It's Alive! (was Still Dead)

[Penfold]

I have read that you need a crossover cable (Type A - Type B wiring configuration) for the Ether Dongle in some aspects.  Would this be one of those instances?  Can someone please chime in on this assumption as I am not 100% sure on it?

[chrisatpsu]

i'd first plug it into an ethernet port on a router or switch.  you should get the green light on the mag jack to come on and stay lit.   make sure the hardware works, before trying to troubleshoot whether a cable might work.

[tbone321]

I have read that you need a crossover cable (Type A - Type B wiring configuration) for the Ether Dongle in some aspects.  Would this be one of those instances?  Can someone please chime in on this assumption as I am not 100% sure on it?

You only need a crossover cable if you are connecting the EherDongle directly to a NIC on the computer an even then, many of the newer NIC's can autoconfigue its connections which would eliminate the need for a crossover cable.  If you are directly connecting the EtherDongle to a PC or notebook then I would do it using a known working crossover cable otherwise I would use a known working straight thru cable.  Once you elininate the cable as a possible failure point then the real debugging can begin.

[caretaker]

Should have provided more info on this, my bad.  Currently using a Net Gear RT311 Router with a Net Gear FS105 fast ethernet switch both which are multicast capable (My newer Net Gear WNDR3770v2 is not    ) Connecting my EtherDongle to the FS105 (or even directly to the router) shows no connectivity, neither MAG jack LED lights and the Green LED on the ED stays dark.   I am going to check the Xtals again and make sure they are still working but my fear is that my effort to retouch the ethernet SMD chip may have caused more problems than it helped even though I was very careful and used a lower temp.  I will send RJ another PM for some more diagnostic work I can do on my ED instead of guessing what might be wrong. The good news is I am getting another ED when the current coop ships so I will have experience putting one together. 

[Penfold]

Have you cleaned your PCB?  It might be possible that you have some solder splash causing a short if you have not.

[caretaker]

It' Alive!  I ordered a flux pen and a couple of types of desolder braid and with a clean chisel tip on my soldering station I coated one one side of the ethernet SMD chip with rosin flux from the pen and laid the braid across all the pins and ran the chisel tip across the braid then moved to the next side. After doing all four sides I plugged the board in and the green LED came on. Checked the voltage on the 50MHZ xtal and it was correct and then the big test plugged it into my switch and the green light came on on the MAG jack and the the green light came on at the switch so I now have connectivity. I still have to test to make sure it's will control smart strings but so far so good.
    I want to thank everyone who offered to help me either offering to take a look at it for me or just words of encouragement. I especially want to thank RJ for not only designing the EtherDongle but taking the time out to help people like me when there is problems. I'll keep anyone that is interested updated when I testing my ED with my smart string hub. 

[pk]

Glad to hear you have it working.  I have been following this thread and it sounds like it should work fine for you now.  Be sure to let us know how testing goes.

[RJ]

Glad you got it going.

This is the reason I was looking to be able to do the chips ourselfs so I would have control over the soldering job. I feel like if I am going to speed days fixing stuff others did then I might as well spend days doing it right to start with. Sorry you had the issue and to the few others that have had simular. I had one user send me a picture of his pcb and it was terrible. I am not sure how I missed it.

I have found a awesome way to inspect SMD pcbs in the process and will be teaching it in the advanced soldering technics at the Academy this year.

RJ

[dmaccole]

I feel like if I am going to speed days fixing stuff others did then I might as well spend days doing it right to start with.

As TV's Mike Holmes says, "Do it right -- the first time."

Thank you, RJ.

\dmc

[caretaker]

Glad you got it going.

This is the reason I was looking to be able to do the chips ourselfs so I would have control over the soldering job. I feel like if I am going to speed days fixing stuff others did then I might as well spend days doing it right to start with. Sorry you had the issue and to the few others that have had simular. I had one user send me a picture of his pcb and it was terrible. I am not sure how I missed it.

I have found a awesome way to inspect SMD pcbs in the process and will be teaching it in the advanced soldering technics at the Academy this year.

RJ

Trust me I know where your coming from on this as an electrician I spend a lot of my days fixing mistakes others have made and know the frustration level involved with having others do work for you.  RJ thanks for your patience when creating these kits as I can only imagine how quickly your box fills up with PM's wanting help. Hopefully post like this will help others freeing up so more time for you. 

[PJNMCT]

i'd first plug it into an ethernet port on a router or switch.  you should get the green light on the mag jack to come on and stay lit.   make sure the hardware works, before trying to troubleshoot whether a cable might work.

Thanks Chris. Great suggestion - worked great after trying to direct connect with no luck...

...continuing on.

-Paul

[denverstone]

OK I am having similar problems with my ED.  I know it is late in the game, but I am trying to get everything at least up and running for a test this year.   

Originally I could not get the PIC to program at all -  I touched up all the solder joints, but noticed one of the pins on the SMD chip seems to be loose coming out of the chip itself not broke off though but I did fix the solder joint.
After touching up the solder joints I was able to program the PIC using the DMX firmware. 
I inspected the traces closer under 30x power scope and noticed one trace appears to be broken, I believe is it is the 4th pin counter clockwise from pin 1.  the trace goes under the chip so I do not know where to check for continuity of the trace too, which is the reason I started this thread You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

I checked the voltages per the post earlier -
3.3V regulator is producing 1.76V - my guess is this is bad but why would I get 3.3v on the Xtal assuming they get voltage from this regulator?
5V regulator is producing 5V
Both of the Xtal have 3.3V from pin 4 to pin 8 and 1.6v from pin 4  to pin 5 - so I think they are good. 

When apply power to the ED the LED on the ED board itself turns on and stays lit
When I hook up a cat5 cable (straight and cross over) the green LED on the magic jack lights and stays lit and the yellow light on the magic jack will also flash.  - both are bright. 

If I make  sequence in vixen the yellow light will occasionally flash but not enough to indicate real communication. When I hook up the ether port to my standard network switch the green light on the network switch and the ED are lit and the yellow light flashes like crazy with the network traffic, so I think this means it is able to communicate?
Do I have to do anything special on the PC??  I assigned a static IP address to the Ether connection and I pasted the Ether DMX plug in into Vixen.


Any help would be greatly appreciated, I just about ready to give up on this ED...........

[caretaker]

Make sure you set your channel count in the plug in set up to 1024 channels (even if your using less)
The EtD is multicast so it sounds like you are plugging your EtD into your switch or hub so there shouldn't need to be any setting of IP addresses.

[denverstone]

Thanks Caretaker -  I will give that a try. 

I can plug my ED into my switch but I would prefer to plug it directly into my NIC on my PC.  If I go direct, do I need to do anything special??  I set the static IP address to 168.100.100.101 already. 

Thanks for the the input. 

[n1ist]

1.76v sounds suspiciously like 5V-3.3V so you might not be using the correct pinout.  3-terminal regulators don't all have the same pin ordering.

/mike