Multiple problems with multiple Spoke POV kits

SpokePOV kit for bikes

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ghostwheel
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 4:48 pm

Multiple problems with multiple Spoke POV kits

Post by ghostwheel »

Of course, I always wait until the last minute... I ordered eight SpokePOV kits (4k eeprom) with the intention of dressing up my bike for Burning Man this year. I sat down with my weller one evening and ran all eight boards assembly line style (with the exception of cut traces for the green and blue boards) right up to the LED phase and left off there the first night. The next morning I completed one each of red, yellow, green and blue. I figured that would give me a good start in case I ran out of time and could not finish the others. All four do the power-on light run correctly.

Next phase, programming. I bought the serial dongle because I have a Mac laptop. Since my USB->Serial converted is based on the PL2303 I had to remove all traces of the installed /driver/kernel extension/, reboot, and install the recommended driver. I got that working, and tried programming. Wow, is it slow on the Mac over a USB->Serial converter. Several hundred seconds per bank. I wrote out my test image to one bank, and then tried playing with it. During the programming phase the LEDs on one side of the board walk through each light, twice for each bank programmed.

Passing the magnet over the sensor did affect a change, but not in the patterns I expected; so I hooked it up to a bicycle wheel and gave it a few spins. No image. I programmed all four banks, and tried the bicycle again. Still no response.

Program again... This time verify after each bank. One thru three program and verify, four programs but fails to verify. Program again, no error; verify again, failure. I haven't changed images, so I verify bank one again, failure. Frell. Hook it up to the bike, still no image.

Pull out another unit, repeat test. Four banks program OK, four banks fail to verify, no image on the bike.

OK, I'm frustrated; but it could be USB-Serial converter issues, so I switch to my GF's Windows box. Wow, what a difference in programming! Down from several hundred seconds to a consistent 20.1 seconds per bank. But, if I close the SpokePOV programming application, reopen, and read the bank I just wrote nothing appears in the virtual wheel. I get the exact same results on three of the units I built.

The fourth one has a different problem, it reports an error accessing address 0. It isn't the eeprom, because I tried switching that out with one of the unfinished kits. I also checked for solder bridges, cold joints, and general sloppiness and found nothing. I'm going to just have to set that one aside until after Burning Man.

I'm wondering if anyone has any programming or diagnostic suggestions, or could point me to a FAQ that I have failed to previously find.

Any and all help is appreciated.

ghostwheel
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 4:48 pm

one problem fixed...

Post by ghostwheel »

Well, I fixed the I/O error on unit 4 of 4, but I still can't get any of them to display a stored image after programming.

-Chris

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