can't connect PLX wideband

maglito · Post by **maglito** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 8:17 am

In the configuration menu, "None" is the only option for the com ports.

Is there a certain order I am supposed to connect?

Please help...

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 6:52 pm

You should plug in your device prior to opening the file-configuration window

If you open up windows Device Manager, do you have any COM ports showing under the Ports entry?

If you do then close and reopen the File-Configuration window and it should show up

If you dont have any ports showing, then your USB-Serial converter is not installed correctly or there is another problem

How are you trying to connect your PLX Unit to your laptop (standard serial or USB adaptor)

maglito · Post by **maglito** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 1:38 am

I can see a com port assigned to my R-500 in the device manager, but when I bring up the config menu in Nistune it says "None"

I am using the USB patch cable to connect the R-500 to my laptop. The R-500 has an inbuilt USB serial converter

My DLP A/D converter shows up fine in Nistune. It would be a shame if I had to log my 0-5 volt output to the DLP when my WB is supposed to be natively supported.

I was able to get it to connect once, and it gave me "frame errors". This is right after I had the DLP installed

Thanks

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 11:44 am

Are you able to post a screen grab of the device manager window with the 'Ports' field displayed?

The main thing I want to determine is what is the COM port assigned when the R500 is plugged in?

(To do a screen grab, highlight window and ALT-PRINTSCRN then paste into MSPaint, save the file as JPG and then 'add attachment' to this forum thread

I need to determine which COM port it should be using. Sometimes COM3 is an internal modem in some laptops, but COM1 appeared to be used by another application

maglito · Post by **maglito** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 2:02 pm

I'll try to do a screen grab tomorrow.

One thing I noticed today was that the only available com port in the drop down box was com 10, which is what was already assigned to the consult cable. The PLX was on com 4.

Thanks for the help Matt

maglito · Post by **maglito** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 2:43 pm

Matt,

Here is the device manager screen grab titled "device_man". Consult is port 10, the plx is port 3. I am able to access the plx with the plx software without issue.

I also included "nistune_config", which shows my com options BEFORE I connect Nistune to my ECU via the consult button. The cable is already plugged in. Note that "Com 10" is available in the plx dropdown.

After I connect to the ECU, my available com for the plx becomes "None" as shown in "nistune_config_after"

My modem is assigned to port 41, in case it matters.

Thanks

maglito · Post by **maglito** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:34 am

Matt?

Any ideas on how to resolve this?

Thanks

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:02 am

Thanks for those screen grabs

Strange that its not detecting it

Was the PLX connected and showing in device before opening the configuration window? (Each time the config window is opened it scans the available com ports to display in the lists)

Can you please send me through a debug log of when this occurs (see the software debug section sticky for details of how to get the log)

I'll have a look at that and see what the software is reporting

thanks
Matt

maglito · Post by **maglito** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:45 pm

Matt,

Yes, the PLX was connected and showing in device before opening the configuration window.

My log is 2.5M

Is that too big? I'm getting an error when I try to upload it

Thanks

maglito · Post by **maglito** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:56 pm

here is a smaller log file. Hopefully it has enough info for you

Thanks

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:03 am

The log gets big if you connect to consult

The main thing I was looking at is:

03:49:47.109 statusbar: Searching for com ports
03:49:47.109 COM3 port in use
03:49:47.250 COM10 found

So COM3 is your PLX port and COM10 is your CONSULT port

COM10 is fine because it is available and nothing else is using it

COM3 has problems since Windows is indicating to NIStune when we poll it ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED

That usually means either there is a permissions issue with using the or the device is not available (usually because another application is using it)

Can you please try the following:
http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002416/teraterm.html
Download
Tera Term Pro ver. 2.3 for Windows 95/NT

After you install it and it runs, select Serial and then Select COM3

What does this program say when you do this? If it has a problem will say 'Cannot open COM3'

Otherwise it should 'connect' and you will get a blank screen

Just seeing if another application like Teraterm can get access to this okay?

I can always change the autoprobe to show the 'used' com ports but its not ideal since you shouldnt be able to connect to them

maglito · Post by **maglito** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:52 am

I downloaded the app and ran it. When I connect to Com 3 with the plx plugged in and assigned to port 3 the terminal screen starts to fill up with text.

When I try to connect without the plx plugged in I get an error saying "cannot connect to port 3"

I reassigned the plx to port 4, and nistune tried to connect, but gave me a frame error then a communication error. I have attached a log of this connection attempt.

Thanks

maglito · Post by **maglito** » Sat May 03, 2008 10:56 am

Matt,

Did you get a chance to look at my latest log file? What should I try next?

Thanks

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sat May 03, 2008 11:04 pm

Your streaming did not look correct, like the data was not interpreted correctly

So I just checked against what is written in the PLX Application note for Developers

Real-time Streaming:
Baud: 2400
Data Bits: 8
Parity: Even
Stop: 1 Bit
In real-time Streaming mode, The 9 data bytes are sent continuously at a rate of 10Hz (10 times per second). A small delay is inserted between byte 9 and byte 1 to ensure 10Hz transmission rate. The R-300/500 continuously streams data in this mode EXCEPT when the user toggles to the Upload to PC menu. The following is an example of the packet sequence.
Speed1Low
Speed1High
Speed2Low
Speed2High
Analog1
Analog2
Analog3
Analog4
EventPacket

But then I've just noticed that I've coded NIStune and the simulator for PLX that I wrote is using NO PARITY, whilst the above specifies EVEN parity. That would do it....

So I've put the changes in and will have a release up this weekend with this fix and a few others being worked on tonight

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sun May 04, 2008 3:05 am

Changes are up now... two of them

You can see all COM ports which will let you select any of them (even if reported as used)

I've changed the baud rate

Let me know how it goes