Umm, It seems the production Hydra does not use an external USB to Serial dongle. My pre-production unit that Andre` let me use to develope with used pins 31 and 30 for communications.
I don't have access to the production version of the Hydra board's docs at the moment. I'm thinking the recieve pin might be different from my development board, maybe?
PocketLint,
I also have a pre-production Hydra, though one with the USB interface populated with parts. The connector for the USB-Serial adapter is wired in parallel with the on-board USB circuitry. The receive and transmit pins should be the same, particularly since the boot loader requires that.
Mike
The recieve line is the only thing I can think of at the moment. If one can send to HT then that tells me that the settings are correct at least for port and parity and stuff like that.
I think you guys are totally under estimating the power of the save & load. Won’t it be nice to say, change some variables in your program without having to do a full program download from the propeller tool? And maybe if it worked you could plug into the propeller in the field, with say a palm pilot & upload info off of it? Maybe I’m just dreaming.
Brian
You are sure that the correct comm port is in use? yes
You started the LOAD function in Basic before sending the text file? tried it lots of differnt ways
I assume the text I see in the HT window is from you "Saving" from Basic to HT?yes
When you send the data, do you see the LEDs on the USB to serial device flicker? no
update: I noticed that half the time I try to load from the propeller tool to the hydra that my computer don't see the hydra , if I switch to the propeller demo board , it allways see's it.
Post Edited (Brian Beckius) : 1/21/2007 4:31:50 PM GMT
Brian,
I'm still working on getting a LOAD/SAVE to EEPROM and SD Card working with Rokicki's FemtoBasic. It works (and is great!) with his very slow Spin driver, but I want to build the underpinnings into the OS before trying to adapt the same feature for Hydra Basic. Saving Basic programs to an attached PC is not bad, but I'm really still interested primarily in a standalone Propeller.
Mike
Mike,
I've been usings your basic and it works great , I'm working on a computer simulator for Max Maxfields DIY calculator & I need to be able to download the virtual program from the computer to the propeller & the hydra basic if a really good starting point if I could get the HT to work .
We have bigger problems than your program , somthings wrong with my usb and it's getting worse ,if I start up the HT now the hydra locks up ,screen goes dead & won't come back on unless you unplug the usb & shut the hydra off, you can't use reset to restart it.
As Mike said, the pins are the same Robert, they have to be from the usb and extra usb-ser pin header, so having the usb port connected directly or having a usb-to-ser connected to the programming port is the same, they have to end up at the same pins on the propeller, otherwise, it wont' work.
Anyway, the more we can get this to work the better, bob's basic is like 100x faster than that spin basic since its not double interpreted [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Bob & Andre'
Are the extra pins on the Hydra for programing compatable with the propeller plug ? , your wiring looks differnt than the wiring for the plug.
Brian
If you look at page 87 in the hydra book it shows rx pin 2 & tx pin3 . the propeller plug shows rx pin 4 (or1) and tx pin 3
Post Edited (Brian Beckius) : 1/22/2007 3:04:26 AM GMT
The 4-pin header is compatible with the USB-to-ser parallax programmer as well. The reason, I left this in the design is so that if you have a single USB port connected to the USB to SER and you prefer that since maybe you have 2-3 parallax products on your desk, then the HYDRA doesn't use up its own USB port. So you can either DIRECTLY hook the hydra to a USB port just like the demo board OR you can use a USB to SER parallax device if you like, both work fine.
Here's a really stupid question ,does hyperterminal have access to the proper·usb drivers ?
I'll ask this again,
If you look at page 87 in the hydra book it shows rx pin 2 & tx pin3 . the propeller plug shows rx pin 4 (or1) and tx pin 3-I found the answer to this , I included the documentation
Thanks ,Brian
Post Edited (Brian Beckius) : 1/22/2007 1:10:14 PM GMT
Well, never say never, but the VCP with the FTDI chips are "virtual com port" drivers, the idea of them is that when windows tries to use them like a com port with the standard API calls then they work just like normal com ports. So the answer is yes.
Like Bob said, this is a toy basic, and he didn't work out all the bugs, the load/save were just experimental and he didn't get them working rock solid. He could have made an assumption that has changed slightly, but he has a brand new hydra coming his way to make sure this works. Then if it does, we know its just something local on your machine.
Andre'
Tried a differnt computer same results , I ordered a usb to serial adapter to try to come from the other side ( thank you paul for getting that added to my order ) . I'll keep pluging away
Brian, is it possible to bypass the FDTI circuitry with the usb to serial port on the HYDRA? I think I
still have an adapter from the SX system I played with a long time ago, I might be able to try that
to get around my current problem.
And where did the BASIC program come from? I don't have it on my HYDRA CD...
The basic is on every Hydra Cd, just look at the last chapter on demo coders and look for the basic, so you can see its file names, also the original sources are in the demo coder directory on the CD, under "robert woodring". Please make sure you check out the demo coder chapter, otherwise you will miss a ton of cool programs and demos.
Fred,
The sx key And the propeller plug are wired differnt than the usb to serial converter , I'm having a little differnt problem than you .My hydra is working , I'm just tring to get one of the features of the basic to work. I am going to try the usb to serial converter being thats what they used when then wrote the programs for the hydra.
Yes, let's make it clear the SX-KEY is completely different than the USB-to-SER, PLEASE DONT INSERT THE SX-KEY INTO THE HYDRA or ANY OTHER 4-pin interface other than one that expects the SX-KEY [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Comments
Also , I am using windows xp. It kind of seems like HT might be locking up to, or maybe it's just waiting
Brian
look and see that I'm using the HTB files
Post Edited (Brian Beckius) : 1/21/2007 4:49:05 AM GMT
Let keep micro-stepping this..
You are sure that the correct comm port is in use?
You started the LOAD function in Basic before sending the text file?
I assume the text I see in the HT window is from you "Saving" from Basic to HT?
When you send the data, do you see the LEDs on the USB to serial device flicker?
I don't have access to the production version of the Hydra board's docs at the moment. I'm thinking the recieve pin might be different from my development board, maybe?
Andre`?
I also have a pre-production Hydra, though one with the USB interface populated with parts. The connector for the USB-Serial adapter is wired in parallel with the on-board USB circuitry. The receive and transmit pins should be the same, particularly since the boot loader requires that.
Mike
I'm using version 5.1 of Hyperterm.
-Bob
I've never really played with LOAD/SAVE.
Mike
-Bob
Brian
You are sure that the correct comm port is in use? yes
You started the LOAD function in Basic before sending the text file? tried it lots of differnt ways
I assume the text I see in the HT window is from you "Saving" from Basic to HT?yes
When you send the data, do you see the LEDs on the USB to serial device flicker? no
update: I noticed that half the time I try to load from the propeller tool to the hydra that my computer don't see the hydra , if I switch to the propeller demo board , it allways see's it.
Post Edited (Brian Beckius) : 1/21/2007 4:31:50 PM GMT
I'm still working on getting a LOAD/SAVE to EEPROM and SD Card working with Rokicki's FemtoBasic. It works (and is great!) with his very slow Spin driver, but I want to build the underpinnings into the OS before trying to adapt the same feature for Hydra Basic. Saving Basic programs to an attached PC is not bad, but I'm really still interested primarily in a standalone Propeller.
Mike
I've been usings your basic and it works great , I'm working on a computer simulator for Max Maxfields DIY calculator & I need to be able to download the virtual program from the computer to the propeller & the hydra basic if a really good starting point if I could get the HT to work .
Thank's Brian
Heres a little plug for you Max·, www.diycalculator.com
Post Edited (Brian Beckius) : 1/21/2007 4:47:35 PM GMT
We have bigger problems than your program , somthings wrong with my usb and it's getting worse ,if I start up the HT now the hydra locks up ,screen goes dead & won't come back on unless you unplug the usb & shut the hydra off, you can't use reset to restart it.
Brian
Anyway, the more we can get this to work the better, bob's basic is like 100x faster than that spin basic since its not double interpreted [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Andre'
-Bob
Are the extra pins on the Hydra for programing compatable with the propeller plug ? , your wiring looks differnt than the wiring for the plug.
Brian
If you look at page 87 in the hydra book it shows rx pin 2 & tx pin3 . the propeller plug shows rx pin 4 (or1) and tx pin 3
Post Edited (Brian Beckius) : 1/22/2007 3:04:26 AM GMT
Brian
HT is version 5.1
Heres another screen shot for you , just picking threw odd stuff
Post Edited (Brian Beckius) : 1/22/2007 2:58:36 AM GMT
Andre'
I'll ask this again,
If you look at page 87 in the hydra book it shows rx pin 2 & tx pin3 . the propeller plug shows rx pin 4 (or1) and tx pin 3-I found the answer to this , I included the documentation
Thanks ,Brian
Post Edited (Brian Beckius) : 1/22/2007 1:10:14 PM GMT
Brian
Like Bob said, this is a toy basic, and he didn't work out all the bugs, the load/save were just experimental and he didn't get them working rock solid. He could have made an assumption that has changed slightly, but he has a brand new hydra coming his way to make sure this works. Then if it does, we know its just something local on your machine.
Andre'
Tried a differnt computer same results , I ordered a usb to serial adapter to try to come from the other side ( thank you paul for getting that added to my order
Thanks,Brian
still have an adapter from the SX system I played with a long time ago, I might be able to try that
to get around my current problem.
And where did the BASIC program come from? I don't have it on my HYDRA CD...
Fred.
Andre'
The sx key And the propeller plug are wired differnt than the usb to serial converter , I'm having a little differnt problem than you .My hydra is working , I'm just tring to get one of the features of the basic to work. I am going to try the usb to serial converter being thats what they used when then wrote the programs for the hydra.
Brian
Andre'
In HT, turn flow control to: NONE and let me know the results
-Bob
its the same
Brian