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Hardware => Lynx EtherDongle => Topic started by: rdebolt on January 01, 2012,
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I have 2 E dongles built now. The first I could not get the LED on the Board to light no matter what I did. By that I mean Icheck all resistors, reflash and resolder all connections. The light would come on with the PIC 3 powering the board, but nothing when connected to power. So since I had another dongle to build I decided to very carefully build the second. I was as careful as I could be and when I went to flash it No led and I could not flash it. I carefully inspected everything and found what looked to be bridged solder connections on the PIC 512... so I used my solder wick and carefully removed the bridges. Then I plugged in the Pic 3 and I was pleased to see the green led light while flashing. I plugged into power and LED came on!!! Yahoo!!! So I connected straight Cat 5 from a second network card that I installed on my computer and there are no lights on the input connection on the dongle. I also tried to connect from the motherboard network card and my laptop. Should the connection lights be on right away or do I need to configure Vixen, Xlights or LSP and run a test for the input lights to work?
Also an update on my first E-dongle. I found a bridged solder connection on it as well and after removing, the board led comes on as well now, but the same no input connection lights.
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With 2 nics, I'm betting your machine is sending multicast traffic out the first NIC. Your network card also may not do an auto crossover. Try plugging into a switch and see if the green / amber illuminate on the Ethernet jack on the dongle.
If you get illumination there, you may need a crossover cable. I'm running mine through one NIC as it can be tricky to get multicast traffic to be sent from one NIC and all other traffic to go out the NIC with verified connectivity. Windows will try to prioritize network bindings to nics with verifiable connectivity. Going straight into the ether dongle will not provide this verification and all traffic (multicast included) will be routed through the primary NIC.
Additionally, I would disable one NIC until you get things working. Having 2 nics will complicate your life for now.
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Having 2 nics will complicate your life for now.
Tried on laptop too with only 1 nic. No lights
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Have you tried plugging into a switch? Not all nics will auto crossover. We need to determine if you can get connectivity lights on either a pc or switch. If we can't get them to illuminate it may be a build issue. If they do illuminate with a switch, it's likely a physical connectivity issue.
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Have you tried plugging into a switch? Not all nics will auto crossover. We need to determine if you can get connectivity lights on either a pc or switch. If we can't get them to illuminate it may be a build issue. If they do illuminate with a switch, it's likely a physical connectivity issue.
I don't have a switch. Going to buy one tomorrow.
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I got the first built e-dongle to work. it had another solder bridge that once removed it came to life and functions. I can even contol lights with it. still nothing on the second one. I have a question about the build though. Since my first is now working I don't think that this is an issue, but on page 5 of the manual it says to install the 470 ohm resistors with a color of yellow-violet-brown. I am color blind so I use a multi meter to check resistance and once again missed that my meter reads .470k ohms not 470 ohms. I had my wife look at the board and she said that the colors did not match. My colors are yellow-violet-black-black-brown. Is this an issue? I will take some pictures and post shorly.
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Here are the pictures of the one that is not working.
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but on page 5 of the manual it says to install the 470 ohm resistors with a color of yellow-violet-brown. I am color blind so I use a multi meter to check resistance and once again missed that my meter reads .470k ohms not 470 ohms. I had my wife look at the board and she said that the colors did not match. My colors are yellow-violet-black-black-brown. Is this an issue? I will take some pictures and post shorly.
I just looked at the assembly manual on the Wiki page and it says on step two:
"Install four 470 ohm (yellow-violet-black-black-brown) 1% resistors in a row near the middle. "
Yellow-violet-black-black-brown is 4, 7, 0, x1 multiplier, +/- 1% tolerance. So that would be a 470 ohm resistor. 0.470k ohm is the same as 470 ohm. Do you have an autoranging multimeter or do you have it set on x1K?
Those solder bridges are a killer, aren't they? I had the same problem and the gang here helped me fix it.
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One of the solder points for the 8.0mHz oscillator looks a bit funny, but that could be just glare. The one you are having problems with, the green LED goes on, right?
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I just looked at the assembly manual on the Wiki page and it says on step two:
"Install four 470 ohm (yellow-violet-black-black-brown) 1% resistors in a row near the middle. "
I just Check the wiki and it is diiferent than my printed manual. Must have been updated since I printed.
Those solder bridges are a killer, aren't they? I had the same problem and the gang here helped me fix it.
Yes they are!!!
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One of the solder points for the 8.0mHz oscillator looks a bit funny, but that could be just glare. The one you are having problems with, the green LED goes on, right?
Yes the green led is on. just no connectivity.
Touched up solder joints on both osillators- no change.
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I just updated my photos. The bottom view at first was the working dongle. Now I have the correct pictures of the none working dongle. The top view has always been correct! :-[
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Hm, I don't see anything wrong with the board. When you plug it in to your computer, does the green LED on the MagJack come on? When you send data to the dongle, does the amber light flash?
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Hm, I don't see anything wrong with the board. When you plug it in to your computer, does the green LED on the MagJack come on? When you send data to the dongle, does the amber light flash?
No to both.
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Can you join us in TeamSpeak?
Rick R.
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Can you join us in TeamSpeak?
Rick R.
Sure. I am at work now, so it would have to be tonight. just tell me when you have time.
Thanks,
Roger
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I have one of my EtDs online. Not sure what to do with the second at this time! Any more ideas?
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Hm, so in summary, the green LED is on, but the LEDs on the MagJack do not light when you connect it to your computer's ethernet port, correct? PIC programs correctly and verifies? Maybe there is something wrong with the MagJack? Were you able to get on TeamSpeak?
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I have one of my EtDs online. Not sure what to do with the second at this time! Any more ideas?
Hang tight I am working on some diagnostic instructions. Make sure to look the stuff over again and if you have not already turn you iron up some and hit all joints again. You would be surprised how many time after going through a lot of diagnostics this is what ends up fixing the issue.
RJ
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Hm, so in summary, the green LED is on, but the LEDs on the MagJack do not light when you connect it to your computer's ethernet port, correct? PIC programs correctly and verifies? Maybe there is something wrong with the MagJack? Were you able to get on TeamSpeak?
No I was not able to get on Teamspeak. As usual I was late.
To answer your questions yes the installed LED is on green and no lights at all on the ethernet port.
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I have one of my EtDs online. Not sure what to do with the second at this time! Any more ideas?
Hang tight I am working on some diagnostic instructions. Make sure to look the stuff over again and if you have not already turn you iron up some and hit all joints again. You would be surprised how many time after going through a lot of diagnostics this is what ends up fixing the issue.
RJ
Thanks RJ. Yes I have retouched all solder joints at 700 degrees f. I could do it again, but you know the definition of insanity!! ;) This is really not a big deal since I have the first one up and running for testing. I cannot use both at this time anyway, but I would like to get it going.
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Update: I have retouched up all solder joints, reflashed for Pixelnet and verified. Still no Ethernet lights. They do blink one time very briefly when power is applied!
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I think at this point we need to wait for RJ's diag instructions. You do have one working, so it's unlikely you assembled incorrectly. After you reflowed all the joints it doesn't sound like a cold joint. And you said you verified the programming of the PIC so that doesn't sound like it is that either. Did you try and program it as a DMX dongle instead of Pixelnet? I can't see how that would make a difference, but I've hit my knowledge wall at this point.
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Did you try and program it as a DMX dongle instead of Pixelnet?
Yes I did and it had no affect. I have no problem waiting for RJ.
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This may or may not be the problem. From your photos I noticed that you don't have a solder point on one of your RJ45 connectors. I will have to look at the wiki photos of the PCB to make sure it's not connected to anything, but that stood out at me.
.......Hmmm... Looked at the PCB pic in the manual and it doesn't look like this is connected to anything sorry if I got your hopes up......
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This may or may not be the problem. From your photos I noticed that you don't have a solder point on one of your RJ45 connectors. I will have to look at the wiki photos of the PCB to make sure it's not connected to anything, but that stood out at me.
.......Hmmm... Looked at the PCB pic in the manual and it doesn't look like this is connected to anything sorry if I got your hopes up......
No Problem. Thanks for the reply.
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This may or may not be the problem. From your photos I noticed that you don't have a solder point on one of your RJ45 connectors. I will have to look at the wiki photos of the PCB to make sure it's not connected to anything, but that stood out at me.
.......Hmmm... Looked at the PCB pic in the manual and it doesn't look like this is connected to anything sorry if I got your hopes up......
Yep, when I wrote the assembly manual, I made a note in there that you will end up with one hole without a pin so that people don't panic when they see that.
-Mike
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Yahooooo! I've got EtD! Make that 2 EtDs! Now if I can just get the firmware for multiple EtDs!! :D ;) >:D My second dongle also had a solder bridge. Removed bridge and all is good! Now onto programing for a lot of channels!! <fp.
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Yay! ;D I guess number one trouble shooting step should be: look for solder bridges on the surface mount chips.
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We hope the next batch that won't be needed. I ahd already went throught them and found some before they went out so these few were ones I missed.
RJ