LPC901 ICP programming

[Medic]

Hi All,

Have been reading all the discussion and app notes with interest.

I'm interested in using the P89LPC901 device and am amazed at how complicated it appears to program these devices??!!

As I understand it the simpliest/cheapest method would be to buy an MCB900 dev board and a PAB90x-1 programming adapter and use FlashMagic to do ISP over an ISP to ICP bridge, is that right?

Why is anything other than an RS232 chip needed to interface FlashMagic to the device? I could supply power and toggle reset independantley to get the device into reset mode and then just use serial comms to program the device? I looked at Maurits van de Lande schematic and that appears to be a automatic implementation of this?

I am already using the full version of Keil C51 and have other dev boards so dont really want to spend more money on another development board just for programming.

All I want to do is program the 901 either before or after soldering into the target hardware without having to invest in extra equipment.

I'd really appreciate your experiences on this as it's perfect for my app but might not be worth the hassle if so much effort is required to program it...

Many thanks,

Mark.

[Andy Ayre]

Devices with a UART have ISP, and can be programmed by sending commands to the UART. In the simplist version of this all you need to connect is RxD, TxD and some way of resetting the device. You would enter ISP mode using the break detect or Erik's NoTouch method (both have to be supported in your application and included the very first time you program the device).

If you want to use ISP with a factory hardware method of entering ISP mode then you need extra circuitry (such as on the MCB900) to generate the pulses.

If the device does not have a UART then the only option is ICP, which is a serial programming protocol completely different to a UART. It also cannot be generated by a PC because of the timing requirements. As you have worked out, there is a bit more effort involved in using the ICP approach, but the upside is that you can use all of the devices' flash memory as no bootloader is required.

[Medic]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for your reply.

I'll just have to get the MCB900 (yet another dev board)!!

[erikm]

I'm interested in using the P89LPC901 device and am amazed at how complicated it appears to program these devices??!!

Well, you buy next to nothing and including ISP in this chip would about double the cose.

The ultra small LPC chips are intended for mass production (If you only make 10 units, what does a buck or two matter) and in mass production you do not worry about the cost of the programming equipment.

If you are concermed about "how complicated it appears to program " step up to the lpc93xx and it get easy.

Erik