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Propeller tools hang on port enumeration — Parallax Forums

Propeller tools hang on port enumeration

Jean-MarcJean-Marc Posts: 5
edited 2008-01-22 21:01 in Propeller 1
Hello,
When trying to connect to the propeller (education kit), the propeller tools hangs enumerating a comm port which is not related to the propeller (Windows XP, Dell 3600). At first it was the bleutooh port, which I disabled. Then it was other port (5) which is marked as busy in the hardware list but I have no clue where they come from. The hang forces me to abort the program.

The FTDI driver was installed during the installation of the Propeller tool, before the usb link was ever connected. When the link is connected, the blue led blinks and the computer beeps.

Any clue?
Is there any way to force the Propeller tool to only consider some specific comm ports?

Jean-Marc

Comments

  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2007-12-06 21:39
    There should be a timeout (5-10 seconds) at which point it should find the correct COM port and stay on the discovered port on subsequent accesses. How long do you wait before killing the program?

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    Paul Baker
    Propeller Applications Engineer

    Parallax, Inc.
  • SapiehaSapieha Posts: 2,964
    edited 2007-12-06 21:54
    Hi Paul.

    I have Prop on Com1.
    Tools count tu Com10 and wait.
    I mast kill Tools.

    My cuestion how it can find Com1 if it scan to Com10 and hang.

    My secon cuestion how it is with Manually Port Set ?.

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    Nothing is impossible, there are only different degrees of difficulty.

    Sapieha
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2007-12-06 23:02
    Yes manual port selection is on the to-do list, it's just that he keeps getting higher priority tasks handed to him. This has been an issue for a while and we are trying to make it so he has more time to work on the IDE, but there are certain responsibilities which he alone can fullfill.

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    Paul Baker
    Propeller Applications Engineer

    Parallax, Inc.
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2007-12-07 05:15
    I almost forgot, Ariba's PropTerminal permits manually selecting the com port: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=649540

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    Paul Baker
    Propeller Applications Engineer

    Parallax, Inc.
  • SapiehaSapieha Posts: 2,964
    edited 2007-12-07 08:06
    Hi Paul.

    I run PropTerminal and it function properly.

    But is it not bad publicity if you Tools not function.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Nothing is impossible, there are only different degrees of difficulty.

    Sapieha
  • Jean-MarcJean-Marc Posts: 5
    edited 2007-12-07 09:44
    Thanks for the info.· I did wait what looks like a long time for the port to timeout. I am not in front of it right now.· I will redo the test later and be sure that it is minute or so.

    I used to have other hardware using virtual com port, possibly with FTDI chips.· I will try to remove everything, reinstall the driver and see if this solves the problem.· To be on the safe side, could somebody look at the 'driver' properties of a (working!) propeller comm port and post what are the exact version/date listed ? So I would be sure tha the right driver is intalled (if somebody has other infos, like the date/size of the relevant dll, this may be usefull too).

    I will keep you posted on the result.
    jm
  • Harrison.Harrison. Posts: 484
    edited 2007-12-07 10:08
    Attached are screenshots of the FTDI driver that the Propeller Tool installed on my computer.
    ScreenShot674.jpg
    408 x 462 - 52K
    ScreenShot673.jpg
    406 x 462 - 35K
  • Jean-MarcJean-Marc Posts: 5
    edited 2007-12-07 20:55
    Thanks. I had the correct version of the driver installed.

    The propeller tools was indeed hanging for an infinite time (that is, more that 1 minute in this case, thhen I killed it)

    It seems that the propeller tools does not like bluetooth, virtual com port (two ports back to back at driver level) and the MixW virtual sound card serial ports (they are a special device only of interest to Radio Amateur, they do not even show up on the port enumeration in hardware setting, although they are present). The propeller tool was hanging even if I had not inserted the propeller plug.

    Eventually I disabled bluetooth and moved the propeller port to com2, where it was detected (I had to do both, for some reason). The other bizarre ports are left at higher number with an unassigned port in between (so I guess the propeller tool stop looking).

    Before all this I checked on a Windows 2000, where I also set the port to com2 as there was some trouble (and a virtual comm port). In that case PropTerminal was hanging (I guess it does not work on Windows-2000). But HyperTerminal was happy enough to make the blue led of the USB plug blink when typing character.

    On XP I can connect PropTerminal (and makes the blue led blink), but HyperTerminal does not make it blink... go figure.

    Anyhow I can now connect the education board and make the led blinking with the test program. Incredible how much satisfaction one can get from a blinking led.

    I hope this info may help somebody, thanks for your help

    Jean-Marc
  • Jeff MartinJeff Martin Posts: 760
    edited 2008-01-22 01:02
    Hi,

    A new version of the Propeller Tool (v1.06) will be released on our web site very soon (1/21/2008 or 1/22/2008) that will help with these issues.·

    It includes features to let you manage serial port usage by the Propeller Tool.

    Through Edit -> Preferences -> Operation tab, in the Serial Port Search field, you can select AUTO or COMx.· AUTO scans all ports (see below for more explanation).· COMx scans only the port you specified.

    The AUTO mode is basically what the Propeller Tool did in previous versions, but is further enhanced by the ability to filter ports as desired.· The preferences available in the Edit Ports button (to the right of the Serial Port Search field on the Preferences -> Operation Tab) which allow you to drag ports up and down to change their search order, or right-click for include/exclude options.· You can include or exclude ports by ID (ie: COM6) and by description (ie: USB Serial Port, or *USB*, etc).

    There are many possibilites with this.· For example, you could right-click on the list of ports and select "Exclude all ports by default," then right-click on a specific port and select "Include COMx" to include that port.· This way, regardless of how many new serial ports are added to the computer later (fixed or USB-based) only the ports you specifically included will be scanned by the Propeller Tool.

    Another option is excluding all ports by default (like above) and then right-clicking on a "USB Serial Port" in the list of ports and selecting "Filter port(s) by description," then, on the dialog that appears, select "Include" and make sure the description field contains "USB Serial Port", or "*USB*", then click OK.· Now only USB-based ports will be included in the Propeller Tool's search.

    You can, similarly, exclude ports in the same way (ie: select "Include all ports by default" then manually exclude ports by ID or by description).· In fact, the tool already includes a filter to exclude ports with "bluetooth" in their description (you can override this, if desired) since the Propeller communication protocol seems to negatively affect the drivers for many Bluetooth-based virtual serial ports, causing the O.S. to starve the Propeller Tool of CPU cycles once it transmits data on a bluetooth-based port.

    Take care.

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    --Jeff Martin

    · Sr. Software Engineer
    · Parallax, Inc.
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,801
    edited 2008-01-22 01:11
    Just FYI: I have an issue with one PC (Windows XP) that for some reason after about 3 days of up time, refuses to cooperate with the Prop Tool. Both with RS232 and Prop Plug. Rebooting magically fixes it. I am trying to figure out exactly what's going on, but have yet to find the culprit... Anyway, if you haven't rebooted in a while, try that!
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2008-01-22 02:27
    That's Window's fault, as time goes by latency increases in the system until it takes too long to switch processes and download fails.

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    Paul Baker
    Propeller Applications Engineer

    Parallax, Inc.
  • Jeff MartinJeff Martin Posts: 760
    edited 2008-01-22 16:31
    Rayman said...
    Just FYI: I have an issue with one PC (Windows XP) that for some reason after about 3 days of up time, refuses to cooperate with the Prop Tool. Both with RS232 and Prop Plug. Rebooting magically fixes it. I am trying to figure out exactly what's going on, but have yet to find the culprit... Anyway, if you haven't rebooted in a while, try that!
    Rayman,

    It is just the PC that's been running for 3 days, or the PC and the Propeller Tool?· How long has the Propeller Tool been running in that situation?· Do you open and close it often?· A little?· Not at all?


    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    --Jeff Martin

    · Sr. Software Engineer
    · Parallax, Inc.
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,801
    edited 2008-01-22 17:00
    Jeff: On that particular PC, the Prop Tool has been running more less all the time. But, restarting the Prop Tool did not fix the problem. I think it may be some kind of latency issue. One time, it would often get stuck in between the writing and verifying RAM steps. Another time, it would get stuck just identifying... It appears that the Prop is resetting itself when this happens...

    My PC here at work does not have this issue and runs for days without a single problem... Also, I've never had a problem with my laptop that often gets hibernated with the Prop tool running...
  • Jeff MartinJeff Martin Posts: 760
    edited 2008-01-22 20:19
    Thanks Rayman,

    Try as I might, I can't always explain why some things happen on some computers like this.· I'm not discounting the Propeller Tool as the culprit in this case, but it's hard to pinpoint what is really going on.· I'm glad to hear that you have two other machines that behave just fine.

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    --Jeff Martin

    · Sr. Software Engineer
    · Parallax, Inc.
  • Jean-MarcJean-Marc Posts: 5
    edited 2008-01-22 20:53
    I just tried the Propeller Tool (v1.06), and the port is working fine, thanks very much for your work.

    Previously the computer was also hanging (needed a forced power off!) when it was suspended with the USB plug connected (even if it was not connected to the propeller). This seem to be solved too, which is very nice (I just tried once).

    Jean-Marc

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    Jean-Marc
  • Jeff MartinJeff Martin Posts: 760
    edited 2008-01-22 21:01
    Jean-Marc Lugrin said...
    I just tried the Propeller Tool (v1.06), and the port is working fine, thanks very much for your work.

    Previously the computer was also hanging (needed a forced power off!) when it was suspended with the USB plug connected (even if it was not connected to the propeller). This seem to be solved too, which is very nice (I just tried once).

    Jean-Marc

    Hi Jean-Marc,

    I hope it continues to work well each time you try it.··In addition to the serial port selection/sorting enhancement, I·rewrote the serial communication routines to be more aware of potential port add/remove events during operation.· I never fully anticipated that those enhancements would solve the suspended-with-USB-connected issue, but it's good to hear that.

    Thank you.

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    --Jeff Martin

    · Sr. Software Engineer
    · Parallax, Inc.
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