Ren48 LSD troubleshooting with Holidaycoro floods

[acreiss]

Ok, I just built a Ren48lsd and these floods. I can't seem to get anything to work. I bought the 12v power supply from Holiday Coro as well. I installed everything that came with the board for 12v operation.
I wired 1,3,5 as power 2 as red 4 as green and 6 as blue on the cat 5 cable. I also tried to reflash the pics but I am not sure whats going on there either. I have the PicKit 3 and it has a multi input board that came with it.
(40,20,18) lockdown spots. I am not sure what I am supposed to do and where to put the pic. All references in the wiki are for a different board that fits the pic perfectly.
I also set up everything in Vixen as I normally would for my show. Com port, Baud rate and renard input. I am at a loss and very frustrated!! Close to trashing the whole project.
This is my first try at pixels or any RGB all together and finding it to difficult..
Please help if you can..

Sorry if this is in the wrong spot but wanted to show what I purchased RGB wise. Everything I ordered came quickly and in great shape. The issue is with me and my building skills.
Not the product

[CaptKirk]

I have one of those 40 pin adapters also that I use to program my 16F688. On mine, it shows on the PCB that the ZIF socket is on where the various size pics go. The 16F688 is a 14 pin part, so look for the 14 and the lines indicating where it goes. Here is a picture of how mine works. The circled text is the 14 pin position on MY socket, the yellow box is where the PIC goes, and pin 1 usually goes toward the lever. Hope this helps.

pic_zif.jpg

[budude]

Ok, I just built a Ren48lsd and these floods. I can't seem to get anything to work. I bought the 12v power supply from Holiday Coro as well. I installed everything that came with the board for 12v operation.
I wired 1,3,5 as power 2 as red 4 as green and 6 as blue on the cat 5 cable. I also tried to reflash the pics but I am not sure whats going on there either. I have the PicKit 3 and it has a multi input board that came with it.
(40,20,18) lockdown spots. I am not sure what I am supposed to do and where to put the pic. All references in the wiki are for a different board that fits the pic perfectly.
I also set up everything in Vixen as I normally would for my show. Com port, Baud rate and renard input. I am at a loss and very frustrated!! Close to trashing the whole project.
This is my first try at pixels or any RGB all together and finding it to difficult..
Please help if you can..

Sorry if this is in the wrong spot but wanted to show what I purchased RGB wise. Everything I ordered came quickly and in great shape. The issue is with me and my building skills.
Not the product

Please post a PIC of the ZIF adapter you have - if it's an all-in-one unit it sounds much like mine. Also - be sure to use the code (hex file) from the File Library (which is probably linked from the Wiki as well) as I know that code is 100%. I use the 20-pin socket (lower-right with PIC socket on top) with the PIC all the way to the top of the socket (i.e. Pin 1 = Pin 1). btw - if you *do* have the same one - take off that #*$@) top plate - it's completely useless...

[acreiss]

I do have the same one as you Brian. I was thinking the same thing about the top plate. It just gets in the way and gets me frustrated. I did use the hex file from the wiki. I tried mplab and then the pickit3 software. I am not sure if the pics are flashed. I purchased the parts from you in a group buy a long time ago and just got around to building it because I got the Rgb's. I seem to get no power to the flood for some reason. I have 12v to J1 and the jumper on for my serial cable. I just don't know. Does my wiring seem like it would work?

[budude]

I think you meant you got the parts from Dave/Todd - I've only sold PCBs back in the day. Do you have a v3b or a v3c PCB - guessing v3b if you got it a long time ago. I prefer using the PICKit software over MPLAB for flashing the PICs - much simpler. The only major difference between the v3b and v3c is the voltage regulator section - the rest is more or less the same. You can follow much of the troubleshooting steps from the v3c wiki page. I assume by jumper you mean the "RS232" jumper.

[Wayne J]

Please post a PIC of the ZIF adapter you have - if it's an all-in-one unit it sounds much like mine. Also - be sure to use the code (hex file) from the File Library (which is probably linked from the Wiki as well) as I know that code is 100%. I use the 20-pin socket (lower-right with PIC socket on top) with the PIC all the way to the top of the socket (i.e. Pin 1 = Pin 1). btw - if you *do* have the same one - take off that #*$@) top plate - it's completely useless...

LOL... every time I have looked at the picture of those I have wondered why they even put it on there.

[acreiss]

I have the vc3 pcb yes I did mean the RS232 jumper sry. I wasn't sure if I bought the parts from you. I know I did purchase a few of the pcb's when you had a special. Do you use the new pickit software or an older version? Sorry for all the questions I just don't want all of this to be money lost.

I will just have to step back and think a little. Getting frustrated never helps. I am sure the answer is simple. This hobby is all about troubleshooting.

[budude]

Actually - - before we get any further - - moderators - please move these last couple of posts to a new thread - don't want to muddy up the OP any more... Don't worry - we'll get your board working!

(thanks mods!)

I've used various versions - I have a PICkit2 myself - did the PICs verify OK?

[CaptKirk]

Oops, sorry for my post, I did not get the part about 3 ZIF sockets on the adapter- I was WAAAAY off! However, the part about putting the smaller part into a bigger socket DOES apply and it sounds like you may have that figured out. If the pickit software recognizes the part, then you got it. You also have to remember to do a manual verify AFTER programming to be sure it actually programmed. That will catch the case where you program a not erased PIC and get garbage. I always do an erase before programming just to be sure.

Would the diag firmware help here if there is one for the 48lsd? If the diag code blinks the part of the flood during the test, that would prove the PIC is working as well as the voltage control to the flood. Then we just need to concentrate on the comms part of the equation.

[budude]

I don't consider the diag software all that useful for the Ren48 - there's no ZC to check, you can check the outputs manually quickly so it comes down to com problems anyway.