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Propeller chip lost on COM6 — Parallax Forums

Propeller chip lost on COM6

pp_314156pp_314156 Posts: 5
edited 2011-09-12 11:46 in Propeller 1
Does anyone have a solution for this problem?

I am using the Parallax professional development board (part number 32111) connected via an USB cable to a tower PC running XP. I have tried versions 1.26 and 1.27R2 of the development system software and both have the following problem:

1) Identify hardware states "Propeller chip version 1 found on COM6"
2) Load a small demo program and F10 and F11 work fine, and the program executes as expected.
3) Load something larger like the Sensirion Demo and F10 and F11 end up failing after "Verifying RAM" with the message "Propeller chip lost on COM6".

It seems like some kind of timing problem. I tried searching this forum but the search function doesn't seem to allow exact string searches -- my apologies if this is a duplicate thread.

Regars,
Peter


Update 1: I tried another computer and it works fine using a fast dual core laptop (Fujitsu T4210 tablet PC). The desktop was an older 2.66GHz Celeron.

Comments

  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2010-09-05 13:18
    Propeller Tool can be a little finicky on some setups..

    Try BST and see if your results change.

    http://www.fnarfbargle.com/bst/Latest/bst-0.19.3.exe.zip

    OBC
  • inakicinakic Posts: 10
    edited 2010-12-11 15:54
    I have found that this problem may occur when the Propplug is connected through a USB hub.
  • damagedcellsdamagedcells Posts: 12
    edited 2011-02-08 20:16
    edit:GOT IT FIXED turns out Pin 29 on the Gadget Gangster Prop Platform USB is essential for the EEPROM to be able to read.:innocent: I'm just happy I didn't fry my board.



    Things had been going fine, then I got the chip lost message. Downloaded the BST and got a "Catastrophic communications error"
    Funny thing is that I can program the ram with F10 to load temporary test files. I can not load the EEPROM.
  • pp_314156pp_314156 Posts: 5
    edited 2011-03-05 17:13
    Update 2: It still is unreliable but I have verified on two different computers that if you reboot it and run the propeller tool, it will upload larger programs most of the time without having to retry. However, once you quit the program and run it again, it almost never works.

    When it stops working, you can try uploading a dozen times in a row and it will fail every time. Short programs are ok. Reboot, and everything is fine. It seems that when the propeller tool quits, something is left running in memory that causes problems. There is definitely a bug here.

    Both machines are XP Professional with all the patches. One is a Fujitsu laptop, the other is an older desktop machine (clone).

    It is a shame that this hasn't been fixed. I would hesitate to recommend it as a teaching platform for the university I attend because it would be a support nightmare. The current teaching platforms for engineering projects are an ancient PicKit and an 8088 based homegrown board.

    I have resigned myself to trying the upload and it it fails, pressing the power button on the laptop for three seconds until it reboots. I just don't have the patience for a regular software shutdown anymore.

    For some reason, small programs aren't a problem. I am using it for a on-demand ventilation controller that interfaces to a pair of sensiron humidity sensors, a LCD display, a NDIR CO2 sensor, a serial port for data logging, a bunch of parallax gas sensors and of course a floating point library. By the way, the parallax electrochemical sensors are pathetic. NDIR (non dispersive infrared) technology blows them away in terms of accuracy, response time and self diagnostics and there are no heater circuits or other foolishness to content with. http://www.nlcpr.com/OnDemandVentilation.php
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2011-03-05 17:47
    [QUOTE It is a shame that this hasn't been fixed. I would hesitate to recommend it as a teaching platform for the university I attend because it would be a support nightmare. The current teaching platforms for engineering projects are an ancient PicKit and an 8088 based homegrown board. [/QUOTE]

    I'm sure Parallax would like to know of a problem, and the tech support is top notch.

    If you are working with one piece of hardware, may it not have gotten damaged at one point, so it is exhibiting an intermittent hardware problem now?
  • Mike GMike G Posts: 2,702
    edited 2011-03-05 18:21
    pp_314156 wrote:
    Update 2: It still is unreliable but I have verified on two different computers that if you reboot it and run the propeller tool, it will upload larger programs most of the time without having to retry. However, once you quit the program and run it again, it almost never works.

    When it stops working, you can try uploading a dozen times in a row and it will fail every time. Short programs are ok. Reboot, and everything is fine. It seems that when the propeller tool quits, something is left running in memory that causes problems. There is definitely a bug here.

    That's a pretty bold statement without any evidence. The Propeller Tool has been around for a while and there are a lot of users.

    Speaking for myself, I use the Propeller Tool just about every day. I don't have the problems you're describing.
  • ernstjernstj Posts: 7
    edited 2011-09-12 10:37
    It's a pitty to say but I'm not be able anymore te upload any program to the Propeller chip. I'm working with the httpserver program but I shall change to any other platform. There is no solution and Parallax isn't working on it. They say it by them selve. Very small programs can work ....... but the propeller is capable to do so much more !!! I have 8 Spinneret modules, workless :-( Maybe I try to load them in parts via the memory to the COG's.

    The HttpServer source have I make some smaller. Just delete source lines. And after some delete 100% able to upload to the Propeller. Great but what I had upload was a non-working program anymore.
  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2011-09-12 11:06
    The Propeller Tool and BST are both reliable for myself and many others. I use both for very large and complex programs and they work fine. If you're having problems, there must be something unique about your situation and the more details you can provide about the circumstances, the better. With older, slower PCs, if you're running too much in the background (like Windows Update), that can slow down the PC enough that the communications link can timeout on large programs. When I used to have this problem, I would turn off Windows Update and things worked fine from that point. Now that I have a much faster processor, I don't have the problem anymore (for several years now).
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,999
    edited 2011-09-12 11:46
    Make sure you're using the latest version of the Prop Tool (1.3?). Older versions did have an issue on some PCs where big downloads would fail half-way through....

    Never mind. I was looking at the top post, apparently very old and not the one from today...
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