Ren24 serial cable not working

[greenmeanie]

I have built the cable to connect the Ren24 from the USB port on the computer with a usb to serial converter and then connect it to the board on the RJ45 port on the Ren24.

This the port configuration used:

PC db9 connector.................. RJ45 Connector J4 IN
Pin 3 {Data} =============> Pin 4
Pin 5 {Gnd} =============> Pin 5

Then the db9 connector is connected to the usb to serial converter. My first question is that above diagram correct for the Ren24? When I have this connected like this there is no data sent from vixen to the boards. I have the com port set in vixen to match the usb serial converter the baud rates match also,


I have flashed the pic chip with the diagnostic firmware , channels 2 and 5 both blink. The problem is with the serial transmission. If I remove the blue wire (pin 4 on the rj45 cable) from pin 3 i get channel 6 to flash on. Channel 6 will only flash on when I remove the wire. In vixen if i use the test program if I keep clicking the llselect all button in the test program channel 6 will flash. The minute i put the pic chips to the PWM Firmware then install them back in the board and hook everthing back up I get nothing.

The same thing happens when using com1 serial port on the back of the laptop.
Vixen will not turn on any of the channels.

[P. Short]

Not quite right...

1) Renard24 has pins 4 and 5 backwards from the Renard16 and Renard64 - RS232 data should come in on pin 5, not pin 4.

2) You also need to bring ground to pins 1,2 of the controller.

So...for Renard24 (and Renard8), the pinout should be:

DE9-3 (data) ------------------> RJ45-pin5
DE9-5 (ground) ---------------> RJ45-pins1,2, and 4.

--

Phil

[greenmeanie]

Thanks, that worked.

If that could be added to the wiki it would be beneficial to others I'm sure. Also, I did not realize that the diagnostic firmware didn't send the data initially to channel 6, so that channel 6 would blink, you had to do that in Vixen. :) I read on the wiki to that it said "Also note that this firmware does not re-transmit the serial data, so the 'downstream' PICs won't see any serial data. " I took that to mean that it would transmit something via serial cable but not re-transmit data. Oh well, it is working now.

Thanks again. :D

[P. Short]

I've made the changes in the wiki. I would like to encourage everybody to make changes the wiki when they see the need. After all, that is why the wiki format was chosen.

--

Phil

[Wayne J]

I am bumping this up. I was troubleshooting a 2.5.0 Renard 24 this weekend and all the reference I could find did not describe this. Finally after talking to Frank, found this was what it took to fix the issue (framing error) I also could not find the info for the extra grounds which also are needed.
It would be nice if this info could be neatly documented in the Wiki. ;)

[Wayne J]

OK, I found some issues with this in the wiki. I have now found the reference that Phil made, and totally oppisite info on another page. That is what got me. I shall fix this. :)

[Wayne J]

I copied Phil's reference and placed it in the Ren24 page at the bottom.

http://www.christmasinshirley.com/wiki/index.php?title=24_Channel_Renard_with_SSR_Assembl y_Instructions#PC_to_Renard24_Cable