EppoManagerManual

How to setup and operate EppoManager.

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General.
mainscreeniconThis manual explains a little about the setting up and operating of EppoManager, the softwaretool that controls the "hardware" EPPO. When you have copied EppoManager to somewhere on your PC, you should have (or make) a shortcut to it like on your Dektop. Double clicking this Icon will start the application. The application has a captionbar, a menubar, a main working area and a statusbar. The captionbar explains to you, what the main area is for. In the example on the right, the white working area is now displaying the script outputscreen. If a script is executed, and the script needs to do some readable output, it will show in here. The menu will be discussed in detail in the next section.  The statusbar shows the currently selected device type or toolset, and the currently loaded hexfile name. The window is sizable, you can enlarge it by clicking the right- bottom corner, and dragging it to the size you want.

The menu.
filesmenusettingsThe Files menu will allow you to load a hex file into working memory. A dialog will appear to make a selection. If the Autoreload option is selected, the hexfile will be loaded automatically when it has been changed. The Exit option will do just that. The Settings option, opens a submenu with three options. First you can select a COM port, you want to use. Then you can tell EppoManager where to look for script files, who are nescessary to perform operations on target controllers. And then you have the option to select your favorite editor to handle changes on scripts, and the development of new ones. Note. Writing scripts is a completely different kind of sports, as opposed to actually performing programming tasks on target microcontrollers. If you are not interrested in scripting (actually programming functions) you will be able to use third- party scripts, which will be posted here in time. For now, the only dependable scripts are the ones we use to control the PIC12F675 microcontroller. Others must be debugged and rewritten to be dependable.
memdumpviewIn the View menu you can select what you want to see in the white workingarea. Here you can select either the scripting output, or the working memory dump. As the output of the script output view is depandable on the scripts, the Memorydump option shows you the current contents of the working memory. With the scrollbar on the right, you can scroll through the entire working memory. Note. The workingmemory can hold the contents of the hexfile, but you can also access this memory from the scripting engine. PIC memory is a little strange compared to "normal" memory. The program memory does not contain 8 bit bytes, but 14 bit words. Let me explain. A RISC microcontroller uses "machine code" like any other microprocessor, but the opcodes (the instructions) and its operands (the parameters) can be fit into 14 bit words together, and so be executed in a single machine- cycle. I fyou look at the memory of an empty PIC, you will see the working memory containing alle words of the hexadecimal 3FFF value, words where the 14 lower bits are 1. Next to the maximum program memory size of the biggest 14 bit microcontroller we can find (1FFF hex words) we also have so called configuration memory, which lies just above that. Microchip states that the first 32 words of configuration memory are reserved, so from 2000 hex through to 201F hex. We increased the working memory, also to get some more for scripting purposes, to 2200 hex words. You can not make changes in the working memory by clicking the memorydum and typing. You can only change the contents by loading hexfiles, and executing scripts.
deviceeppoThe Device menu lists all microcontrollers, for which there is a function defined in any scriptfile. EppoManager will remember the last device you have ever selected, so if you use only 1 type, you wouldn't be needing this menu anymore. Note. Some devices are fully supported, and others may be incomplete yet. If you have selected a device which you would like to do some EPPO stuff on, the Eppo menu (picture on the right) will display the functions which are available for the selected device. In this case you see that the erase, the program as well as the read functions are supported. You can also make a collection of tools which you can fit under a virtual device called a toolbox or so. The scripts that are part of the "toolbox" should then be grouped as you would a device. You probably have a device called toolbox, where you have a few "strange" functions appearing in the Eppo menu. One of them is called "blink VPP", so you can check if EppoManager can control EPPO. Another function zeroes the workingmemory, for whatever reason, ie. checking scripting, or monitorring hexfileprogression. There is also a function which flushes characters still in the PC's RS232 buffer after or during startup. Eventually there may be more functions added. Maybe somebody likes to build a script which performs a blank-check on a device. The current PIC12F675 functions can be enhanced in several ways. It is possible to decrease programming time by checking memory which doesn't need to be programmed, and skip it, and thus improving speed.
scriptsoverviewThe Scripts menu is mainly for developing new scripts, or changing existing ones. You can open a script, by using the open dialog. The script is not run yet, you have to use the (Re)run script option for that one. To edit the script which you just have opened, use the Edit script option. This uses your favorite editor you have setup in the settings menu. It can be hard to remember which script is used for which device, and for what functions. That's why we have a Scripts overview, which looks somewaht like the picture on the right. By using the scrollbars you can scroll through the overview. If you double-click on the scriptname, ie. rea2.ebs, it will be opened for viewing/ editing. To test the script you just created/ edited you have to load it using Open script, or executing it via the Device and Eppo menues. The scripting engine is a very neat way to organise your devices and functions. Reading the contents of a microcontroller is almost for all devices the same (with the same amount of memory), so you can use a "read" script for a lot of devices, and you could have a huge number of "program" scripts for the same devices. "Erase" scripts are ususly not bound to memorysizes, but dependable on fabricationtechnology. To get an idea on the different types of erasing, reading and programming you should have a look at the programming specs in the pic data directory on your CDROM. You can also download them from Microchip.
helpstatusWith the Help menu's Help option you will open an on-line helpfile about the Eppo Mananger. There is more detailed information on scripting in that helpfile.
redbarWhen Autoreload from the Files menu is engaged, the hexfile which was loaded before, will be reloaded on change. If that happens, the statusbar wil flash green as a sign that the working memory is updated correctly. If however, the hexfile is (temporarily) unavailable, the statusbar will become red as a sign that the working memory might not be dependable. While (re)compiling your sourcecode, it will normally be so, that the EppoManager will be open too. The blinking of the statusbar assures you that there a) in fact is a new hex file, and b) that the compilation/linking was successful. If the statusbar stays red, the compilation/linking was unsuccessful, generating no hexfile. Do not forget to erase your target microcontroller before programming! Somewhere in the future there might be a script which does an erase and a program in one go.
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