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Please help a worried hobbyist user


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Posted

Hey I have built my board, checked it, wired inputs plugged in (Uk Voltage, yes correct jumper has been set)nothing.....No blinking led, no heat from components...

Any input please!!!!!!!!?

Does the firmware have to be upgraded before it would work??

Karl

Posted

When plugged in with a watts up meter(1 input on right side) and no lights connectedo on output I get a reading of 0.05A, what do you guys get?

Please help me!!

Posted

captainkarl wrote:

Hey I have built my board, checked it, wired inputs plugged in (Uk Voltage, yes correct jumper has been set)nothing.....No blinking led, no heat from components...

Any input please!!!!!!!!?

Does the firmware have to be upgraded before it would work??

Karl


Couple things:
  1. Do you have the input power coming in on the right(as opposed to left) side of the board?
  2. Do you have a multimeter and can you see any voltages on the DC side of the transformer?

Just a couple Ideas

As always if you have any trouble call or Email LOR, they will respond in their usual prompt manner.

Posted

robogeek wrote:

captainkarl wrote:
Hey I have built my board, checked it, wired inputs plugged in (Uk Voltage, yes correct jumper has been set)nothing.....No blinking led, no heat from components...

Any input please!!!!!!!!?

Does the firmware have to be upgraded before it would work??

Karl


Couple things:

  1. Do you have the input power coming in on the right(as opposed to left) side of the board?
  2. Do you have a multimeter and can you see any voltages on the DC side of the transformer?

Just a couple Ideas

As always if you have any trouble call or Email LOR, they will respond in their usual prompt manner.



These are good ideas.

If you have a 16 channel board and only one power plug make sure that you create a set of jumpers connecting the right and left side of the power strip. If you have one power cord and you do not do this, depending which side the power plug is attached to, you may not be powering the processor.
Posted

Thankyou for your input

I have a blue board, and a multi meter but not sure where to be poking around so some instructions with pictures would be really great hint hint;) lol

Thank you guys

Karl

Posted

Lets check the voltage +5V...

PLEASE BE VERY VERY CAREFULL.... You do have 240V on those fuses so make sure not to touch them (cover them with something non-conductive. If you have a GFIC outlet that you can use while doing this please use it....

Orientated the board so that when it faces you the comm connector and LED are at the top (away from you)...

Set your multi meter to DC voltage and a range about 10V or a little higher but not lower. Make sure the BLACK lead is plugged into the "-" COM side and the RED lead is plugged into the "+" V side.

Locate the 18 pin header just to the left of the LED. It will have two vertical rows of pins. We are interested in the left most row of pins closest to the center of the card.

Be Careful when touching the pins with probes to make sure that you do not short the probe across 2 of the pins. Only touch one pin with a probe.

Touch the BLACK probe to the bottom left pin - (GND). While holding the Black probe on the (GND) touch the RED pin to the third pin down on the left side. You should see about +10V.. While holding the Black probe on the (GND) touch the RED pin to the forth pin down on the left side. You should see about +5V..

If the voltages are not correct STOP NOW.

Now assuming that your volltages are OK then attempt to communicate with the card using the hardware utility.... (Forget that the LED does not work)... If this is not a deluxe kit then make sure to put the jumper on the header as specified in the instructions.

Regardless of the type of kit you have, see if you can do the following: In the Hardware Utilty, (left side of screen) set the Old Unit ID to "Any Unit" Set the New Unit ID to "01" and then click "Change Unit Id" at the bottom of the screen.

If there is a positive response (Unit ID changed) then STOP NOW

If there is no response and you have more than one kit, try swapping the processor chip (PIC18F....) from one of these kits. Make sure power is off when you are swapping the processor.

Posted

Good news Dan, we have +5V and +10V!!! But I am having problems with the 2nd test you asked me to perform, I may be setting the equipment (adaptor and software wrong?) but I tried to change the ID on COM3 and COM4, When I load the LORHARDWARE.EXE from the cdrom it says the following error message:



"The serial port (Comm1) assigned to LOR has a problem. You may need to select another port.

Open of serial port has failed.

Error: (8002) Invalid port number

While: Excuting port open property"


*UPDATE/EDIT* After going into windows device manager I can see that my adaptor is on COM4!




Thanks guys and Dan for your help so far (This is why I choose LOR over Animated Lighting!)

Please help I am dreading come christmas day there will be no light show:{



Captain K

Posted

Karl,

Since the +5 & +10 voltages are present, please disconnect the power and take a moment to examine the microprocessor chip. Unlike all the other horizontally mounted integrated circuits, the notch on it should face right. Also check it carefully for bent under pins, etc. The LED should have the flat spot facing left (toward the RJ45 jacks).

I'm guessing you have a USB PC adapter and it is COM4. If the adapter is correctly installed, you can use "My Computer" -> "View System Information" -> "Hardware" tab -> "Device Manager" button -> expand "Ports" and you should see "USB Serial Port (COM4)." This port should disappear when you unplug the USB485 from the PC and re-appear when you plug it back in.

Connect your board to the PC adapter with a Cat5 cable and power it up. Open the Hardware Utility and use the drop down "Manual Select" to select Comm4. Under "Change Existing ID", set the "Old Unit ID" to "any unit" set the "New Unit ID" to "01" and click the "Change Unit ID" button. If the pop up box indicates that this happened OK, you should be good to go. If you have Unit Selection switches (just to the right of the RJ45 jacks, set them to 0, 1 also.

The "Unit ID" is not related to the COM port number. You should have the controller set to unit ID 01 and the COM port as COM4. If things go well up to this point, click the "Change" button under "Maximum Units" and move the slider all the way left in the "Change Maximum Units" box, then click the "Save"button. This will cut down on the scan for controllers by only looking for the first ten rather than 240.

Click the "Refresh" button to search for your controller. If the Hardware Utilility finds it, it will appear in the drop down box next to the "refresh" button. You should be able to use the "Test Unit's Operation" panel to test your unit.

Posted

John,

the chip looks fine, no bent pins and it is seated correctly in the right orientation.

Tried to do the hardware utlity with the board and it doesnt let me change the ID. I tried using 3 PC's so something is clearly wrong on the LOR Logic end.

Please can you help me to resolve this?

Thankyou

Karl

Posted

Hi Karl,

Since the LED is not flashing when the board is plugged in, it's very likely that the microprocessor is not running. Let's do a simple test to see if the LED is correctly installed.

With the power disconnected, use a small, flat blade screw driver to pry out U2, the microprocessor., from either side.

Be very careful and connect the AC power. You should have the +5 & +10 vdc as before. use a small jumper or wire to connect the top left pin (gnd) to the second from the top right pin (LED) on the 16 pin header. The LED should light. If this is the case, then the micro is not running.

Disconnect AC power.

Remember to re-install the jumper if you don't have unit selection switches. If the LED doesn't light, check that R5 is 470 ohms, the LED is installed with the flat side left and that all solder joints are clean and not bridged.

If the LED worked, check all your solder joints for the micro. Check the joints for the resonator (to the left of the micro). Reinstall the microprocessor. Let us know what you found.

Posted

LED Does work hoorah:cool:thankyou! Right what things should I check for? How can you tell if something is a "cold joint"?



Karl

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