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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
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?
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 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?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?
Anything different on the front side?
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.Doesn't look like there is any difference.
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".
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Can you connect your LibertySC here? WhelenSC has a "Simulator" function (under "Utilities") that will talk directly to devices to exercise them).
Like this?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.
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"
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.
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?