DiyLightAnimation
Hardware => Lynx USB DMX Dongle => Topic started by: rrowan on April 05, 2011,
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Hi Folks
I just want everyone to know that NavyGator has been working on a improved version for the v2 dongle and I think he did a great job. This morning I made it the default dongle manual for everyone to use. I also would like to thank him for spending the time doing this.
Please take a look at http://diylightanimation.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dongle_Manual_v2
Cheers
Rick R.
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I would like to second your thanks!!!! He did a GREAT job putting the manual together for all of us. <res.
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Yep, that looks great! Thank you,
Bill
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Nicely Done! Thank you!
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Superb !! 8)
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Awesome job Navygator.
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Excellent instructions for the a dongle. :)
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Very good work.
\dmc
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Right on time. Thank you, Nice work. 8)
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Thanks for the accolades everyone. I hope it helps future builders out.
Rich
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Should be a piece of cake to assemble this. Thanks for the excellent instruction manual!
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The manual is great, don't get me wrong. There is a bit of incorrect information in the "Initial Setup" section. I don't seem to have access to edit so I'll spell it out here.
#1 - You can just plug in the Dongle to your Windows 7 (and presumably older versions) and windows update will find and install the drivers for you. Not only have I tested this, if you follow the instructions step by step you are actually doing this and not installing the drivers manually.
#2 - When you extract the driver files to D:\Christmas Lights\LYNX Equipment\DMX Dongle v2.0\Drivers this doesn't actually install the drivers. The next step is plugging in the dongle to a USB port and at this point Windows will do one of two things - #1 - find the drivers via windows up date or #2 - ask for the drivers disk. If it asks for the drivers disk then point it to the D:\Christmas Lights\LYNX Equipment\DMX Dongle v2.0\Drivers location and it will install the drivers.
#3 - if you want to set up the drivers manually then you extract the zip file anywhere, then you need to right click on the "ftdibus.inf" file and select install. Then right click the "ftdiport.inf" file and install. This step will actually install the drivers. Without this step all you have done by downloading and extracting the driver file is added some files to your hard drive. Unzipping the driver file does not actually install any drivers.
So If I were rewriting the instructions I would say first plug in the dongle to the USB port while the computer is connected to the Internet. Wait and see if the drivers get installed automatically. If they do you will receive a note stating the comm port you are using.
If this doesn't work then disconnect the dongle, download the drivers, extract the files, and right click on both .inf files and select "install" from the contectual menu. After they install the drivers reconnect the dongle and try again.
If this fails you can open the hardware manager from the system menu in the control panel and you will get an option there to install the drivers. Let windows update do it's thing or point it to the driver download file.
Thanks.
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Thanks for the info. I made some updates to the manual to clarify parts of the initial setup section.
Rich
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Windows update may have improved, but in the past, just plugging the dongle or any other ftdi based device in would pick up the generic windows serial driver - which did not work.
If you do just plug it in and it does not work, the first thing to check is the driver.
RM
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Windows update may have improved, but in the past, just plugging the dongle or any other ftdi based device in would pick up the generic windows serial driver - which did not work.
If you do just plug it in and it does not work, the first thing to check is the driver.
RM
I had used the word install when I should have said unzip or unpack the downloaded file. I basically kept everything the same to where you still need to download the driver from the website before plugging in the dongle.
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You should probably mention right clicking the two files I mentioned in the earlier post and clicking install. i don't have it in front of me. Otherwise following the instructions as written you aren't actually installing the drivers yourself and the windows update will just do it.
Basically they are .inf files which is what you right click and choose install when you want to install a driver manually.
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I used the new manual today to make my first dongle, and it really helped. I only had 2 problems. Not being all that knowledgeable about electronics, I wasn't sure if the 1uf capacitors had to be installed a certain way as the other one did, so I did some google searches to learn a little more about them and figured out those didn't matter.
My second problem had to do with installing the octocoupler chip. The one I got didn't have a notch and only had a little dot where pin 1 is, so had to guess that pin 1 should go toward the end with the notch on the socket.
It seems to work, although windows assigned it to com3, which was the same port my d-light dongle was already on, so changed that and it seems to play nice. Now need to get the Smart String controllers, then I guess I'll have to reprogram the PIC when RJ releases the new firmware for his pixelnet.
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Either that or build another dongle for pixelnet.
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Well, I am thinking I will need 2 pixelnet dongles as it is. And got 2 PCBs off RJ to build. At the moment I was planning on just continuing with the d-light controllers I have and adding the smart strings to line my roofline and figure I will end up with more than 4096 channels. I only ordered the parts for 1 dongle just to make sure I could get it to work. I had some issues with too much solder in a few places, but had ordered some solder wick just in case.