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Cable problem... — Parallax Forums

Cable problem...

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2002-06-01 04:29 in General Discussion
I've been trying to get Stampw to work under Virtual PC on a Mac Laptop.

The software works, however, it says that the BS2 was found but is not
responding.

Here is how it is all set up:

Mac: G3 Powerbook with RS422 serial port.
Cable: Home made 8pin mini DIN to DB9 (RS422 to RS232).

The cable is wired up as follows:
Mac end PC End
HSKout DTR
HSKin RTS
RX- RX
TX- TX
GND GND

The interesting thing, is that this set up works fine under Virtual PC
when I am using Hyperterminal to send and receive data to/from the
BOE. It also works on the Mac side, when using the Mac equivalent of
Hyperterminal.

Virtual PC is set up to use the Mac's Serial port as Com1.

I have also tried V1.098 and 1.3.1 of the Stamp Editor.

Any ideas? Is the cable wired correctly?

I have got a USB PC Card on the Mac, but don't want to spend $75 on a
USB to PDA adapter if it is just an incorrectly wired cable.

Cheers,

Ben.


--
http://www.lennard.net.nz/
Ben Lennard, NCEE, Dip EE

Web Hosting and Electronics R&D

Hm: +64 4 972 7567
Mb: +64 21 536 627
87 Spencer Street
Crofton Downs
Wellington
New Zealand

"To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is
half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be."

No animals were harmed in the transmission of this email, although the
Dog next door is living on borrowed time, let me tell you! Those of you
with an overwhelming fear of the unknown will be gratified to learn that
there is no hidden message revealed by reading this warning backwards.

Comments

  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2002-05-31 12:52
    Hi Ben;

    It sounds as if you have no power to the Basic Stamp, or pins 6 an 7 at the
    DB9 end are not tied together.
    Check both of these areas and see if the problem is still there when these are
    OK. If one or both of these
    problems exist then fix them and see if the problem goes away.

    Have Fun !!
    Dale Fleischmann

    Ben Lennard wrote:

    > I've been trying to get Stampw to work under Virtual PC on a Mac Laptop.
    >
    > The software works, however, it says that the BS2 was found but is not
    > responding.
    >
    > Here is how it is all set up:
    >
    > Mac: G3 Powerbook with RS422 serial port.
    > Cable: Home made 8pin mini DIN to DB9 (RS422 to RS232).
    >
    > The cable is wired up as follows:
    > Mac end PC End
    > HSKout DTR
    > HSKin RTS
    > RX- RX
    > TX- TX
    > GND GND
    >
    > The interesting thing, is that this set up works fine under Virtual PC
    > when I am using Hyperterminal to send and receive data to/from the
    > BOE. It also works on the Mac side, when using the Mac equivalent of
    > Hyperterminal.
    >
    > Virtual PC is set up to use the Mac's Serial port as Com1.
    >
    > I have also tried V1.098 and 1.3.1 of the Stamp Editor.
    >
    > Any ideas? Is the cable wired correctly?
    >
    > I have got a USB PC Card on the Mac, but don't want to spend $75 on a
    > USB to PDA adapter if it is just an incorrectly wired cable.
    >
    > Cheers,
    >
    > Ben.
    >
    > --
    > http://www.lennard.net.nz/
    > Ben Lennard, NCEE, Dip EE
    >
    > Web Hosting and Electronics R&D
    >
    > Hm: +64 4 972 7567
    > Mb: +64 21 536 627
    > 87 Spencer Street
    > Crofton Downs
    > Wellington
    > New Zealand
    >
    > "To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is
    > half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be."
    >
    > No animals were harmed in the transmission of this email, although the
    > Dog next door is living on borrowed time, let me tell you! Those of you
    > with an overwhelming fear of the unknown will be gratified to learn that
    > there is no hidden message revealed by reading this warning backwards.
    >
    > To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    > from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and Body
    of the message will be ignored.
    >
    >
    > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2002-05-31 13:40
    Ah ha!

    From reading your email, and looking at the trace on the BOE board (the
    trace connects 6 and 7 together), and looking at my trusty Dick Smith Data
    section, it would seem that I haven't got the Handshaking wires set up
    correctly!

    I've got Power to the Board.

    The fact that I can talk to the Stamp with Hyperterminal on the "PC"
    (Connectix Virtual PC) or Mac side, but not with Stampw, would suggest that
    Stampw relies on Handshaking to work, whereas Hyperterminal and similar
    programs do not.

    Will rewire the cable and report back.

    Thanks Dale!

    Ben, Windy Wellington, New Zealand.

    --


    > From: Dale Fleischmann <fleidale@c...>
    > Reply-To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
    > Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 05:52:06 -0600
    > To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
    > Subject: Re: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Cable problem...
    >
    > Hi Ben;
    >
    > It sounds as if you have no power to the Basic Stamp, or pins 6 an 7 at the
    > DB9 end are not tied together.
    > Check both of these areas and see if the problem is still there when these are
    > OK. If one or both of these
    > problems exist then fix them and see if the problem goes away.
    >
    > Have Fun !!
    > Dale Fleischmann
    >
    > Ben Lennard wrote:
    >
    >> I've been trying to get Stampw to work under Virtual PC on a Mac Laptop.
    >>
    >> The software works, however, it says that the BS2 was found but is not
    >> responding.
    >>
    >> Here is how it is all set up:
    >>
    >> Mac: G3 Powerbook with RS422 serial port.
    >> Cable: Home made 8pin mini DIN to DB9 (RS422 to RS232).
    >>
    >> The cable is wired up as follows:
    >> Mac end PC End
    >> HSKout DTR
    >> HSKin RTS
    >> RX- RX
    >> TX- TX
    >> GND GND
    >>
    >> The interesting thing, is that this set up works fine under Virtual PC
    >> when I am using Hyperterminal to send and receive data to/from the
    >> BOE. It also works on the Mac side, when using the Mac equivalent of
    >> Hyperterminal.
    >>
    >> Virtual PC is set up to use the Mac's Serial port as Com1.
    >>
    >> I have also tried V1.098 and 1.3.1 of the Stamp Editor.
    >>
    >> Any ideas? Is the cable wired correctly?
    >>
    >> I have got a USB PC Card on the Mac, but don't want to spend $75 on a
    >> USB to PDA adapter if it is just an incorrectly wired cable.
    >>
    >> Cheers,
    >>
    >> Ben.
    >>
    >> --
    >> http://www.lennard.net.nz/
    >> Ben Lennard, NCEE, Dip EE
    >>
    >> Web Hosting and Electronics R&D
    >>
    >> Hm: +64 4 972 7567
    >> Mb: +64 21 536 627
    >> 87 Spencer Street
    >> Crofton Downs
    >> Wellington
    >> New Zealand
    >>
    >> "To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is
    >> half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be."
    >>
    >> No animals were harmed in the transmission of this email, although the
    >> Dog next door is living on borrowed time, let me tell you! Those of you
    >> with an overwhelming fear of the unknown will be gratified to learn that
    >> there is no hidden message revealed by reading this warning backwards.
    >>
    >> To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    >> basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    >> from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
    >> Body of the message will be ignored.
    >>
    >>
    >> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
    >
    >
    > To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    > from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and Body
    > of the message will be ignored.
    >
    >
    > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
    >
    >
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2002-05-31 17:26
    Hi Ben,

    There are multiple sufficient causes. I don't think the older
    Mac/VPC/RS422 port will work with the Stamp IDE software. I looked
    into this intensively a couple of years ago, before Apple switched
    completely away from RS422 support to USB only. (Note that the USB
    solution, amazingly, does work quite well, at least using the keyspan
    PDA adapter.)

    cause 1) The stamp requires a reset pulse to come out from the PC on
    the DTR line.
    -- this pulse is not generated correctly on the Mac/VPC
    cause 2) At the same time a long Break signal has to appear on TX- to
    put the Stamp into programming mode
    -- the Mac/VPC only generates a short runt pulse

    At the time, I made a circuit that would take the runt pulse and
    externally generate the reset and the break signals. But it still
    didn't work..

    cause 3) After the stamp is in programming mode, the stamp IDE
    software sends out interrogation bytes and it expects responses to
    come back from the stamp within a tight time frame, amounting to less
    than 30 milliseconds. However, VPC operated the serial port on some
    kind of queuing buffer that was serviced at something like 50
    millisecond intervals. So the response from the Stamp rarely came
    back on time and the IDE would time out with the dreaded "Stamp not
    found.." error. I asked Jeff at Parallax if he could make a
    version of the IDE with relaxed timing, but he is a very busy guy,
    and with the new IDE it has a lot more checking to do now to test for
    all the different kinds of stamps.

    I have not checked on it for a couple of years, so I would be happy
    to find that you can get it to work. But I am not too encouraging
    about it. You may have to spring for the USB adapter, or even for
    an old used PC!

    BTW, when wiring the Mac RS422 cable, HSKin as an input would be more
    like DSR or CTS. Also, be sure to connect RX+ to GND so that the
    RS422 will have a reference for the input level.

    -- regards,
    Tracy Allen
    electronically monitored ecosystems
    mailto:tracy@e...
    http://www.emesystems.com



    >I've been trying to get Stampw to work under Virtual PC on a Mac Laptop.
    >
    >The software works, however, it says that the BS2 was found but is not
    >responding.
    >
    >Here is how it is all set up:
    >
    >Mac: G3 Powerbook with RS422 serial port.
    >Cable: Home made 8pin mini DIN to DB9 (RS422 to RS232).
    >
    >The cable is wired up as follows:
    >Mac end PC End
    >HSKout DTR
    >HSKin RTS
    >RX- RX
    >TX- TX
    >GND GND
    >
    >The interesting thing, is that this set up works fine under Virtual PC
    >when I am using Hyperterminal to send and receive data to/from the
    >BOE. It also works on the Mac side, when using the Mac equivalent of
    >Hyperterminal.
    >
    >Virtual PC is set up to use the Mac's Serial port as Com1.
    >
    >I have also tried V1.098 and 1.3.1 of the Stamp Editor.
    >
    >Any ideas? Is the cable wired correctly?
    >
    >I have got a USB PC Card on the Mac, but don't want to spend $75 on a
    >USB to PDA adapter if it is just an incorrectly wired cable.
    >
    >Cheers,
    >
    >Ben.
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2002-06-01 04:29
    Thanks Tracy,

    I'll check the wiring, but may just have to buy the PDA adapter.

    I've been using an old Toshiba Satellite Pro 410CDT for Stamp development so
    far, but would prefer to get rid of that and the really old Power Mac 6300
    and LC475 (used for my PCB CAD program - Protel Easytrax), and just use my
    G3 Laptop with it's USB port and RS422.

    Save some space in my workshop, basically.

    If it does work OK with the PDA adapter, anyone in New Zealand be interested
    in buying an old Toshiba Laptop cheap? It's PC Card slot doesn't work (So
    can't use my USB card in it), and the battery circuitry seems to have failed
    (Works off AC power only). Apart from that, it works fine for Stamp
    Development.


    Cheers,

    Ben, Wellington, New Zealand.


    --


    > From: Tracy Allen <tracy@e...>
    > Reply-To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
    > Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 09:26:23 -0700
    > To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
    > Subject: Re: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Cable problem...
    >
    > Hi Ben,
    >
    > There are multiple sufficient causes. I don't think the older
    > Mac/VPC/RS422 port will work with the Stamp IDE software. I looked
    > into this intensively a couple of years ago, before Apple switched
    > completely away from RS422 support to USB only. (Note that the USB
    > solution, amazingly, does work quite well, at least using the keyspan
    > PDA adapter.)
    >
    > cause 1) The stamp requires a reset pulse to come out from the PC on
    > the DTR line.
    > -- this pulse is not generated correctly on the Mac/VPC
    > cause 2) At the same time a long Break signal has to appear on TX- to
    > put the Stamp into programming mode
    > -- the Mac/VPC only generates a short runt pulse
    >
    > At the time, I made a circuit that would take the runt pulse and
    > externally generate the reset and the break signals. But it still
    > didn't work..
    >
    > cause 3) After the stamp is in programming mode, the stamp IDE
    > software sends out interrogation bytes and it expects responses to
    > come back from the stamp within a tight time frame, amounting to less
    > than 30 milliseconds. However, VPC operated the serial port on some
    > kind of queuing buffer that was serviced at something like 50
    > millisecond intervals. So the response from the Stamp rarely came
    > back on time and the IDE would time out with the dreaded "Stamp not
    > found.." error. I asked Jeff at Parallax if he could make a
    > version of the IDE with relaxed timing, but he is a very busy guy,
    > and with the new IDE it has a lot more checking to do now to test for
    > all the different kinds of stamps.
    >
    > I have not checked on it for a couple of years, so I would be happy
    > to find that you can get it to work. But I am not too encouraging
    > about it. You may have to spring for the USB adapter, or even for
    > an old used PC!
    >
    > BTW, when wiring the Mac RS422 cable, HSKin as an input would be more
    > like DSR or CTS. Also, be sure to connect RX+ to GND so that the
    > RS422 will have a reference for the input level.
    >
    > -- regards,
    > Tracy Allen
    > electronically monitored ecosystems
    > mailto:tracy@e...
    > http://www.emesystems.com
    >
    >
    >
    >> I've been trying to get Stampw to work under Virtual PC on a Mac Laptop.
    >>
    >> The software works, however, it says that the BS2 was found but is not
    >> responding.
    >>
    >> Here is how it is all set up:
    >>
    >> Mac: G3 Powerbook with RS422 serial port.
    >> Cable: Home made 8pin mini DIN to DB9 (RS422 to RS232).
    >>
    >> The cable is wired up as follows:
    >> Mac end PC End
    >> HSKout DTR
    >> HSKin RTS
    >> RX- RX
    >> TX- TX
    >> GND GND
    >>
    >> The interesting thing, is that this set up works fine under Virtual PC
    >> when I am using Hyperterminal to send and receive data to/from the
    >> BOE. It also works on the Mac side, when using the Mac equivalent of
    >> Hyperterminal.
    >>
    >> Virtual PC is set up to use the Mac's Serial port as Com1.
    >>
    >> I have also tried V1.098 and 1.3.1 of the Stamp Editor.
    >>
    >> Any ideas? Is the cable wired correctly?
    >>
    >> I have got a USB PC Card on the Mac, but don't want to spend $75 on a
    >> USB to PDA adapter if it is just an incorrectly wired cable.
    >>
    >> Cheers,
    >>
    >> Ben.
    >
    >
    > To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    > from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and Body
    > of the message will be ignored.
    >
    >
    > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
    >
    >
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