Renard troubleshooting

[blake_l]

Maybe I should title this Ren-T troubleshooting, but I have a feeling it may involve Renard as well.

Anyway - first thought - I have to imagine that there are going to be more and more questions as it gets closer to time to put things up and people start the panicked rush to get everything built and working. Would it make sense to start a troubleshooting forum? Whether that happens or not, maybe we could start an FAQ / troubleshooting section within the Wiki?

OK... on to the questions. I'm trying to get my newly built Ren-T and Renard64 working. Before hooking them up to a computer, I thought I'd try the diagnostic code, but I'm not quite sure what's needed for that, or if the Ren-T is even doing what it's supposed to. Here's what I'm seeing right now:

122.7VAC input to the Ren-T
On JR1, 7&8 shows 6.49VDC (1&2 Gnd)
On JR1, 5 shows 4.64VDC (4 Gnd)
First question - does the above sound right? I thought 7&8 should have been closer to 10VDC? Very odd thing is, I can't get any reading from any combination of X3, 4, or 5
Second - what is the purpose of JR2? I thought at first it was (2) outputs, but looking at the schematic, that's obviously not right (I can get understand that much!)

Obviously what sparked all this (no, not literally, thankfully!) is that I'm not getting anything on the Renard - no power LED or anything.

When I plug in a CAT5 cable (15' max) and connect it to the Ren64, the voltage on JR1-5 changes!!! I am now getting 3.174 on the Ren-T side and 3.164 on the Ren64 side!?!?! That drops even further - at the PIC, I am getting 1.34VDC. I tried a different CAT5 cable with basically the same results.

Any brilliant ideas out there?
Thanks for the help!

[Macrosill]

I guess the 1st question would be which build option did you choose for the Ren-T? is the Ren-T being used to supply just the zero cross? Is it supplting power to the Ren-64? Is it converting the RS232 to RS485?

[P. Short]

JR2 is there in case you want to just pass the data signals through the board from one Renard to the next, but use the Ren-T to provide additional power for the downstream Renards.

Also, which transformer are you using, and which diodes do you have installed?

--

Phil

[blake_l]

My intention is for both power and ZC, as well as converting RS232 to RS485 (I doubt I need that part, but it's there so why not).

I am using everything from the co-op BoM -
Ren-T has D1,2,4,7 as 625-1N5819-E3 and the transformer is the Xicon 41PG300
Ren64 has D4 as 78-1N5229B and D5 as 78-1N5239B

Let me say (type) back what I think I understand: If you have multiple Ren64's, you can use a single output from the PC, into the first Ren-T. Ren-T provides power and data to one board through JR1. Ren-T also provides data through JR2 to a second Ren-T, which then provides power and data through JR1, and can pass data on through JR2, etc., etc., ad nauseum as money, yard, budget, and significant other allows.

[P. Short]

Those voltages don't seem totally out of line. The signal on pins 7/8 is unfiltered DC (meaning that it is a half-sine wave going from ground to + 9 peak, and back to ground again). I don't know how your DVM responds to that sort of signal when set to a DC scale - the value may be peak, RMS, or random. If possible, find out what your DVM manual says on that topic.

As far as the signals on pins 4 and 5 goes, these are the RS485 signals. The RS485 termination resistor on the Renard64 (the 120 Ohm resistor) will pull the outputs from the Ren-T (pin 4 will increase a little bit, pin 5 will decrease).

If you are trying to use the Ren-T to power the Renard64, you need to install D1 (as well as U1, C1 and C2), and to use the non-PWM code. Without those components, there is no power on the ICs on the Renard64. There isn't any real way to use the PWM code without supplying regulated DC from an external supply.

JR2 takes input from one Renard, combines that with a 'new' zero-crossing and power signal on pins 7/8, and sends 'output' out JR1 to the next Renard in the chain.