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I'm attempting to blink an LED with the Timer1 overflow interrupt on a PIC12F629, but all I get is a constant LOW value on the GPIO pin. I'm using a 32.768kHz crystal oscillator with 82pF load caps and a 0.1uF filter cap across Vdd and Vss. The GPIO pin for the LED is set to sink (anode tied high, cathode to GPIO through resistor).

I had it all working when using the internal oscillator (4MHz) but haven't had any luck while using the LP crystal. I'm pretty sure it's not a hardware issue since I was able to get it to work (with the LP crystal setup) using MPLAB's built-in __delay_ms() function. I also checked the LED GPIO pin with a logic analyzer to make sure the LED wasn't just blinking faster than I could perceive. Here are my code snippets from several .h and .c files:

#include <xc.h>

// CONFIG register
#pragma config WDTE = OFF     // turn off WDT
#pragma config FOSC = 0b000   // LP crystal

// Set up LP crystal GPIO
TRISIObits.TRISIO4 = 1;
TRISIObits.TRISIO5 = 1;
WPUbits.WPU4 = 0;
WPUbits.WPU5 = 0;

// Set up interrupts
TMR1H = 0;
TMR1L = 0;
PIR1bits.TMR1IF = 0;
PIE1bits.TMR1IE = 1;
INTCONbits.PEIE = 1;
INTCONbits.GIE = 1;

// Set up Timer1
T1CONbits.TMR1GE = 0;
T1CONbits.T1CKPS = 0b00;   // prescaler = 1
T1CONbits.T1OSCEN = 0;
T1CONbits.nT1SYNC = 0;
T1CONbits.TMR1CS = 1;
T1CONbits.TMR1ON = 1;

// Set up GP2 (LED)
TRISIObits.TRISIO2 = 0;
WPUbits.WPU2 = 0;
GPIObits.GP2 = 0;

// Interrupt service routine
void interrupt isr(void)
{
    if(PIR1bits.TMR1IF)
    {
        PIR1bits.TMR1IF = 0;
        GPIObits.GP2 ^= 1;
    }
}

From the datasheet, here's Timer1's signal flow:

Timer1 signal flow

From my calculations, with prescaler set to 1, using a 16-bit timer and a 32.768kHz crystal the timer should overflow every 2 seconds. Any ideas where I'm going wrong?

EDIT: Uh oh, there's an errata for Timer1 :(

EDIT2: Fixed the math in the above paragraph (forgot to invert the 0.5Hz to get 2 seconds).

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  • \$\begingroup\$ 99% of my PIC problems come from choice of oscillator capacitors. I suggest getting a selection ranging from 3.3pf to 33pf. 82pf sounds way too high. Also you might not need any - the leads and tracks can be enough by themselves. Also, be sure to have a fast capacitor on the supply rails close to the PIC. 32khz crystals with PICs can be fussy, even program changes can affect signals. BTW Your program is incomplete AFAIK - I suggest a condensed program to focus solving this issue \$\endgroup\$ – CL22 Apr 20 '17 at 1:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Jodes yeah I've tried no caps, 10pF, and 22pF to no avail. I'll keep trying other combinations, though, and maybe a new crystal. Code-wise these are just snippets -- MPLAB templates fragment the heck out of things. I can put more lines up there if they're relevant. \$\endgroup\$ – calcium3000 Apr 20 '17 at 1:25
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Figured it out! I used the system clock (F_osc/4 in the block diagram) instead of the LP oscillator itself since I set the system frequency to 32.768kHz:

T1CONbits.TMR1CS = 0;   // clock source = F_osc/4

I'm not sure if it's a noob mistake to use the LP oscillator for Timer1 when the system clock is also using it, or if I made some other incorrect code/assumption. I didn't get the fix in the errata (EXAMPLE 1) to work, either, so I'm not claiming complete victory. But it works!

EDIT: and to quell some anxiety I used 22pF caps on the crystal, too.

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82 pF on a 33 kHz crystal is waaaay too much. Read the datasheet of the crystal.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I figured -- I just wanted to make sure the crystal would stabilize. Like I told Jodes, I tried with none, 10pF, and 22pF as well. It's just odd to me that it would work using MPLAB's built-in functions, but not Timer1. \$\endgroup\$ – calcium3000 Apr 20 '17 at 18:43

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