John Ackermann, N8UR, just released an update to the Arduino firmware for the TICC. The new version is 20200412.1. It, along with all the TICC source code and documentation, is available at:
In addition to a few bug fixes and cleanups, there are a couple of more noticeable changes that are discussed in the LATEST_CHANGES.txt file.
One item changes current behavior: data is now output with 11 decimal places (10 ps resolution) instead of the previous 12 (1 ps resolution). The last digit was simply noise, and it contributes to an esoteric issue I don’t need to go into here. So you’ll see one less decimal place in the output, but the useful resolution hasn’t changed.
To install the new firmware you can use the Arduino IDE, but that’s a lot of download and hassle if you’re not interested in actually working with the source code. As an alternative,
https://github.com/TAPR/TICC/tree/master/binaries
has hex files of the new version (TICC.ino-20200412.1.hex) that can be uploaded directly into the TICC via USB, as well as install tools for doing so under Windows and Linux. These don’t require installing the Arduino IDE.
NOTE: TICC units currently shipped by TAPR still have the prior firmware version installed; unfortunately it’s not feasible for us to update the firmware before shipping.
There’s a trailing period in “https://github.com/TAPR/TICC.” that results in a 404 error.
Thanks for letting us know. I’ll fix that.
I’ve tried all the recommended steps in upgrading the firmware. Xloader gives a “upload failed” message and I tried this on both Windows Vista and Windows 10.
For Linux Raspberry PI4 Buster I get the error when executing the ticc_updater.py script.
./ticc_updater.py: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token `newline’
./ticc_updater.py: line 1: `’
I’m sure others out there will have the same issue. There should have been a ISP programmer port put into this board so you have direct access to the chip for programming. Luckily I haven’t bricked the TICC yet and still on the old version.
That “unexpected newline” message under Linux sounds like it’s a line-ending translation between Windows (CRLF) and Linux (LF), probably as a result of the way the file was downloaded (if you downloaded as text, and particularly if you downloaded on Windows and then copied to Linux). There are tools that will convert a file from one newline style to another.
Xloader should work fine; it’s what we use to do the initial firmware load on each unit at the factory. Could it be a problem with baudrate or permissions?
Feel free to contact me by email at jra at febo dot com if you want to walk through troubleshooting.
If you can’t get anything else to work, you can always install the Arduino IDE and build/install from the source files — it’s not too painful.
Re the ISP port — we’re just using a stock Arduino board so have the capabilities it provides.
Best,
John
The tool for windows
” XLoader.zip
updates to generate board serial number
4 years ago ”
Will not unzip after downloading. Error message indicates corrupt file