Shop OBEX P1 Docs P2 Docs Learn Events
OSX Yosemite FTDI USB users - are yours working? — Parallax Forums

OSX Yosemite FTDI USB users - are yours working?

mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
edited 2015-03-24 12:28 in Propeller 1
I haven't used my Mac Mini for Propeller programming for a while. I had an old (0-9-45) SimpleIDE installed and I've had BST installed for ages. The last time I used them, they worked fine. Yesterday morning I decided to grab PropellerIDE and try it and then get the newest SimpleIDE so I'd have the latest.

I installed PropellerIDE and nothing was able to talk to talk to Propellers anymore. The problem is I can't really remember when the last time I programmed a Propeller on this system was. Was it before Yosemite upgrade? Unlikely but possible....anyway, I'm seeing various issues depending on the FTDI chip being used (!)

I'm currently on Yosemite 10.10.2 (14C109)

This is what I see in a 'ls /dev" listing:

Quickstart Rev A. - /dev/cu.usbserial-A100S8L4

Prop-BOE - /dev/cu.usbserial-

Actvitity Board - <nothing>

Programming attempt from SimpleIDE to Quickstart:
Project Directory: /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/My Projects/blinky/

propeller-elf-gcc -v GCC 4.6.1 (propellergcc_v1_0_0_2224)
propeller-elf-gcc -I . -L . -I /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Utility/libsimpletools -L /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Utility/libsimpletools/cmm/ -I /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Text Devices/libsimpletext -L /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Text Devices/libsimpletext/cmm/ -I /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Protocol/libsimplei2c -L /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Protocol/libsimplei2c/cmm/ -o cmm/blinky.elf -Os -mcmm -Wall -m32bit-doubles -fno-exceptions -std=c99 blinky.c -lsimpletools -lsimpletext -lsimplei2c -lsimpletools -lsimpletext -lsimpletools
propeller-load -s cmm/blinky.elf
propeller-elf-objdump -h cmm/blinky.elf
Done. Build Succeeded!

propeller-load -I /opt/parallax/propeller-load/ -b QUICKSTART cmm/blinky.elf -r -p /dev/cu.usbserial-A100S8L4
error: no propeller chip on port '/dev/cu.usbserial-A100S8L4'
All three boards work as expected on RasPi with PropellerIDE and SimpleIDE

I even went as far as restoring my entire system from Time Capsule to a time BEFORE I installed PropellerIDE yesterday morning. It did not solve the problem, 10 hours later.

At one time, I did have the FTDI drivers installed but that was pre-Yosemite.

When I check which drivers I'm using, I get this for FTDI:
macdev:plugins rapost$ kextstat | grep FTDI
  137    0 0xffffff7f8367e000 0x7000     0x7000     com.apple.driver.AppleUSBFTDI (1.0.1b12) <124 38 5 4 3>

Could someone (Mr. Gately?) that has a working OSX Yosemite install with SimpleIDE and/or PropellerIDE please check what drivers you are using. You can use the kextstat command above to check.

I don't want to mangle things anymore before I have some idea of what should be working.

Thanks for any help or suggestions you might have! March came in with broken FTDI drivers on my Win7 laptop, I hope it doesn't go out with broken FTDI drivers on my Mac!

Comments

  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2015-03-23 13:33
    It gets more interesting.

    I found a QuickStart with Tachyon loaded on it. I CAN open up a terminal program and talk to Tachyon. The board does show up as a connected board: cu.usbserial-A9015409 *BUT* if I disconnect the terminal and try to load a new program to this board via SimpleIDE (latest RC), i get the same error:
    Project Directory: /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/My Projects/blinky/
    
    SimpleIDE Version 1.0.2
    /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/
    /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/ Updated on: 2015-03-23
    
    propeller-elf-gcc -v GCC 4.6.1 (propellergcc_v1_0_0_2224)
    propeller-elf-gcc -I . -L . -I /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Utility/libsimpletools -L /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Utility/libsimpletools/cmm/ -I /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Text Devices/libsimpletext -L /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Text Devices/libsimpletext/cmm/ -I /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Protocol/libsimplei2c -L /Users/rapost/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Protocol/libsimplei2c/cmm/ -o cmm/blinky.elf -Os -mcmm -Wall -m32bit-doubles -fno-exceptions -std=c99 blinky.c -lsimpletools -lsimpletext -lsimplei2c -lsimpletools -lsimpletext -lsimpletools
    propeller-load -s cmm/blinky.elf
    propeller-elf-objdump -h cmm/blinky.elf
    Done. Build Succeeded!
    
    propeller-load -I /opt/parallax/propeller-load/ -b QUICKSTART cmm/blinky.elf -r -p /dev/cu.usbserial-A9015409Ignored 251 bytes. 
    Ignored 251 bytes. 
    error: no propeller chip on port '/dev/cu.usbserial-A9015409'
    
    Ignored 251 bytes. 
    Ignored 251 bytes. 
    error: no propeller chip on port '/dev/cu.usbserial-A9015409'
    

    The latest QuickStart Rev A DOES have the magic resistor installed.
  • Ding-BattyDing-Batty Posts: 302
    edited 2015-03-23 15:09
    You might want to take a look at this page form Sparkfun, talking about the Apple and FTDI drivers having a conflict, and what to do about it, on OSX Yosemite:

    https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-to-install-ftdi-drivers/mac#yosemite
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,173
    edited 2015-03-23 15:58
    mindrobots wrote: »
    I found a QuickStart with Tachyon loaded on it. I CAN open up a terminal program and talk to Tachyon. The board does show up as a connected board: cu.usbserial-A9015409 *BUT* if I disconnect the terminal and try to load a new program to this board via SimpleIDE (latest RC), i get the same error:

    Does the terminal work in loop-back mode, and can you talk to other serial-terminal devices, at the baud rate needed by SimpleIDE ?
    Sounds more like a timeout/ID issue than a FTDI problem, if terminal level connect works fine?
    What does Propellor IDE do ?
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2015-03-23 16:18
    @ding-batty, thanks for the link. I'll need to read through it and give it a try. I tried some similar "solutions" with no luck.

    I was hoping my older Mac-Mini might still have Mavericks on it - no such luck there, it got upgraded somewhere along the line.

    @jmg, PropellerIDE has similar results. I believe they still use the same loader. Tachyon is talking at 230,400 in this case. It works just fine. My guess is it is a problem with the Apple version of the FTDI drivers as indicated above. The FTDI chip on the quickstart it recognizes but can do whatever the Prop loader asks of it, the FTDI chip on the Prop BOE is kind of, partially, almost recognized and the FTDI chip on the Activity Board is not recognized at all.

    To test loopback, I'd need to see how a PropPlug works (where are those darn things!) and then loop it back through that. None of teh other bare USB/serial plugs I have are FTDI chips.

    Right now, running Yosemite is almost like having Windows installed!! :D
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2015-03-24 09:35
    Wow!! Easy to fix, once you know what the problem is.

    The Sparkfun suggestions did nothing for me. I was unable to "remove" the Apple drivers and have it find the FTDI drivers using their methods.

    I did find another thread that actually told you how to disable the Apple FTDI kext plugins, so I went that route and it worked!!

    1) Disable the Apple drivers by renaming the .kext file
    $ cd /system/library/extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/contents/plugins
    $ sudo mv AppleUSBFTDI.kext AppleUSBFTDI.disable
    

    2) Install the latest OSX FTDI drivers from the FTDI site. (standard install, nothing special here)

    3) Reboot

    4) Fire up SimpleIDE or PropellerIDE and plug in a Propeller card with an FTDI chip and carry on with your fun!

    The three cards that did not work with the Apple USB FTDI drivers now are all usable in SimpleIDE and PropellerIDE with the FTDI drivers after this "simple" fix!
    macdev:plugins rapost$ kextstat | grep FTDI
      145    0 0xffffff7f83754000 0x8000     0x8000     com.FTDI.driver.FTDIUSBSerialDriver (2.2.18) <124 38 5 4 3 1>
    
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,173
    edited 2015-03-24 12:10
    mindrobots wrote: »
    Right now, running Yosemite is almost like having Windows installed!! :D
    Given those low-level steps, I'd call it worse than having Windows installed.
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2015-03-24 12:17
    jmg wrote: »
    Given those low-level steps, I'd call it worse than having Windows installed.

    Not in the end - rename a file, install new drivers and reboot. Piece of cake! :D

    I didn't have to muck through the registry, get a FTDI program to uninstall drivers, re-install drivers, lather,rinse, repeat, scrap the whole thing, install Debian and turn Windows into a VM....that's my "final solution" for my Windows FTDI driver issues!
  • dgatelydgately Posts: 1,630
    edited 2015-03-24 12:28
    mindrobots wrote: »
    Not in the end - rename a file, install new drivers and reboot. Piece of cake! :D

    I didn't have to muck through the registry, get a FTDI program to uninstall drivers, re-install drivers, lather,rinse, repeat, scrap the whole thing, install Debian and turn Windows into a VM....that's my "final solution" for my Windows FTDI driver issues!

    Sorry, late to the party as I'm traveling in the Balkans... Your solution is good! I just installed the FTDI drivers, without disabling the Apple-provided driver, but I'm sure disabling the Apple driver is the most sure way of getting this to work.

    Note: a bug report (probably many more than one) has been reported to Apple, but I have not seen a fix in any Yosemite updates.

    Thanks for providing a solution!
    dgately
  • Quick note regard OSX Yosemite
    I had the error:[code]
    My solution was simply to reboot.  The problem was resolved.  
Sign In or Register to comment.