RS-485 dongle & Windows 11 ARM

[aholekamp]

Apologies in advance if this has been covered - I've spent the past couple hours scouring both LOR forums and the internet looking for answers.  I'm looking for hardware troubleshooting advice.

Where I want to end - using my LOR controllers with xLights and a Raspberry Pi running Falcon Player.  I'm trying to build this up one step at a time, and verify components as I go.  My thought was to connect my laptop to the LOR controller, verify the connection through LOR Hardware Utility, then configure the controller in xLights, test it out, then move that sequence to Falcon Player on the Pi, and connect the LOR controller to the Pi.  I was trying to simplify things, and do it one step at a time - figure out how DMX works with LOR, how xLights addresses those devices, and then figure out he USB port on the Pi.  And of course, I get hung up on the first step.  Argh!

Symptom - I cannot connect my laptop to a CTB16PCg3 (indicator continues to blink, and not go solid).  

Configuration - (y'all will chastise me, and I accept that) - MacBook Air M1(2020), Mac OSX 12.1, Parallels Desktop 17.1.1, running Windows 11 ARM64.  I have the RS-485 high speed dongle (red), connected to a USB port, and Cat 5 to the LOR controller. 

Yes, I've changed several things since I first set up the LOR controllers - new Mac, new version of Windows, ARM processor, all that crap.  It's killing me that I cannot reduce the variables.  Short version is that I like my Mac, and only have Windows for LOR and Quicken.  Otherwise, I'd be all Mac.  And this did all work (on my old Mac, with an Intel chip, and an older version of Parallels and Windows).  I just don't have to configure things like the controller address very often.

So - any thoughts on where to start reducing variables, and troubleshooting?  Thanks in advance.

[TheDucks]

Did you install the Driver for the LOR dongle? (do not accept what the OS provides)

[aholekamp]

Thanks for calling this out!

Yes (-ish).  I had omitted that step initially, and plugged in the USB cable into the laptop.  During my reading, I found that error, ran the FTClean program.  I installed the latest driver from LOR (CDM21228_Setup.exe) and plugged in the USB cable again.  Same result.  I recognize that the driver may still be an issue, and would appreciate some thoughts on how to verify both 1) that any old drivers are removed, and 2) that the correct driver is installed prior to plugging gin the USB cable.

Again - thanks in advance!

[dibblejr]

I may be overstepping however you come to the LOR Forum asking how to connect an LOR controller to another software program. Maybe you should be asking the other software developers.

JR

[Jimehc]

Please allow me to show a respectful answer to your question...

Edited January 25, 2022 by Jimehc

[aholekamp]

Dibblejr - you are right to call this out.  Thanks.  I do love my LOR controllers.  And I'd be happy to to discuss (offline) some of the other things I'm trying to do.  I only mentioned my END goal to give context.  

If I were to purchase an additional LOR controller today (I actually need another one for my Mega Tree), I would still have the problem that my laptop isn't connecting to the LOR hardware to configure the address.  That is the question I'm coming to this forum for.

Jimehc - my RS485 adapter is showing as an "Other device".  I believe this is the core of my issue, and I'm not sure how to move forward. (refer to the image I've attached.)

Thanks again for you thoughts!

[TheDucks]

You need to remove the bad device install. Then install the official driver, then connect.

[aholekamp]

Agreed.  I think this is the core of my issue.

I ran the FTClean program (from the USB Troubleshooting Note - http://www.lightorama.com/Documents/RS485_Adapter_Troubleshooting.pdf).  I then installed the latest driver from LOR (CDM21228_Setup.exe) and plugged in the USB cable again.  Same result.

I'm not sure how to verify 1) that  I fully removed the bad device (and driver), and that 2) the official driver installed successfully before I plug in the USB adapter again.  

I appreciate your thoughts, and the time spent responding to this thread.

[Jimehc]

Select that "Other Device" then "Update Driver" - not sure you Noticed the Window (Pictured) with the Driver Options.........

[aholekamp]

Thanks.  I have tried that approach.  I have CDM21228_Setup under C:\Light-O-Rama\USB 485 Dongle.  Windows responded that it could not find drivers for my device.  

Thanks to you all.  I am glad you had the same thoughts I did - so I'm not going off in the wrong direction.  At this point, I'm thinking I may purchase another USB dongle (I guess they can go bad), and perhaps find a plain-ole PC with an older Windows.

[TheDucks]

Drill down further into the XP-vista-W7 folder and select the *bus.INF version

(I had problems with Setup )

[Jimehc]

CDM21228_Setup.exe is a compressed (7Zip) executable.. You can extract the contents of the EXE with 7zip - then point to that Driver Folder..

Edited January 25, 2022 by Jimehc

[aholekamp]

Thanks!  I'll give that a try.

[dibblejr]

22 hours ago, Jimehc said:

Please allow me to show a respectful answer to your question...

There was NO DISRESPECT to the OP. That is an appropriate answer. If you or the OP think it was disrespectful there is a little button on my post "Report". I would really like to be disrespectful towards you though JimEhc/ ...... 

JR

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by dibblejr

[dibblejr]

4 hours ago, aholekamp said:

Thanks!  I'll give that a try.

Through helping others I have realized that using a MAC with Parrell Windows that it should mirror a Windows based PC therefore you USB adapter should show under the Device Manager but would normally show unknown device. I have never seen it listed as you show. If you disconnect the adapter does that device go away? 

I may be able to help you with that but not what to do to get the other software to work.

JR

[Jimehc]

5 hours ago, aholekamp said:

Thanks!  I'll give that a try.

Your Very Welcome...

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by Jimehc

[aholekamp]

So it took some research, but I think I finally found my problem.  Basically, my hardware has outpaced the available drivers.  My Mac has the Apple M1 processor (an ARM processor).  Looking at the FTDI compatibility chart, they only support Intel X86 32-bit and 64-bit processors (see the screen snippet attached).  I've also found that there are a number of Windows machines (mostly tablets like the MS Surface Pro X) that are also ARM processors, and would not be able to talk to the LOR hardware (as of now).

[canadianchristmas]

13 hours ago, aholekamp said:

So it took some research, but I think I finally found my problem.  Basically, my hardware has outpaced the available drivers.  My Mac has the Apple M1 processor (an ARM processor).  Looking at the FTDI compatibility chart, they only support Intel X86 32-bit and 64-bit processors (see the screen snippet attached).  I've also found that there are a number of Windows machines (mostly tablets like the MS Surface Pro X) that are also ARM processors, and would not be able to talk to the LOR hardware (as of now).

 

I believe the M1 emulates a x86 architecture for windows virtualisation (I could be wrong about that though), however if you can't get the drivers going, you can still run your controller on FPP just by setting the adaptor up under the "other" tab in outputs.

You also can configure FPP to take E1.31 channel data as an input. So you could use xlights to output E1.31 to the Pi and then have that controlling the LOR dongle and box acting like a bridge for testing purposes.

I know this isn't a solution for unit ID configuration.. I suppose you'll have to use an intel based mac, a windows PC..

But from what it looks like above you just need to install a driver.. Don't use any executables to do it, do it manually in the device preferences in the device manager. I would try to demonstrate this, but I too use xlights on a mac and don't have a windows machine or VM around right now lol...

 

EDIT: spoke too soon: after a quick search this is how you manually install drivers: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/how-to-update-windows-10-drivers-manually/

If you still can't get it going after that you may be SOL.

Edited January 29, 2022 by canadianchristmas

[beachdj309]

Hi, I am just writing to share I figured this out with the following setup:
- M2 Macbook Pro (2023)
- Parallels Desktop 19
- USB-RS485 Dongle 

Steps I Took:
1. Clean FTDI with info from https://www.lightorama.com/Documents/RS485_Adapter_Troubleshooting.pdf
2. Restart
3. Download the ARM FTDI Driver from https://ftdichip.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/CDM-v2.12.36.4-for-ARM64-Signed-Distributable.zip with steps to follow for the installation here  https://forum.parallels.com/threads/ftdi-arm-vcp-driver-questions.357162/ (where you put the folder needs to be on the C: drive not the mac virtual drives)
4. Use device manager to manually install the ARM driver (be sure to point the path when browsing locally to the ARM folder and not the other folder that is included in the download)
5. It should install and in Windows Device Manager, show a com port number and no error or yellow icon. 

 

Edited October 16, 2023 by beachdj309

[Tim Fischer]

Hi all! I posted a thread earlier this fall about getting LOR to work with Apple Silicon and VM. I suspected there might be problems with the FTDI drivers and this thread seems to confirm that fear was correct.

But... it looks like @beachdj309 got it going?

I don't need this now (I'm sure not going to change anything before this display season) but my Intel mac is getting really long in the tooth and eventually I'd like to replace it with something that's a lot more powerful (I'm typing this from my M1 work laptop which is magnitudes faster than my Intel).

@beachdj309 if you (or anyone else) has any comments on your overall experience running LOR on ARM I'd love to hear it. I have NO plans to run my show that way, but I'd like to continue to do my sequencing and various things using the LOR dongle like setting unit ids with it.

-Tim