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Fried Board — Parallax Forums

Fried Board

eddieteddiet Posts: 3
edited 2010-05-07 18:40 in Propeller 1
I was using the USB proto board to learn PASM, and somewhere along the line my board seems to have died. The computer is recognizing the FTDI chip, since it's showing up as a COM port, but the Prop is not communicating with it. My question is, could my poor programming have caused the Prop to be unable to communicate with the usb-serial adapter, or is it likely that I fried the prop chip itself? A quick check with an LED shows that chip is still at least somewhat alive when the power switch is flipped, with pin 0 high (I was just attempting to make it blink). I'm not sure if it's even possible for any code to completely prevent communicating with the serial adapter, but I'm wondering if I have any options other than a new board.

Thanks!

Comments

  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,887
    edited 2010-05-06 18:01
    Perhaps you could test the FTDI chip by jumpering RX&TX (pins 30&31) together and then us a terminal program to see if what you type in gets echoed back...

    If it's just the FTDI chip that's bad, you could probably rig a connector for a PropPlug to your board...

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  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,887
    edited 2010-05-06 18:02
    Oh yeah, and make sure the power switch is in the "on" position and the power led is on· [noparse]:)[/noparse]

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  • MicrocontrolledMicrocontrolled Posts: 2,461
    edited 2010-05-06 18:27
    I've had the same happen to one of my protoboards. Working fine then nothing. I don't know what causes it.

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  • SapiehaSapieha Posts: 2,964
    edited 2010-05-06 18:36
    Hi All.

    As I see it.
    To many people not pay attention that most of boards not have series resistor between RX< pin From Propeller to RS-IC's.
    And with badly programing that CAN Burn this pin else pin in supporting Serial IC!

    Regards

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    If you don't ask you won't know.
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    Sapieha
  • eddieteddiet Posts: 3
    edited 2010-05-06 21:18
    Thanks for the help guys, shorting the rx-tx pins gave me an echo which seems to indicate that the problem lies in the Prop chip itself. Is there any way the program currently on the EEPROM could be preventing the Prop from communicating with the PC? Unless that's possible, it seems my chip is fried. sad.gif
    The only thing connected at the time was an LED + resistor from P0 to ground, and the power supply was through the 3.3V regulator that came on the usb board.
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,401
    edited 2010-05-06 21:25
    eddiet,

    Stranger things have happened. It would be fantastic to determine the actual cause of failure, but I also favor the concept of using time in a productive manner. This isn't a product that receives "failure attention" from our tech support guys so it could be a unique type of failure: destroyed Prop chip, an open, a bridge, failed or destroyed FTDI chip, etc.

    So, let's just replace it! Perhaps the forum members will still resolve the problem, but it sounds like this one would become an RMA candidate.

    Send me your shipping address by e-mail kgracey@parallax.com and we'll get a new one off to you right away. Keep the damaged board for parts.

    Ken Gracey

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    Parallax Inc.

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  • MicrocontrolledMicrocontrolled Posts: 2,461
    edited 2010-05-06 22:07
    Ken to the rescue again!

    @eddiet: Post your program. Remember that PASM starts as soon as the power is on, but spin has a 1.5 second delay. Since you were learning PASM, you could be blocking the RX/TX pins with your program as soon as the power is on. If you have another prop on hand, you can fix this. Or you can just chop the wires leading to the EEPROM and see if it works. If you want the EEPROM back, though, you will need some SMD soldering technique. :-O

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  • BradCBradC Posts: 2,601
    edited 2010-05-07 01:13
    Microcontrolled said...
    Remember that PASM starts as soon as the power is on, but spin has a 1.5 second delay.

    Really?

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  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2010-05-07 01:58
    Yes, Ken has done it again. What a company hey!

    @microcontrolled: While it is true pasm starts straight away, it is not as you believe.

    When power is applied, the prop runs pasm code from ROM which then looks for the download signal on P31/30 (forget which is rx, think it is P30). If nothing is found within a certain time, then it will copy the eeprom (32KB) into hub RAM and then loads spin into cog 0 which executes the eeprom code.

    However, once the prop is running and you connect the propplug (if it is seperate)... P31/30 may be connected and doing something else and hence a conflict could arise. Therefore it is important for the series resistors to be in the line to the propplug. Now you initialte a download to the prop and it issues a reset, the prop stops all cogs, initialised everything and restarts and runs the pasm boot code from ROM and continues as I described above.

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  • James NewmanJames Newman Posts: 133
    edited 2010-05-07 03:21
    Protoboard, I guess your using a wall-wart type power supply? If not, make sure batteries are good. When playing with the prop on breadboard, I had a 9 volt battery that would allow the prop to run for a second or so after power up, then die.
  • eddieteddiet Posts: 3
    edited 2010-05-07 17:22
    I was able to desolder (unsolder?) EEPROM from the board and the problem remains, so it looks like the culprit is pins 30/31 of the prop itself. Thanks to Ken, it looks like I should be up and running again soon!
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2010-05-07 17:40
    Chip Quik is the stuff to use if you want to replace the Propeller. They will send you free sample kit - enough for a few chips.

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  • KPRKPR Posts: 189
    edited 2010-05-07 17:49
    You gotta love a company like this .. That's what I call customer service...

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  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2010-05-07 17:56
    KPR said...
    You gotta love a company like this .. That's what I call customer service...

    It's part of why a lot of us will never give other like-products a second look... [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    OBC

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  • KPRKPR Posts: 189
    edited 2010-05-07 18:18
    Oldbitcollector said...
    KPR said...
    You gotta love a company like this .. That's what I call customer service...

    It's part of why a lot of us will never give other like-products a second look... [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    OBC

    FWIW.. I grabbed a arduino as a suggestion from a buddy ( Lego Mindstorm User ) and I have to say, your right.. It doesn't even come close to the Parallax Platform..

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  • Graham StablerGraham Stabler Posts: 2,510
    edited 2010-05-07 18:40
    When I replaced a propeller I used a scalpel to cut the legs one by one, they cut easily (just apply a small downwards force) and it is easy to remove what is left.

    Graham
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