HELP Can anyone get a program off a chip

[orange1234]

Hello, I have 4 remote controls for a bed and they no longer work. I took them to a repair shop and they have said the chip needs replacing. Unfortunately they don't have the ability to get the program off the chip, although if they had the program they can put it onto a new chip. The chip is MCU cct U1 PIC 16F57 DIP28 Does anyone know anyone or anywhere that can take the program off the last working remote control and copy it to 4 chips, so I can get the others working? Any help or suggestions will be gratefully received. Thanks.

P.S The manufacturer no longer makes this, and has given me permission.

 

[Minder]

As long as the security fuse is not blown, to extract the HEX code for it anyone that programs Pic's and has a Picki2 or Pickit3 or similar should be able to download it.
How do you know the chip itself is not defective if the program is corrupted or the chip damaged it won't do you much good.
M.

 

[shumifan50]

Most PICs in production boards will be read protected to stop piracy, so even if they gave you permission, they should know it will not be possible. A possible solution to your problem might be to look at the Harmony remote control. They have many devices supported as users have programmed their Harmony to control their devices (if this is an IR remote.). Each device that a user has programmed is stored in the Logitech library and can be used by other Harmony users. These remotes are also fully programmable, but unfortunately you need an original to download the commands to the remote.

 

[Josh Bensadon]

I find it hard to believe that the chip has fried in all these remotes. When fixing remote controllers, I find there is often water under the keyboard (not sure how it gets there) also, there's a ceramic 455Khz oscillator that usually goes bad.

 

[shumifan50]

Since you have one working remote, I would strongly suggest getting at least one trainable remote to capture the codes from the existing remote, before it also goes. I once again suggest the Harmony remote control as it is the most versatile and the captured codes are stored on the Harmony/Logitech server, so you will always have it available to program onto another Harmony remote. Please note that I am not associated with Logitech in any way, I just use these all over the house and find them superb. There are other trainable remotes on the market, but they all have severe limitations. Please note that I assume an IR remote.

 

[shumifan50]

Having said all that. Does the remote have an 'in circuit serial programming' connector: it is normally a 5/6 pin connector. That would allow you to read/write the program on the PIC while it is in the remote. If it does not have this socket, it will mean removing the PIC from the board to read off the program, at the risk of then frying the chip. So before embarking on this, I would still capture the IR codes into another remote so you at least have them somewhere, in case the readout fails. I have only ever used a PicKit3 to read/write PICs, so I don't know whether you can do it with other programmers.