connecting USB to home made circuit board

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danielwi11iams

New Member
Hi can someone help??
I made a circuit board and I'm having trouble connecting it with my USB cable.

I programmed the chip (08M) with the Experimenter Kit. but when I transfered it to my own circuit board with connections to convert to USB it comes up with the error of not been connected. If I move it back to the Experimenter Kit it is ok.

My circuit board has all the resistor like it shows in the Getting started guild but it still will not connect.

Would I have to use a serial lead instead of a USB lead for this to work.
 
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Andrew Cowan

Senior Member
danielwi11iams said:
Hi can someone help??
I made a circuit board and I'm having trouble connecting it with my USB cable.

...with connections to convert to USB...
Click to expand...
The USB lead should ork if the serial lead does.

What are the connections to convert to USB you talk about? All the converting is done in the USB lead (if you are talking about the USB010).

Are you using the PICAXE bought USB lead?

Andrew
 
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eclectic

Moderator
Daniel.

To connect to the computer's Serial connector, you need AXE025 or AXE026.

To convert the computer's USB output to a serial signal,
you need USB10 or AXE027.

e
 
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papaof2

Senior Member
Serial connection

danielwi11iams said:
Hi can someone help??
I made a circuit board and I'm having trouble connecting it with my USB cable.

I programmed the chip (08M) with the Experimenter Kit. but when I transfered it to my own circuit board with connections to convert to USB it comes up with the error of not been connected. If I move it back to the Experimenter Kit it is ok.

My circuit board has all the resistor like it shows in the Getting started guild but it still will not connect.

Would I have to use a serial lead instead of a USB lead for this to work.
Click to expand...
The ONLY way to talk to the 08M is via a serial connection.

There is no USB connectivity in any current PICAXE chip.

John
 
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inglewoodpete

Senior Member
I made a circuit board and I'm having trouble connecting it with my USB cable.
Click to expand...
More information, please. Is the USB cable a genuine one from Revolution Education or a substitute? Please give us all the infomation you can on your adapter cable. (Source, Make, Model, Chipset etc).

Finally, if the cable you are using is the genuine Rev-Ed one or one with a compatible chipset (Prolific), have you loaded the proper driver from the Rev-Ed website or disc? The manufacturer's driver for prolific chipset does not seem to work for me.
 
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danielwi11iams

New Member
The lead and the chips I have are the real thing, I just want to make a circuit board so I don't have to take the chip out and place it back in the the Experimenter Kit to program it again.

The USB lead plugs into a 3.5mm Socket Jack and changes to a three pin header plug. like you would find on a circuit board with jumper switches.

The reason for this is to keep the weight down on the circuit board.

Everything I have was brought from PICAXE website to program the chip. It is only when I move the chip in to the home made circuit board is when I have the trouble fine tuning the chip.

The lead I'm using is a AXE027 USB lead
 
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BeanieBots

Moderator
To put it very simply, you've made an error in your circuit.
If it works in the experimenter board, then it will work on your board if the circuit is correct and the power supply is correct.

As mentioned, please post diagram and/or photo of your board.
It is very likely that somebody will quickly spot the error.
 
hippy

hippy

Ex-Staff (retired)
danielwi11iams said:
Here is the design of the circuit, hope you can make out the connections.
Click to expand...
You have a three-pin molex on the PCB wired out-0V-in which isn't the normal 3-pin molex connection used for a PICAXE download cable ( See page 34, PICAXE Manual 1 ). That may not be a major problem provided you have your 3-pin to 3.5mm jack socket wired correctly.

Also, looking at your "Power from RC receiver"; the green track doesn't appear to link to the rest of the circuit.
 
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alband

Senior Member
Yea, you havn't actually got any power going to the chip.

Out of interest, how are you going to move the landing gear and why are you using a PICAXE?
Also what voltage is the Rx giving? If you're using a li-poly (I assume you are as you mentioned weight being an issue), they normally supply 3.7V - not enough for PICAXE.
 
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alband

Senior Member
Picaxe manual1:
However some computers may require a 4.5V to 5.5V PICAXE power supply to
enable correct communication whilst actually downloading a new program (ie
a 3V supply may not enable a new program to be successfully downloaded,
depending on the type of computer used).
Click to expand...
I'm finding it hard to understand how that circuit actually works let-a-lone downloads.

Ah (I've just read the .pdf again - it's changed!)

In that case I'm not sure what's going on.
Let's just sum up:
You have a chip - it work fine.
You can download normally in the old circuit.
You can download using the USB cable in the old circuit?
Can you download in the new circuit using a standard RS232 cable?

What power supply is the chopper using and are you sure it can cope with current draw etc.?
What OS are you using. I'm on Vista and never managed to get my AXE27 working; gave up and booted up my old PC with a RS232 connector.

Edit: Following on hippy's comment page 34:
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/docs/datasheets/picaxe_manual1.pdf
 
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danielwi11iams

New Member
Yes I explained that I sent the wrong pdf, and renewed it.

To sum up.
The home made circuit works fine as a circuit.
Tried to connect to computer with USB using the home made board, it will not work.
Remove chip from home made board and place it in Experimenter Kit and it will connect to PC for re-programming.

My helicopter is running on 4.8volts

I'm running Win XP and the USB lead works fine with the Experimenter Kit. Do you think I need to make a RS232 lead to program the home made board???
 
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alband

Senior Member
No, If it worked on the exp board it should work on your's.
Therefore there must be something wrong with your board but I don't think I can find anything wrong.

When you download to the Exp board with the USB cable it works. Are you using that green 3.5mm to 3-pin 0.1" adapter? If your not, then check the adapter on the exp board. If you can't check the adapter on the exp board then just check the adapters the connections with a multimeter with reference to page 34 in the previous link. I suspect that it is connected differently to how you think and thus the board wont be connected right.

If you PC has an RS232 port of you have a patient friend with one see if you can download onto the new board using an RS232 cable.

Also, I believe there are test that can be done to see if the cable is working. Something like connecting the Rx and Tx line the sending a test signal using the editor - anyone know of this properly?
 
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danielwi11iams

New Member
Thanks for your help.
I'm pretty shore that the lead is connected right but I'll cheak it.

Do you know if the RS232 lead can be home made??? or is there hiden circuit within the real lead from PICAXE like the USB lead has.
 
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alband

Senior Member
The RS232 lead has no circuitry, so if you have a RS232 port it can be done.
Why are you using PICAXE for this project? It's for a RC helicopter isn't it - the landing gear?
I'm sure you can get undercarage gear from hobbies shops...
 
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eclectic

Moderator
Daniel,
just to recap, the diagram is from Manual 1, page 34.

Pay particular attention to the stereo plug and the
internal connections of the socket.

e
 

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danielwi11iams

New Member
Made a serial lead and connected it to my Experiment kit and it will not work. is there a way of testing the com port to make sure there is a signal being sent???
 
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