LEDTRIKS Help

[surfersteve]

I finishe my first board and get nothing but random flicker and the top and bottom lines on. I am using a filtered artesyn power supply. which ground should be used to attach to parallel port ground?Is it the ground marked on the power supply chassis where the standoff hole is (attached directly to the ac ground coming from the wall) or to the dc return line on the 5vdc side? (the one which goes to ground on the controller) Any help would be great as I have 3 more boards to do. Thanks all

[prof]

The parallel port ground (which is 0V on the PC) goes to the dc return side of the 5V power supply.

[surfersteve]

Thats what I figured, but no sense in taking any chances and not double checking. Ok so now that I have cleared that up, made any changes that needed to be made, I get 2 vertical columns to light, one on the left and one on the right about. Both are about 5 to 6 columns in. Any ideas. Thanks for all your help.

[Josh]

i have no experience with LEDtrix, but i know on other Parallel port applications, the port mode can cause issues. try changing it in bios to other modes and see what you get.

[surfersteve]

i have no experience with LEDtrix, but i know on other Parallel port applications, the port mode can cause issues. try changing it in bios to other modes and see what you get.

Thanks, ill give it a shot when I get home. I looked at the LPT1 setting last night, but didnt mess with them yet.

[surfersteve]

ok, I came home and test all the leds, found 2 with bad solder joints, one of which actaully turned on a bunch of others bc of the floating ground. I ran a LEDTRIKS seq and still get the vertical bars, some barely lit and others brightly lit. One of the columns seems to have a dead led, I am now testing each one again. Any idea on possible parellel port settings.

[Josh]

if it is like the grinch and other parallel ports, it really depends on the bios and motherboard manfacture, It seems that even though they should be the same standard, each individual has different results. I think it is EPP that is most common,but its been awhile.

[Ronp]

You do have a ground running from the panel to the control pc .ether to the parallel port or to the case...
What chips are you using alegro or mbi
How long is the cat5 cable...try a short one 10ft ish
Recheck all the pins on the parellel to the cat5..

Make sure all chips in correctly...... swap alegroes/ mbi if 1st one is bad none will work

http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/wiki/index.php?title=LedTriks_Controller_Assembly_Instr uctions#Connecting_the_LEDTRIKS_to_your_PC

[surfersteve]

All chips are in correctly and I do have the ground. I found that when I swapped out the controller with one of the other 4 hat it almost works. I can make out what it says as it scrolls, but its very squigly like I have seen in other peoples videos on you tube of it malfunctioning, All leds were retested and good. I think I have a problem with a few open connections from the anodes/cathoes back to the controller. I just made a test board with an rj45 jack that splits the pins out for me. I am not sure if I will get to it tonight. will post more when I test the leads. FYI, the same few columnds are lit continuously when a seq is running so I think I will find my problem there, thanks all for the help so far.

[surfersteve]

Update.
I went through all of my wiring and all is correct even the data cable. Grounds are solid as well. The few lines that stayed on during a seq were marked. I discovered a few bad leds, they were lit but not as bright as the others. Replaced those three and the bright vertical lines are gone. The message is still very squigly. And if I clear all frames and just hit play, there are a bunch more columns lit than I previously thought, (they were there the hole time) these however are very dim, some barely visible in pitch dark. These pixels light up at full brightness when they are suppose to as a message scrolls. Certain ones in each column are brighter than others. Any ideas before I go any further

[Ronp]

What chips did you use? allegro or mbi.
what type type of pc desktop or laptop, Prossesor?

[surfersteve]

Ok,, I used the allegro chips. My desktop is custom built with an Intel quad core, with 4gig of RAM on an asus mother board. LPT port has never been used for any thing or configured for a printer as all of my printers are USB.

[surfersteve]

These barely lit columns that came on when I hit play with no frames present, also come on when I unplug the DATA cord from the computer and leave power applied to the controller, not sure of that is a clue

[Ronp]

have you swapped the data cable ?

[surfersteve]

I built a brand new one with the same results. Had a few others verify pinout, even ran it through a Cirrus Cable tester and checked the nets

[Ronp]

another test
Test all the leds I use a multimeter check continuality of the anode legs
Place one lead on first led the the second on the second then 3rd and so on…
Test 2 I use a 3v battery to light each led .you may find a few may be dim if so
Check that they are not making contact between the anode and cathode legs if not
Remove and replace the led

[Ronp]

http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=332