Program memory writing takes awfully long time...

[arunb]

MCU: 18F4620

Is there any way of speeding up the program memory writing speed.

I am using the tiny bootloader, to write program data, but the writing process takes terribly long time.. (about 48 minutes for a 60 KB program)

Is this normal ???

I modified the original bootloader so that it could communicate using RS485, I then developed a VB program that outputted program data to the PIC.

thanks
arunb

[FvM]

[Ttelmah]

The actual 'timing', should be about 66mSec, to send 64 bytes, assuming 9600bps comms, then 6mSec to erase/program this, giving 72mSec/64 bytes. The transmission must stop during the write. So the total time required to handle the 64K of memory, is about 74 seconds. The limiting factor, is the serial comms. Run this at only 300bps, and the time leaps to 2191 seconds. Suspiciously close to the figure you are talking about... Beware also, that the code should handle the memory in 64byte blocks. if instead it is writing in bytes, then the entire block has to be read, erased, one byte modified in the stored value, and written back, for each byte. Not only vastly slower, but also rapidly using up the 'write life' of the program memory.....

Best Wishes