into errors as shown below...

mLoader - USB not open error.jpg (56.23 KiB) Viewed 2199 times

mLoader Error - 1937 err 1.jpg (64.55 KiB) Viewed 2199 times

What can you do? I found EB006 drivers posted and new revisions of mLoader available for download but not much in terms of describing what to do next, what and where to install, and what to expect when you get this working. In addition there are numerous posts about possible hardware malfunctions due to various design limitations in EB006v9; of course you need to review most of them and make your own checks and decisions hoping to resolve this dilemma. This is where I was a week ago with a new project and a tight timeline... nothing seemed to work and the experience was very frustrating.

Hardware set-up:
First, take your EB006v9 and change J11 from USB to PSU for external supply. If it came with a PIC16F1937 installed verify that J15 is set to 5V as target voltage, J18/19 to OSC for using the 19.66MHz crystal and J12/13/14 to USB for programming source. Connect an external power supply with a minimum of 9VDC @ 200mA (EB006v9 requires approx. 100mA). A better option would be a 10VDC @ 200-400mA. Plug the power supply to an outlet. You should see the D6 Power LED on.

Driver and mLoader set-up:
Download the latest EB006v9 driver and the mLoader program files and unzip in separate folders. Plug an USB cable into EB006v9 and hook it up to your PC, let Win install the WinSer driver. Open up Device Manager, check where in the Universal Serial Bus controllers the EB006v9 is reported (if necessary unplug the EB006v9 and plug back). We need to right click and Uninstall the driver with the option to delete the driver software for this device checked. Let Win do its thing and then as soon as it announces that it found an unknown USB device and looking for a driver, click into that bubble and stop the process. Your EB006v9 will be reported now as an unknown device under Other devices... Right click, select Update Driver Software and Browse my computer for driver software and navigate to where you unzipped the driver files and select the USB driver, for example C:\Temp\EB006v9_Driver_and_INF\EB006 v9 USB Driver. Let Win install this driver. Device Manager should show EB006v9 under Custom USB Devices now.

Navigate to where you unzipped the mLoader program and run it; you should be able to talk to the chip now; Autodetect, Erase should work. If you have a HEX file for PIC16F1937 try to program the chip. Through out this process the D10 Prog LED will come up or blink while D6 Power LED stays on.

If you get to this point you have the hardware, driver and mLoader working... you may be lucky to find that it is also working from within FC... If unfortunately it is not, you need to do one more step; please check my next post for a complete solution (sorry, had to split this post so I can attach more files).

[Ras]

This continues my previous post on same topic as I had to split it so I can attach more files...

I am assuming that this extra step is required due to Win UAC and file/folder access control. To get around this we will use a copy of mLoader from a temporary folder (I placed this in my working folder, also used to develop FC programs) and change the default location of the programmer software in FC.

If you did not develop your own FC program you may also use the program or the HEX file attached below to verify EB006v9 operation from within the FC environment. This test program is working with an EB004 (LED board) on Port A and EB007 (Switch board) on Port B. It will light or flash the DO LED when you press the SW0 switch as long as you remember to wire up the EB007 +Vin to J10 +V on EB006v9.

FlashLED_1937_Ghost.fcfx

(5.57 KiB) Downloaded 173 times

FlashLED_1937_Ghost.hex

(6.38 KiB) Downloaded 175 times

Software set-up:
Start FC, open up your project and select Build / Compiler Options / Programmer. Select the PIC \
Default set-up and check the Default compiler for the platform C for PIC check box. Click on Location, Browse and navigate to the folder you unzipped mLoader; select the mLoader.EXE and press Open. The new location for the programmer software should be in the Location field on the Programmer tab. Press OK; an Option Save window will pop up; enter a new name for this set-up such as EB006 and press OK. To make sure that this new setup is the default selected access once again Build / Compiler Options and verify that the new EB006 set-up under PIC is in bold font, press OK.

This is it!

If you enable Ghost and recompile to chip you should get no errors. After pressing F5 (Run) you should see the EB006v9 D6 Power, D8 ICD and D9 Test LEDs turn on. The D0 LED on EB004 should be on and blink when the EB007 SW0 switch is pressed.

If you get errors such as per below

mLoader Error - EB006v9 external power not plugged.jpg (21.75 KiB) Viewed 2195 times

make sure that your external power supply is plugged on both ends... for some odd reason the EB006v9 D6 Power LED lights up even when J11 is set to PSU and no external power supply is conencted (probably the Ghost chip is powered directly from the 5V USB).