topic Re: Production (volume) flash programming in 8-bit Microcontrollers

Production (volume) flash programming

kaiki — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 03:50:32 GMT

Can someone please explain to me how to flash a chip (say S08) for a volume production run, I currently have pemicro's USB multilink, and would consider something like the CyclonePro for production.
i.e.
how do I store things like MAC addresses, other variables which are specific to that particular chip. do the s19's change everytime, or do you use 2 s19's( one for the program and another to write only the unique data fields.)?

are there any docs/appnotes explaining how to plan for production/testing in volume?

Re: Production (volume) flash programming

kevin — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 08:28:43 GMT

Look at P&E's CPROG software package. You can write scripts to simplify repetitive commands in production programming. There is an address & data write command you could use for your MAC address (we use it to load serial #, operator number, time/date, etc...). Two downsides: it isn't extremely fast (70 seconds to program a GR4) and you need a dedicated pc. We looked at the CyclonePro but without the pc, you can't write any specific data to individual units.

Word of caution: we have been using P&E USB multi-links in production for the past 2 years and have gone through at least a dozen units. We are having trouble getting a response from P&E on the reliability of these devices.

Kevin

Re: Production (volume) flash programming

kaiki — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 03:44:36 GMT

Are there any other products out there? That manage without a dedicated PC?
wow this BDM business seems to be quite interesting.. (~500 bucks for a programmer!!)

Re: Production (volume) flash programming

Nabla69 — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 23:29:44 GMT

Dear All,

I tend to agree with "kevin". I never had any trouble with my P&E USB BDM RevB on normal use.

But few of my colleagues seem to prefer the older parallel model coz it's more robust.

May be their environment is more aggressive than my bench !

So I would also avoid the USB BDM which doesn't seem adequate.

May be P&E Micro could advise/comment here ?
I'm sure they can show us a typical solution !

Cheers,

Alvin.

Re: Production (volume) flash programming

kevin — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 00:58:57 GMT

We have three USB BDMs and two Parallel versions in our R&D department. We have had zero failures during development/debugging. All the failures have been occurring on our production floor.

From what I have been told by our repair techs, the USB BDMs have a poor 5V regulator (low noise immunity and maximum Vin is very low). We have repaired several units by replacing the regulator. We have found 3 units with power supply shorts internal to the BDM's processor - leading us to beleive that the board's 5V supply exceeded processor Vmax with transients occuring on the USB power supply.

P&E suggested we modifed our BDMs so we have added our own regulator and installed transient protection on power, reset and debug lines. It has helped but we lost one unit a couple of weeks ago. We have returned units to P&E - still waiting for a response.

Kevin

Re: Production (volume) flash programming

andrea — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 11:14:50 GMT

SofTec Microsystems inDART-ONE has been designed to work in production environments (reliable current driving stage, optimal hardness to electrical shocks and reasonable IP grade). It supports Freescale HC08, HCS08, HCS12 and HCS12X families. For the HC08 family fast programming algorithms are available, this feature will permit 32k of FLASH (as could be a HC08GP32) to be programmed in about 1.5 seconds.

This tool is USB based, can be gangable and a programming library is supplied. Unfortunately is not StandAlone, which means a PC must be used as host, but in a gang solution only 1 PC is needed to support up to 32 inDART-ONEs.

For more info, please have a look at:

http://www.softecmicro.com/products.html?type=detail&title=inDART-One

As for the other SofTec tools, inDART-ONE should be available from Freescale web site (through BuyDirect) soon.

Regards,

Andrea