Grinch communication problems/questions.

M

mberghi

New member
Hi all,
I'm a newbie to lighting control and I just finished building a Grinch and am having trouble getting it to work with vixen. Is there a way to easily check to see whether it is communicating with your PC and/or Vixen. I have it set for "Simple 595." Is there another plug in I should use instead?
Another question and I know this is in the wrong section but I just finished my first few SSRs and they are not working either, (LED is not lighting up and not sequencing lights) It is this design:
http://doityourselfchristmas.com/wiki/index.php?title=4_Channel_SSROZ_Assembly_Instructions
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks,
Mike
P.S. oh and I am using a "5v DC 1.0 amp max" power supply and the LED lights up on the grinch board.
 
OK I changed the plug in from simple 595 to Olsen 595 and it was already set to EPP in the bios. Actually in the bios there were several choices with EPP. I will list the choices:
EPP1.9+SPP
EPP1.9+ECP
EPP1.7+SPP
EPP1.7+ECP
Printer
SPP
ECP
I believe mine is on the EPP1.7+ECP, but does that matter? Is there a way to put my multimeter on different parts of the board to see if it is getting a signal? or the RJ45 plug coming from the PC's parallel port?
Thanks,
Mike
P.S. oh and it is still not working
 
The first thing to check and double check, is the cable from the paralell port to the controller. This cable is real easy to get the pin connections in the wrong order. Make sure this cable is correct before any other trouble shooting is done. :wink:
 
Wayne is dead on check and double check the cable as this is most likely the problem and easy to get wrong.
 
I had the same problem come to find out it was my pins swapped, the pic of the lpt port I was using as a guide was reversed.
 
I should add, in that pic with the pin numbers. The pin 'GND' should have at least 3 of the wires from pins 18 - 25 of the paralell port connected to it, along with the power supply's ground wire.
 
Look very carefully into the connector (may have to use a magnifying glass) they are usually numbered.
 
OK I know I have the cable correct and Still no luck. Any other ideas. The Light on the SSR does not light up at all. Is that supposed to light to show power, or in sequence with the show?
 
I know I had no luck with the LEDs on the SSRs lighting up. I have both Johns and Sean's SSRs and could not get them to light up. I lined up the flat edge of the LED with the flat edge on the print but no luck. But I never checked the LED's either, so its possible they didn't work or had thier flat edge on the wrong node (they were cheap)

Best bet is to plug in the SSR to the Grinch and the power supply that will drive your lights and see if you get any lights turning on and off. That is how I did my quick tests. Can't beat a test that checks the real thing.

The other thing I did was build the CAT 5 version of the tester shown in step 7 at this link

http://computerchristmas.com/christ...d-117/Output_Tester_for_595_and_Renard_boards

and plugged that into the Grinch board and ran some sequences. Of course this only checks to see if you are getting the right signals out of the Grinch. Plugging in the SSR will tell you if everything else is workign right.

Not saying I did the best thing - but I did the best thing for me. :D

Steve
 
Power supply was an extra wall ACDC adapter laying around it is a Phihong model: PSCO5R-050
it says output is5v 1.0 A max.
It also says it is a switching power supply
 
Ok I have been playing with my multimeter and the input from the parallel port. If you go by the grinch controller construction notes v1.0
http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/forum/download.php?id=8
they go like this
1: 5VDC
2
3:ground
4
5:clock
6:
7:strobe
8:data
I was reading about the voltage required from the parallel port. With my Power supply off it reads 2.72 VDC on pin 8, 2.62 VDC on pin 7, and 2.62 VDC on pin 5.
When I power up the board those voltages jump to 3.3 vdc on those same pins and 5.25 vdc on pin 1(is that too high on pin1?) When I read reread the construction notes, it said that he lowered the power supply voltage when his lpt output voltage was lower. Do you think this may fix my problem, and do these voltages sound right .
Thanks for all the help
Mike
 
You need to drop the supply voltage to about 4.5 volts. The MBI IC's are finicky A diode inline may do the trick.
 
just figured out why my SSRs arent working......I double checked my parts and I accidentally ordered a 680K ohm resistor istead of a 680 ohm resistor. Im glad resistors are cheap.
 
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