Another shame on Microchip - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: osmosis321
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2010, 03:26:11 pm
content: I really liked your blog about the PicKit3, Dave, and I'm hoping you'll take Microchip to task again.I bought a handful of PIC24F series chips six months ago and like many other people, ended up wasting a good deal of time trying to get I2C to work. After much hair-pulling I discovered that the 24F has a bug in the silicon, and the only way to make I2C work is to connect another pin to the SDA wire. In addition to having one less wire to work with, you also have to program a fix in your firmware.I'm not too pleased about the fact that I lose a pin. I paid good money to have the PCBs professionally made and now there's going to have to be an ugly jumper wire on my boards.But the real kicker is that it turns out Microchip's known about the problem for TWO YEARS, they haven't fixed it, and they still sold me known defective merchandise.Bad business. No ethics. I'll never buy from Microchip again, and I suggest anyone who doesn't want to get royally screwed follow suit.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2010, 04:10:54 pm
content: so what are you going to program? i think every mcu got this "silly con bugs", why dont you try to switch to Atmel AVR, still got bugs but lesser, maybe their machinery is more expensive than microchip. thats why atmel chip is (a little bit) more expensive i think. thats what you get when you pay for cheaper product. you get what you payIMO "silly con bugs" is just like "software bugs", you cannot get rid of it the first time!

author: TopherTheME
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2010, 04:22:25 pm
content: I think Dave did a blog where he talked about all the problems that the PIC24F series has and how he had a similar incident. I think the moral of the story is to always check the datasheet errata section before sending your boards off to fab. This is another reason why I still prefer to breadboard projects when working with unfamiliar parts.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 22, 2010, 05:05:25 pm
content: Dave did a blog once on silicon bugs, I have to admit it would be nice if these sorts of defects were clearly labelled on the packing and the parts should be sold cheaper (that way you will also be prompted to investigate)fortunately I don't suffer these issues using low end pic's and no i'm not changing any time soon as it's not worth my while

author: migsantiago
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2010, 06:50:28 pm
content: Yes, a good engineer always reads the datasheet and its erratas before choosing a microcontroller.

author: DavidDLC
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2010, 09:37:05 pm
content: I just read an article named Proofreading and it talks about mistakes because we got lazy and don't read specs or changes or erratas.The same when buying new electronics and not reading the manual, just plug and play !

author: Jon Chandler
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2010, 10:33:24 pm
content: David, is that article online? Sounds like good info!

author: DavidDLC
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 23, 2010, 03:06:57 am
content: Is not that big, but look for it on the Electronic Design magazine, I receive the printed edition.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 23, 2010, 04:20:54 am
content: Quote from: TopherTheME on September 22, 2010, 04:22:25 pmYes, I did a blog on this and had a similar problem on my uCalc designing with the ICSP interface on the 24F.I have also ran into the I2C problems on the 24F on my uWatch design. I ended up having to bit-bang the I2C port.Microchip aren't alone in this, it's similar with all manufacturers. But yes, Microchip do seem to be very sloppy in regards to silicon bugs.Dave.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 23, 2010, 06:55:41 am
content: makes you wonder if they can be trusted in military or mission critical equipment, if they get that sloppy the chips might develop problems during their working life ?

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 23, 2010, 05:03:23 pm
content: Quote from: Simon on September 23, 2010, 06:55:41 amI doubt Microchip give a toss about supplying this small market. Microchip do seem to be good at documenting bugs however, so as long as you read all the errata, nasty surprises are rare.Incidentally, I've found that the most common problem which appears like a silicon or compiler bug usually turns out to be errors in the manufacturer or compiler-supplied device-specific header files - a wrong register address can take a lot of finding, and if you think what a tedious job it must be to create these files in the first place, it's almost inevitabls that errors will creep in.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 23, 2010, 05:12:57 pm
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on September 23, 2010, 05:03:23 pmreminds me of a situation i experienced while playing with pic16f690, the ANALOG pins are playing up when we use some certain IO pins (ANA0 as DIGITAL IO IIRC), which is not indicated in the errata. i have to figure out the workaround myself which wasted me quite substantial amount of time and headache.

author: osmosis321
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 23, 2010, 05:23:55 pm
content: OK but what about the part where they sell me defective merchandise two years after the defect becomes painfully obvious. Shouldn't they have issued a revision, and shouldn't I have gotten that instead?

author: osmosis321
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 23, 2010, 05:45:31 pm
content: Quote from: shafri on September 22, 2010, 04:10:54 pmAn automated, opto-isolated, AC power switch bank.That's the main thrust of the project, but I've been delving into other areas as well, such as stepper driving, LCD interfacing and whatever grabs my attention at any given moment. When I think of what my next project will be, some kind of CNC application springs repeatedly to mind, although the exact nature of it is still ambiguous.Quote from: shafri on September 22, 2010, 04:10:54 pmI just might.