Open Cockpit Master Card

[captsahil]

Hi there,

It seems I have a strange problem with my IOCARD.

I have built the mastercard my slf and tested all the circuits. In the on position after supplying power i have checked all ic's for 5 volts. I have checked the resistors and other circuits.

When i start contraloder, I get a input which says 000-009-018-027-036-045-054-063 .

If I start contraloder without connecting the mastercard I get the same input. This is strange. If I uninstall and reinstall the parellel port The input numbers increase to 71 but restarting contraloder is again shows the same inputs till 063. I have tried all settings in BIOS .

I have also tried shorting pin 1 and other pins. There is no difference to the contraloder input box.

Maybe something wrong with my LPT Port? anyway to check? Anwyay to check what the problem with the mastercard could be if there is?

My operating system is windows XP. Ok I managed hooking up the card to another computer. This time the input window showed blank wether I connected the mastercard or not after pressing start. It did not take in any inputs either on the J3 or J4.

1) Computer 1 - It seems there is also a problem with the parallel port or software interaction with it. Wether I connect the master card or not 000-009-018-027-036......-062 is always displayed after pressing start. All the configs have been tried in BIOS Bi, ECP+EPP and Normal.

2) Computer 2 - After connecting the master card or not, the input window remained blank. The modes were SPP, EPP+ECP, and EPP. selected allow interrupts and plug in for legace plug and play in the LPT 1 properties.

Now how can we proceed frther on these issues?

Do you think we could check each pin with a multimeter on the mastercard DB25 and Extended parallel cable?

Under what circumstances would the mastercard not interact with the parallel port at all?

HOw can we check for a bad parallel port on the CPU?

Checking the PIns all show 5 volts with gnd. Why could be avioding the parallel connection from picking it up?

Look forward to your reply guys. Help me out I am stuck !!!!

CHeers

Sahil

[bindook]

Sahil,
Have u contacted or left a message in the opencockpit forum?


Michael

[737NUT]

Get the USB interface card for the master card. Trying to use the printer port is an act in futility!! Trust me! You need aspecial cable if you must use printer port but even then it is trial and error. Getting the usb makes it plug and play

[captsahil]

Hey ,

Thanks for the reply.

The problem getting the usb CARD is that I have all the parts ready except for the 16C745.

To order that via opencockpits is working out too expensive as I am goign to end up spending double the amount on shipping.

And I have not been able to find a suitable alternative here in Inida. PIC16C745 seems to unvailable, And even if I do find it, Most of the PIC programmers here are yet to find and to top it up they are home made and I wonder if they will be able to work it out.

Any suggestions on that ?

[washburn_it]

I have my Master Card perfectly working through the parallel port, I had just to find the right setting for it.
Have you checked your board for short circuits among soldering?

Regards,

Roberto

[captsahil]

Checked for the shorts on the boards. But cant check further unless there are atleast some inputs on the contraloder window. It just continously says 000-009-018.....-063 wether the card is connected or not.


Can you shed more light on what setting you used for the parallel port?

[washburn_it]

My settings are:

from BIOS --> LPT Mode Normal (or SPP)
IRQ 7

from Windows --> (Hardware properties) No Interrupt Used (this is translated from my localized version of XP)
Enable previous Plug & Play detecting
Port Number LPT1


Hope this helps.
The strange thing is that you have a weird behaviour even if the board is not connected, are you sure that your parallel port is not broken or defective?

Regards,

Roberto