Interface problem FMS 2.0 beta 7 - Problem with FMS 2.0 beta 7

[kaidahlqvist]

I installed FMS 2.0 beta 7 yesterday and I get nothing from
the PIC interface.
I made a small testprogram to read from the Com port and it
looks good. 19200 gives an input like "FF B5 88 7A 73 FF ..."

Is there a problem with this version. I worked some time ago
with an older version (I don't know wich), and that was OK.

Any help out there?

Kai

[phildc]

Your input looks good, it shows 4 channels and synch.
My soft
should show the same (select COM, do action=start...)
Look if
shows your channels after selecting COM, and doing MONITOR..
Also should show a plane from rear (COM, view=rear, ...)
Replace "Glider" by "Helico" for an heli...

If OK, come back to FMS settings (PIC serial, 19200, FF...)

Tell us,
Philippe

[kaidahlqvist]

>My soft
>http://www.jdm-nivelles.be/fichiers/fms/RS232analyser.exe >should show the same (select COM, do action=start...)
>Look if
>http://www.jdm-nivelles.be/fichiers/fms/Analyser31.exe >shows your channels after selecting COM, and doing >MONITOR..
>Also >should show a plane from rear (COM, view=rear, ...)
>Replace "Glider" by "Helico" for an heli...

>If OK, come back to FMS settings (PIC serial, 19200, FF...)

>Tell us,
>Philippe

Thank You for the links to these very useful programs.
Sorry for this late response to your help. I have had a holliday. No flying though, because of the bad wheather

All these programs gives the same result. Everything is OK!
And I use the correct setting with PIC Serial, 19200, FF.

After a little measurement I found that the problem is that the FMS does not set RTS on pin 7 high.
In my homemade interface this is used as a power-supply for the 12C508 chip.
The FMS does not set the DTR high either, so I guess I will have to use an extra powersupply. Is this a known bug?

I tried to enable Hardware handshake control in the device manager, but that did not help.
I will have to do some more research on this and try with another computer.

Thank you very much for your help.

Kai

[kaidahlqvist]

A little more testing:

The FMS program will keep the DTR pin 7 high during simulation, but it drops the line when you enter the calibration and setting. That means you cannot calibrate.

I connected a power supply just for the calibration, and now
everything works fine even without the extra power.
(Until I try to calibrate again.....)

[phildc]

Hello,

When designing a microcontroller-based
RC transmitter to PC serial COM port cable,
taking the power from the PC can be a bad design choice.

I explain:
-if you have no other solution, OK, do it...
-if you have another power available (and this is mostly the case with an RC transmitter), take the power from outside the PC.
The possible problems when taking the PC control signals as power source are the following:
-the soft must ensure they are ON
-portable PC's do not automatically or enough power the port
-...

And the power drawn from the transmitter is very limited (some give this as a design justification to take the power from the control pins).

So I made the design choice to have only 2 wires to the PC for my PIC cable: PPM and ground. This eliminates many problems of Win version, hardware type, a.s.o that justify so many questions in the forums.

All docs to make the PIC cable can be found in:


Enjoy,
Philippe

And a general remark: everytime a PC 'component' is used outside its 'purpose or definition', you will soon or later get problems:
this is the case with the parallel or serial port designs (without micro-controller) that rely on hard or soft behaviour that allows to detect another type of signal that it was designed for, and this behaviour can be changed in later HW or SW versions...
About the audio input: there a standard sampling function is used, the only problem can be the limited resolution.