Duplicate a PIC16F628A I/P ?

"Antony N. Lord"

Have you tried to contact them ?

Odds on, the PIC is not clonable.

...... Phil

There's no "default" as such, it's just a flag that set or not set depending on what the producers want. Speculating on what gets done more often is pointless in your case, because if if it isn't enabled, you can copy it, if it is, you're stuffed. Statistics won't matter much if you're stuffed...

Can't be done.

You say you have a spare from an identical box, can't you just swap them and be done with it? Or does it contain different code?

I want both devices back up and working (i.e use the spare to clone, then put it back on its board and put the copy on the other board).

Getting a replacement from the manufacturer isn't going to happen - they're not around anymore.

Cheers, Antony.

Oh, ok. I thought you had implied the other spare was a "spare" in the sense that it was otherwise gutted but had the chip in question still functional.

You could try loading it into a programmer and see if it's readable. You'll find out soon enough if it isn't.

If it isn't, it was pretty much said before: You're stuffed. There is no way to get the code out once the code protect flag has been set.

The only other option is to recode from scratch. But I'm guessing this isn't an option- as it would barely be an option within an manufacturing standpoint.

and

functional.

There are companies who specialise in extracting the program from locked PICs (and others). Be warned it will be expensive, and is illegal.

Jim

No, depends entirely on the options used in the programmer. In a commercial product it would most likely have the protection bit enabled though, but you could get lucky.

If you have access to a PIC programmer you can find out.

Not possible if the security device is enabled. Actually, it's technically possible, just incredibly difficult. Some "reverse engineering" people claim to be able to do it, but they will usually destroy your original in the process, and charge you a fortune.

Dave.

Another poster claims the same thing. Legalities aside, how is it done? Appears the destruction of the original is required, but how do they do it?

I take it you can't tell the state of a flash bit just by looking at it?

Or is the silicon substrate 'probed' internally, bypassing the normal pin access pads?

There used to be an easy way with the old 16C84 until Microchip replaced it with the 16F84. A particular high voltage was applied to a certain pin for a certain time and bingo, it popped the fuse bit or something so you could read the code back.

Similar methods may exist for some current devices.

Yep, that's one of the techniques. The epoxy coating is etched away revealing the die, then you can do all sorts of despicable and hideous things. Poor PIC chip.

Dave.

The methods I heard about applied to older versions of PICs and were risky. You might damage or destroy the original program without obtaining a copy. A well equipped lab may nevertheless be able to retrieve the program though the costs will raise way beyond the value of the original unit. So if the code protection bit is set, you're out of luck. Rewriting the program from scratch may be feasible if the tasks of the PIC are not too complicated. What unit are we talking about anyway and what's the function of the PIC in it?

petrus bitbyter

This guy describes how it's done.