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Cash in your surplus gear. Advertise it here in SILICON CHIP
KIT ASSEMBLY & REPAIR
KEITH RIPPON KIT ASSEMBLY &
REPAIR:
* Australia & New Zealand;
* Small production runs.
Phone Keith 0409 662 794.
keith.rippon<at>gmail.com
VINTAGE RADIO REPAIRS: electrical mechanical fitter with 36 years
ex
p erience and extensive knowledge of valve and transistor radios.
Professional and reliable repairs. All
workmanship guaranteed. $10 inspection fee plus charges for parts
and labour as required. Labour fees
$35 p/h. Pensioner discounts available on application. Contact Alan
on 0425 122 415 or email bigal
radioshack<at>gmail.com
DAVE THOMPSON (the Serviceman
from SILICON CHIP) is available to help
you with kit assembly, project troubleshooting, general electronics and custom design work. No job too small. Based
in Christchurch, NZ but service available Australia/NZ wide. Email dave<at>
davethompson.co.nz
Where do you get those
HARD-TO-GET PARTS?
Where possible, the SILICON CHIP On-Line
Shop stocks hard-to-get project parts,
along with PCBs, programmed micros,
panels and all the other bits and pieces
to enable you to complete your
SILICON CHIP project.
KEEP YOUR COPIES OF
SILICON CHIP
AS GOOD AS THE DAY
THEY WERE BORN!
SILICON CHIP
ONLY
95
On-Line SHOP
$
1P6LUS
p&p
A superb-looking
SILICON CHIP
binder will keep
your magazines in
pristine condition.
* Holds up to 14 issues
* Heavy duty vinyl
* Easy wire inserts
ORDER NOW AT
www.siliconchip.com.au/shop
www.siliconchip.com.au/shop
FOR SALE
PCB MANUFACTURE: single to multi
layer. Bare board tested. One-offs to
any quantity. 48 hour service. Artwork
design. Excellent prices. Check out our
specials: www.ldelectronics.com.au
tronixlabs.com - Australia’s best value
for hobbyist and enthusiast electronics
from adafruit, DFRobot, Freetronics,
Raspberry Pi, Genuino and more, with
same-day shipping.
LEDs, BRAND NAME and generic
LEDs. Heatsinks, fans, LED drivers,
power supplies, LED ribbon, kits, components, hardware, EL wire. www.ledsales.com.au
PCBs MADE, ONE OR MANY. Any format, hobbyists welcome. Sesame Electronics Phone 0434 781 191.
sesame<at>sesame.com.au
www.sesame.com.au
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Closing date: 5 weeks prior to month of sale. To book, email the text to silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au and include your
name, address & credit card details, or phone Glyn (02) 9939 3295 or 0431 792 293.
I recognise that you probably can’t
give detailed assistance in troubleshooting this type of problem with
individual projects.
However, it would be appreciated
if you could verify that the batch of
programmed PIC16F877As you have
in stock for the SemTest project are all
OK. I can then move on to look at other
possible causes knowing that the micro is unlikely to be the problem. (K.
B., Hobart, Tas)
• There have been one or two constructors of the SemTest unit who have
reported much the same problem and
siliconchip.com.au
as far as we're aware, their problems
were all found to be caused by poor
connections between the IDC connectors and the ribbon cables.
Not in the solder joints between the
connectors and the PCBs but inside the
crimped part of the connectors, where
each fork at the rear of a contact hasn't
made reliable contact with the wire
inside the ribbon.
We don’t believe there have been
any problems caused by the PIC16F877A micros purchased from the
Silicon Chip Shop. So we suggest you
use a scope (if you have access to one)
to check that all of the signals from the
micro to the LCD are getting through.
The most important signals in this
case are the RS and EN signals, which
emerge from pins 9 and 8 of the micro
and should be reaching pins 4 and 6 of
the LCD. If either of these signals is not
getting through, this would certainly
result in no display.
These signals are sent to the LCD
very soon after power up, to provide
the initial greeting display. So it’s fairly
easy to monitor them at this time. We
hope this helps you to track down the
cause of your problem.
SC
March 2017 103
