I have some trouble connecting to the Basic Atom Pro 28 Pin. I have a StarTech USB to serial cable, I’m powering the bot board with a 9V battery.
The leds on the bot board blink when I turn it on.
The first confusion is which IDE I should use. I tried both the Basic Micro IDE and the Basic Atom and the Basic Atom Pro version.
From the Basic Atom version:
In Tools/System Setup, I can find the device (clicking on Find Devices shows COM3: none, COM4: ATOMPro 28pin module). If I then click on the Hardware Test button, I get a dialog saying “Testing Comm…” (what does that stand for anyways?), and it fails saying “Could not Connect!, 1. Check comport settings, 2. check serial cable connection, 3. Check power connection”).
From the Basic Atom PRO version:
In Tools/Preferences, if I click on the Find AtomPRO button, it checks ports 3 and 4 and fails saying “Could not find AtomPro”.
I tried changing the Reset Hold time to 10 and 50. I set the bauds at 38400 in both the settings of the port and the IDE. I tried connecting from a laptop and a desktop PC. I don’t know what to try anymore…
For RS232 serial cable PC comunications the baud rate should be set to 11500 if I remeber correctly (I forget the actual rate number, I’m at work without the IDE for reference) Also, there is a jumper on the bot board that needs to be set for PC serial port communications at 11500 baud, again, check the actual baud rate in the manual, I can’t remember off the top of my head. Refer to the manual for correct jumper settings and make sure the power is off or removed before making this change.
The message “Testing Comm…” means Testing Communications with the serial port.
First the easy question: Which IDE. You should use the Atom Pro IDE. Probably 8.0.1.0 or 8.0.1.1 if it has been released yet.
Now the harder part. When you power the bot board with the 9V battery, you say the LEDS blink? Which LEDS? There is a green LED near the battery connection. Does this stay lit up? If not I suspect you might have a short, or maybe not all of the processors pins are properly seated in the connector. Do you have other things connected to this board? If so I would probably remove most everything except the battery connection and the RS232 cable and see if it can talk.
So the Atom IDE finds the device but the Atom Pro IDE does not. My reset hold time is set to 25, but I am currently using a different USB to serial adapter on this machine(BAFO). I have used Startech ones in the past on different machines and they have worked fine. I have had to tweek some of their advanced device settings in the Device Manager to improve the download speeds. You might try searching this forum for FTDI. For example: TCIII fixed his FTDI based USB adpater by changing the Latency Time to 3. You do this by going to the Device Manager (Assuming a MS based machine). Then under ports(COM…) you will find your USB to serial adpater. Bring up Properties on this device. Go to the Port Settings page. Click on the Advanced button and it should be there.
Sorry for not being very precise… The power led stays on all the time. The 3 leds next to the buttons are most of the time on but get turned off for a msec one after the other in what I assume is the default program in the atom. If I put the jumper for the speaker, it also ticks every few seconds.
When I try to connect from the IDE, most of the time the leds get turned off. They turn back on a few seconds after failure.
No, nothing else is connected to the board
In the advanced settings, I have the option to turn of “FIFO buffers (requires 16550 compatible UART)”. If this is enabled, I also have the possibility to change some settings for Recent and Transmit buffer (from 1 to 14 for receive buffer, and 1 to 16 for transmit buffer)
I can’t find anything related to latency
If I were you, I would try using a regular data cable to see if you can find the Atom pro. If you can, then that would rule out the ABB of having any problems. If your PC does not have a serial port that you can use, then I guess you will have to look at settings kurte was suggesting and working from there.
I think it is likely one of two problems: either your settings with the ABB - or - Settings pertaining to the USB adaptor. Using a straight through RS232 serial data cable could help narrow down which of the two areas you need to be looking at.
These look like the same settings I have for my Prolific based USB to serial converter (BAFO) running on Vista. Is your adapter have Prolific or FTDI or some other drivers?
I had problems making my BAFO adapter work properly until I ran it through a wall wart powered USB hub. I am currently using a Linksys Proconnect USB 4-port hub. I am not sure if that is necessary on my newer desktop machine as the USB ports are powered, but since it works fine though the HUB I have left it that way…
It’s a prolific driver. It’s really annoying that I can’t connect to it directly. I was planning to communicate with the bot board with a laptop that I would put on my robot.
I find surprising that the Atom IDE (not pro) finds the device. It means that it somehow managed to communicate with it. Why would the connection from the AtomPRO fail then?
What is the protocol the IDE uses to communicate with the atom? More specifically, if I’m writing a program where the atom reads data from the serial in, how will the Atom “understand” that the incoming data must be interpreted as “reprogram yourself” and not actually be interpreted by the program?
What SN96 says about a jumper to switch between those two modes make sense, but I can’t find it in the manual.
The actual program download protocol is proprietary I believe. Realize the DTR handshake from the PC is connected to the RESET input of the micro. To initialize a download the PC toggles the DTR line and then presumably has to meet some timing criteria on sending a handshake character to put the bootstrap firmware on the micro into download rather than run mode.
Note that the serial port connected to the db9 connector is half duplex and accessed using the s_in and s_out port labels (which means it is a bit bang only port from your application, it is not the hardware serial port.)
I should first point out that I am by no means a USB or serial communications expert. AcidTech knows a lot more what they are expecting. So needing an external powered USB hub is what made mine work. That is there may be other alternatives that will work for you. If you do have an external powered USB like the one I mentioned and try it and it works then you know that it is at least working.
Other things to try. Again go into the device manager and look for the USB hubs or ports that your USB to serial adapter are connected to. Mine have a power options pages as well as a Power Management page. Check to see the power available per port and see what your adapter is requiring. Also look at the Power management page. Try experimenting with the setting for allowing the computer to turn off this device to save power and/or any other settings to see if this helps.
Sorry I can not be more specific
I believe the jumpers that SN96 was talking about was for the SSC32 controller board and not for the mini AAB with the Atom Pro.
might be worth while to locate another computer with an actual serial port… friend, work, school, public library (uh, nevermind that last one maybe) and verify your hardware works so you know what part you are trouble shooting… do the divide and conquer thing.
I agree with EddieB that it would be good to know if your board and processor are working properly. I did have one Atom chip that did not work that I returned for a replacement. Lynxmotions customer service is very good.
If it were me (and it has been in the past) Some other things I would check for include:
It is possible that when you installed the Atom Pro into the mini-aab board, maybe one or more pins got bent over and are not making contact (happened to me). Or maybe the chip is not properly seated. Or maybe it was installed backwards. Or maybe your 9v battery is low on juice…
Check to make sure your serial cable is working. If you have an SSC-32 board, you could connect to this board and use a terminal to see if the communications is working properly. This is probably a long shot as you said that the Atom IDE said it found the chip on Com4.
You could try a different USB to serial adapter. Maybe one that has the FTDI chip set.
You could check for updated drivers for your prolific chip set.
Once you have your cable installed through your powered USB HUB (with power to the hub…) I would again try experimenting with reset hold time. Try back at 25 maybe 10, 15, 30…
Set the VL_VS jumper circled in yellow and 9v battery snap leads as shown. Also take note of the Basic Atom Pro module installation.
Use a straight through serial data cable and find a PC that has an RS232 serial port. Also, I would uninstall the Basic Atom Pro software and then reinstall it to make sure all the settings are back to their defaults, because I know you probably made lots of changes with these settings. If none of this works, you might have a bad Basic Atom Pro module and you might want to mail both the ABB board and Atom Pro module to Lynxmotion to see if they (Jim) can determine what the problem is.
I found a computer with a serial port, installed the AtomPRO IDE, but it still couldn’t find it (click on Tools/Preference/Find AtomPro). I used the serial cable that I bought on lynxmotion website (model number DB9-02)
I checked that the atom is inserted correctly, in the right direction, no legs are bent. The VS-VL jumper didn’t help.
There are 7 “parts” involved as far as I can tell:
The computer (I tried 3 different ones, 2 with the serial-usb adaptor and 1 without)
The USB-serial (I tried once without)
The serial cable
The atom board
The atom pro 28 pins
The battery (I tried with a new battery and also with a 6V adaptor)
Me (like in I’m doing something wrong with the software, missreading the results…)
I think at that point I’d like to send back the board, the atom and the serial cable (I know that it’s unlikely that it’s the cable, but hey… who knows) to lynxmotion to have them replace the part that doesn’t work (or test on their machine that it works and show that I’m the defective component )
How can I do that? What address should I send the package to?
Sorry it took me so long to reply. I was out last Friday, and most of Today… Just send the stuff to the PO Box listed on the website. I will fix you up ASAP! I too am sorry for your troubles on this. We will get it fixed for you!
Bad news dude. I connected your Bot Board, Atom Pro, and DB9 cable to my PC and programmed it with no problems with the 7.2.0.6 version of the Pro IDE. I dunno what could be wrong with your setup, or procedure but the hardware is working properly. I am sending the stuff back to you today. When you get it back we can look further at what you’re doing. At least we know the hardware is functional, so we should be able to figure out what’s going on on your end.
When you get the stuff back, try to include pictures of your setup so we can see. It would be helpful, and you never know, we might be able to spot someting you are over looking.
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Just send the stuff to the PO Box listed on the website. I will fix you up ASAP! I too am sorry for your troubles on this. We will get it fixed for you! 
I connected your Bot Board, Atom Pro, and DB9 cable to my PC and programmed it with no problems with the 7.2.0.6 version of the Pro IDE. I dunno what could be wrong with your setup, or procedure but the hardware is working properly. I am sending the stuff back to you today. When you get it back we can look further at what you’re doing. At least we know the hardware is functional, so we should be able to figure out what’s going on on your end.