Eclipse 7 - No Reponse

[Mon]

I have bought a Hitec parallel port lead for FMS running on Win 98. I am using a Eclipse 7 Tx.
All works except no response from Tx. The bars on "calibrate" do not move.
Any ideas?

Mon

[Steve Lewin]

Check that the plug in the TX is seated properly. Sometimes they need the plastic cover trimming back a bit.

Have you set up the "resources" to point to the correct values for your printer port ? Do you have a soundboard which might have a clashing IRQ number (you can check in Control Panel) ?

Steve

[Mon]

Steve,
Firstly thanks for the reply.
I have checked the lead there is about 1cm of metal before the sleeve and inserts well. I have set the resources to LPT1
and the IRQ's are ok, LPT1 is irq7 and the sound card is 5. No conflicts are reported.
I have opened the lead and checked continuity through to the plug all seems ok.
However I did manage to find a Futaba pin out for a parallel connection specifically for FMS on the internet (I can mail this to you). This consists of a three wire connection (9.6v, Out and ground) to a NPN and a 4.7V Zener. My lead has only two wires and no zener. There is a extra connection to the parallel port. I'm guessing but it looks like the lead has an PNP
and runs power from the Tx from pin 6 as the emmitter connection and takes ground off the port. Both are using pin 2 as the "out" which looks right. The pins used on the port are 10 and 18 with an extra connection.
I have mailed the supplier (RC-World.co.uk) and hope they can help also. I am dissapointed as the lead is supplied with the FMS and is for a Hitec Tx so it should work!

Regards

Mon.

[Eric Brouwer]

I'm not very familiar with the parallel interface, so please excuse me if I might make any wrong comments.

When I first tried this interface, I had to set my printer port in the BIOS. The BIOS is normally set to a standard port, and I changed it to either EPP or ECP, I can not remember which one. After che BIOS was changed, the interface worked correct.

It might be because I used a JR transmitter, with a much lower PPM output level. The parallel port requires around 5V on it's inputs, which the JR's could not provide. Thus 5V was obtained from one of the parallel port's outputs.

[Steve Lewin]

Difficult to be sure what you have there. I'm afraid I've never heard of RC-World.co.uk and they don't appear to have a website.

If it's using Pin 6 on the Tx plug for power it will be out of luck though. Pin 6 on all the Hitecs I've seen is ground. I believe some Futaba Txs put 5V on Pin 6 but I don't know which ones. However most circuits don't have specific power connection just the signal connections, Pin2 and ground.

It's certainly worth checking the LPT BIOS setup as Eric suggests. Either of the 2-way modes ECP or EPP will work. SPP won't.

Let's hope they get back to you.

Steve

[Mon]

The cable is now working. The BIOS setting to the port
needs to be EPP. The setting of ECP+EPP does not work, neither does "Normal".
As I have noticed others with similar problems on the forum
I hope this news gets through.
Thank you all for you help.
Steve the web site is rcworld.co.uk - I have found these to be very helpfull as they sent me two more leads to try without charge.

Mon.