Previously Good Cable with New Serial Interface

[drbortel]

Hello,

I have something of a particular scenario, and I wonder if anyone could offer a suggestion. I feel I am close to getting my cable and remote working again, but something is amiss and I can't put my finger on it.

I have a homemade cable that I built about 6 years ago using Tommy's hardware description. This was a good working cable, and I used the version of IR that was available at that time with my JP1 remote. I backed it up, added all my devices, a few macros, etc. and all was good. Now I have had a new roommate move in, we have all new equipment, and I need to update the remote. I have been trying for several days and cannot get a good 'Check Interface' using the latest IR 8.02 software. I have a different PC with no parallel port on the motherboard, but I have this I/O PCI card which has worked great for me on other serial interfaces:

http://www.sunix.com.tw/it/en/Product_D ... 34&sid=366

So, what I am trying to do now is use this DB9 connection from this I/O card to the JP1 of the remote, and I mostly get this error message:

"No response from the interface. Make sure that the interface is connected to the PC, and that you've specified the right port."

But in one case, I get an error message that is different than all the other times. When I configure IR to JP1 Serial.. with COM3. In this case, I get this error message:

"The interface does not appear to have power. This can occur if the remote has no batteries, or if the interfce is not correctly plugged into the remote."

I tried with no batteries, with batteries, and the result is the same. I also made sure that my cable connector is seated correctly on the JP1 pins.

Now as an added clue, I have this little RS-232 tester device which I can put inline with the cable, and it shows me the value of the lines: TX, RX, CTS, RTS, DTR, DSR, and CD. It is interesting to note that whenever I try parallel port or any other COM port the line settings are:

TX - ON and RED
RX - ON and RED
CTS - OFF
RTS - ON and RED
DTR - ON and RED
DSR - OFF
CD - OFF

But with IR configured to Serial with COM3, I see RTS and DTR as green:

TX - ON and RED
RX - ON and RED
CTS - OFF
RTS - ON and GREEN
DTR - ON and GREEN
DSR - OFF
CD - OFF

Now I am not sure if the problem is with my serial port, or if I must use a parallel port, or if somehow my cable could have gone out on me (I opened it and inspected the parts and connections, looks ok) - so any suggestions are appreciated. I keep trying different things, and I'm just not having any luck. I remember the last time, I had to get the Interface Check to pass first before I could do any kinds of downloads or uploads. Thanks in advance for your time reading this.

Darren

[drbortel]

Hello again,

I doubt anyone might have this same scenario as me. But in case it might help some others down the road, I will post my solution to this now that I have found it.

It seems I must use the 25-pin parallel port, and configure my IR settings to Parallel.. default address 378. I only made it complicated by trying to use a serial port on a PCI card since I didn't have this parallel port on my motherboard. I found another PC which had the 25-pin parallel port, connected my cable, left the batteries in the remote, and received an Interface Check Succeeded message. I promptly downloaded and uploaded data to/from the remote.

If you are curious the results of my inline LED tester, here is what the parallel port of this PC displayed on the test device. I will keep it handy as a reference in case I have to use the cable on other PCs in the future.

TX - ON and GREEN
RX - ON and GREEN
CTS - OFF
RTS - ON and GREEN
DTR - OFF
DSR - OFF
CD - OFF

Thanks,
Darren

[Capn Trips]

I'm confused by your sequence of events. If you have a parallel JP1 cable, how did you plug it into a serial port? Of course it has to be used in a parallel port.

[mdavej]

For the record, you could have gotten your cable to work with the parallel port on that PCI card of yours (the description says it has serial and parallel ports) if you entered the address from device manager into IR.