HC908 Software Tool
TeraTerm Terminal Emulator
... use it to control the HC908 Daughtercard

Most "dumb terminals" may be used to communicate with the HC908 Debug Monitor. Examples of such programs include HyperTerminal, Red Ryder, ProComm and PCPlus. 

However, a  useful, public domain (freeware) terminal program called "TeraTerm" is also available to run on Microsoft Windows platforms. TeraTerm has a convenient scripting ability that can be invoked to send an S-record file (like a new software program) to your HC908 Daughtercard for flash programming by the Monitor.  TeraTerm also provides an ability to set a useful “pacing” inter-character delay that gives the HCmon enough time to completely program any given flash memory location on the MPU. (This inter-character delay should be set to 5 ms in TeraTerm’s serial settings menu.)

The TeraTerm home page is at http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002416/teraterm.html 

Downloading TeraTerm

Download the TeraTerm zip file from ttermp23.zip.  It's about a megabyte in size. 

Save the zip file to a temporary folder and unzip the contents to that same folder. 

Doubleclick the setup.exe program and follow instructions.

After the installation process is complete, you may delete the installation files from the temporary folder.

Initial Configuration of TeraTerm

Note:  It will be important when attempting to start TeraTerm to ensure that your serial port is free and not being used by any other programs.  If another application is using the serial port, such as the Palm HotSync program, you should first close that program.  (In the common case when HotSync is running in the backgroud, right-click on the program icon in the System Tray and select Exit.  This will relinquish control of the serial port on your PC.)

Run the program by going to your Start button and clicking StartèProgramsèTera Term Pro .  You'll see a window appear similar to the following:

Under the Setup menu, select Serial Port and set the parameters as follows:

• Baud Rate (9600)
• Data (8 bits)
• Parity (none)
• Stop (1 bit)
• Flow Control (none)
• Transmit Delay (0 ms/char, 5 ms/line).  

(These are all very important settings so ensure that you have them entered properly before clicking the OK button.)

Under the Setup menu again, select Save Setup and specify any convenient name for your program.  Save the configurations where you previously specified that TeraTerm was to be installed (the default location was likely c:\program files\ttermpro).  Saving it here will ensure that whenever you start up TeraTerm in the future, it will have these configurations set and you needn't worry about doing these configuring steps every time you want to play.

Running TeraTerm

Run the program by going to your Start button and clicking StartèProgramsèTera Term Pro . 

Connect a serial cable from your PC to your HC908 Daughtercard (i.e., to the DB9 connector on the proper pins of the J2 connector). See the Test Fixture schematic for a good example of the minimal wiring needed.

When applying power or when pressing the Rest pushbutton on the HC908 Daughtercard, you should see the one of the following messages displayed in the TeraTerm window:

• If the Monitor Jumper is in place:  
          HC908 Monitor, rev 1.0  March 2003,  G.Heron N2APB
          HCmon>
  
• If the Monitor Jumper is not in place:
      ~~ Digital Breadboard Exerciser v1.0 G.Heron N2APB ~~
      Excerciser (D,S,L,V,Y,W,E,R,T,A,M,H) >

Follow the guidance outlined in the Daughtercard Reference Manual in either the HCmon section or the Exerciser section, as desired.

Loading (Burning) a new program into the Daughtercard

The ability to load a new application and burn it into the flash memory of the Daughtercard is a very important feature of this project. Carefully follow the guidance presented in this section for guaranteed results.

Let's assume you currently have some program already loaded on your Daughtercard (e.g., Exerciser) and want to load the VFO program in its place.

1. With TeraTerm running and your Daughtercard connected up to the serial port of the PC, place the Monitor Jumper in place to power up into the HCmon program. See the initial banner as shown above.
   
2. Enter the 'C' command to Clear user space memory. [IMPORTANT:  You must immediately follow this command with the L command as directed next. If you inadvertently reset the system or power cycle the daughtercard, an important "hook" will be missing from user space memory and the daughtercard will hang. HCmon will need to be reprogrammed by the NJQRP or otherwise through use of a special programming hardware.)
   
3. Enter the 'L' command to Load a new program from the PC.  See "... waiting ..." message on the TeraTerm screen.
   
4. Using the mouse, go to TeraTerm's File menu and select Send File.  Navigate to the folder where the S-record file of the new program is contained (in our example, this would be in ..\software\vfo\vfo_v1.s19) and select the file with the .s19 extension.  [IMPORTANT:  You will have unexpected results if you try to program a file of different type to the daughtercard.]
   
5. When you have selected the .s19 file for Loading, the transfer and flash burning operation will automatically occur.  You will see the echo of binary data to the screen as the program is burned line-by-line into the Daughtercard's flash memory. 
   
6. When the operation is comple, the HCmon prompt will again appear.
   
7. You can quickly eXecute the your newly loaded program by entering the 'X' command from HCmon.  (This is equivalent to entering 'go 8040', which is where all user applications begin.)

That's it!  See Notes, Application Notes and other information contained on the HC908 Daughtercard Resource Page for other related information.