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BSTL, OSX 10.9, FT232RL shell error — Parallax Forums

BSTL, OSX 10.9, FT232RL shell error

T ChapT Chap Posts: 4,223
edited 2014-08-03 23:07 in Propeller 1
FTDI says you do not install drivers for the FT232RL on 10.9, it is built into the kernel. USB 2 Serial device is found and displayed in ports found box. But twice I have sent files to people with 10.9 and cannot get the Prop to load from my GUI that uses BSTC. Is BSTC possibly incompatible now with 10.9? My 10.6 machine in my office is fine using the FTDI VCP drivers. I cannot send out a PropTool or other IDE including complete software, this must be my own GUI that simply loads the .eeprom.

Comments

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-07-31 11:46
    If BSTL no longer works on the Mac I think you may be out of luck. Sadly BST is well and truly unsupported now having not seen an up date in ages or heard from it's author.

    You could try out the loader included with propgcc (also used by SimpleIDE). It's a command line program. I would think that's the preferred way to go now a days. At least if it does not work for you someone will fix it :)
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2014-07-31 11:53
    The problem is with the default USB driver in Mavericks because the DTR signal does not work properly. This was noticed by Parallax and developers; it has been documented and brought to Apple's attention.

    The package from FTDI needs to be installed and the Mac restarted for things to work correctly.
  • T ChapT Chap Posts: 4,223
    edited 2014-07-31 11:58
    Jazzed, which package are you referring to? There is no package at FTDI's site for Maverick.
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2014-07-31 12:33
    This page shows the latest for all platforms: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

    This disk image will work: http://www.ftdichip.com/drivers/VCP/MacOSX/FTDIUSBSerialDriver_v2_2_18.dmg
  • T ChapT Chap Posts: 4,223
    edited 2014-07-31 12:37
    Jazzed, that image only goes to 10.7. I use those images all the time on 10.7 and below. Tech support says that you do not use any installers for drivers on 10.9 as it is in the kernel now, and they said you can get conflicts installing those images on 10.9. However, because I could not get BSTL to work, I tried those drivers anyway but no luck.
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2014-07-31 12:45
    T Chap wrote: »
    Jazzed, that image only goes to 10.7. I use those images all the time on 10.7 and below. Tech support says that you do not use any installers for drivers on 10.9 as it is in the kernel now, and they said you can get conflicts installing those images on 10.9. However, because I could not get BSTL to work, I tried those drivers anyway but no luck.


    If you can't use the FTDI diver, then you're out of luck. Do you have another computer where the RL device works?

    There are some loader alternatives.

    Try this: https://code.google.com/p/tclbits/wiki/Loader
    IIRC, the code has more features, and the wiki is not up-to-date.

    The source is here:
    https://code.google.com/p/tclbits/source/browse/#svn%2Ftrunk
  • T ChapT Chap Posts: 4,223
    edited 2014-08-03 17:47
    Thanks for the info guys. I sent Brad an email to see if he would reply, I doubt I will get a response. Strange that he is still paying for yearly hosting on bst. We need solutions for programming the Prop with GUI's without having to rely on third party participation. A company cannot send out full software to clients for firmware updates. I don't have 10.9 to find out if even PropTool will work with the FTDI. Their tech support did not mention a any issues but I will call them again in the morning.

    Did Brad just backwards engineer the timing of the process or is this published info? Seems like a heck of a lot of work to just evaporate.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-08-03 22:54
    As I said in post #2 there is a perfectly good loader included with propgcc.
    propgcc is included with SimpleIDE.

    So just install SimpleIDE on the mac and find the "propeller-load" executable in /opt/parallax/bin or wherever they put it on a Mac.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-08-03 23:07
    T Chap,
    We need solutions for programming the Prop with GUI's without having to rely on third party participation.
    Indeed. That is what SimpleIDE, PropellerIDE are all about.
    Did Brad just backwards engineer the timing of the process or is this published info?
    If I recall correctly by the time Brad created BST the loader code in the Propeller had been extracted, and understood. At that point Chip released the source code. There was some kind of teasing going on for a while, effectively Chip say "I will release the source when you guys understand the binary"

    So I don't thing there is a published spec. for the loader protocol but it is effectively published.
    Seems like a heck of a lot of work to just evaporate
    I always thought so to. Brad did not want to open source it for whatever reason.

    Ah, I just notice that the loader Jazzed linked to is in fact propeller-load wrapped in a little TCL GUI. Sweet.
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