Microcomputer Project Laboratory - Spring 2013
Common (and uncommon) Problems
Error output from rasm
Use care when running Rasm. When it says "no errors found" it doesn't always mean that no errors were found. Some errors cause it to output an error message and then incorrectly say "no errors found". When that happens, it doesn't change the .OBJ file, it just leaves the old code there. This can be frustrating since it appears that you are making lots of changes to the code yet your program never behaves differently. One known source of this problem is writing mov where you meant to write movx or movc. The moral of this story is that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. Always check the lines above the "no errors found" line to make sure no errors slipped by.
Labels that share names with constants
Jumps and calls can take constant values, so if you make a forward reference to a label with the same name as a predefined constant value, then the constant value will get substituted in assembler pass 1 rather than the usual substitution in pass 2. Therefore, in addition to any constants you've defined yourself, there are a number of label names you should avoid:
acc, acc.0, acc.1, acc.2, acc.3, acc.4, acc.5, acc.6, acc.7, b, b.0, b.1, b.2, b.3, b.4, b.5, b.6, b.7, cprl2, ct2, cy, dph, dpl, ea, es, et0, et1, ex0, ex1, exen2, exf2, exti0, exti1, f0, ie, ie.0, ie.1, ie.2, ie.3, ie.4, ie.5, ie.6, ie.7, ie0, ie1, int0, int1, ip, ip.0, ip.1, ip.2, ip.3, ip.4, ip.5, ip.6, ip.7, it0, it1, ov, p, p0, p0.0, p0.1, p0.2, p0.3, p0.4, p0.5, p0.6, p0.7, p1, p1.0, p1.1, p1.2, p1.3, p1.4, p1.5, p1.6, p1.7, p2, p2.0, p2.1, p2.2, p2.3, p2.4, p2.5, p2.6, p2.7, p3, p3.0, p3.1, p3.2, p3.3, p3.4, p3.5, p3.6, p3.7, pcon, ps, psw, psw.0, psw.1, psw.2, psw.3, psw.4, psw.5, psw.6, psw.7, pt0, pt1, px0, px1, rb8, rcap2h, rcap2l, rclk, rd, ren, reset, ri, sbuf, scon, scon.0, scon.1, scon.2, scon.3, scon.4, scon.5, scon.6, scon.7, sint, sm0, sm1, sm2, sp, t0, t1, t2con, t2con.0, t2con.1, t2con.2, t2con.3, t2con.4, t2con.5, t2con.6, t2con.7, tb8, tclk, tcon, tcon.0, tcon.1, tcon.2, tcon.3, tcon.4, tcon.5, tcon.6, tcon.7, tf0, tf1, tf2, th0, th1, th2, ti, timer0, timer1, tl0, tl1, tl2, tmod, tr0, tr1, tr2, txd, wr
One easy way to do this would be to prefix all of your labels with a letter like L.
Things to watch out for with Rasm
If you are seeing strange behavior that you can narrow down to a single instruction, it may be worth checking the filename.lst output to make sure it was assembled correctly. Currently, we know of a few issues that may crop up:
- Constants defined with equ should not start with
R or r. When such constants are used by the
inc or dec instructions, Rasm incorrectly reserves
three bytes for the instruction even though it only takes two. The
third byte does not get filled and will contain unknown data when you
download it.
;; BAD: assembles to 15 55 ?? 00 ref equ 55h dec ref nop ;; OK: assembles to 15 55 00 xref equ 55h dec xref nop - Constants defined with equ should be defined before you
use them. If they are defined later and resolved during the second
pass of the assembler, Rasm forgets to reserve space for some
instructions like setb or clr, and they get
overwritten by subsequent instructions.
;; BAD: assembles to 12 34 clr test db 12h, 34h test equ 00h ;; OK: assembles to C2 00 12 34 test equ 00h clr test db 12h, 34h
Representations of Numbers
Rasm demands that numbers start with a digit. That means that if you're trying to use the value FF, you have to write it as #0FFh. You should get in the habit of prefacing your hexadecimal numbers with the digit 0 in order to not be tripped up by this.
AC-Decoupling Condensers (or Bypass Capacitors)
If your logic levels/signals look particularly noisy, look at the power rail (+5V). If this is noisy, you may need to add some power-supply AC-decoupling capacitors. Add some large capacitance at various places on your kit between +5V and GND. The larger the capacitance, the better the AC-decoupling you will see.
Mysterious O'Scope Traces
A few important tips on using the lab oscilloscopes:
- Use the Auto Set function to reset the scope to a reasonable state, but don't rely on it to always do the right thing with displaying your signal. It's always best to configure it manually with the following steps:
- Connect the scope probe's ground clip to the circuit's/kit's earth ground.
- Verify that the scaling on the probe (1X/10X) matches the setting on the scope.
- Ground couple the scope channel you are using. Adjust the vertical position to where you would like the "zero" voltage level to be for that trace.
- Adjust the vertical (volts) scale on the channel to something reasonable (say 2.00V/DIV for TTL logic levels), and DC couple the scope channel in question. Do not AC couple your scope's channels unless you really know what you're doing. AC coupling will provide you with some pretty strange behavior.
- Make sure the scope is in Run/Roll mode, not stopped (mainly applicable to the digital scopes).
- Change the horizontal scaling (time) to see different levels of detail.
Connecting Devices that are on
It is always a bad idea to connect a cable between two devices if one or both is on. The only exception is that you can plug the the serial cable into the R31JP if the R31JP is off but the computer is on. But when you're connecting a bench power supply to your kit, running wires to a new chip on your board, hooking up the lamp, or anything at all, make sure both devices are powered off. Often chips will fail in mysterious ways when they are connected while powered, and powering up pins out of sequence can damage chips.
Vcc
The pins "Vcc" and "GND" on the breakout board on the kit powers your R31JP at 12V. If you're having trouble powering your R31JP, check that these two wires are correctly connected. Since it's 12V, you should not use the R31JP's Vcc to power chips on your kit! Most of the chips we will be using in 6.115 require Vcc be connected to +5V. Read the datasheets before connecting anything. Doing so may lead to chip destruction and embarassment.
Using the correct book
Yeralan is a guide to programming the 8051; it is not a reference. Always keep the 8051 manual with you (it is the spiral-bound book labeled "MCS 51 Microcontroller Family User's Manual") to look up information. Yeralan is known to contain a few errors that will mess you up if you do not also cross-check with the Intel manual.
Ground failure
There should be a wire running from the GND plug near the power switch to the GND plug on the top-surface power supply. Most kits have these already, but yours may have fallen off by accident. Check that it's securely connected.
Long filenames
Rasm doesn't like filenames that are longer than 8 characters. The easiest way to avoid problems is to keep your filenames shorter than that.
Vertical rails
The vertical rails on the breadboard are not connected across the break in the middle. You have to make jumpers for them to be connected. Jumper them all right now, as it will save you many hours of debugging later. If you don't understand what we're talking about, ask a TA to show you.
Keypad debouncing capacitors
Debouncing capacitors are required on the 74HC922 for correct keypress behavior. The datasheet does not tell you exactly what values to use, but it does give their relative sizes, and you can figure out reasonable values from looking at the graphs.