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Does anybody have any experience with Manic Marv's rewritten
firmware for the CM11 interface? It's supposed to solve many known problems and it adds extra functionality for better diagnoses.

I have a programmer available, but no blank PIC16F84A, so I haven't been able to try it. If you have any experience with this version please post your comments.

Mindbender,

Nice info. Good documented source.
This is the first time I heard that the CM11 contains a 16F84A.
I've not test it yet but I can do this if you want.
I've a blank 16F84 and a CM11. At the moment I use the CTX35 (TI203) for the X10 communication to homeseer.

Do you know if the COPYPROTECTION bit is set in the source. If so you can't rewrite the PIC after loading the programme?

Update: The CP bit is set to CP_OFF so no problem.

DMB

It doesn't: It contains a PIC16C58, which might be protected but that doesn't matter; The CMOS types aren't reprogrammable anyway and we're not interested in the original firmware becuase it's buggy and there's a better alternative.

The CP bit doesn't protect against reprogramming. It just protects against reading the contents, but you can still erase and reprogram it if set.

Please try it. Afaik the 16F84A is obsolete and therefore hard to obtain, so if I got through that trouble I'd like to know if it's worth it first . Do you currently experience any of the problems mentioned with the original firmware?

If the circuit is using an xtal for the clock of the PIC, you can use the newer/faster ones, like the 20Mhz 16F84A-20 which are easy to get. It will then just run with the speed of the xtal for example 4Mhz.
Regards,
Ron.

My neighbor was kind enough to give me an empty 16F84A. I have programmed it and put it in my CM11: It works like a charm. I didn't have any problems before, so it's not really solving anything, but it's good to have the latest-and-greatest.

Strange part for me, normally me cm11 would stop functioning after a period of time. I've now connected a ctx35 on my linux box and although its a different pc my cm11 is working better then before and i didn't change anything. They both work like a charm now.

Knock on wood, but in all the years I use a CM11 I never had a problem .....

Mindbender,

Thanks for testing it. Sorry, I couldn't find the time this week to test it.

DMB