Any Velleman K8048 Users out there?

[Andy Bateman]

I've just bought a Velleman K8048 from Maplin which I think is just what
I want.

Problem is I built it, lights flash, fantastic. But I can't program with
it, I'm using a USB -> Serial Adaptor on my laptop, a straight through
cable to the board. The software doesn't see the board, even without a
cable plugged into the board 'LD8' the read/write LED lights up, is this
normal?

I've plugged a previously programmed 16F84A (With a home made
programmer) into the board and it works fine for running through other
programs I wrote.

Anyone have any experience with this?

Cheers!

 

[Rich Webb]

I've just bought a Velleman K8048 from Maplin which I think is just what
I want.

Problem is I built it, lights flash, fantastic. But I can't program with
it, I'm using a USB -> Serial Adaptor on my laptop, a straight through
cable to the board. The software doesn't see the board, even without a
cable plugged into the board 'LD8' the read/write LED lights up, is this
normal?

I've plugged a previously programmed 16F84A (With a home made
programmer) into the board and it works fine for running through other
programs I wrote.

Anyone have any experience with this?

(USB to serial adapter) != (PC serial port)

Your best bet is to exhume an older PC that has "real" serial (and
parallel) ports and use it to drive the programmer.

See the thread at http://forum.microchip.com/tm.asp?m=75873 that implies
that the Velleman doesn't use the serial port as a simple "RS-232"
device but does some jiggering with the port signals.

 

[Andy Bateman]

(USB to serial adapter) != (PC serial port)

Your best bet is to exhume an older PC that has "real" serial (and
parallel) ports and use it to drive the programmer.

See the thread at http://forum.microchip.com/tm.asp?m=75873 that implies
that the Velleman doesn't use the serial port as a simple "RS-232"
device but does some jiggering with the port signals.

Yeh.. That was the answer i was expecting, any thoughts on the
read/write light always being lit in prog mode?

 

[scada]

Yeh.. That was the answer i was expecting, any thoughts on the
read/write light always being lit in prog mode?

My guess would be still getting garbage from the USB-Serial device. Have you
considered a PCI to serial board?

 

[scada]

My guess would be still getting garbage from the USB-Serial device. Have you
considered a PCI to serial board?

Ooops! You did say laptop. Maybe you can find a PCMCIA to serial card?

 

[Rich Webb]

Yeh.. That was the answer i was expecting, any thoughts on the
read/write light always being lit in prog mode?

Not other than it's not getting tickled in the way that it's expecting.
You might try a logic analyzer to see what's really happening on the
programmer side of the interface but that doesn't do more for you than
show why it's not working. If the software API isn't cooperating, you're
basically screwed (unless you're up to writing your own).

I've heard rumors of USB-to-RS232 converters that behave properly but I
don't know of any by brand/model. I don't think that there should be any
technical reason why one couldn't be designed to be accessible to
non-standard manipulation but I suspect that the marketplace drives the
commodity market towards the least expensive, simplest behavior; e.g.,
bog-standard RS-232 and nothing else. Device APIs that expect to be able
to access the 16550 UART registers are likely to be disappointed.