cannot flash the mc13213 - hard reset??

[tommasosinico]

Hello everybody , i'm an italian student and i'm working with the freescale mc13213 platform.

At the moment i'm trying to evaluate the power consumption of the rf module during a transmission: i send a packet every 100ms and i measure the voltage un a resistor wich is between the Vcc and Vrf (that i solded the resistor in the place of R132) with a differential amplifier.

The amplifier is powered with dual voltage +-15V.

When i connected the mc13213 to the amplifier it "doesn't like it at all"...now if i try to flash the mc13213 with codewarrior, it appears i window wich says "the target MCU is not responding. please turn the MCU power off(under 0.1v),turn MCU power on, then click ok. this will attempt to enter debug mode throught a power on reset sequence (BKGD currently is drivenm low)"

I really don't know what to do because i tried to do that ON/OFF sequence but it doesn t work.

Is there a way to "hard reset" the board??

thanks everyone

best regards

tommaso sinico

[tommasosinico]

HI Ian, Hi Ben

thanks a lot for your support.

I installed the test tool software (part of beekit) and i tried to flash the board but it appears exactly the same window that appear when i try to flash it with CW.

I suppose it means that the MCU died during the measure..i will find out an alternative solution to make the power measure. Fortunately i have another board so i can go on with my thesis!

Thanks again

greetings

Tommaso Sinico

[Ben]

Tommaso,

Try to download "BeeKit software" from Freescalse site. there is a programming utility, try using it.

There is a bug which cause problems while trying to program the RF chips fron CW IDE.

I had a problem with it, and I was instructed by the support team to use this utility, it works good

By the way, there is a special "place" for RF: check the "other solutions" place.

Ben

[tommasosinico]

Hello Ben,

thanks for your answer.

I think I didn't understand your advice: i have installed beekit, but  at the moment i don't need it because i have already created the project file for my boards and i have modified it with codewarrior.

The problem is that i cannot flash the MCU probably because somehow I erased the internal memory by connecting the board to an external circuit that I made.

Reguard the "special place for RF" I suppose you're talking about the forum..I'll check it thanks!

[iansmusical]

Hi Tommaso,

I believe Ben is saying that there is a known bug when it comes to flashing the MCU with CW and that the Beekit contains an alternative flash programming utility that addresses the known bug.

The Freescale MCU's don't have a "clear cmos" option like in a PC. It's probably wrong to compare them as they are very different devices. It's probably easier to view the flash memory on the MCU as a separate flash IC that is programmed via the BDM connection. Therefore, you probably haven't erased the flash by the addition of your circuit.

The thing you need to ascertain now is if you are experiencing the bug that Ben mentions or is the chip "french toast"! So, with just the MCU board, no oscilloscope, no amplifier, no BDM etc, does it work as it used to bar being able to flash the MCU? Is it transmitting at 100ms, does the LED work correctly that you have shown on your schema? If the answer is no, then I'd be thinking "french toast" :-(

Thanks,

Ian

[Ben]

Sorry, I was not connected to the net for 2 days, but yes, Ian, that's exactly what I meant.

The flash program which included in the beekit does not have the "known bug" in CQ IDE flash programmer

and it works good. Tommaso, give it a chance and try...

This beekit flash program need the s-record file of your project, so if you dont have it, switch on this option in the CW options

[iansmusical]

Salve Tommaso,

If I have understood you correctly you are wanting to measure a voltage via a differential amplifier? I am not familiar with the MC13213 platform but I'm presume it has an ADC input? I trust you are using the differential amplifier to amplify the voltage drop across the resistor? What do you mean by "doesn't like it at all"? How are you connecting the amplifier to the MC13213?

I am making a guess that using a +-15v supply for the amplifier may be an issue if the output voltage swings between + and - and is fed into the MC13213?

Thanks,

Ian

[tommasosinico]

Hello Ian, yes i want toi measure a voltage via a differential amplifier. I'm using it to measure the voltage drop across a resistor.

When i first try to measure that voltage i probably made a mistake: i used different ground references for the instrumentation that i was using (AC power supply, oscilloscope) and for the board (connected via USB to the PC).

The amplifier were connected directly to the resistor.

When i powered the sistem up i couldn't see anything on the oscilloscope, the transmission stopped (I were monitoring the transmission by serial communication with the PC) and all the leds were powered on.

This morning i have tried the external reset (found on manual) that consist of connecting directly the reset pin of the MCU to ground, but nothing happened.

I'm afraid that somehow I broke it :smileysad:

I hope i explained the problem clearly.

Any suggestions??

Thanks

Tommaso

[iansmusical]

Hi Tommaso,

Different ground planes won't help and my worry is that you could have broke it! Performing a manual reset shouldn't be necessary as the BDM will do all this for entering debug mode. You could post the schematic you are using and we can make sure everything is connected up correctly. My other worry is that you've exceeded the voltage/current specifications of the input pins, maybe also the supply pins!? Have you tried just making a LED flash on the MC13213 without the amplifier connected, just to verify that the chip is still alive? I'm also wondering if you could re-design the amplifier to work with a single power supply. Is the amplifier feeding an analog to digital converter?

Thanks,

Ian

[tommasosinico]

Hi Ian,

here is the schematic i was using.

Channel1 of the oscilloscope is used as trigger, I make led4 flashing during the communication with the master. Channel 2 is connected to the amplifier to measure the power consumption (actually i couldn't see anything at all).

The amplifier weren't connected to any other device.

At the moment the amplifier is no more connected to the board. The supply of the board works, i tried both the external supply and batteries and the leds turns on. I suppose the chip is still alive because the leds are connected directly to the MCU.

When i turn on the board all the leds turns on automatically and i can't make them flashing or turn them off or whatever bacause i can't flash the board. In fact if I try to load a new software with codewarrior just after debugging it appears an error (the text of the error is in my very first message).

I think that when connected all the circuitry and turned it on the MC13213 got an extra current and the internal memory of the MCU were erased.

I'm looking for a kind of hard reset as you can do with the personal computer, when yuo mess up the bios dafault impostation can be loaded by "clear cmos" procedure.

A professor of mine has the same idea...but it could be that I just make a "french toast" with the chip.

Thanks for your help

Tommaso

[tommasosinico]

Hello again, I forgot to say that now if I power on the board all the leds are ON.