SimpleIDE problem

human

Hi guys,


i am trying to program a Propeller that is sitting on a bread board.
It is connected to my PC via a USB-to-Serial interface.
My OS is debian.

Loading programs from PropellerIDE to the Propeller works perfectly.

Loading programs from SimpleIDE only works about 10% of time.

Most of the time, I'm getting this error message:

"propeller-load -Dreset=dtr -I /opt/parallax/propeller-load/ cmm/Output_sin_table.elf -r -p /dev/ttyUSB0error: no propeller chip on port '/dev/ttyUSB0'

error: no propeller chip on port '/dev/ttyUSB0'"



Very rarely though, it works as expected and I'm getting:

"propeller-load -Dreset=dtr -I /opt/parallax/propeller-load/ cmm/Output_sin_table.elf -r -p /dev/ttyUSB0Propeller Version 1 on /dev/ttyUSB0
Loading cmm/Output_sin_table.elf to hub memory
8304 bytes sent

Verifying RAM ...
OK"



Does anybody know the solution to this problem?

Thanks a lot!

macca

When I had that kind of problem it was due to spurious characters received by the PC, propeller-load should skip all spurious characters but sometimes they are just too much.
Check if the USB-Serial adapter has a pull-up resistor on the PC-RX line, if not try to add one.

Hope this helps.

human

Thanks for your reply macca.

Being an electronics novice, I'm not sure what a pull-up resistor is. However, I have added a resistor between PC-RX and PC-TX. I tried 1kO and 10kO respectively, but the result is still the same.

DavidZemon

human wrote: »

Thanks for your reply macca.

Being an electronics novice, I'm not sure what a pull-up resistor is. However, I have added a resistor between PC-RX and PC-TX. I tried 1kO and 10kO respectively, but the result is still the same.

A "pull-up" resistor is a resistor that will "pull the voltage up, toward VCC". This means the resistor would connect PC-RX and 3.3V. When the Propeller isn't actively driving the PC-RX line either high or low, it will "float" and look like jitter. That jitter can get picked up as random characters of non-sense and break the communication. Putting a pull-up resistor on the line will drive the line high but be easily overridden by the Propeller when the Propeller is ready to send data.

frida

From OP

Loading programs from PropellerIDE to the Propeller works perfectly.

Loading programs from SimpleIDE only works about 10% of time.

Does that mean that PropellerIDE does not need pullup, but SimpleIDE does.

human

@DavidZemon:
That's a nice explanation. Thanks!
I'm still struggling with setting it up on the breadboard though.
I tried connecting both the 10kO resistor from VCC and the USB-to-Serial's TX to the line of P31, to no avail.

@frida:
I'm a bit surprised about that, too. Why does it work with PropellerIDE but not with SimpleIDE?

macca

frida wrote: »

Does that mean that PropellerIDE does not need pullup, but SimpleIDE does.

That means PropellerIDE uses a different loader less sensitive to garbage, or that it is a completely different problem.

human wrote: »

I'm still struggling with setting it up on the breadboard though.
I tried connecting both the 10kO resistor from VCC and the USB-to-Serial's TX to the line of P31, to no avail.

Sorry, I realized that my terminology may be confusing. With PC-RX I mean the PC-side RX line, that is the Propeller-side TX line or P30, so the pull-up should be placed between P30 and Vcc. Anyway, to be on the safe side, a pull-up on both should do no harm.

Also remember to use the 100nF decoupling capacitors on both power lines (9-12 and 29-32) or you may have other problems.

human

Attached please find a picture of my circuit with your suggestions built-in. It is likely that I made some mistakes.
However, the behaviour of SimpleIDE/PropellerIDE is unchanged.

frank freedman

human wrote: »

Hi guys,


i am trying to program a Propeller that is sitting on a bread board.
It is connected to my PC via a USB-to-Serial interface.
My OS is debian.

Loading programs from PropellerIDE to the Propeller works perfectly.

Loading programs from SimpleIDE only works about 10% of time.

Most of the time, I'm getting this error message:

"propeller-load -Dreset=dtr -I /opt/parallax/propeller-load/ cmm/Output_sin_table.elf -r -p /dev/ttyUSB0error: no propeller chip on port '/dev/ttyUSB0'

error: no propeller chip on port '/dev/ttyUSB0'"



Very rarely though, it works as expected and I'm getting:

"propeller-load -Dreset=dtr -I /opt/parallax/propeller-load/ cmm/Output_sin_table.elf -r -p /dev/ttyUSB0Propeller Version 1 on /dev/ttyUSB0
Loading cmm/Output_sin_table.elf to hub memory
8304 bytes sent

Verifying RAM ...
OK"



Does anybody know the solution to this problem?

Thanks a lot!

Sorry, just got around to reading this. I currently am running BST and friends on Debian stretch. I had this problem as well. Tried a couple times to get the serial term to work, but just one of those things. So used another term program, cutecom (?). Anyway, same message as you are getting. Turns out that if cute is enabled, it keeps the port and BST will tell me no prop found. I then have a V8 moment and remember to deactivate cute and resume download. May help you, may not....... Debian just doesn't seem to like two devices at the same time on the same port (dev/ttyusb00).

DaveJenson

human wrote: »

Attached please find a picture of my circuit with your suggestions built-in. It is likely that I made some mistakes.
However, the behaviour of SimpleIDE/PropellerIDE is unchanged.

I'm not certain, but it looks like one leg of your 5Mhz Crystal is attached to +V?

human

Thanks for your suggestions.

In the meantime we have tested the same setup on OS X and the problem persists, so it shouldn't be OS-related.

I'll receive a Prop Demo Board soon and will report back how it's going.

MikeDYur

DaveJenson wrote: »

I'm not certain, but it looks like one leg of your 5Mhz Crystal is attached to +V?

Sure looks that way.

Check twice, regret none.