I was right in the middle of trying to locate a working driver when I read your post...several drivers all failed...the one you posted worked like a charm, now all that is left is to connect it to the propeller...Thanks a million!
Edit = Next_Day_Follow_up >>
These work well for programming the prop, just connecting a 10nF capacitor in series with the DTR line and connecting to my reset (pulled-up with 10K) did just fine. Too large a series capacitor can cause issues (0.1uF intermittent, 1uF caused complete loss).
I already own the prop clip and will use it for programming purposes; these CA-42 cables were purchased to add USB serial connectivity to finished project's PCBs (i.e. soldered on the PCB directly). I haven't pushed the ports until they fail but found 1 Mbps (continuous, i.e. as fast as spin could pass the bytes to the serial object @ 80 Mhz) possible without any errors even when the cheesy unshielded 3 wire core cable provided was used.
Post Edited (Miner_with_a_PIC) : 1/17/2010 7:49:18 PM GMT
Still having headaches here, but I do appreciate your efforts, Luis.
Propeller Tool still can't write to COM11, and sometimes, pulling the cable out of the USB port causes an *immediate* hard reset of the PC (straight to BIOS).
mpark said...
sometimes, pulling the cable out of the USB port causes an *immediate* hard reset of the PC (straight to BIOS).
*That* absolutely points to a problem with a driver. There are quite a few pl230x drivers out there. You might have to play swapsies until you find one that works for you.
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Life may be "too short", but it's the longest thing we ever do.
I took a closer look at the package the cables came in and found mini-CDs. I can be such an idiot sometimes.
So I installed the drivers off the disc. Unfortunately, the same problems persist: PropTool can't detect Propeller, no echo on loopback, occasional cold rebooting.
Of course, given my level of idiocy, it's likely my fault.
mpark said...
I took a closer look at the package the cables came in and found mini-CDs. I can be such an idiot sometimes.
So I installed the drivers off the disc. Unfortunately, the same problems persist: PropTool can't detect Propeller, no echo on loopback, occasional cold rebooting.
Of course, given my level of idiocy, it's likely my fault.
I highly doubt it. Random binary drivers cause all sorts of headaches for Windows. The spurious rebooting is a sure sign of something wandering off and trampling memory its not supposed to be touching.
I've not done this for many, many years, and I don't know what version of windows you are playing with, but I'd recommend firing it up in absolute bare bones safe mode, removing every driver that even looks like its associated with a usb->serial converter and reboot normally.
Then install the pl2303 driver from the CD from scratch.
From my very hazy memory, booting into safe mode like that will show all device drivers configured whether the device is plugged in or not and you might find some oddball garbage lurking in there somewhere from a previous driver.
Of course, my memory may well be faulty too. If that fails there is always the re-install [noparse];)[/noparse]
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Life may be "too short", but it's the longest thing we ever do.
My trouble was exactly the driver when messing with this . Found an older driver and that worked. The new driver just didn't work.
With all the plugging in and trying to get it to work the comm port number shot up to like 16 or something. I thought what are all these comports coming from ?
Each time I tried it would create a new one and not keep the last one. Ended up a lot of windows bs to get rid of them.
I noticed once I got the driver working that plugging in an identical one that it would create a new comport for it (like each one is unique).
I had pretty much given up on this, having tried two cables and different drivers with no success—but last night, before tossing everything into the trash, on a whim I tried the *third* cable (I had ordered 3) and it worked. Son of a... glitch. Here I'd been wrestling with drivers, figuring there was no way two cables could be bad, but they were.
I got these cables from the vendor mentioned in Luis Digital's post at the end of last year. Has anyone else received faulty cables? I would like to order more if I can expect a better than 33% success rate.
I bought a slightly different cable from a local street vendor. The cable did not have a plastic end connector as pictured in the above posts. Instead it was soft and flexible [rubber-y].
Since it was dirt cheap, I decided to try anyway. I struggled with the rubbery bits for a while before managing to break the cable itself. Out of curiosity i proceeded to dissect the cable, and here is the funny part - there was no PCB what so ever.
I am attaching a picture of the cable. This is the USB end, the other end had nothing I could discern either. Maybe the circuit was embedded inside the plastic bits, or perhaps my cable was a dud.
Word to the wise: It is possible to cut your thumb with a screw driver. If has a comical injury really. I was trying to pry the rubber open and the thing slipped. I was avoiding the blade to prevent exactly this sort of a thing!
Are you sure there isn't any circuitry in the USB end? Sometimes they hide stuff inside the metal connector.
Sorry about your thumb. I think it's possible to cut oneself on many tools that aren't intended for cutting. It took me a while to figure out how I had a big spot of blood on my sock once. I finally figured out it was from dropping my tweezers (which had punctured my skin through the sock). I feel very fortunate to have 9.9 fingers (a table saw took the .1).
After my previous failed attempt I was determined to get this done. Turns out there are two versions to the cable. One for phones with V-USB [without the magic chip we are after] and one for phones that need serial conversion. I was unlucky enough to pick up a pure USB cable the first time. Hence I was unable to find anything inside!
Rule of thumb: the right one comes with a driver CD.
Anyway, my second attempt at this and the thing just popped open! It virtually had no adhesive.
Here are some pictures of what I found. The board seems to have VCC, GND, TX, RX and DTR on it.
I also made a rough pinout of the connector [only to realize later that the internet has all the answers already ]
I have an arduino usb-serial plug that I added a 2nd header to emulate a propplug. It work right out of the box it's just a wire and two small (100 ohm?) resistors to make sure the 5v don't hurt the prop. I wish parallax sold that honestly, the main reason why I use it is that it has 5V out which lets me power the prop board from the laptop...
Comments
I was right in the middle of trying to locate a working driver when I read your post...several drivers all failed...the one you posted worked like a charm, now all that is left is to connect it to the propeller...Thanks a million!
Edit = Next_Day_Follow_up >>
These work well for programming the prop, just connecting a 10nF capacitor in series with the DTR line and connecting to my reset (pulled-up with 10K) did just fine. Too large a series capacitor can cause issues (0.1uF intermittent, 1uF caused complete loss).
I already own the prop clip and will use it for programming purposes; these CA-42 cables were purchased to add USB serial connectivity to finished project's PCBs (i.e. soldered on the PCB directly). I haven't pushed the ports until they fail but found 1 Mbps (continuous, i.e. as fast as spin could pass the bytes to the serial object @ 80 Mhz) possible without any errors even when the cheesy unshielded 3 wire core cable provided was used.
Post Edited (Miner_with_a_PIC) : 1/17/2010 7:49:18 PM GMT
Propeller Tool still can't write to COM11, and sometimes, pulling the cable out of the USB port causes an *immediate* hard reset of the PC (straight to BIOS).
*That* absolutely points to a problem with a driver. There are quite a few pl230x drivers out there. You might have to play swapsies until you find one that works for you.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Life may be "too short", but it's the longest thing we ever do.
So I installed the drivers off the disc. Unfortunately, the same problems persist: PropTool can't detect Propeller, no echo on loopback, occasional cold rebooting.
Of course, given my level of idiocy, it's likely my fault.
I highly doubt it. Random binary drivers cause all sorts of headaches for Windows. The spurious rebooting is a sure sign of something wandering off and trampling memory its not supposed to be touching.
I've not done this for many, many years, and I don't know what version of windows you are playing with, but I'd recommend firing it up in absolute bare bones safe mode, removing every driver that even looks like its associated with a usb->serial converter and reboot normally.
Then install the pl2303 driver from the CD from scratch.
From my very hazy memory, booting into safe mode like that will show all device drivers configured whether the device is plugged in or not and you might find some oddball garbage lurking in there somewhere from a previous driver.
Of course, my memory may well be faulty too. If that fails there is always the re-install [noparse];)[/noparse]
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Life may be "too short", but it's the longest thing we ever do.
With all the plugging in and trying to get it to work the comm port number shot up to like 16 or something. I thought what are all these comports coming from ?
Each time I tried it would create a new one and not keep the last one. Ended up a lot of windows bs to get rid of them.
I noticed once I got the driver working that plugging in an identical one that it would create a new comport for it (like each one is unique).
Hope this helps.
I got these cables from the vendor mentioned in Luis Digital's post at the end of last year. Has anyone else received faulty cables? I would like to order more if I can expect a better than 33% success rate.
You have bad luck my friend or made a bad connection or may be problems with its USB port.
Today was seeing an article on that topic:
http://coledd.com/electronics/sony_vaio_power_supply_problem/
Edit:
Another thing: If something goes wrong, and you think it is the fault of the seller, he can send one gratis (if a recent purchase).
Post Edited (Luis Digital) : 3/29/2010 3:26:52 AM GMT
I think it's too late to ask for replacements. Besides, I do have horrible luck with hardware so I'm not ready to blame the seller yet.
I'll order a few more and see what happens.
But what I'm talking about guarantee, if the cost of shipping to HK should cost the same as the cable? [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Since it was dirt cheap, I decided to try anyway. I struggled with the rubbery bits for a while before managing to break the cable itself. Out of curiosity i proceeded to dissect the cable, and here is the funny part - there was no PCB what so ever.
I am attaching a picture of the cable. This is the USB end, the other end had nothing I could discern either. Maybe the circuit was embedded inside the plastic bits, or perhaps my cable was a dud.
This is approximately how it looked new: http://gsmserver.com/shop/cables/usb_data_cables/nokia/usb_data_cable_ca_42_for_nokia_3100_6101_6103_7360_7260.php
Word to the wise: It is possible to cut your thumb with a screw driver. If has a comical injury really. I was trying to pry the rubber open and the thing slipped. I was avoiding the blade to prevent exactly this sort of a thing!
Are you sure there isn't any circuitry in the USB end? Sometimes they hide stuff inside the metal connector.
Sorry about your thumb. I think it's possible to cut oneself on many tools that aren't intended for cutting. It took me a while to figure out how I had a big spot of blood on my sock once. I finally figured out it was from dropping my tweezers (which had punctured my skin through the sock). I feel very fortunate to have 9.9 fingers (a table saw took the .1).
Welcome to the forum.
Duane
I took off both connectors completely. The black structure in the picture is the usb connector. I couldn't find any circuitry.
Perhaps it was a dud. Because I bought it for almost nothing.
After my previous failed attempt I was determined to get this done. Turns out there are two versions to the cable. One for phones with V-USB [without the magic chip we are after] and one for phones that need serial conversion. I was unlucky enough to pick up a pure USB cable the first time. Hence I was unable to find anything inside!
Rule of thumb: the right one comes with a driver CD.
Anyway, my second attempt at this and the thing just popped open! It virtually had no adhesive.
Here are some pictures of what I found. The board seems to have VCC, GND, TX, RX and DTR on it.
I also made a rough pinout of the connector [only to realize later that the internet has all the answers already
The CA-42 pinout
http://pinouts.ru/CellularPhones-Nokia/nokia_pop_pinout.shtml