Post by thread:Interrupt problems with 16C74

For some reason, my interrupts have stopped working. I think it's something to do with Program memory bank 1 - my code's gotten to the stage where I've had to start dumping routines into the second bank - calling them from the first bank. When I call a routine in bank 1 and loop there waiting for an interrupt driven timer to time out, it never does - it just goes round and round the loop. The SCI interrupt and the keyboard interrupt don't work either. What's happening? I've checked and double checked that GIE is set and doesn't get disabled anywhere else - and I presume that when an interrupt happens when the code's in page 1 that it'll still jump back to the interrupt vector at 04h. I'm saving context ok in the interrupt (W,Status,FSR and PCLATH) - and in fact the interrupt code never seems to get run at all (I put a port flag in to check and it never gets set) Any ideas? -- Jim

> From: Jim Main <spam_OUTjimTakeThisOuTEWCOMM.DEMON.CO.UK> > > For some reason, my interrupts have stopped working. > > I think it's something to do with Program memory bank 1 - my code's > gotten to the stage where I've had to start dumping routines into the > second bank - calling them from the first bank. > > When I call a routine in bank 1 and loop there waiting for an interrupt > driven timer to time out, it never does - it just goes round and round > the loop. The SCI interrupt and the keyboard interrupt don't work > either. > > What's happening? I've checked and double checked that GIE is set and > doesn't get disabled anywhere else - and I presume that when an > interrupt happens when the code's in page 1 that it'll still jump back > to the interrupt vector at 04h. GIE is not the only flag. The individual int enables must be set. > > I'm saving context ok in the interrupt (W,Status,FSR and PCLATH) - and > in fact the interrupt code never seems to get run at all (I put a port > flag in to check and it never gets set) > > Any ideas? > -- > Jim > Will need to see your code to help further. Have you checked your assembler listing to ensure code is at the expected places? What PIC are you using and what development environment simulator or emulator? Regards, SJH Canberra, Australia

I've got no experience with the problem you're outlining, but here's what I'd look at: Have you tried making the interrupt service routine immediately turn on an LED, not even save any registers, to see if the interrupt is really getting called? Do you have mirrored registers in both bank 0 and 1 for saving the status register in? You might be accidentally trashing a register you're using for something else. Neither of these addresses the use of code in the second page of memory, which if what you said started the problem, but maybe you started using the second bank of registers about the same time as you started using the second page of ROM, and you're looking in the wrong place for the problem. Cheers, Bob {Quote hidden}>For some reason, my interrupts have stopped working. > >I think it's something to do with Program memory bank 1 - my code's >gotten to the stage where I've had to start dumping routines into the >second bank - calling them from the first bank. > >When I call a routine in bank 1 and loop there waiting for an interrupt >driven timer to time out, it never does - it just goes round and round >the loop. The SCI interrupt and the keyboard interrupt don't work >either. > >What's happening? I've checked and double checked that GIE is set and >doesn't get disabled anywhere else - and I presume that when an >interrupt happens when the code's in page 1 that it'll still jump back >to the interrupt vector at 04h. > >I'm saving context ok in the interrupt (W,Status,FSR and PCLATH) - and >in fact the interrupt code never seems to get run at all (I put a port >flag in to check and it never gets set) > >Any ideas? >-- >Jim > >

{Quote hidden}>>For some reason, my interrupts have stopped working. >> >>I think it's something to do with Program memory bank 1 - my code's >>gotten to the stage where I've had to start dumping routines into the >>second bank - calling them from the first bank. >> >>When I call a routine in bank 1 and loop there waiting for an interrupt >>driven timer to time out, it never does - it just goes round and round >>the loop. The SCI interrupt and the keyboard interrupt don't work >>either. >> >>What's happening? I've checked and double checked that GIE is set and >>doesn't get disabled anywhere else - and I presume that when an >>interrupt happens when the code's in page 1 that it'll still jump back >>to the interrupt vector at 04h. >> >>I'm saving context ok in the interrupt (W,Status,FSR and PCLATH) - and >>in fact the interrupt code never seems to get run at all (I put a port >>flag in to check and it never gets set) >> >>Any ideas? >>-- >>Jim >> >> Sounds like your program may be getting a little large for .asm. If speed is not too critical, you might consider a "C" compiler from CCS. It will handle page bank switching and interrupts for you and it's only $100. It saved me mountians of time!

These problems can be very hard to trace, especially in large multi page programs. As the processor is very obedient, it likes to do what it is told and not what we want it to do. It sounds as though you forgot to set/reset a ROM or RAM page bit correctly when you transferred your code to the upper page. This may be painstaking, but you may have to trace your code through with MPSIM. Set a break point at the first instruction of the interupt routine and see if it does break at that point. If it does, follow your code through the interupt. If it doesn't get to the interupt break point you will have to monitor your code to see if a page bit is changed to the wrong state. Make sure that the status etc. are restored correctly after the IRQ. I would concentrate on monitoring the code that you moved. You can also try 'steering' the program to code that you want to test by using GOTO's to bypass excessive timing loops etc. and to test certain code fragments. This makes debugging a little easier with larger programs FrUstratioN is part of the fun of programming. Hope this helps Tony Just when I thought I knew it all, I learned that I didn't.

>Have you tried making the interrupt service routine immediately turn on an >LED, not even save any registers, to see if the interrupt is really getting >called? Solved it! Your suggestion put me on the right track. What was happening was - the interrupt happened only once and then never again. I'd correctly implemented the context saving bits of code - but I'd forgotten to explicitly clear PCLATH,3 after saving PCLATH to a temp_lath register. So, if PCLATH,3 was set and an interrupt occured (as it would when I was looping around in page 1), then the first GOTO in the interrupt routine would jump to page 1 (shortly before the loop as it happened!) and since the RETFIE never happened, the interrupt never happens again, and it just loops indefinitely. Easy in hindsight isn't it!!! -- Jim

>For some reason, my interrupts have stopped working. > >I think it's something to do with Program memory bank 1 - my code's >gotten to the stage where I've had to start dumping routines into the >second bank - calling them from the first bank. > >When I call a routine in bank 1 and loop there waiting for an interrupt >driven timer to time out, it never does - it just goes round and round >the loop. The SCI interrupt and the keyboard interrupt don't work >either. snip >I'm saving context ok in the interrupt (W,Status,FSR and PCLATH) - and >in fact the interrupt code never seems to get run at all (I put a port >flag in to check and it never gets set) One idea: do you do something like: org 04 goto interrupt If so, the goto is the problem... pclath is pointing to ROM Pg1 and you jump to somewhere not intended. The way that I handle it is to put all the context saving stuff right at the start as follows: ORG 00H goto COLDBOOT ORG 04H ;save W, STATUS, PCLATH, FSR movwf W_SAVE ;save w (could be on either ram page) movfw STATUS ;status register now trashed clrf STATUS ;ensure ram page 0 movwf S_SAVE ;good copy of status register in Page 0 movfw PCLATH ;remember to also save FSR if necessary movwf P_SAVE clrf PCLATH ;ensure ROM page 0 ;which interrupt? Parse interrupt flags here to reduce jumps (and time) btfsc INTF ;RB0 interrupt? goto RB0_ISR btfss T0IF ;timer 0 interrupt? goto TMR0_ISR goto INT_END ;this shouldn't happen! ;jump tables live here ;interrupt routines live here