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Debug stopped working — Parallax Forums

Debug stopped working

ElectronegativityElectronegativity Posts: 311
edited 2005-09-07 21:57 in General Discussion
The debug feature has stopped working. cry.gif

All the memory loactions are zero and it claims to be running.

The SX key still programs the chips.

Could I have somehow damages one of the oscillator inputs?

What should I do?

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I wonder if this wire is hot...

Comments

  • Stuart WhiteStuart White Posts: 6
    edited 2005-09-06 01:49
    Did you add a resonator or crystal to your circuit recently. I remember reading that they will disable debugging capability.
  • ElectronegativityElectronegativity Posts: 311
    edited 2005-09-06 02:02
    No, it happens with only the SX28 plugged into the SXTech board and running a memory manipulation example program from Gunther's book.

    All the values read zero, and the 0th program location is highlighted in the debugger instead of the jump instruction at the very end.

    Maybe I somehow fried something in the SX key, but it still programs the chips properly; it's just that the debugger doesn't work anymore.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    I wonder if this wire is hot...
  • PJMontyPJMonty Posts: 983
    edited 2005-09-06 16:25
    Electronegativity,

    Do you have a few SX chips? If so, does it do it with all the chips or just one of them?
      Thanks, PeterM
  • ElectronegativityElectronegativity Posts: 311
    edited 2005-09-06 16:50
    All of them.

    I have an SX28 on the Parallax SXTech board, an SX18 on a breadboard, and another SX18 on a prototype board.

    The debugger was working fine on Saturday, then it was not working Sunday morning.

    I will re-install it when I get home.

    The reason I posted this thread was to find out if it is possible to damage the SXkey in such a way that it would be able to program the chips, but would no longer communicate with the debugger.

    My soldering technique is still very poor, and there have been a few short circuits.

    What if one of the oscillator pins was exposed to a 5V input?
    Could that have caused the problem?

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    I wonder if this wire is hot...
  • PJMontyPJMonty Posts: 983
    edited 2005-09-06 23:33
    Electronegativity,

    I have found the SxKey to be pretty robust, but it's always possible that you damaged it. Sounds like a call to tech support may be in order.
      Thanks, PeterM
  • ElectronegativityElectronegativity Posts: 311
    edited 2005-09-07 04:38
    I guess I'l send an email off to tech support then, because reinstalling the software didn't help.

    What's really odd is that the device is capable of both programming the chips and reading the memory of a programmed chip from the run->device->read button.

    When the debugger starts the line that designates the reset location is highlighted instead of the jump at the end of the universe, and all the registers read zero. The box on the upper left says "running" and all the buttons except reset and reset pos are greyed out.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    I wonder if this wire is hot...
  • PJMontyPJMonty Posts: 983
    edited 2005-09-07 05:17
    Electronegativity,

    By any chance are you using the "Debug (reenter)" command instead of just "Debug"? If so, are you sure that the last time you programmed the chip it was programmed via "Debug" and not via "Program"?

    When you choose Run->Program, it just programs the chip with your code. This is what you do when your code is finalized and you want to program a chip to run in standalone mode.

    When you choose Run->Debug, it program the chip with your code and with the code needed for the SxKey to enable and control the debugging.

    If you do Run->Program (or Ctrl-P) and then do Run->Debug (reenter) (or Ctrl-AltD) the debug window will say "Running", the buttons will be greyed out, and the "Reset" line will be highlighted blue.

    The Debug (reenter) should only be used when you have previously programmed the chip via "Debug" and simply want to jump into and debug the code that is already in the flash memory of the SX.
      Thanks, PeterM
  • Guenther DaubachGuenther Daubach Posts: 1,321
    edited 2005-09-07 08:38
    Electronegativity,

    I have several SX-Keys here. One of them shows exactly the symptom you describe, i.e. I can use it for programming SXes but when I activate the debugger, it always comes up in Running mode. When I replace the SX-Key, I can enter the debugger as usual without the need to re-program the chip that was programmed with the "Run-only" SX-Key before. IOW, this one I have here is definitely broken.

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    Greetings from Germany,

    G
  • ElectronegativityElectronegativity Posts: 311
    edited 2005-09-07 14:07
    Hi Guenther, do you have any idea how it could have happened?

    I guess I will have to buy another one, but I don't want to break this one too.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    I wonder if this wire is hot...
  • Guenther DaubachGuenther Daubach Posts: 1,321
    edited 2005-09-07 17:48
    Hi Electronegativity,

    sorry, I don't have a clue what (partly) killed one of my SX-Keys. In general, the SX-Key is quite robust. It happened to me more than once that I attached one to the programming 4-pin header in wrong orientation. Once, due some bad wiring, an external heavy 24V power supply drove over 10 Amps through the ground pin, the SUB-D 9 connector, the serial cable to the PC's ground and back to the power supply. I only recognized this when my serial cable became hot. This actually damaged the serial cable but the SK-Key survived!

    Maybe, some electrostatic discharge caused the damage. Normally, I only plug/unplug the SX-Key with the power supply turned off, and I try to "unload" myself by touching ground potential before handling the SX-Key but you never know...

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Greetings from Germany,

    G
  • ElectronegativityElectronegativity Posts: 311
    edited 2005-09-07 18:48
    Ok thanks, I guess that's it then.
    I sent off an email to Parallax tech support to find out if there are any options for repairing or replacing it.

    Also, I really like the SXSim.
    It would be awesomely useful if the debugger gave as much information as the simulation does.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    I wonder if this wire is hot...
  • Guenther DaubachGuenther Daubach Posts: 1,321
    edited 2005-09-07 21:57
    Electronegativity said...
    Ok thanks, I guess that's it then.
    I sent off an email to Parallax tech support to find out if there are any options for repairing or replacing it.

    Also, I really like the SXSim.
    It would be awesomely useful if the debugger gave as much information as the simulation does.
    I'm glad that you like SXSim. With a simulator, you can always implement features that can't be available with the debugger. The SX-Key IDE can only display the information that it can retrieve from the SX chip under test. Nevertheless, the Debugger has the great advantage that it allows you to execute code in real-time where for a simulator it is hard to match that speed, but I'm working on it smile.gif .

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Greetings from Germany,

    G
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