ESR meter upgrades

[stj]

btw, contact the seller for a refund or a programmed chip!!

[stj]

more display types to try

[stj]

and one more

[vinceroger69]

Originally Posted by Per Hansson

Finally mine arrived too!
I've got the same as vinceroger69, with the firmware from this post I get scrolling characters on the screen when I power on.
With the other firmware from this post it is blank.

The chip did contain a few bytes of code when I got it but for sure it was not a complete program.
The programmer acted like it was empty; like vinceroger69 explained in this post. (I attached what was there in the rar file).

With the scrolling text I can't do anything, if I press the encoder nothing happens, I need to remove the battery to power off.
The LCD is marked LCM_12864_V1.30 2015.09.01
I attached pictures showing the scrolling text and of the LCD backside.

I used a Willem GQ-4X USB Programmer to program the chip and set the fuses.
(I had to do a "Erase" first which I did not at first realize, took many attempts until I found out that was the problem because the program never got written properly, I did the programming in circuit.)

Thanks for the update at least its not just me having issues with these kits from this seller im in the same situation as you at the minute just trying to find the correct firmware for it (i havnt had time too look for more at the moment though) this thread from eevblog has a lot of firmware for these testers and is well worth a read, stj and myself have posted in this thread but i have not asked for help regarding the firmware as yet.
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/

[stj]

the colour-TFT kits have been shipped with blank mcu's a few times too!!

seems the seller needs to sort this shit if it's not a lone incident !

[vinceroger69]

Originally Posted by vinceroger69

Thanks for the update at least its not just me having issues with these kits from this seller im in the same situation as you at the minute just trying to find the correct firmware for it (i havnt had time too look for more at the moment though) this thread from eevblog has a lot of firmware for these testers and is well worth a read, stj and myself have posted in this thread but i have not asked for help regarding the firmware as yet.
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/

I have just posted in eevblog too as they maybe able to offer some help too i will try all your latest files later stj when i get back home many thanks again for your help.

[Per Hansson]

mega328_st7920
testing-1306.zip
testing-dogm.zip
The above three behaved like it also did with "testing.zip" which was blank screen.

testing-ramshift.zip
testing-oc.zip
The above two behaved like it also did with "GM328A ESR tester (SVN663).zip" which was scrolling characters on the screen.

[vinceroger69]

Originally Posted by Per Hansson

mega328_st7920
testing-1306.zip
testing-dogm.zip
The above three behaved like it also did with "testing.zip" which was blank screen.

testing-ramshift.zip
testing-oc.zip
The above two behaved like it also did with "GM328A ESR tester (SVN663).zip" which was scrolling characters on the screen.

Thanks for trying all the firwares above ive just updated the eevblog one and said there recommended one didnt work i would if i was you contact the ebay seller and tell them the issues as i got a partial refund on mine and kept the kit since then i have brought a identical pre built kit that works fine but i cant read the atmega328p ic with my promini tl866 programmer all i get is a whole screen of ff s as no data on chip although it maybe protected somehow hence wont read.

[Per Hansson]

Here is a picture of my meter assembled.
It was impossible for me yesterday night to see the color bands so I measured the resistors and put them in according to stj's nice reverse engineered component schematic.
That said it's of course possible some of the resistors are 0.1% while some could be 1%, so no warranties there

I now tested another firmware: mega328_st7565 but the screen was blank with that as well.
EDIT, not blank: http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpos...&postcount=463
Do note that our LCD has 9 pins, I note that most other testers use LCD's with a parallel connection and much more pins?

[stj]

the lcd actually uses 4 pins.
clock,data,enable and select.
enable is probably permanently grounded.
it *should* be SPI, but i may try I2C instead.

[vinceroger69]

Originally Posted by Per Hansson

Here is a picture of my meter assembled.
It was impossible for me yesterday night to see the color bands so I measured the resistors and put them in according to stj's nice reverse engineered component schematic.
That said it's of course possible some of the resistors are 0.1% while some could be 1%, so no warranties there

I now tested another firmware: mega328_st7565 but the screen was blank with that as well.
Do note that our LCD has 9 pins, I note that most other testers use LCD's with a parallel connection and much more pins?

this is my assembled tester i have checked the resitors against my prebuilt unit and they all match fine ive posted again on eevblog too see if they can help.
Thanks for updating the eevblog thread too as you can explane things better than i can and im still learning to use my programmer so with you testing the firmware too is good as i maybe making mistakes just to note the kit i brought was from one ebay seller but the pre assembled kit came from another seller although i cant see that making any diffrence as they identical units.

[stj]

o.k.
after looking at the pcb foto's again,
i'm damn sure they are using a 7565 type display and PD0-3 on the cpu.

so i'm now working on the theory that they have swapped over some of the display wires for some reason.

everything else about the board is the same as the generic schems.



so test this - swapping the clock and data pins.

[vinceroger69]

I will try your file as soon as im home stj ,madires on eevblog has said
Since the tester stays on it's clearly a display problem. The first thing is to identify the display controller and then the pinout.
how do we find that information out?

[Per Hansson]

Ok, short update.
I did contact the seller and he actually got back with a decent reply.
I quoted it below, the linked schematic seems to be correct.

I tried both the linked "Original.zip" firmware, that did not work. (Blank LCD).
The author of that post talked about it being the mega328_color_kit so I tried that firmware too, but no dice, just blank LCD again...
EDIT: Forgot to add that in the "Original.zip" the firmware itself seems ok.
But the Data.hex file is really different, it contains the menu options in clear text instead of fonts it looks like to me?
Also it includes a Config.hex which is for the fuses but I'm not sure how to convert that to the values I would need.

Finally stj I tried your testing-swap23.zip firmware but that also just resulted in a blank LCD...

Dear,Good buyer
hi . please open the link download data .thank you
http://115.28.16.44:81/file/4660.pdf
have a great (nice) day
best regards


You can get the program data from address:
https://www.mikrocontroller.net/topi...626751#4627652
Just download the file Original.zip .

[vinceroger69]

Thanks per hansson and stj for trying as well to find the firmware etc as per madires message on eevblog i guess thats our next step as in, The first thing is to identify the display controller and then the pinout, but how do we find this information out is it worth removing the lcd from the pcb and seeing if that shows anything usefull.

[stj]

unlikely that it's got clear markings on it, but you never know.
the cpu as i said is using PD0-3, so just need to find how they go to the lcd.

i will make a few more versions later.

[stj]

test

[Per Hansson]

Originally Posted by stj

unlikely that it's got clear markings on it, but you never know.
the cpu as i said is using PD0-3, so just need to find how they go to the lcd.

i will make a few more versions later.

The schematic "4660.pdf" linked above in my previous post is correct.
Of course I don't know if that matches internally with the LCD itself.
But I have atleast checked that the wiring to the LCD header is as the schematic shows

I tested your version above but it was more of the same: only backlight.
Just to make sure I again reflashed your old firmware from this post.
And I did get the scrolling text as shown in my picture here.
(Just wanted to make sure nothing else had happened).

EDIT: can't the problem be with the fuses?

[vinceroger69]

This looks like the exact screen used on these testers theres a pin out included dont know if this helps but thought i would post it
http://www.ebay.com/itm/12864-Charac...3D252225067851

[stj]

no, i'v seen a few of these panels lifted - they are more like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182035169094

the question is how that ribbon maps to the pinstrip on the backing pcb.