Help with V2 Dongle

[z327]

I've completed the assembly of my V2 dongle and used a PICKIT 2 to download the hex file into the 18F2450. I specified the Device as 18F2450 and Imported Dongle2.hex. I turned VDD on at 5V and told the PICKIT 2 to write and verify. It came back with write and verify successful. Did I miss any steps in the programming of the PIC?

When I plugged the Dongle into the USB port Windows Vista recognized it and it installed a FTDI driver and says it is operating normally the FTDI driver is 2.6.0.0.
Vista recognizes it as a serial port and it is set to 11520, 8 , none, 1, none

The dongle Red Led is on.
I'm new to the DIY and haven't got Vixen up and running yet. I have built 5 Lynx express units and they all pass the self test after a few minor fixes.

But I was hoping I could test the dongle stand alone at some level.
Should the Green LED be flashing without being hooked up to a Lynx controller and without running Vixen?

I've been thru every post and the Wiki. So any help would be appreciated.

[tbone321]

The Ver 2 donge will have the ability to self send a DMX test signal but the firmware is still not completed for that capability.  I do believe that the green light should also be lit.  RJ has a small DMX console program that allows you to test both the dongle and other components connected to it such as an express.

[ThaiWay]

You might try the Lynx DMX Deck to test your Dongle with a controller attached:

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John

[z327]

tried the Lynx DMX deck
it found com port 8
but nothing the data light is not flashing and the channel lights on the Lynx express are not lighting

I've touched up every solder joint, checked the orientation of all ICs, programmed a new PIC and still nothing

Any suggestions?

[z327]

added photos

[bisquit476]

Both LED's should be on, check this post,

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[bisquit476]

You may need the USB cable plugged in to get the 2 LED's to light. Or is it? Hard to see in the pictures.

[rm357]

I was playing with my dongle and discovered that if the USB cable is not plugged all the way in, the red LED will come on, but the green LED wil not. When I pushed the connector in the rest of the way, the green LED came on within 1 second (it beat the windows recognition tone). This is with the driver installed, but no applications running.

Apparently the power pins make contact before the data pins (that makes sense from a reliability standpoint), but the DMX transmission does not start until after the device driver is initialized. Once started, the DMX transmission runs continuously, regardless of whether or not data is being sent to the dongle.

If that does not solve your issue, I would take a voltmeter and make sure that the capacitor has something close to 5v across its leads. The red LED looks like it is powered directly from the USB module, but the green LED requires everything else to be working...


Good luck!
RM

[z327]

thanks for all the help

I went back to re-programming the PIC and discovered my PIC had the Hex data but no configuration. Corrected that and my data LED is lit.

Thanks everyone for the help