PIC12LF1840

Support summary

• Programming - Yes
• Debugging provisions - Yes

 

LVP Limitations

Since NSDSP is a Low-Voltage Programmer (LVP), it can only program PIC devices if LVP configuration bit is enabled. Fresh (unprogrammed) devices have LVP bit set and therefore they can be programmed. It is impossible to disable LVP bit during LVP programming, but if the device has been previously programmed with HVP programmer, the LVP bit may have been disabled.

When brown-out is enabled with BOREN configuration bit, LVP is only possible when the VDD voltage is above the brown-out threshold.

These limitations may be avoided with High-Voltage Programming (HVP), however NSDSP requires an external circuit for HVP.

 

Target Voltage Below 2.7V

If voltage is less than 2.7V programming is severely limited - it is impossible to bulk erase the device, it is also impossible to erase configuration bits, EEPROM.

NSDSP cannot detect target voltage and it assumes that the voltage is above 2.7V. If the actual target voltage is less, programming will fail. However, if you tell NSDSP that the target voltage is below 2.7V through programming software, NSDSP will use special low-voltage programming mode. In this mode, NSDSP verifies if the desired programming can be performed at voltages below 2.7V, and if it is possible (device is not code protected, configuration bits do not change or only change from 1 to 0, EEPROM is not programmed), it performs the programming. If such programming is impossible, NSDSP software will stop and show an error message.

Programming in low-voltage mode may be considerably slower. In addition, you may need to decrease programming speed to 3MHz or below.

 

Programming Benchmarks

We have measured time necessary to program and verify PIC12LF1840.

Operation	Time
Programming and Verification	1.1s
Programming only	0.9s
Verification only	0.2s

The measurements reflect the time necessary to program/verify the entire chip, including all user programmable memory areas and very slow data EEPROM.

 

Debugging

NSDSP firmware contains all the necessary provisions for debugging PIC12LF1840 and may be debugged when debugging software becomes available.

 

Links

Microchip PIC12LF1840 page