Newby hardware not found problem

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Harry_Worth

New Member
Hi all - new to PICAXE. Bought a 14M2 self assy kit and am struggling to get it working. I can get the "Hello I am your Picaxe - 14M2" in the terminal but I don't seem to be able to send commands down to it. I get a "hardware not found on com 6" etc if I try to check firmware. I've tried linking the pins on the jackplug (not the tip) re the terminal echo test - this test doesn't work - any thoughts? I've tried on two different laptops with the same result.
 
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nick12ab

Senior Member
Welcome to the forum.

What cable are you using? The AXE027? Maybe you have a faulty one. Can you try the 'LED test' as well?
 
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Harry_Worth

New Member
It's the AXE027 cable that came with the kit. Is the LED test the USB Port test where you click the LED? I get a level change 0v - 0.5v - should that be a TTL level or am I looking at the average of a stream of data? The terminal test works at 4800 Baud - is that correct. In device manager the speed is set at 9600.
 
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nick12ab

Senior Member
Harry_Worth said:
Is the LED test the USB Port test where you click the LED?
Click to expand...
Yes

Harry_Worth said:
I get a level change 0v - 0.5v - should that be a TTL level or am I looking at the average of a stream of data?
Click to expand...
On the AXE027, it should be 5V when the LED is on and around 0V when the LED is off. If you're only getting that small level change, then the problem is on the converter board inside the USB plug rather than a connection issue and it looks like the high side driver is busted, so you could try using a pull-up resistor and see if the LED test works properly then.



Harry_Worth said:
The terminal test works at 4800 Baud - is that correct. In device manager the speed is set at 9600.
Click to expand...
The speed in Device Manager doesn't matter as Programming Editor always overrides this.
 
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Harry_Worth

New Member
Hi Nick - quickly soldered a 12k across pins 1 and 2 of the PICAXE. That gave me a voltage swing from around 3.00v to 3.5v.
 
Technical

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
nick12ab said:
Well that was dissapointing. Looks like you'll have to contact Rev-Ed for a refund.

SABorn has previously questioned whether a "bad batch of cables had entered the system"
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By all means send the cable back to us and we will test it for you and exchange as necessary.
There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever of a bad batch of AXE027 cables. Of course the old rogue cable may accidentally get through the factory testing process in China, but it is a rare event. Last year we had less than 10 returned, out of hundreds of thousands sold.

Unfortunately the nature of the forum is that people only tend to post if something doesn't work, the thousands whose AXE027 cables do work fine first time don't generally post...
 
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nick12ab

Senior Member
Technical said:
By all means send the cable back to us and we will test it for you and exchange as necessary.
There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever of a bad batch of AXE027 cables. Of course the old rogue cable may accidentally get through the factory testing process in China, but it is a rare event. Last year we had less than 10 returned, out of hundreds of thousands sold.

Unfortunately the nature of the forum is that people only tend to post if something doesn't work, the thousands whose AXE027 cables do work fine first time don't generally post...
Click to expand...
When investing in an expensive cable, anyone would expect every one of them to work. This is "cheap laptop battery sold on ebay from china" QC, not Rev-Ed QC.
 
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Harry_Worth

New Member
Many thanks Technical/Rev-Ed for the quick turnaround on the cable - all up and running! and again Nick12ab for pointing me in the right direction.
 
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