Frustrated to say the least....

[deanathpc]

Also my dongle green LED flashes accordingly.

[chrisatpsu]

if you unplug the pic, you're likely to get the same results I think

[jnealand]

When I could not get DMX out from my hub I went back and reheated all the joints on the dmx out hub, the pic, and all other things except around the pixelnet out jacks.  Something must have been a cold solder joint, because that fixed my problem.

[deanathpc]

I'm starting to think the same thing.  The solder joints look o.k. but I just might have to go over 'em again.  Something just doesn't seem right.  I'll try this tomorrow.

[rm357]

12v only important for ss, not used for the DMX unless you have the 12v kit installed.
5v for 485 chips
3.3v for pic

Make sure the 5 and 3.3 volt lines are good.

You are hereby encouraged to post pictures of both sides of the circuit board.

Eagle eyes on the board can spot problems with solder joints, wrong jumper configurations, bent pins, and chip reversals that you may be to close to to see...

RM

[deanathpc]

Hey RM. I'll be doing some solder touch ups tomorrow.  If that doesn't solve the problem then I'll be posting pics as soon as I can.  There are a couple of things I want to check first just for my own curiosity.  There were a couple of solder joints that looked iffy when I last looked at them today.

Dean

[deanathpc]

Well I've touched up every solder joint and even added some solder to a couple I thought were lacking.  No changes.  NO DMX output.  Not even a hint of it.   So Pics are being attached.



















Here are your pics.  Probably not the best quality.  I don't have my macro photography equip. set up right now so this was with my phone.

[zwiller]

If you still want a 12 volt kit shoot me a PM I am not using mine.

Wish I could help more... Soldering and assembly look good to me.

Only thing I can think of maybe is some vixen weirdness.  Wrong com port on pixelnet, not disabling entec dmx plugin, or no channels setup in plugin mapping.

[deanathpc]

No using Vixen.  using XLights and that seems to be setup correctly.  Com Ports are correct for that one also.  So I'm just not sure.

I'm at a loss.  Without a schematic I can't trouble shoot it myself.

Dean

[rm357]

For the part you need, the wiring is pretty simple. Before we get to that, lets do the sanity check:

#1 Verify you have +5v and +3.3v on the board. I don't know the pinouts for the voltage regulators, but the three pads for each device are connected back to the AT power plug. Where the 7805 would be installed, you should have 12v, 5v, and gnd (0v) on the three pads - I don't know the order, but if you put the black lead of a multimeter into the backside of one of the black wires on the AT connector, that's what you should see. Where the other voltage regulator goes, you should see 5v, 3.3v, and gnd.

edit - I forgot about the GND input power connector - you can also use that for your black lead when making measurements.

#2 Did you program the PIC with the "SmartString_Hub.hex" file.

If yes and yes and still no joy, try swapping the two 485 chips close to the PIC with two of the others on the board.

If still no joy, it's time to start traciing wires and checking vias - vias are the holes that run through the board. They are supposed to be plated-through to connect one side of the board to the other. On very rare occasion, you have to solder a short piece of wire to make the connection...

RM

[RJ]

Dean if you pm me to setup a time to get into teamspeak I can try and help.

RJ

[deanathpc]

For the part you need, the wiring is pretty simple. Before we get to that, lets do the sanity check:

#1 Verify you have +5v and +3.3v on the board. I don't know the pinouts for the voltage regulators, but the three pads for each device are connected back to the AT power plug. Where the 7805 would be installed, you should have 12v, 5v, and gnd (0v) on the three pads - I don't know the order, but if you put the black lead of a multimeter into the backside of one of the black wires on the AT connector, that's what you should see. Where the other voltage regulator goes, you should see 5v, 3.3v, and gnd.

edit - I forgot about the GND input power connector - you can also use that for your black lead when making measurements.

#2 Did you program the PIC with the "SmartString_Hub.hex" file.

If yes and yes and still no joy, try swapping the two 485 chips close to the PIC with two of the others on the board.

If still no joy, it's time to start traciing wires and checking vias - vias are the holes that run through the board. They are supposed to be plated-through to connect one side of the board to the other. On very rare occasion, you have to solder a short piece of wire to make the connection...

RM

As for the chip swaps..  Done that already and nothing changed.  As for the programming of the PIC yes that is the hex I used.

As for the voltages I'll have to check them out either tomorrow night or thurs. night.  I'm out of time tonight as I'm up as 3:30 for work in the morning so this old man is off to bed...

I'll post my voltages find though when I have them.

Dean

[deanathpc]

Dean if you pm me to setup a time to get into teamspeak I can try and help.

RJ

O.K. RJ.  I'll see what I can accomplish with with the above first and then go from there.  It's gotta be something simple.  That is something I've learned over the years fixing radios.

Dean

[deanathpc]

For the part you need, the wiring is pretty simple. Before we get to that, lets do the sanity check:

#1 Verify you have +5v and +3.3v on the board. I don't know the pinouts for the voltage regulators, but the three pads for each device are connected back to the AT power plug. Where the 7805 would be installed, you should have 12v, 5v, and gnd (0v) on the three pads - I don't know the order, but if you put the black lead of a multimeter into the backside of one of the black wires on the AT connector, that's what you should see. Where the other voltage regulator goes, you should see 5v, 3.3v, and gnd.

edit - I forgot about the GND input power connector - you can also use that for your black lead when making measurements.

#2 Did you program the PIC with the "SmartString_Hub.hex" file.

If yes and yes and still no joy, try swapping the two 485 chips close to the PIC with two of the others on the board.

If still no joy, it's time to start traciing wires and checking vias - vias are the holes that run through the board. They are supposed to be plated-through to connect one side of the board to the other. On very rare occasion, you have to solder a short piece of wire to make the connection...

RM

Just checked - voltages are 11, 5 and 3.3

[deanathpc]

Here is a pic of XLights with my Lynx Dongle flashed with Pixelnet.