MPC01 SC Transfer Issue

[Ranger-Services.com]

its seeming like a driver issue thats not seeing the com port being connected properly or a miswiring, I have yet to get an mpc01 that wont extract or pull

 

[smallish]

So if you completely disconnect the Dtech from the MPC, then try to transfer...do you see about three quick green LED bursts on your Dtech's "TXD" LED? (I couldn't snap a photos of them 'cause they're so quick...but with my Dtech disconnectected from the MPC, they're clear as day when I try to transfer).
Next -- if I _don't_ have my MPC in "program" mode (i.e. no sweeping LEDs on the MPC) but connected with the Dtech, when I try to initiate a transfer, I see three green bursts on the Dtech's "TXD" LED followed by several green bursts on the Dtech's "RXD" indicating the MPC is sending (and the Dtech is receiveing) some kind of stuff. What do you see?

When I attempt to transfer, I do see a very quick green LED burst on TX. Just once not three times.

 

[smallish]

Twisted pair no straight wires allowed according to whelen and the mpc01 hilo and author switches held down when turning on mpc01 putting it in program mode with the 1 led on the mpc flashing then transferring the file.... Possible cause

Sorry, where are the Hilo and author switches on the mpc01? When I held down the airhorn and the right most button then turn on the power switch, I do get the 3 sweeping red lights. That means it is in program mode right?
By the way, this unit is mpc01va instead of mpc01. Are there any difference?

I just received a different Dtech converter today. It's a RS232 to RA485 converter. I plugged in the 9 pin port to the serial port of my old PC and the other connections remain the same. Same communications failure as well. However, when I try to extract from the transporter, it ran up to 58bytes then prompt the communications failure message.
Do you guys use the transfer to MPC01 option or the transporter option? Not that it makes any difference to me but just want to know.

 

[Nolines]

Sorry, where are the Hilo and author switches on the mpc01? When I held down the airhorn and the right most button then turn on the power switch, I do get the 3 sweeping red lights. That means it is in program mode right?
By the way, this unit is mpc01va instead of mpc01. Are there any difference?

I just received a different Dtech converter today. It's a RS232 to RA485 converter. I plugged in the 9 pin port to the serial port of my old PC and the other connections remain the same. Same communications failure as well. However, when I try to extract from the transporter, it ran up to 58bytes then prompt the communications failure message.
Do you guys use the transfer to MPC01 option or the transporter option? Not that it makes any difference to me but just want to know.

Sorry on the mpc01 I have the airhorn and the hi/lo ( last button upper right ) have to be held down when the power is turned on that starts the red light flashing telling me the unit is in programming mode. I use the transfer to mpc to send to and extract from mpc to read. I'm not sure what a mpc01va version is, is there a picture?

 

[smallish]

Sorry on the mpc01 I have the airhorn and the hi/lo ( last button upper right ) have to be held down when the power is turned on that starts the red light flashing telling me the unit is in programming mode. I use the transfer to mpc to send to and extract from mpc to read. I'm not sure what a mpc01va version is, is there a picture?

Here is the picture.

 

[Nolines]

Anything different on the front side?

 

[smallish]

Anything different on the front side?

Doesn't look like there is any difference.

 

[RS485]

Me too - an "MPC01VA". 58 bytes then comm errors? So it is "talking" but not well. Do you have any other 12V power source to test with?

Also, I use "Transfer to MPC" or "Extract from MPC" -- not "Transporter".

 

[Nolines]

Doesn't look like there is any difference.

So then in your case your holding down airhorn and the button labeled 1 when turning on to program. Gotta be a communication issue from the usb the best I can figure, mine has a intermittent power issue at the mpc everytime I open it with the swingarm away from my radio, have to cut and reinsert the wire to fix it but as you know not a lot of wire from the mpc to the 9 pin molex connector to start cutting from.

 

[smallish]

Me too - an "MPC01VA". 58 bytes then comm errors? So it is "talking" but not well. Do you have any other 12V power source to test with?

Also, I use "Transfer to MPC" or "Extract from MPC" -- not "Transporter".

The 58 Bytes then comms failure only when I do "Extract from the transporter" option. Based on your feedbacks, I should really be using the extract/transfer to MPC01 options.

I will try with a different PS today but I doubt that it is the culprit. Will report back.

 

[smallish]

So then in your case your holding down airhorn and the button labeled 1 when turning on to program. Gotta be a communication issue from the usb the best I can figure, mine has a intermittent power issue at the mpc everytime I open it with the swingarm away from my radio, have to cut and reinsert the wire to fix it but as you know not a lot of wire from the mpc to the 9 pin molex connector to start cutting from.

Yes, airhorn+"1" button then turn power on. So far, I have tried with 2 laptops (USB)+1 PC (Serial Port) and getting the same result. I will test with different connectors today.

 

[RS485]

Well, for what its worth 58 bytes is alot because it takes an 8-byte request and a 9-byte response to move just one byte (from the EPROM). There are 512 bytes in the EPROM block (if you open .BLK file saved from within WhelenSC 5.3, you'll see the block).

"Extract from Transporter" appears to work just fine for me too.

I'm almost done with a quick little test program that extracts, transfers, and emulates an MPC (at least with respect to the programming wire traffic.

Now that you have two RS485 devices, you're welcome to try this program to see what happens. I.e. you can leave the MPC out of the picture and see if WhelenSC will talk to it, or leave SC out of the picture and see if the test program can extract or transfer. Note: it looks like WhelenSC will retry just a few times on a COMM error. I made the test program retry sixteen times when extracting.

 

[smallish]

Well, for what its worth 58 bytes is alot because it takes an 8-byte request and a 9-byte response to move just one byte (from the EPROM). There are 512 bytes in the EPROM block (if you open .BLK file saved from within WhelenSC 5.3, you'll see the block).

"Extract from Transporter" appears to work just fine for me too.

I'm almost done with a quick little test program that extracts, transfers, and emulates an MPC (at least with respect to the programming wire traffic.

Now that you have two RS485 devices, you're welcome to try this program to see what happens. I.e. you can leave the MPC out of the picture and see if WhelenSC will talk to it, or leave SC out of the picture and see if the test program can extract or transfer. Note: it looks like WhelenSC will retry just a few times on a COMM error. I made the test program retry sixteen times when extracting.

Thanks for your effort. I would like to give it a try.

I just tested the transfer with different blue/gray connectors. Here is my observation:

1. Before plugging in the Dtech USB converter, the initialize pulldown list shows only "3" as an option. After plugging in the USB, I see "3" and "6". Do you see the same?

2. If I initialize "3" then hit transfer (in or out of programming mode), no green light burst on Dtech. If I initialize"6" then hit transfer (in or out of programming mode), I see 3 quick bursts.

 

[RS485]

Thanks for your effort. I would like to give it a try.

I just tested the transfer with different blue/gray connectors. Here is my observation:

1. Before plugging in the Dtech USB converter, the initialize pulldown list shows only "3" as an option. After plugging in the USB, I see "3" and "6". Do you see the same?

2. If I initialize "3" then hit transfer (in or out of programming mode), no green light burst on Dtech. If I initialize"6" then hit transfer (in or out of programming mode), I see 3 quick bursts.

Yes that's what I see -- Port 6 in your case, is the psuedo serial port configured dynamically when you plug in the USB connector. That's the port you want to use. I'm not sure what your port 3 is...guessing its your real serial port.

On my end, I just used a brand-new nine-volt battery to power the MPC across both extraction and transfer. I also wrapped some un-twisted pair around the guts of a vintage Whelen 1200 beacon and ran it while transferring/extracting. I just can't seem to get mine to fail.

 

[smallish]

Yes that's what I see -- Port 6 in your case, is the psuedo serial port configured dynamically when you plug in the USB connector. That's the port you want to use. I'm not sure what your port 3 is...guessing its your real serial port.

On my end, I just used a brand-new nine-volt battery to power the MPC across both extraction and transfer. I also wrapped some un-twisted pair around the guts of a vintage Whelen 1200 beacon and ran it while transferring/extracting. I just can't seem to get mine to fail.

Sorry for holding off reply for a few days. I just received another mpc01 controller yesterday. With the exact same Dtech converter and connections as before, I am still getting the same communications failure when trying to extract. Before anything, I was able to use the controller to control my Liberty SC lightbar. At this point, I think I can rule out the MPC01s as the culprit. My next bet is to get a different serial converter (perhaps not Dtech) to try on. Please let me know if you have any recommendations. Thanks.

 

[RS485]

Did you have a chance to try some other source of 12V? (I was able to transfer and extract while powering the MPC with just a cheap 9V battery from the convenience store).

 

[Nolines]

I still think I would check your device manager and make sure all the usb ports power management is set to not allow the computer to turn off this device to save power and try a different usb port on case that one may be dead.

 

[RS485]

Can you connect your LibertySC here? WhelenSC has a "Simulator" function (under "Utilities") that will talk directly to devices to exercise them).

 

[smallish]

Did you have a chance to try some other source of 12V? (I was able to transfer and extract while powering the MPC with just a cheap 9V battery from the convenience store).

I did try with a different PS (Schumacher PC-6 70W 12V AC to DC Power Converter) and there is no difference. The previous one was Powermax 12DC 60A converter.

 

[smallish]

I still think I would check your device manager and make sure all the usb ports power management is set to not allow the computer to turn off this device to save power and try a different usb port on case that one may be dead.

Thanks for the suggestion. During the whole process, the red power light on the Dtech converter is always on. As soon as I hit transfer/extract, I see a very short blink on the TX light. I think this indicates that the laptop is trying to send/receive data from the controller but failed. Also tried the same setup with two other PCs.

 

[smallish]

Can you connect your LibertySC here? WhelenSC has a "Simulator" function (under "Utilities") that will talk directly to devices to exercise them).

This is new to me. Let me check out that option on SC programmer. So, I need to have the SC converter, MPC01 and the Liberty SC lightbar connected?

 

[RS485]

You don't need the MPC connected but it shouldn't have a problem if it is connected. In "Simulate" mode, Whelen SC will send device-specific number frames along the RS485 wire to the lightbar (or other device). The MPC won't care because it won't recognize those numbers as its commands whereas the Lightbar will. The cool thing is that if you look at the bottom of window in SC, you'll see the exact numbers being sent to the lightbar -- i.e. "64 02 01 01 01 10 0F 00 00 00 00 88"

 

[Nolines]

I still want someone to work on a laptop version of connecting the light bars and hardware to run the lights and sirens without the controller like thru the ethernet connection.

 

[RS485]

I still want someone to work on a laptop version of connecting the light bars and hardware to run the lights and sirens without the controller like thru the ethernet connection.

Like this?

Or this?

The UB412's actually take timing patterns from the controller. You literately can make your own patterns up.

 

[Nolines]

I mean graphics and all, hit a f(#) button something turns on or off or say touchscreen graphically oriented, plus control the siren airborne, have more tones then the ones that come with the bl627,etc etc etc, and led and strobe

 

[smallish]

You don't need the MPC connected but it shouldn't have a problem if it is connected. In "Simulate" mode, Whelen SC will send device-specific number frames along the RS485 wire to the lightbar (or other device). The MPC won't care because it won't recognize those numbers as its commands whereas the Lightbar will. The cool thing is that if you look at the bottom of window in SC, you'll see the exact numbers being sent to the lightbar -- i.e. "64 02 01 01 01 10 0F 00 00 00 00 88"

Good news is I am able to control the lights in simulate mode. This proves the signals can be sent to the lightbar via the Dtech converter. Now why does program mode not work with the MPC01s? Can you please confirm that only the following wires from the mpc01 need to be connected?
1. Red and yellow to 12v supply
2. Black to GND supply
3. Blue and Gray COMM wires to TX+ and TX-

The remaining pins on the controller are NC.

 

[Nolines]

The only other thing I can suggest is to send it to someone here to see if they are able to program the mpc through their setup to prove the mpc is working fine.

 

[smallish]

The only other thing I can suggest is to send it to someone here to see if they are able to program the mpc through their setup to prove the mpc is working fine.

Thanks. I have that in mind as well. Who is willing to take up the challenge?

 

[Nolines]

Let's see who's closest so shipping back and forth is cheapest!

 

[RS485]

The fact that your WhelenSC can interact with the lightbar means you _are_ communicating - at least up to a moment in time.

We knew that when you reported that you could extract 58 bytes (which meant a lot more actual traffic was exchanged to get to that point).

You report that you've tested _two_ MPCs -- I'll bet $100 USD that whoever you might send one or both of these MPCs too, will report, "They work great!".

Call me crazy but I'm thinking there's some kind of interference or charge that builds up and at some point, it starts interfering with communications...I'm _not_ an EE so I'm stuck for a clue as to suggest anything to dissipate it.

So...how long does your Simulator exercise work? Can you try to run it for a 5 minutes?

Also, I tried to "PM" you and send a the test program. Did you get it?

 

[smallish]

The fact that your WhelenSC can interact with the lightbar means you _are_ communicating - at least up to a moment in time.

We knew that when you reported that you could extract 58 bytes (which meant a lot more actual traffic was exchanged to get to that point).

You report that you've tested _two_ MPCs -- I'll bet $100 USD that whoever you might send one or both of these MPCs too, will report, "They work great!".

Call me crazy but I'm thinking there's some kind of interference or charge that builds up and at some point, it starts interfering with communications...I'm _not_ an EE so I'm stuck for a clue as to suggest anything to dissipate it.

So...how long does your Simulator exercise work? Can you try to run it for a 5 minutes?

Also, I tried to "PM" you and send a the test program. Did you get it?

First of all, I would like to apologize for not following up on my own thread nor attempting to program the controller for a while.
Secondly, I am happy to announce that I got it working with the new data converter arrived yesterday (This is it https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L2VLY5D/?tag=elightbars-20) It worked right out of the box with no driver to install. I followed the exact same steps as before. For some reason, the other devices that I tried (different brands) have failed.
I am very grateful for the support from all of you.

 

[RS485]

Great! Cheers! Enjoy!