AbeFM wrote:Pardon my ignorance, but what graphical downloader? And, can I get this to work for the MS-2x stuff?
The graphical downloader is the standard MS2 downloader. It cannot be used for MS2/Extra though as it does not support the jumperless reflash required to access greater than 64k of flash.
There is what is called marginal functionality.
I discovered this by noting that one day it works the other day it does
not. All conditions were identical day to day, hour to hour, etc.
So I switched platforms, and the new plate form is rock solid.
for a month now.
Not a new experience for me.....
I then loaded a RS232 monitor program that monitors the data stream and
the UART framing error register and overrun bit.
I discovered that I was getting overrun errors, this indicates that the
one of the 2 UARTS, Laptop or MS were , off in frequency. 16x baud clock, it is called.
I found the Dell over 3% off. MS was not the problem.
I contacted Dell and they said it is sped'd to 20k and that beyond that I am on my own. ( this is common on many laptops ( Apple , I do not know )
That link above shows how others had to even make a data table on what chips can run at that high rate .
Asyncronous comms are predidated on an accurate clock , on both ends.
Historically in the IBM PC area , this is very weak, and especially laptops.
The fast you go, the more this becomes true.
Some laptops even reverse pin 2 and 3, and that will never work.
To be compatible with windows and to the reverse back to DOS.
they used the same UART loads for each of the official Baud rates.
this makes higher baud rates difficult to achieve.
My add in 232PCcard Pcmia unit i just bought has a very fancy way of overcoming this limitation, it is completely none standard and uses a very high and accurate baud clock. it costs only $20 to the door.
It has a custom driver and uses a different prescaler chip.
From some one who works it RS232 for over 20 years every day.
hints:
Always try another plateform.
always monitor the lines with a break out box with LEDs.
if that is ok , try a hardware port RATED for such high rates.
last try lowering the baud rates on both ends. (can't here) but SOP.
what is your hardware rated at?
I hope this helps and directs the path to quick solution.
all the best .
to MS and company.
Cheers
MS2V3+msextra,beta21+
DiyAutotune! < the best!
custom pnp harness done, default timings.
idles, cool, tripadation sets in, MLV soon.
2 years till retirement, then doing MS on wifes family cars. for economy $7 gallon fuel.
imagine you are driving across a truss bridge.
and every day , you throw a coke bottle out the window and it fies through the gurder and missing the metal and drops to the water below.
you do this every day for months. No problems save litter tickets.
then, one day , it misses and hits a gurder.
what happenend?
answer: your arm is out of sync with the speed of the vehicle.
slow your arm or speed up your car.
That , is exactly what happens, in a framing error.
the result is garbled data.
By the way my card can sync up to 15mbps !
it's a hardware thing.
RS232 is not magic like PNP USB.
not at all.
you must set it up and it must be compatible with what you are doing.
Marginal operation will drive you goffy.
I hope this helps.
POwer to the MS2 team.
MS2V3+msextra,beta21+
DiyAutotune! < the best!
custom pnp harness done, default timings.
idles, cool, tripadation sets in, MLV soon.
2 years till retirement, then doing MS on wifes family cars. for economy $7 gallon fuel.
I think the previous poster is probably on to something.. MS2 LOCKED to 115,200? Maybe something better than 9600, but not quite 115k would work better?
I spent an hour flashing with my USB adapter. And it wasn't a problem with the last two beta's.. It has always been that way with the USB adapter. I still have my old reliable laptop, Thinkpad 600 with a hardware serial port built in, running win98, and it works every time. Same laptop running Win2k won't successfully flash.
I set the serial ports up for MS2 manually in windows - I know the megamanual goes into specifics. my firmware flashes take about 3-5 minutes - if it's taking hours then something is wrong. I would start by setting up your serial port per the manual's suggestions.
Odd, my reflashes take around 30 seconds. I believe this oddness is most likely due to the USB->serial adapters, and/or computers having problems with built-in serial ports.
I take my USB->serial adapter with me to every computer I work on with MS stuff, including my Mac running Windows XP with bootcamp, my normal PC laptop with XP, my old windows 98 laptop, and my desktop running XP, and FreeBSD (dual boot), and I've been able to flash properly and use Megatune with minimal problems in every case.
My desktop's built-in serial port has also always worked without a hitch.
However, I've seen odd problems with other USB->serial controllers.
just curious, what are you guys using for USB adapters?
I'm using the USB adapter that DIY autotune sells - never had a problem with it. ironically, later I ended up buying a laptop for MS that had a built in serial port, but I don't have a serial cable and USB is much easier to plug in/unplug (I take my latop for datalogging almost everywhere I go).
I had no serious issues when I was using it for MS duties. I'll be using it for serial comms with a 9s12 chip in a few days again, I'll report here if anything seems wrong at all.
When i first got into the MS, i used a simple USB to serial convertor(dont remember which one though), and had issues with that one..Then i got the Targus port replicator, thinking it worked a bit differently from regular adaptors(i have no idea if it does), and it's worked wonderfully for both MS1 Extra and for MS2 Extra. That USB breakout board looks like a nice solution, but doesnt that work the same as any other USB to serial adapter, less the serial cable itself? I mean, it's doing the same thing as an adapter anyway? The port replicator is a bit bulky, so i wouldnt mind getting a replacement. My Macbook doesnt have a PCMCIA slot, so no adaptor solution there.. I didnt have time to test another firmware download yet, but I should be able to try it out tonight.
Come on guys! Right click something or other and find out which chipset they have in them. Its not exactly hard to do. The information would be good for people to have for the purposes of which one to buy if they have trouble with whatever they have.
muythaibxr wrote:I had that belkin for a while, it worked fine with ms1, but barely works at all with ms2/ or ms2/extra. I'd recommend getting a different one.
I believe mine has the same chip in it as the one DIYautotune sells.
Ken
I have a belkin as well. I bought another, and lost it. It was small and perfect. Oh, well, never got to test it. I used another that's like for cellphones or something, took forever to find drivers for it, and it sucked horrible. All sorts of errors and the laptop would reboot pretty often using it.
2000 VVT Miata turbo, MS3Pro
Contact me if interested in a MS-II 2nd gen NB Miata PnP board.
thanks for that post on the Sparkfun
its rated at almost 1mbps baud rates, that has great potential.
i will order one today and try it out.
one can make a pig tail from that to the max232 (have it in a socket)
and use a dip header for my pig tail , no soldering jumper wires from
sparkfun to my MS2v3 , cool solution.! "modular"
thanks very much.
thanks also for that clue about macs not having PCMCIA or pccard, wow,
what good is a non expandable laptop.?
CHEERS !
MS rules.
MS2V3+msextra,beta21+
DiyAutotune! < the best!
custom pnp harness done, default timings.
idles, cool, tripadation sets in, MLV soon.
2 years till retirement, then doing MS on wifes family cars. for economy $7 gallon fuel.
