Sorry about the trouble with your PE Kit. Please do contact our Technical Support Department. Here's a link to our contact info page (Tech Support included):
Please also make sure to include a link to this discussion when you email or call.
There have been a few similar discussions on this forum this year. A couple were resolved during rewiring, and a couple others were solved by replacement Propeller chips. Of the rewiring solves, one was a broken capacitor lead, and another was a wire sheath that had slipped causing an open connection on one end of the jumper. The apparently DOA propellers are still a mystery to me because they all get tested before they ship. Possible causes I can think of are: insertion force breaking a tenuous wire bond, an accidental 9 V connection to the chip that went unnoticed, and a static zap that went unnoticed. The occurrences have been rare enough that we have not done failure analysis on the mystery chips we replaced.
The only other test I would recommend is to set your voltmeter to AC and test the 3.3 V to GND connections on the chip. If all is normal, it should measure close to 0 VAC. If either of the filter capacitors across the voltage regulator are not connected properly, you might see a couple volts AC, in which case, you'll want to double check your voltage regulator wiring.
I found this thread helpful when I ran into the same error message "No Propeller Chip Found on any serial port." I realized that the power supply that i had hooked up my propeller demo board to had automatically stopped sourcing the correct 9V because I hadn't set the current limit high enough. Once i fixed that and had the correct voltage, the computer sensed the board with no problems.
Aaarrgghh.. My prop demo board is doing this now. I have tried all the ideas on this thread but no soap. It was working intermitantly when I got it yesterday but this problem has shut me down now. I believe it is a bad prop but I have a scope and will look at any signal anybody might be interested in. I dont see anything on the oscillator but that might be a non-observable signal. Nuts... (This board is a good quality pcb and the prop is surface-mounted)
Start with the basics. Make sure the prop chip has ground and 3.3V on the power pins, and make sure the crystal is oscillating if you are using one. Having a scope is a bonus since you can use it to make sure the power supplied to the prop is clean.
I would like to know if the oscillator is running but I am afraid it cannot be scoped with a passive probe since the probe capacitance might stall the crystal. An oscillator start-up problem could explain this whole thing since it has been pervasive on the DIP and surface mounted chips. The facts that it works when it gets tested at Parallax and that it worked for a short while for me (and other folks) is compelling.
I have had this same problem with two USB Protoboards and now a Quickstart board stopped communicating yesterday. I have been using Jason Dorie's QuadX code on the Quickstart board, which was working well as I tried to adjust the settings for my ITG3200. The quad was running 3 of the 4 motors correctly at the time. I then unplugged the battery from the quad, plugged the QS into my pc to attempt to get the 4th motor running right and the QS will not now communicate with either of my pc's. I tried restoring defaults in the serial terminals of both my pc's with no luck. Also I have had one Protoboard and one Quickstart board lose the USB connector altogether, ie., they separated from the boards completely, which is why I am on my second Quickstart board. I don't have a scope to check my newest QS, but I do have a PropPlug that has been working for at least the last 5 years. Any suggestions for revival of my Quickstart using my Propplug would be greatly appreciated.
PS... I was sooooo close to having my quad fly, I could taste it
I don't believe that it is the usb ports (I've tried multiple pcs). I have attached three pictures of what my current set up is. Thanks for the help.
If you need a closer picture of a particular section, please say so.
No decoupling capacitors - don't expect anything to work reliably without them - 0.1uF ceramic between 3V3 and ground close to each chip is required - may not fix the problem but nothing is guaranteed to behave without them.
@Leon - I just tried a second USB cable with no luck. Also I disconnected the sda and scl lines from my circuit board. I then checked the cable with a USB external drive, which worked as usual. I should add that with my last Protoboard with this issue, I was able to solder wires to the tx/rx lines after scraping away the coating over them. This worked 3 months but wasn't a good enough connection for a quad, which led to the purchase of a QS board. That board lost the usb connector through no fault of manufacturing, I then bought my current QS board from the local Radio Shack to help support my local store as before.
I just tried again to get the Prop IDE to connect, still doesn't connect. The lights flash as normal when I connect the USB cable and then the green led remains on.
Can a Propplug be connected to the tx/rx, /rts & /cts lines of the QS board to see if it works? Would that bypass the QS USB circuit?
I am not an EE, just a hobbyist.
Thanks for you assistance in advance.
Ooops, I saw it at the top of the list and didn't check the date. My Bad...... lol, never the I still have a similar problem and want to resolve it without buying another board if possible.
Life is good. I switched out the 5mhz crystal on my failing "demo" card with an identical crystal from a new "proto" propeller card. Now my demo card works fine. I cannot get it to fail. That arguably points to the oscillator circuit behind all of this. Maybe it is just the oscillator socket. It is something which is marginal but "usually" works. If you only have the one crystal, try unplugging it, rotating it 180 degrees and reseating it. Oh boy! Time to play with my new propeller! Thanks guys. manzana in Ohio
Thank You manzana for your response.
I tried switching crystals on my Protoboards which did get one to respond to PST, however it doesn't run any programs using _xinfreq and _clkmode commands.
The QuickStart boards appear to have crystals that are soldered to the boards and not replaceable like the Protoboards.
I can buy another QS board at the Shack and try again.
Please let us know how it goes. I do not believe it is crystal related now. But switching crystals does fix it sometimes although the problem does not follow a particulat crystal. The fact is that I was dead in the water and now I am running fine. When I do get this problem, switching crystals, rotating crystals, and unplugging/ replugging the USB always manages to fix it. (Whistling seems to be helpful too. 8-) ) I wonder if it could be heat related. Perhaps cooling the crystal could make a difference. If it gets worse, get the hair dryer! I suspect that the true reason for this may never be known. It's easier just to buy another card and keep hacking. The propeller is really quite a step up for an old BS1/ BS2 man like myself.
Gee I ran great for a week and the problem re-surfaced. No amount of fooling with crystals would revive my demo card. Then I replaced the brick power supply with a variable lab supply and boosted the input juice to 9v. Back in business!
Gee I ran great for a week and the problem re-surfaced. No amount of fooling with crystals would revive my demo card. Then I replaced the brick power supply with a variable lab supply and boosted the input juice to 9v. Back in business!
Back in business or how long though?
Seems to me your board might have a loose solder joint on it. Just handling a board having such a problem could cause failures to come and go. I've never heard of a problem like that on Parallax hardware, but it is possible.
Thanks Bob for this info...... i wasted 3 hours trying to find out why my Propeller would not connect....... your Default trick solved it in 3 seconds....
Dont count on it. 8-) This is really bizarre. I have now solved this 3 different ways! In each case the problem went away for days and then resurfaced. It was then immune to my fix.!! (Obviously I had not fixed anything.) This must be associated with the USB port on the prop, either in the prop or on the usb chip connected to it. Apparently the PC is querying the prop for an ID and not getting what it wants. This should be simple to debug with a scope. I have one and will offer my technician services up for free if I can get a mentor.! We need somebody who knows the USB protocol who can please tell me what to look for.I bet a signal is stuck or a latch is unitialized or whatever. There is nothing wrong with the clock or the prop. When this error occurs the prop is running the previous program loaded into it just fine. It just refuses to load a NEW program into it. I know this is true because I had an led blinking program loaded previously and I noticed it was running OK. The old scope is fired up and ready. What do I do?? Thanks!
I was having and I am still having the same problem - error no propeller chip on port. However today out of no where it just came through and said hello. I went wow and yeah then message came up checking ram and the terminal filled up with some code which seem to beg me to respond with ok. I select ok. Poof I get the error no propeller chip on port again. I'm back to where I started.
I was having and I am still having the same problem - error no propeller chip on port. However today out of no where it just came through and said hello. I went wow and yeah then message came up checking ram and the terminal filled up with some code which seem to beg me to respond with ok. I select ok. Poof I get the error no propeller chip on port again. I'm back to where I started.
I was having and I am still having the same problem - error no propeller chip on port. However today out of no where it just came through and said hello. I went wow and yeah then message came up checking ram and the terminal filled up with some code which seem to beg me to respond with ok. I select ok. Poof I get the error no propeller chip on port again. I'm back to where I started.
If you are not using the Propeller terminal then you need to disconnect it from the port before programming, but disconnect anyway just in case. Also there may be a problem if the code that is already in there is spitting out a lot of characters, which is what it seems to be doing, as the Prop tool doesn't see the response in time because of all the garbage before it in the PC's serial FIFO. A way around this is to hit or release the manual reset of the Prop just before you hit F11. Timing is everything!
BTW, it is always best to start a new thread rather than tacking onto the end of someone else's really old thread. (forum etiquette)
Comments
Sorry about the trouble with your PE Kit. Please do contact our Technical Support Department. Here's a link to our contact info page (Tech Support included):
http://www.parallax.com/Company/ContactUs/tabid/66/Default.aspx
Please also make sure to include a link to this discussion when you email or call.
There have been a few similar discussions on this forum this year. A couple were resolved during rewiring, and a couple others were solved by replacement Propeller chips. Of the rewiring solves, one was a broken capacitor lead, and another was a wire sheath that had slipped causing an open connection on one end of the jumper. The apparently DOA propellers are still a mystery to me because they all get tested before they ship. Possible causes I can think of are: insertion force breaking a tenuous wire bond, an accidental 9 V connection to the chip that went unnoticed, and a static zap that went unnoticed. The occurrences have been rare enough that we have not done failure analysis on the mystery chips we replaced.
The only other test I would recommend is to set your voltmeter to AC and test the 3.3 V to GND connections on the chip. If all is normal, it should measure close to 0 VAC. If either of the filter capacitors across the voltage regulator are not connected properly, you might see a couple volts AC, in which case, you'll want to double check your voltage regulator wiring.
Hope this helps...
Regards, Andy
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Andy Lindsay
Education Department
Parallax, Inc.
- Dmats
PS... I was sooooo close to having my quad fly, I could taste it
No decoupling capacitors - don't expect anything to work reliably without them - 0.1uF ceramic between 3V3 and ground close to each chip is required - may not fix the problem but nothing is guaranteed to behave without them.
I just tried again to get the Prop IDE to connect, still doesn't connect. The lights flash as normal when I connect the USB cable and then the green led remains on.
Can a Propplug be connected to the tx/rx, /rts & /cts lines of the QS board to see if it works? Would that bypass the QS USB circuit?
I am not an EE, just a hobbyist.
Thanks for you assistance in advance.
Rob
Well, hopefully eWizardII has been waiting patiently for a solution and can now proceed with his project:)
I tried switching crystals on my Protoboards which did get one to respond to PST, however it doesn't run any programs using _xinfreq and _clkmode commands.
The QuickStart boards appear to have crystals that are soldered to the boards and not replaceable like the Protoboards.
I can buy another QS board at the Shack and try again.
Back in business or how long though?
Seems to me your board might have a loose solder joint on it. Just handling a board having such a problem could cause failures to come and go. I've never heard of a problem like that on Parallax hardware, but it is possible.
Thanks Bob for this info...... i wasted 3 hours trying to find out why my Propeller would not connect....... your Default trick solved it in 3 seconds....
If you are not using the Propeller terminal then you need to disconnect it from the port before programming, but disconnect anyway just in case. Also there may be a problem if the code that is already in there is spitting out a lot of characters, which is what it seems to be doing, as the Prop tool doesn't see the response in time because of all the garbage before it in the PC's serial FIFO. A way around this is to hit or release the manual reset of the Prop just before you hit F11. Timing is everything!
BTW, it is always best to start a new thread rather than tacking onto the end of someone else's really old thread. (forum etiquette)