Bin2Hex and differences in output for SW PIC-based board

[mconsidine]

Hi,

I have an old Synta MC001 Rev C board with what I'm pretty sure is a dead PIC16F866.  I've followed along this thread

 

 

and with the help of Malcolm (@malc-c) worked out the answers to a few questions.

While I wait for a blank PIC to show up, I thought I would double-check the software toolchain to make sure I can correctly go from a .MCF file to a .HEX file that is ready to be loaded on the chip.  MPLAB IDE v8.92 was downloaded from the microchip archive (as the newer MPLAB X IDE does not permit editing of configuration bits on a pre-built hex file) and I pulled down some of the files posted on the above thread to test out.

My expectation was that I would get a byte-for-byte duplicate if I used the same steps, but instead I find that in stretches of code where the SGL-based solution has, say, FF FF, I instead get FF 3F (or vice versa).  Using bin2hex.py from the latest pytihon3-intelhex archive showed the biggest differences.  Using the Bin2Hex (note capitalization) file from PICmcf.zip attached to the above-noted thread got me the fewest differences, namely a couple of extra bytes and a handful of differences in the last "lines" of the resulting hex code.  All this was on a sample for an MC003 board.

In the prior thread it looks like @ozarchie had a great deal of insight into the hex code.  I'm wondering if he or anyone else seeing this can suggest whether or not these differences are likely to make a difference?  Or rather, how can I tell if they are a difference to pursue, without first sacrificing a chip?  I get the same results whether I run the code on a Windows 10 machine or a Linux x86_64 based machine.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

mconsidine