EB006 V7 & 16F88 - Pin RA5

[Jay Dee]

Hi,
Using the EB006 and a PIC16F88, I wish to use RA5 ( PORT A, Pin6 ) as a switch input.
I have set to PPP option to use this pin as an input and not as MCLR.
The hardware is setup the same as the other switch inputs on RA4 and RA3 and using a meter the voltage measured on PORT A pin 6, swings correctly between 0V and 4.8V.
However the PIC appears to always read this input as logic 1.
I believe I have the correct jumper settings. J29=PSU J12,14=USB J18,19=OSC J11,16,17=I/O Port
Is there something silly I'm missing?
Cheers all, J.

[Benj]

Hello,

On the EB006 it hardwires the reset button to the MCLR input. Have you tried pressing the reset button and seeing if that causes the input to register a 0?

[Jay Dee]

Ah, Yes. Spot on Ben. The push to break PB1 is indeed what was tripping me up.
For the development of my current simple project, I can use PB1 as the switch input instead of an external switch connected to PORT A RA5.
Thanks,
As a small side issue, Is it possible to desolder or insert a disable switch to the PB1 switch and thus rely on an input from PORT A RA5? Or is PB1 more heavily integrated into the Dev board ?
Thanks, J.

[Benj]

Hello,

The pin is not routed through to the D-type for PortA as other chips have a pin RA5 that is not connected to the MCLR pin.

To do this on the board you would have to remove the pullup resistor connected to the MCLR pin and then wire the signal by hand from MCLR/RA5 to the D-type.

As I say other chips will not like this configuration as it will essentially short the MCLR and RA5 pins together.

[Jay Dee]

Thanks for the clarification Ben,
Cheers, J.