Triks-c, Putting it all together

Mike - do you have the chip programmed? It won't light up, until you do, and then it will blink as the "heartbeat" when running the diagnostic, the jumper on the 2nd set of pins. If you just power it on, and just see the "Vixen V.2", then it won't blink. At least that's how mine is working. Here's what the manual says:

Suggested Testing approach:
• Set jumper J2 to run the diagnostic sequence
• Power up the Ledtriks and the Triks C
• You should see a power LED on the Triks C
• You should see a splash screen followed by a scrolling diagonal and block on the Panel

It doesn't talk about the Diag LED, but I will be adding it...


There may be better answers...

Roger
 
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The diag light flickers on incoming data from the pc I think, but also... From my nowhere near finished triks-c manual:

Position 2: This is used as a Stand-alone test of the board (i.e. no computer attached). It places the Triks-C into a scrolling test where the Triks-C name and firmware version is shown on 2 lines, and is scrolled off to the left by an alternating solid block and angled line test. The Diag light on the Triks-C also flashes at about 2 Hz in this mode.
 
Thanks all,
I haven't hooked it up to the computer yet nor have I built the LED pannel yet. Just trying to get some info on it. I will be on the lookout for those things when I finally do get the rest of the components put together.
 
I believe that Diag Led comes on when you are programing the chip. At least that is the only time I have every seen it pop on. Granted that was just with an AVR programmer hooked up to it, as I haven't quite finished compiling the code for stand alone mode yet.
 
I got my Triks-C built (along with panels and Triks) and was planning to use my existing LOR USB-RS485 dongle. I found that you need to swap pins 4 and 5 around (I just hacked up a short enet cable) to get it to work. Once that was done, LTC (have v 0.9) worked great to control the panel.

The only issue I saw - especially during the self-test was some "artifacts" on the 3rd panel (outputs from J2/J3 on the Triks) where I would see random blinks/blanks, etc. I rotated the driver chips around but that had no effect. I have a strong power supply (5V/12A) so it's not the problem. It wasn't as obvious when using LTC and running scripts with it so I'm not too concerned but just wondering if anyone else had seen this?
 
budude said:
I got my Triks-C built (along with panels and Triks) and was planning to use my existing LOR USB-RS485 dongle. I found that you need to swap pins 4 and 5 around (I just hacked up a short enet cable) to get it to work. Once that was done, LTC (have v 0.9) worked great to control the panel.

The only issue I saw - especially during the self-test was some "artifacts" on the 3rd panel (outputs from J2/J3 on the Triks) where I would see random blinks/blanks, etc. I rotated the driver chips around but that had no effect. I have a strong power supply (5V/12A) so it's not the problem. It wasn't as obvious when using LTC and running scripts with it so I'm not too concerned but just wondering if anyone else had seen this?
Click to expand...

Yup. Do a search (or I think it's even posted in this thread) about adding a diode to the power supply to the Triks board. +5V is apparently a bit too much for the Triks. Throwing in the recommended diode drops the supply voltage down a bit (I think to around 4.3V), and clears up MANY of the artifact problems you are describing.
 
Thanks Mike - sure enough - there are two links:
http://doityourselfchristmas.com/for...ead.php?t=4126 specifically for dropping the voltage to the 4.6V range and:
http://doityourselfchristmas.com/for...ead.php?t=6383 which talks about tying up the cathodes to the 5V rail with resistors

Guess it depends what you are seeing but the first looks to be my issue as it seems to be more of a row problem than columns (and the video WildWillie provided looked identical!). My supply has an adjust on it so I'll try that first - if not a diode is simple enough to add.

UPDATE: I was able to adjust my PS from 4.97 to 4.70 volts via the trimmer pot and now it's a perfect display - loving it!

Thanks
Brian
 
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budude said:
Thanks Mike - sure enough - there are two links:...
Click to expand...

My pleasure. Just passing along what I learned.

Also, once you get the supply voltage down, you may start to see 'dim' columns. There is a post around here for those too (short answer: bad LED is allowing voltage to pass backwards lighting the rest of the column). I had 3 of those on my completed board as well.
 
Reading the manual in the wiki, LTC.exe is supposed to ask how many panels I am using. I am using version 0.6 as found in post #2 of this thread. Should i find a later version?
Thanks
Rebe
 
Another question for the group: What is the maximum distance between the TRIKS-C and the TRIKS?
I am thinking about mounting the TRIKS to the pannel itself and leaving the TRIKS-C next to the computer. I am looking at about 60 feet between the two.
Thanks,
Mike
 
I believe the build manual specifies less than 1 foot (as short as possible I believe is the wording) so that option won't work.
 
If using a program other than AVRDude, what are the fuse settings (HI or LOW) for the LFUSE, HFUSE, and EFUSE? Thanks.
Keith
 
Hi Keith

This might help. It comes from here

TRIKSCFUSES.jpg

There is one trick to think about. See how selecting a fuse in the above table is inverted (=0) in the bitmap that is sent using AVRDUDE to the chip? Just need to understand whether your programmer software is doing the inversion or not.

Tim
 
Thanks Tim,
I found that site before your post. I was using Bascom-AVR (and an Olimex board), and if I had thought out things clearly, I would have known 1110 1111 was EF, but it took me a while. Anyway, burned the chip and it still did not work. Will wait for my tiny USB to get here and try AVR dude. This shouldn't be as difficult as it is panning out to be.
Keith

(EDIT) The tinyUSB has arrived and programming is complete, everything is working fine....is there any way to speed up the scrolling in the "stand-alone" mode? Thanks!
 
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