Is my Mini dead?
#1
Posted 06 February 2011 - 08:54 PM
Now here's the thing, I ordered a new Mini thinking that it was the problem, but the new mini reacts the same way, so either the new mini is DOA out of the box, or the FTDI Basic board isn't working properly. Any opinions?
#2
Posted 07 February 2011 - 06:02 AM
#3
Posted 07 February 2011 - 11:19 AM
Hi Thor,
My best guess would be that the FTDI adapter is malfunctioning. We test every Netduino Mini before it ships to the reseller, so it's very unlikely that it would be damaged upon receipt.
Do you have anything hooked up in your circuit _other_ than the FTDI basic board (TX/RX and GND) and power?
Also, which port are you using (RS232 or TTL) for debugging? If you hook up to it via HyperTerminal (115200,N,8,1) and power up the Netduino Mini, do you see anything?
Chris
The FTDI Basic uses pins 11 and 12, so TTL. Aside from that it's hooked up to GND (pin 4) and DTS (pin 3), exactly how I've always hooked it up. Main power for the Mini is going to pin 21 providing 5V from a Breadboard power supply (also from Sparkfun). Main ground is hooked up to pin 23.
The only thing I had hooked up was a basic test of a blinking LED that I had written the first time I got my Mini. That was connected on Pin 9, just as it was the first time I tested the mini.
How would I go about hooking it up to connect to Hyperterminal (Putty in my case as I'm running Windows 7)? Can I do something with a USB cable's wires (I'm guessing it's not as simple as just hooking up the data wires) or do I need a regular serial cable? The latter would be a problem as I don't have a serial cable or a serial port exposed on my motherboard (internally or externally). This is the reason why I got the FTDI board in the first place.
#4
Posted 07 February 2011 - 12:20 PM
#5
Posted 07 February 2011 - 01:02 PM
To use putty, just connect via the USB serial port that your FTDI cable driver provides. This should be in the same way as when you first connected yoru Mini and selected which port to use to deploy. See the "Switching serial deployment port" section in the getting started guide here.
That's the thing...we're trying to rule out that the Mini is the cause, so I need to connect directly to it to eliminate it from being the issue here. We suspect the FTDI board is at fault here, so establishing that I can communicate with the Mini without the FTDI is all I need to place the blame squarely on the FTDI board. I don't have a FTDI cable...only the FTDI board. That's all I've ever had to connect to the Mini. I need someone to tell me how to connect to it without using the FTDI board.
#6
Posted 07 February 2011 - 01:38 PM
- Another FTDI board (or equivalent USB to Serial TTL convertor).
- A USB to RS232 serial convertor to connect via pins 1-4.
If you're going to get something I'd recommend the RS232. It'll give you another option for connecting and may be useful if you want to debug any program that uses the serial TTL (e.g. to connect to a serial LCD).
The other option is to check out the FTDI board without the Mini.
Have you got any other serial TTL devices? You could connect the FTDI board to that and see if it works. Also, connecting TX and RX together should give you an echo of your typing in Putty. Connecting an LED on the TX line should give you a rough idea if data is being sent by the FTDI. You can't exactly analyse the serial signal, but can at least see some flickering. (By LED I mean including the usual transistor and resitor combo of course.)
#7
Posted 07 February 2011 - 04:01 PM
#8
Posted 07 February 2011 - 06:33 PM
Following your steps Chris, I got nothing from the Mini. Nothing after powering it up and nothing after hitting escape. The FTDI board lights it's transmit light, but nothing returns.
I tried using Fred's tip on getting an echo back in Putty when linking the TX to the RX. It does trigger both LEDs when typing something, but I get no echo within Putty. If what you said is true Fred, doesn't this mean data is indeed being transmitted by the FTDI, and it's being received, but not transmitted back to the computer.
Don't have a logic analyzer...my resources are pretty slim. All I have for testing electronics is this multimeter. I'm pretty short on funds until the 15th. I can afford to get one cable or board to try to get this thing working so long as it's under $20. So should I get a FTDI cable, USB to RS232, or another FTDI board? It sounds like that's that only thing that will get this working again, if the mini is still good.
edit: Actually wait...if I can find it I think I have a USB to Serial adapter, I would just need to disassemble the Serial end to get the wires I need.
Edit 2: Yep I found it. Haven't opened it up, but it looks like what I'll need to connect to the RS232 pins..
It's one of these: http://cgi.ebay.com/...9-/400071303835
Will be a little tricky getting the wires I need, as the Serial connection looks like it's surface mounted.
#9
Posted 07 February 2011 - 06:40 PM
edit: Actually wait...if I can find it I think I have a USB to Serial adapter, I would just need to disassemble the Serial end to get the wires I need.
Hi Thor,
If you connect the TX and RX pins together at the end of the FTDI breakout board and don't get an "echo" back of what you type in Putty, that almost surely means that your FTDI breakout board is not working.
Yes, if you have a USB to serial adapter...plug in a serial cable and cut off the other end of the cable. Wire up the RX and TX and GND pins directly to pins 1/2/4. You should be up and running right away.
If you want to use USB-TTL, I'd recommend this cable.
Chris
#10
Posted 07 February 2011 - 07:06 PM
Hi Thor,
If you connect the TX and RX pins together at the end of the FTDI breakout board and don't get an "echo" back of what you type in Putty, that almost surely means that your FTDI breakout board is not working.
Yes, if you have a USB to serial adapter...plug in a serial cable and cut off the other end of the cable. Wire up the RX and TX and GND pins directly to pins 1/2/4. You should be up and running right away.
If you want to use USB-TTL, I'd recommend this cable.
Chris
Yeah I don't have any serial cables, haven't had any for a while. I was lucky to find this one, I figured I threw it out long ago.
I'm piggy backing some wires on the connections on the pcb for the adapter (you'll like it when you see it I think). Just need to finish installing the drivers for the adapter (luckily found them on Belkin's site) and I should be good to go.
Sigh. I need to put it on a 32 bit system. The drivers are only available for 32 bit systems. I didn't notice this when I first downloaded them. I might be able to get it working in a VM though on my VirtualBox installation. If not I'll have to put it on my laptop. I'd prefer the VM though since I'm using my laptop as an HTPC at this point (it's an old beast Dell XPS system, not exactly portable).
#11
Posted 07 February 2011 - 08:35 PM
#12
Posted 07 February 2011 - 10:27 PM
#13
Posted 08 February 2011 - 02:09 AM
Thor--this is on the _new_ Mini, correct?
Also, if you hook pins 2+3 og the serial adapter together do you get characters echoed back (loopback)?
Chris
Yes , I haven't even touched the old mini since it stopped responding. It is still soldered in the pcb I put it in.
Actually no it doesn't echo back the characters...it should though, as far as I know the device is working perfectly. Is there something possibly in the configuration in Putty that is stopping the Echo from returning? Or perhaps I'm just not recognizing it as an echo. I expected that when I type something in, either it immediately doubles that character or it waits until after I hit enter to echo it on the next line. Problem is, it never leaves the first line. If I hit enter it just goes back to the start of the line. all characters remain and any I type just replace the character that was there before it.
So it's actually acting exactly how the FTDI acted when doing that test.
I posted a couple of pictures from the setup of the adapter with the wires.
https://picasaweb.go...feat=directlink
(and no the wires are not pinched...it's closed just tight enough for them to stay put, but it doesn't impact the insulation at all.)
edit: ok I think I understand it now. I disabled local echo in the Putty client which should mean anything I type should not show up in the window. so when it's hooked up for a loopback, I still see the characters I'm typing, which are actually the echo. When I moved the transmit wire to another spot so they aren't in loopback...I get nothing int he putty window.
And by using the same test with the FTDI...I get echo back.
sooooo...it appears the mini is still completely nonresponsive, despite confirming that the serial adapter is sending and receiving commands.
#14
Posted 08 February 2011 - 02:24 AM
#15
Posted 08 February 2011 - 01:43 PM
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Created EE.
Started Hardware.
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Loading start at 1360dc, end 14824c
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Assembly: mscorlib (4.1.2821.0) (3880 RAM - 33236 ROM - 19134 METADATA)
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Assembly: Microsoft.SPOT.Native (4.1.2821.0) (1144 RAM - 6516 ROM - 4479 METADATA)
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Assembly: Microsoft.SPOT.Hardware (4.1.2821.0) (1752 RAM - 11440 ROM - 7371 METADATA)
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Assembly: Microsoft.SPOT.Hardware.SerialPort (4.1.2821.0) (508 RAM - 3440 ROM - 1527 METADATA)
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Assembly: SecretLabs.NETMF.Diagnostics (4.1.0.0) (180 RAM - 440 ROM - 166 METADATA)
Loading Deployment Assemblies.
Attaching deployed file.
Assembly: NetduinoMiniTransportSelector (1.0.0.0) (244 RAM - 1168 ROM - 310 METADATA)
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Total: (8784 RAM - 75260 ROM - 41862 METADATA)
Total: (8784 RAM - 75260 ROM - 41862 METADATA)
Ready.
LIFE!
Starting to load the files for Visual Studio. Little trickier within the VM.
I can't get it to power off of the Breadboard power supply (which gets its power from USB). I checked the output of the 5V line and it runs around 5.15V, which I suspect is a little too high for the Mini.
I'm in chat now, so I'll keep an eye on it. I'm home sick from work, so I have a bit more time to work on this.
#16
Posted 08 February 2011 - 03:11 PM
#17
Posted 08 February 2011 - 10:40 PM
Ok, good to go. The basic program I first wrote to blink a LED is working, so I should be good to continue my work on the Disc Mod. Thanks for all the help!
Edit: Success...the disc is back up and running, so I can proceed with the changes I was working on.
Awesome. What ended up being the culprit?
#18
Posted 08 February 2011 - 11:38 PM
Awesome. What ended up being the culprit?
Switching the TX and the RX wires did it.
Couple of questions...
Any way I can get it to stop flashing all the LEDs on initial startup? The Netduino doesn't make all the i/o ports high or something on initial startup does it? I've tried using a pull-down resistor on the 3 signal lines running to the LED driver but that doesn't work, it seems to send a high signal every time it starts up, which kind of ruins the startup animation.
Also, it seems to be misinterpreting a single momentary switch press as multiple presses. This results in it skipping animations, which is ok for the animation mode, as those are just a bunch of random animations in no particular order, but the movie replica mode (what I'm calling it right now) has a set of 3 animations that are in order, so it skipping animations really screws up that mode.
#19
Posted 21 March 2011 - 07:57 PM
Awesome. What ended up being the culprit?
Chris,
I just wanted to say I'm truly impressed by the effort you put forth to resolve a problem most people/companies would blow off.
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