No Hardware found, debug window echo scrambled
Bill McGahan
Posts: 3
Howdy,
Bought M. Predko's evil genius robotics book, trying to get the BS2 prototyping card to work.· I've tried two computers (P4 w/XP, P3 w/98) and gone through lots and lots of posts on this and the old yahoo board to try and get it to work.· My question is, even though I can't get identify to see the stamp, when I open a debug window and type in the input box, I get characters echoed back but they are scrambled.· Every now and then the same character I typed will come back, but usually it's different.· For example, I type "a" and the echo is "{".· Typing numbers in produces weird special characters like the "1/2" symbol.
The strange return characters are not random.· They also will change if I change the BAUD setting in the debugger or turn on/off the RTS and DTS checkboxes.· Finally, the returned characters are somewhat different when trying with the same settings on the two different computers, which would seem to indicate it has something to do with the OS or with the port hardware.
So, I guess my questions are:· 1.· Should you see the exact same characters you type echoed back in the debug screen?· 2.· Has anyone else seen this sort of thing?· 3.· Can I fix this, or is my basic stamp somehow cooked?· 4.· Is there any documentation on the debug window functionality anywhere?
For reference purposes, here are things I have tried to get the computer(s) to ID the BS2.· This may help others with similar problems.· Thanks to everyone who individually posted these suggestions on the boards.
1.· Fresh battery, two 9V batteries in parallel, external PS at +9V, external PS at +10V.
2.· Disabled all power management functionality in OS and BIOS.
3.· Verified cable as straight through (DB9 connectors).
4.· Verified +9V power on prototype board and at BS2, verified +5V power out from BS2.
5.· Disabled FIFO in port setup.· Also tried with FIFO enabled and both sliders all the way left.
6.· Powered off computer, power cycled BS2 board, then booted computer.
7.· Did #6, then launch stamp editor (2.2 I think, latest currently available from www.parallax.com), open debug window, left debug window open (minimized) then try to ID.
8.· Disabled flow control in com port setup.
9.· Tried to update com port drivers.· Could not find newer drivers than those I already had.
10.· Carefully checked all solder connections on the prototype board.· Looks perfect.· I have a great deal of experience with soldering PCBs and I'm pretty sure the problem is not here.
11.· Verified dead short between pins 6 and 7 of the DB9 connector going into the BS2 board.
Any help would be appreciated, as this is delaying my kids' plan to robotically take over the known universe!
Thanks!
Bill McGahan
Spicewood, TX
Bought M. Predko's evil genius robotics book, trying to get the BS2 prototyping card to work.· I've tried two computers (P4 w/XP, P3 w/98) and gone through lots and lots of posts on this and the old yahoo board to try and get it to work.· My question is, even though I can't get identify to see the stamp, when I open a debug window and type in the input box, I get characters echoed back but they are scrambled.· Every now and then the same character I typed will come back, but usually it's different.· For example, I type "a" and the echo is "{".· Typing numbers in produces weird special characters like the "1/2" symbol.
The strange return characters are not random.· They also will change if I change the BAUD setting in the debugger or turn on/off the RTS and DTS checkboxes.· Finally, the returned characters are somewhat different when trying with the same settings on the two different computers, which would seem to indicate it has something to do with the OS or with the port hardware.
So, I guess my questions are:· 1.· Should you see the exact same characters you type echoed back in the debug screen?· 2.· Has anyone else seen this sort of thing?· 3.· Can I fix this, or is my basic stamp somehow cooked?· 4.· Is there any documentation on the debug window functionality anywhere?
For reference purposes, here are things I have tried to get the computer(s) to ID the BS2.· This may help others with similar problems.· Thanks to everyone who individually posted these suggestions on the boards.
1.· Fresh battery, two 9V batteries in parallel, external PS at +9V, external PS at +10V.
2.· Disabled all power management functionality in OS and BIOS.
3.· Verified cable as straight through (DB9 connectors).
4.· Verified +9V power on prototype board and at BS2, verified +5V power out from BS2.
5.· Disabled FIFO in port setup.· Also tried with FIFO enabled and both sliders all the way left.
6.· Powered off computer, power cycled BS2 board, then booted computer.
7.· Did #6, then launch stamp editor (2.2 I think, latest currently available from www.parallax.com), open debug window, left debug window open (minimized) then try to ID.
8.· Disabled flow control in com port setup.
9.· Tried to update com port drivers.· Could not find newer drivers than those I already had.
10.· Carefully checked all solder connections on the prototype board.· Looks perfect.· I have a great deal of experience with soldering PCBs and I'm pretty sure the problem is not here.
11.· Verified dead short between pins 6 and 7 of the DB9 connector going into the BS2 board.
Any help would be appreciated, as this is delaying my kids' plan to robotically take over the known universe!
Thanks!
Bill McGahan
Spicewood, TX
Comments
IIRC, you should see the same charactersw echoed back. The Loopback Test is in essence looking for this behavior (pin 5 tied to pin 6...again if I recall correctly...only had a minute to throw back a response). Usually seeing an "alternate response" in a generalized serial stuation usually indicates some kind of serial parameter mismatch (baud rate, stop bit, parity) or a hardware error, but without some digging, that's the best help I can offer.
BTW, you do have the appropriate capacitors in place, right? You can lose bits if you don't...
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Truly Understand the Fundamentals and the Path will be so much easier...
I'll keep trying.
Just keep in mind that the echo is independent of the Stamp. It is only due to the transmit and receive pins being tied together.· I suspect that you would get the same results without the Stamp in place.
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Truly Understand the Fundamentals and the Path will be so much easier...
Bill