PropSTICK won't run!

Harley

Received my PropSTICK yesterday, stuffed it and soldered per kit instructions.

Today I do the power checkout. All appears OK.
But when press F7, get a "No Propeller chip found on any COM port"

I measured the draw prior to installing the Propeller IC; about 650 uA. And with the IC installed, draw would go up to about 4-5 ma momentarily after Reset switch pressed.
I'm sort of lost what to do right now.

I note the DB9 shows pin 4 is wired. The cable has been in use for months and work OK. Any clues what to check on?

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Harley Shanko
h.a.s. designn

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Harley,

Are you sure that pin 4 is wired straight through your cable? Some cables carry only pins 2, 3, and 5. Without pin 4, the cable may work fine with other apps, but it won't work with the Propeller.

-Phil

Harley

Hi Phil,

Yes, I buzzed out the cable after sending my last message. All 9 pins are wired, pin-n of one connector to pin-n of the other.

That's what bothered me. I sure expected it to communicate. I examined the soldering; didn't see any shorts. Maybe it would be worth buzzing adjacent pins to ensure none are shorted by a thin solder bridge. Ma

Ken Gracey

Okay, I shouldn't make any assumptions so I'll ask this anyway.

Is the serial port on the PC functional? Can you check it with another device just to make sure? Might be good to rule out the PC serial port (and the cable) as problems, and narrow this down a bit. I know that when I haven't used my serial ports in a while they kinda vaporize or I get locked out, especially if I've been working with GPS or adding FTDI Virtual COM ports.

Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.

Sawmiller

did you check for 3.3 v from the propstick ?
dan

Harley

GOOD NEWS (that's fit to print)

PropSTICK now gives the "Propeller chip version 1 found on COM1"

Wish I could report what foolish thing it was.

I removed the Propeller from the socket, cleaned the flux from the board, buzzed out all the adjacent pins (thought I found a short, but it was the pin 9 and 10 connected to ground), examined it with a 5x magnifier, and plugged it back into the solderless proto board and this time it worked. I did scrape a bit where it looked like some flux was still between adjacent pins; maybe conductive crud.

It sure was a pleasant surprise to see the 'prop found' message.

Now, progress FORWARD. Thanks for all the suggestions. Sorry to take anyone's time on this mystery.

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Harley Shanko
h.a.s. designn

Harley

....and, pressing F11 loaded the Prop, HyperTerminal showed the message

"Alive... It's alive!..... IT'S ALIVE!!"

"And, away we go!" (Jackie Gleason)



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Harley Shanko
h.a.s. designn