TG and tgFX not talking

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  • September 5, 2013 at 2:51 am #4452
    InPhase
    Member

    Hello all! Just got the v8 board today. I can send it commands via Coolterm no problem. tgFX can see the board and connect, but when queried the board returns nothing. I am extremely new to this, and I haven’t found an answer in the wiki.

    What am I missing?

    September 5, 2013 at 9:27 am #4453
    InPhase
    Member

    I’m sorry. I realize now how vague my first post was. I’ll start again.

    I am running XP 32 bit. I have the FTDI drivers installed. From Coolterm I am able to communicate with the board and send files and get motor movement, so I know it works electrically.

    However, tgFX will connect to the com port but it cannot read the firmware data or query the machine settings. I can alter the settings in the drop downs, but I still can’t drive a motor from tgFX. Somewhere between the com port and tgFX is “broken”, but I don’t have the scripting knowledge to even know where to start.

    Any help you can give is appreciated. This board was meant to be a replacement controller from a Mach3-driven parallel board. I am anxious to get back to machining! HELP!!

    September 5, 2013 at 9:50 am #4454
    cmcgrath5035
    Moderator

    While you wait for Alden or Riley, read all the posts and items relative to firmware versions (for TinyG) and the development status of tgFX.

    Also, suggest you post here the FW Version and Build (get from coolterm $sys) and what version of txFX you have downloaded.

    September 5, 2013 at 6:44 pm #4458
    Riley
    Keymaster

    cmcgrath5035 hit the nail on the head. Can you provide those details. We are in Boston this weekend for the OSHW summit. So we are away from our “benches” however I will see what I can do to help out.

    Riley

    September 5, 2013 at 7:28 pm #4460
    InPhase
    Member

    Thanks to both of you for replying. I have a v8 board that came with 0.95, which didn’t work with the latest 32-bit Windows tgFX release. So, I brought the firmware up to 0.96, build 380.05. Still didn’t work.

    Today, I used a couple of different computers to test it out. The 64-bit version of tgFX works in both XP-x64 and W7-x64 with my board. The 32-bit version doesn’t work.

    Now that’s great news, except the computer in my shop that runs my machine is 32-bit XP! If you fellows don’t have a solution to this, I may have to find a different computer.

    Thanks for looking into this for me.

    September 7, 2013 at 1:56 pm #4466
    Riley
    Keymaster

    Can you be more specific about what does not work? It’s very odd that the 64 bit is working and not the 32. I would initially lean towards a problem with your 32 bit computer. tgJX is self contained (meaning I bundled all the java etc…).

    Does coolterm with with your 32 bit machine and tinyg?

    September 15, 2013 at 10:35 am #4529
    InPhase
    Member

    Sorry it’s been awhile getting to your question. I have now tried it on several different computers.

    Computer 1: AMD Sempron 1.6 GHz, 2 GB RAM, Windows XP 32-bit SP3

    This is the shop computer and tgFX doesn’t work

    Computer 2: Intel i7 2.2 GHz, 3 GB RAM, Windows XP x64 SP2

    tgFX works great with this box

    Computer 3: Intel Atom powered netbook, 1 GB RAM, Windows 7 32-bit

    tgFX doesn’t work

    Computer 4: AMD E-30 1.3 GHz, 2 GB RAM, Windows 7 x64

    Again, tgFX works great. I have since discovered that the shop computer has a 64 bit processor, so I installed XP x64 on it and everything is good there. But something is fishy with the 32 bit tgFX at least when I’ve tried it. As far as it goes on my end, everything is ok now that I installed a 64 bit OS on the computer the machine uses.

    And yes Riley, coolterm worked on every system.

    September 15, 2013 at 10:38 am #4530
    InPhase
    Member

    The specifics of what didn’t work: tgFX would open and I could connect to the com port. However, it would never pull the settings from the board and I could not send commands to it. And that’s all I know.

    September 25, 2013 at 8:25 am #4601
    sjhan12
    Member

    I got the same problem. I got two TinyG boards. One has firmware build 380.02, firmware version 0.95. The other one is firmware build 380.05, firmware version 0.96.

    First one works great with tgFX version 0.95(build number 2.0)(32byte windows 7) and my own program, too. But the other one which I got today doesn’t work with tgFX. It is connected and can send only reset command. But that’s all. It doesn’t response at all. It didn’t work with my own program, either.

    TinyG 0.96 works with Coolterm so that I know the board is electrically fine. One interesting thing is that Home XYZ Axes command in tgFX doesn’t response at all in tgFX program. But when I disconnect the board and connect the board in Coolterm, the homing command starts works.

    It seems that TinyG 0.96 can receive the command from tgFX but can’t talk back to tgFX.

    Therefore, I would like to downgrade my TinyG board. I try to get HEX file of 380.02, 0.95 version. But I can’t find it.

    Please let me know where I can get HEX file of 380.02, 0.95 version

    • This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by sjhan12.
    • This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by sjhan12.
    • This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by sjhan12.
    September 25, 2013 at 9:34 pm #4611
    Riley
    Keymaster

    I just posted a build 2072 tgFX. Try it out. It should work fine with master now. Can any of you guys confirm that this is now working? I built the Win32 binary first. If it is working right I will make the osx and Win64 bins as well.

    Here is the link.
    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/huiupgemipv8f4q/X2l_1EH-gx

    Riley

    September 26, 2013 at 11:29 am #4616
    sjhan12
    Member

    2972tgFX (win32) works great with TinyG 0.96v. But still my own TinyG code doesn’t work with TinyG 0.96v. My own program works well with TinyG 0.95v 380.02.

    Therefore I would like to know what you fix in 2972tgFX from previous 2000tgFX.

    My own application can send “command” but it seems that TinyG hold commands in its buffer. It didn’t response until I disconnect tinyG from my code and reconnect in coolterm.

    When I connect tinyG in coolterm, it starts the commands which I sent in my own application. What’s the solution of this problem? Please let me know.

    One more I would like to downgrade TinyG 0.96v to 0.95v 380.02. Because it works great with my own code before. Please let me know where I can get the source code of TinyG.

    • This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by sjhan12.
    September 26, 2013 at 4:18 pm #4619
    alden
    Member

    We think there’s a bug introduced in 380.05 where on connection if the terminal does not assert RTS the command does not get to TinyG (does not connect). The earlier versions of tgFX did not assert RTS, whereas Coolterm does. This explains why it will connect to Coolterm but not tgFX.

    We have done 2 things. (1) tgFX version 2072 asserts RTS. Right now only the Win32 binary does this. Once this is tested others will be posted as well.

    (2) A patch has been added to the edge branch (build 380.06) that allows a terminal to connect without asserting RTS if TinyG’s flow control is either OFF ($ex=0) or set to XON ($ex=1). Also, the default flow control setting has been set to XON. If flow control is then set to RTS ($ex=2) then RTS still needs to be asserted because that’s the way RTS/CTS flow control is supposed to work.

    Build 380.06 is in test in the edge branch now. We will test tonight or tomorrow and push this to master assuming tests are OK.


    @sjhan12    : This should fix the behavior you are seeing in your own application. Try out 380.06 from edge.

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