I know that this is a far-out request, but I am getting desperate. I have a legacy product that uses a Micromint BCC52 controller. I have not sold one of these products for at least 7 years. I got a call from a user that his unit, purchased in 1994, did not start and wondered if I could help him out. I asked him to ship it to me and I would see what I could do for him. At the time his unit was build all PCs had a serial port and I used that to load programs into the eeprom. Now, I only have USBs. I have a Elba FTDI USB to TTL converter that seems to work. I have been able to wake up the BCC52, but when I start to download the new software, the system craps out by dropping the com link. It is possible that the problem lies with the converter. It loads several lines of code before biting the dust. I am only using the RxD and TxD lines. I can always get the BCC-52 to wake up. Its the downloading that is the issue.
I am using an old software package from MDL labs called Basikit to do the communication between my computer and the BCC-52's ram. If I can get the S/W loaded into the ram, I can fix the problem.
Any enlightenment will be greatly appreciated.
Vic
Help for old time hardware
Help for old time hardware
Vic Fraenckel
KC2GUI
windswaytoo ATSIGN gmail DOT com
KC2GUI
windswaytoo ATSIGN gmail DOT com
I Have a few thoughts.
1) if you need to see what is being sent over the serial link you can use a PC program to monitor the serial port
2) can you simply replace the serial interface chip in the old unit? Then see if it works?
3). If you want to get more complicated then you could put a tiny clip on the RX pin of the old CPU and then monitor the incoming data on that pin. You could use a ZX chip to be the interface for it then send the data to an LCD or to the PC via another serial port.
1) if you need to see what is being sent over the serial link you can use a PC program to monitor the serial port
2) can you simply replace the serial interface chip in the old unit? Then see if it works?
3). If you want to get more complicated then you could put a tiny clip on the RX pin of the old CPU and then monitor the incoming data on that pin. You could use a ZX chip to be the interface for it then send the data to an LCD or to the PC via another serial port.
spamiam,
Thanks for the reply. As I noted in my OP, I am able to wake up the -52 over the comm link. This is done by sending a space (HEX20) character to the unit as the first character. Since I can do this, I believe the comms work. Sending the space character sets the baud rate on the link. I am using 9600b.
I think the problem resides in the USB to Serial converter. I am using the Elba FTDI converter that I normally use with my ZX stuff. I can start a program downloading to the -52 and then it craps out after a bit telling me that the com link is lost.
Is there any thing I can do to tweak the converter. I have tried setting up for slower speeds such as 4800 or 2400 baud but I encounter the same problems.
Any further enlightenment will be appreciated.
Vic
Thanks for the reply. As I noted in my OP, I am able to wake up the -52 over the comm link. This is done by sending a space (HEX20) character to the unit as the first character. Since I can do this, I believe the comms work. Sending the space character sets the baud rate on the link. I am using 9600b.
I think the problem resides in the USB to Serial converter. I am using the Elba FTDI converter that I normally use with my ZX stuff. I can start a program downloading to the -52 and then it craps out after a bit telling me that the com link is lost.
Is there any thing I can do to tweak the converter. I have tried setting up for slower speeds such as 4800 or 2400 baud but I encounter the same problems.
Any further enlightenment will be appreciated.
Vic
Vic Fraenckel
KC2GUI
windswaytoo ATSIGN gmail DOT com
KC2GUI
windswaytoo ATSIGN gmail DOT com
Vic,
A while ago I had trouble with the USB-to-Serial adapters. I had to make some changes to the driver settings on the PC. I forget what they were. Essentially, I wanted to reduce the latency. I think I reported it here or on the Oak Micros site. Also, I think that the documentation for the Oak Micros om328pu includes a little info on setting the USB driver.
However, I recently re-installed the newest FTDI drivers for and I did not have to change any settings in order to talk to bootloaders.
It would be very interesting to see the results of a logic probe on the RX pin of your old cpu! Is the data coming in properly? You can make a zx program that will listen-in to that pin (port sniffer). IN that manner you will see exactly what the old cpu is getting for data.
-Tony
EDIT:
There is the link to the thread I was talking about:
http://www.zbasic.net/forum/about813.ht ... light=ftdi
A while ago I had trouble with the USB-to-Serial adapters. I had to make some changes to the driver settings on the PC. I forget what they were. Essentially, I wanted to reduce the latency. I think I reported it here or on the Oak Micros site. Also, I think that the documentation for the Oak Micros om328pu includes a little info on setting the USB driver.
However, I recently re-installed the newest FTDI drivers for and I did not have to change any settings in order to talk to bootloaders.
It would be very interesting to see the results of a logic probe on the RX pin of your old cpu! Is the data coming in properly? You can make a zx program that will listen-in to that pin (port sniffer). IN that manner you will see exactly what the old cpu is getting for data.
-Tony
EDIT:
There is the link to the thread I was talking about:
http://www.zbasic.net/forum/about813.ht ... light=ftdi
Vic,
At work about 9 months ago we had to upgrade an old system's firmware. The procedure looked like an old DOS application. It would start and then just quit after the first line or two of the file was transferred. What had to be done, was set the application's priority to a very high level. Then it worked perfect. We were using a real serial port, not USB, however the issue seems similar. I don't remember how to change the priority right now, but I may have some notes at work I can check on Monday.
Maybe someone else here knows how to do it. When the priority was set that high, windows ran like a snail until we quit the DOS application. It literally took seconds to respond to mouse clicks. But it worked!
Tom W.
At work about 9 months ago we had to upgrade an old system's firmware. The procedure looked like an old DOS application. It would start and then just quit after the first line or two of the file was transferred. What had to be done, was set the application's priority to a very high level. Then it worked perfect. We were using a real serial port, not USB, however the issue seems similar. I don't remember how to change the priority right now, but I may have some notes at work I can check on Monday.
Maybe someone else here knows how to do it. When the priority was set that high, windows ran like a snail until we quit the DOS application. It literally took seconds to respond to mouse clicks. But it worked!
Tom W.
Vic,
I plugged in my FTDI USB adapter. open the sytem control panel and then open the device manager. Open the ports entry. Right Click on the port associated with the FTDI usb adapter. It must be plugged-in to be visible. select properties.
click on the "port settings" notebook tab. Click on "advanced"
In the BM panel, lower the latency timer. Lower it down to the lowest leven and then test the serial port.
If that does not work, then change the settings in the USB transfer size panel. Go to 64 bytes.
These settings should (AFAIK) lower the latency and optimize slow baud rates.
However, if the old hardware is malfunctioning, then these settings won't make a difference because they are not the problem.
Just being able to get the old CPU to wake up may not be a sign that the old hardware is sufficiently functional to get the job done. I presume you are using a laptop computer because you COULD get a RS232 serial expansion card for a PC....
-Tony
I plugged in my FTDI USB adapter. open the sytem control panel and then open the device manager. Open the ports entry. Right Click on the port associated with the FTDI usb adapter. It must be plugged-in to be visible. select properties.
click on the "port settings" notebook tab. Click on "advanced"
In the BM panel, lower the latency timer. Lower it down to the lowest leven and then test the serial port.
If that does not work, then change the settings in the USB transfer size panel. Go to 64 bytes.
These settings should (AFAIK) lower the latency and optimize slow baud rates.
However, if the old hardware is malfunctioning, then these settings won't make a difference because they are not the problem.
Just being able to get the old CPU to wake up may not be a sign that the old hardware is sufficiently functional to get the job done. I presume you are using a laptop computer because you COULD get a RS232 serial expansion card for a PC....
-Tony