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AN S-7600A/PIC16F877 JOURNEY

Part 1: Laying Out the Tools
by Fred Eady

Start ı Tooling Up ı Hardware Development Tool ı Software Development Tools ı Selecting a Terminal Emulator ı The Boot Loader ı Add Virtual Paper ı Sources and PDF

HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT TOOL

Serialtest Async will be an important part of this project because it will be your view into the hardware. In essence, youıll see what I see, thanks to Serialtest Async. Although Serialtest Async is an asset, it would be nice if I connected some real hardware to it. As you can see in Photo 1, the S-7600A/PIC16F877 Internet Engine is right now just another bare printed circuit board.

Before I start soldering, or even worse, tell you to solder SMT components, I always use other hardware tools as a proof of concept. In this case, Iıll develop the S-7600A/PIC16F877 Internet Engine boot loader code using similar hardware that can be programmed and reprogrammed easily and quickly.

Photo 5 is a shot of a modified PIC16F877-based development board that is available from EDTP. This board is basically a PIC16F877 programmer equipped with a 24LC256 EEPROM, a MAX233 RS-232 converter, and some essential and strategically placed LEDs. A development board control program running on the same PC that is running the terminal emulator feeds and reads data from the PIC16F877 via the parallel port. This leaves the development board serial port open and, thus, facilitates the quick testing of the boot loader code that will be written.

Photo 5ıNo, it doesnıt do Windows, but it can be configured to do almost anything else.

I wonıt be concentrating on the hardware details in this first part of the series, but rest assured that Iıll publish the development board schematic and provide professional printed circuit boards to people who desire them as this project develops.

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