MS3 Won't Connect to TS via Jim Stim K, help!

[Turbo1.5]

Hello out there! I'm a Honda tuner and want to dive into using MS3 on my cars and customer cars. I'm a Megasquirt noob but I have tuned many cars with various software solutions. After reading many MS3 success stories I had to give it a go!

I have a Jim Stim K and a couple of MS3 v3.0 boxes that I soldered together myself. I followed the online instructions when assembling and followed most of the suggested tests during the assembly of each box and the Jim Stim. When I power on the Jim Stim with either box Tuner Studio will not connect. I did all of the troubleshooting tests for the Jim Stim and it has the correct voltage in the correct areas. I tested the power supplies in each box and have the correct voltages at the CPU socket. I have 5 volts at the DB9 on pin 1 and pin 9 using pin 5 as a ground source. I am using XP in an older laptop that does not have a serial port. The latest drivers are installed, made sure the com port was set 1 with the correct baud rate for MS3 and the flow control set to none. I tried the port scanner tool and it shows COM1 as available but no device is detected with the serial to USB or straight USB cable. In my device manager my adapter shows up in the list of ports and coms as COM1.

Some of the testing especially when it came to the serial connection is confusing to me. My MS3 boxes came with a serial port and a USB port on the daughter card. I have a serial to USB cable that I have tried to connect with along with trying just a USB cable from the daughter card to my laptop. It did not connect. My serial to USB cable works great with my LC-1 wideband.

If you were in my situation what would you do next to figure out why these won't connect? Should I use the serial to USB adapter or just the USB cable? Please help, thanks in advance!

PS - I don't have a datalog or MSQ to post about my issue.

[kaeman]

When just connected to the jim stim does the ms3 unit operate without the laptop connected? Do its test leds flash or turn on as expected when changing rpm signals etc?
When you are powering up the unit connected to tuner studio and go to the communications settings in tunerstudio and then do the search are you getting a couple different instances of the ms3 ecu showing up?
Only connect one of the computer cables to the ms3 either the usb or the serial not both.... each cable takes different communication settings If I remember correctly( its been along time).
Which of the suggested tests during assembly did you skip? ( you said you did most of the tests)

[Turbo1.5]

Thank you Kaeman for the reply!

When just connected to the jim stim does the ms3 unit operate without the laptop connected? Do its test leds flash or turn on as expected when changing rpm signals etc?

Unfortunately no. Nothing happens with the LEDs when I turn on the Jimstim with either box that I have.

I did the Jimstim trouble shooting tests and all tests passed. I was able to make the Jimstim leds flash after performing the Jimstim K test within the trouble shooting guide. I did not perform the Jimstim tests with either box connected. I did the power supply tests on the CPU socket with my Jimstim and those tests passed. I verified that I have 12 volts at pin 26 on the db37 connector when my Jimstim is powered on.

When you are powering up the unit connected to tuner studio and go to the communications settings in tunerstudio and then do the search are you getting a couple different instances of the ms3 ecu showing up?

When I perform the detect tests it does not detect either box with the Jimstim powered up. I attempted to use the firmware loader and it could not detect a device. I then tried Port Scanner v1.2 and it does detect comport 1 but it does not detect a device. This happens with both the USB to serial adapter and the USB cable. I don't have a straight through serial cable as my tuning laptop doesn't have a serial cable.

Only connect one of the computer cables to the ms3 either the usb or the serial not both.... each cable takes different communication settings If I remember correctly( its been along time).

Ah okay makes sense. I'm using the lite version of TS at the moment. In the settings I have R232 serial and FDTI 2DXXX USB as choices in the drop down menu. I tried using each cable separately with each communication setting and nothing works. I'm getting voltage at the serial port but it's like my laptop isn't seeing any signals coming in. I tried the hyperterminal test and I do not get an echo back from any port that I try.

Which of the suggested tests during assembly did you skip? ( you said you did most of the tests)

The tests that I skipped was the serial cable test in the assembly guide. Being that I'm using a USB to serial adapter I can't test each pin for a straight through connection. There are no tests in the guides about testing the USB on the daughter card. The assembly guide does talk about manually assigning comport 1 and setting the baud rate and flow control. My settings match those in the guide.

I can gladly post any videos and or pictures of what is going on. On my Jimstim I don't have any jumpers set up. Could it be that I need to jump any pins on the Jimstim to send the correct voltage and or grounds to the MS3? I've been watching a lot of MS3 Jimstim testing videos on Youtube and I see a lot of people have various jumpers set up.

[billr]

"I verified that I have 12 volts at pin 26 on the db37 connector..."

What? You should have 5V on pin 26, not 12V! If you have 12V there, the MS3 CPU chip may have been damaged. Remove the MS3 card and recheck the voltages at the 40-pin socket.

[Turbo1.5]

What? You should have 5V on pin 26, not 12V! If you have 12V there, the MS3 CPU chip may have been damaged. Remove the MS3 card and recheck the voltages at the 40-pin socket.

Okay thanks, I'll retest later today and will post the results. Thanks for the help!

[Turbo1.5]

What? You should have 5V on pin 26, not 12V! If you have 12V there, the MS3 CPU chip may have been damaged. Remove the MS3 card and recheck the voltages at the 40-pin socket.

I typo'd and meant pin 28. I have 5 volts at pin 26.


Over the last few weeks I've been doing a lot of research and rereading the assembly manual and troubleshooting tips over and over. From the MS3 assembly manual:

Finally, plug in the stimulator to MegaSquirt® to power the board up. This allows a full loop-back test, all data sent to pin 13 should be returned back on pin 12 through the MAX232 chip and all related communications circuits on the board. Again, type any character and again it should be echoed back to the screen. If characters appear on the screen then everything is fine, if not, then check solder joints on the sockets and components, verify voltages at the MAX232 chip connections and so on."

The manual says to use a Hyperterminal program to perform this test. I have a Prolific DB9 converter and used their Accessport program to perform the serial communication test. The loop back test passed and I was able to see characters echoed back.

I am using the lite version of TunerStudio with my Prolific cable. I have the correct driver for my DB9 cable. I have also tried using Megatune to communicate with my MS3 box but it could not detect a device with my Jimstim turned on nor would it connect.

What is it that I could be doing wrong? Could my Prolific cable be causing this problem?