Egg Timer TRS and Tera Term

[dratliff]

Hello all,

I'm trying to connect an Egg Timer TRS to my laptop (Windows 10) to do a master reset. I downloaded Tera Term, but I'm unable to select the serial port. It's grayed out and won't let me select it. I tried to set up the serial port, and the port number choice is grayed out. Has anybody run into this before?

 

[H. Craig Miller]

I use Windows 10 and could not get Tera Term to run on my system. I switched to Putty and everything worked great.

 

[dratliff]

I use Windows 10 and could not get Tera Term to run on my system. I switched to Putty and everything worked great.

I tried Putty just now, I get an error message that it can't open the serial port. I used device manager to see what port the cable is in (port 2), and changed the port name to COM2 in Putty, no joy.

 

[H. Craig Miller]

Did you verify the correct baud rate?

 

[mbeels]

I've used both Putty and Tera Term on Windows 10 and each worked alright. What are you using for a serial adapter?

 

[dratliff]

The Baud rate is set to 9600, which I believe is correct. The problem I'm having is when I open Tera Term, it's in the TCP/IP mode and won't let me select serial. I'm using the USB cord from Egg Timer with the blue end. I think the serial adapter is part of that cord. And please don't assume I know anything about this, I'm just using the words. I was able to do all of this on my last computer, this is the first time I've tried it on this machine.

 

[mbeels]

Did you plug in the USB serial adapter before starting the program? Try it in this order:
1) plug in the USB serial adapter
2) start the TeraTerm software.

 

[dratliff]

Yes sir, did that. I've tried every USB port on my computer, cord first and Tera Term first. Nothing works. I'm at a loss, this is apparently beyond my knowledge.

 

[Voyager1]

I’ve used TerraTerm before, but I use CoolTerm now with the Eggtimer gear.

 

[mbeels]

It's strange that you can see Com 2 in your device manager, but can't access it with Putty or TeraTerm. Just curious, if you remove the USB to serial adapter, does the Com port in your Device Manager go away? Did windows install drivers and setup your device when you first plugged it in? Does your Win 10 user account have admin privileges? I wonder if there are some account settings that are restricting your access to some hardware.

 

[Tobor]

If you know anything about Linux, I would suggest booting your laptop, via a thumb drive, with an Ubuntu (Link) or Linux Mint (Link) Live CD.
You can use Yumi (Link) to write the Live CD image to the thumb drive. PuTTY is the only one of the three term programs listed above that runs on Linux.

Linux is the best way to circumvent Windows 10 issues.

 

[cerving]

Windows will tell you that COM2-COM4 are "in use", even though they are not. Go ahead and override it. Both Teraterm and Putty work fine with Windows 10, however I think Putty is easier to use.

 

[H. Craig Miller]

What I found in using Putty with Windows 10 is that the com port was not correctly identified. So, I simply selected the lowest com port and tried it, then, if it didn't work, I tried the next one. My system uses Com 3, so the third time was the charm.

 

[dratliff]

Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks to all for trying to help. I can see the cord in device manager, it goes away when I unplug it. Chris, how do I override Windows?

I downloaded Cool Term, when I open it it tells me there are no serial ports on my computer. Not sure what manner of sorcery that is, there are 3 USB ports that all seem to work fine with other devices.

 

[cerving]

Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks to all for trying to help. I can see the cord in device manager, it goes away when I unplug it. Chris, how do I override Windows?

I downloaded Cool Term, when I open it it tells me there are no serial ports on my computer. Not sure what manner of sorcery that is, there are 3 USB ports that all seem to work fine with other devices.

USB devices are by nature dynamic, yes it will disappear from Device Manager if you unplug it. When you plug it it, Windows looks to see if there's a driver loaded for that particular device, if it can't find one explicitly for that device it will either use a generic class driver or flag that device as potentially unusable.

If you have not done so already, install the Prolific PL2303TA driver from their web site, with the USB cable UNPLUGGED, then plug it in. Go into Device Manager, right click on the settings, go to the Advanced tab, and change the COM port. I recommend using COM2 through COM4, if Windows complains about it being "in use" just overrride it.

 

[Maxwelljets]

I tried Putty just now, I get an error message that it can't open the serial port. I used device manager to see what port the cable is in (port 2), and changed the port name to COM2 in Putty, no joy.

This initially happened to me multiple times, and then it suddenly stopped happening. I had changed nothing about the setup, so I honestly have no idea why it wasn't working at first. Perhaps rebooting would help?

 

[dratliff]

USB devices are by nature dynamic, yes it will disappear from Device Manager if you unplug it. When you plug it it, Windows looks to see if there's a driver loaded for that particular device, if it can't find one explicitly for that device it will either use a generic class driver or flag that device as potentially unusable.

If you have not done so already, install the Prolific PL2303TA driver from their web site, with the USB cable UNPLUGGED, then plug it in. Go into Device Manager, right click on the settings, go to the Advanced tab, and change the COM port. I recommend using COM2 through COM4, if Windows complains about it being "in use" just overrride it.

The driver did the trick, it's working fine now. Thanks Chris! I'll buy you a beverage if I ever get to meet you. And thanks to everyone who tried to help, same offer stands!

 

[cerving]

Great! Windows loads the generic USB-Serial class driver if you don't install the Prolific one... and it does not work. Been there, done that...

 

[rkaplan]

I am trying to do the Master Reset and using Putty. I do get the flight screen and can get the 30 second beeping to stop by hitting enter multiple times. Pressing and holding CTRL-Y does not do anything. I am also not getting any respond from hitting A or B. Eventually the RTS starts beeping again but not in a happy beeping tone. Any suggestions?

 

[cerving]

Jumper the green and white leads on the cable, launch Putty, and hit a few keys... you should see the characters echo. If you don't, there may be an issue with the cable. If you get characters, the cable is fine. We recommend changing the port to COM2, that makes Putty behave better. Also, check the solder joints on your connector and the pins next to it on the processor.

 

[rkaplan]

Looks like it was a bad cable. As this is brand new I didn't expect that. Now back on track. Send me a new cable when you can. Thanks

 

[cerving]

It's going out today.

 

[rkaplan]

I got the wiring setup, I used 1 2s LIPO to power the wifi switch with that drives the TRS, I use the 9V to direct connect to the TRS. New problem is that the Drogue side does not work. Using the USB cable and monitor mode to test ,the main works fine. After I resent and try the Drogue side I never get the continuous beep after hitting the B key. I also did the test using the LCD. The status does show ON for the Drogue but no joy on the test. Need help so close. Thanks

 

[cerving]

I'd be looking at the optoisolator for the drogue, it's the one nearest the edge of the board (away from the GPS). Chances are pretty good that you're missing a solder joint... it's easy to get solder on top of the "J" leads, and miss the pads.

 

[rkaplan]

what else can I check? Went over the solder joints and checked continuity in as many locations that I could connect back to the opto. Remember there is no tone when the B key is pressed.

 

[cerving]

Can you do a vacuum test on it? The drogue output should "fire"when you shut off the vacuum.

 

[rkaplan]

so I was able to do the vacuum test using small light bulbs. Both the drogue and main did light in the correct order, although the drogue lite while the vacuum was still running. Once the vacuum was turned off the main went as well. Glad that this worked but why does it not work during the LCS deployment or UBS testing? testing?

 

[rkaplan]

Believe I have solved my deployment testing issue using the USB cable. I was dreaming last night and was thinking key press of "M" for Main makes sense, key press of "B" for Drogue makes NO sense. p47 of the instructions says to use the "B" key. Thinking maybe we have a typo in the documentation so I tried using the "D" key for Drogue and it works great. I was able to complete my testing with the LCD and USB and ready for testing with real ejection charges. I wasted some time but hope it will help the next person while Chris updates his documentation.

 

[rkaplan]

Was able to use my TRS this weekend and it worked perfectly, thanks for all the help. I would like to down load the flight data but now sure how to do that using PuTTy? Got to the press a button message but not sure what to do next. Thinking I need to use the PSCP

 

[cerving]

There's a document "Using Putty with an Eggtimer" in the Support/Eggtimer Classic that tells you how to do it. The TRS's download works just like the Eggtimer Classic... you turn on the capture buffer in Putty, then hit the button on the TRS to perform the download.