Need help with psx serial cable

[CosmoGuy]

Hi

I just got some time during holidays so i decided to go back to the topic. I bought this thing:
"YwRobot FTDI Basic" (FTDI 232RL based with a switch 3,3v / 5v on the backside)

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=15848232884

Which is compatibile with FTDI official drivers and FTProg.
After unsuccessful results with PSX Serial soft, i was searching for some tips about how to properly use that converter and i found a little info here, at danahns42's site:
https://psx0.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/p ... ink-cable/

Alternatively, if you use one of the FTDI parts, you can omit the whole circuit and just invert the handshaking lines using the FTDIprog tool available on the FTDI website.

Yup, I did that with FTProg but for some weird reason i could invert just RI, and RTS pin. After digging messy FTDI site i found older apps to manage the same hardware. I tried MProg and it did that, inverted all handshaking pins [RTS, CTS, DTR, DSR, DCD], and to check it to be fully sure, i scanned it again with FTProg, which is newer one, and i guess it should be more reliable, but yup FTProg showed that they are inverted now, so MProg wins.

Now getting to the point.

PSXSERIAL.exe worked fine with my own homemade psx serial cable based on hitmen's schematics [redrawn a bit nicer to read, by somebody from this forum] but it was crappy breadboard construction and i didn't want to make my own PCB.

With my freshly bought FTDI thingy, the console recognizes ongoing signal, but PSXSERIAL.EXE is still waiting for it, i don;t get it.
I plugged only TXD, RXD and GND lines of course, thats all.
When i turn off the console, while the PSXSERIAL.exe is still working, there goes some small voltage jump [or something like that] which makes a bug and PSXSERIAL.EXE is starting to send my demo to the console, which is actually turned off.

Also tried to cross TXD and RXD in the middle, but then, neither application on pc, and console doesn't recognizes shit.

Why FTDI? I asked shadow on Skype, when he used to be available some time ago. He said it's the best option. The whole thing pisses me off a bit . I'm more programmer than electronic, but i guess that this topic is so lame, that i shouldn't even annotate that xd


Thanks for any help as always,
Regards

[Greg]

Do you use a sony psx cable cut in half? If it's the case you must know that the sony serial cable was for connect 2 psx together, so the signals wires are crossed as below..

1 -> 4
2 -> 2
3 -> 6
4 -> 1
5 -> 8
6 -> 3
7 -> 7 (usually not connected)
8 -> 5

The wires color will be different from one side to other one.

*edit* some pics of my old serial adapter.

IMG_20150714_2201205_rewind.jpg

IMG_20150714_2202051_rewind.jpg

[Administrator]

We have cables available in the store.

[CosmoGuy]

Hi again

Thank you for replies.

Greg: Yup i know it's crossed at the end, my map was the pinout from HITMEN's site
Shadow: It's pointless The product is overpriced + cost for sending that. I'd better choose to buy small FTDI chip, and i can always plug it out to use with AVRs :p


my "construction" looks like this:

ie. -red- is RXD...

and goes to 8 pin which, as written in the legend/map, is RX.

-But- because it's crossed, it's ongoing TX in fact, so it should communicate. I hope it seems logical . And as i mentioned before, i did try to re-cross them anyway. No success.

As danhans42 wrote on his site, i need to invert handshaking pins, so i did it. Nothing changes, before and after :/.

Please help
Regards

[Greg]

Did you set the FTDI's voltage to 3.3v ?

[Administrator]

Believe it or not, an extremely small profit is made from that price. The PSX Serial cable itself costs the most to be honest because they are not made any more and are being sold from companies 'new old stock' supply. If you can make one yourself, that's good, but it's there for people who just want the headache free, and hassle free option to just get stuck into programming and testing their code. Also, postage is free anywhere in the world at that price.

Anyway, 3V3 or 5V, it doesn't matter. The PSX can handle 5V. It's just not recommended is all.
The problem could be that you have a fake FTDI chip. Also, ensure that you have the RL series.

[CosmoGuy]

Also, ensure that you have the RL series.

Yup it's RL series, checked before buying.

Also, 40AUD in my country's currency could be 6 times that FTDI :p
Nowe im uploading a video where i'm making a test so you can better understand :p.

Greg: Yup 3,3v, but now i switched back to 5v just to check, but also no changes


EDIT

https://youtu.be/WrPt3aRn-tE

Edit 2:
Shadow, where is that VMWare image with preconfigured PSY-Q and stuff? I can't find it [i have new hdd and i had no chance to backup :/]

[Greg]

You can do a quick test, connect TX pin and RX pin together, you can use one of the female / female cable for that, open a terminal program, and initiate a connection, everything that you sent is supposed to be echo in receive window.
If you do not have a terminal program you can use "Terminal" link: https://sites.google.com/site/terminalbpp/

[Administrator]

http://www.psxdev.net/help/virtual_machine.html

[CosmoGuy]

You can do a quick test, connect TX pin and RX pin together, you can use one of the female / female cable for that, open a terminal program, and initiate a connection, everything that you sent is supposed to be echo in receive window.
If you do not have a terminal program you can use "Terminal" link: https://sites.google.com/site/terminalbpp/

Yup, it works correctly as expected So my "YwRobot" is working ok. And as in video, PSX sees that there is going some signal, but PSXSERIAL.EXE doesn't see the console. It's still waiting.

my windows configuration:

[Administrator]

Try another PSX. You might have damaged the serial line in the CPU from your previous experiments. It's a long shot, but that could very well be the case, and it's good to eliminate all fault possibilities.

[CosmoGuy]

Try another PSX. You might have damaged the serial line in the CPU from your previous experiments. It's a long shot, but that could very well be the case, and it's good to eliminate all fault possibilities.

but i'm pretty sure that my breadboard construction would work! Btw. when i was doing that, i plugged capacitors in the wrong pins [2 of them if i remember well], but at the end everything worked including siocons tests so i don't think that i burned something :/.
Also i don't have another psx to test .

Damn it.

[Administrator]

Well I'm not sure what else to advise to you. All you need is Tx, Rx and Gnd for PSXSERIAL to initiate and work.

[Greg]

Today my psx do the same thing as CosmoGuy's psx, first it do not communicate, so I check my sony serial cable at the psx's end, I shake the connector a little and it start communicate but it don't reach the 100%, so I hit CTRL+C to stop the prog, and I restart the psx, but this time the psx says sending data to the pc but I has not yet run psxserial, then I remember the FTDI chip has a buffer, maybe some data was left in the buffer to be processed by the chip. So I unplug every thing, wait 2 minutes, plug the FTDI into the PC, plug the serial cable into the psx, power on the psx, and finally run psxserial, this time everything was all good.

I don't know if my story can help you...

[CosmoGuy]

Today my psx do the same thing as CosmoGuy's psx, first it do not communicate, so I check my sony serial cable at the psx's end, I shake the connector a little and it start communicate but it don't reach the 100%, so I hit CTRL+C to stop the prog, and I restart the psx, but this time the psx says sending data to the pc but I has not yet run psxserial, then I remember the FTDI chip has a buffer, maybe some data was left in the buffer to be processed by the chip. So I unplug every thing, wait 2 minutes, plug the FTDI into the PC, plug the serial cable into the psx, power on the psx, and finally run psxserial, this time everything was all good.

I don't know if my story can help you...

Yup about that buffer thingy,
when i reset the console [but PSXSERIAL.EXE is still working] PSX sees again that something is going to it.
Then i switch off PSXSERIAL.EXE, and i have to reset the console to see some difference of course, and what? At the startup of PSXSERIAL [on console] it says "Receiving data from pc" when i'm not sending anything, that's the one thing.
Second thing is that, when i switch psx off and on [faster] then PSXSERIAL.EXE sees a reply from a console [which proves an error at the PC side], but console has just started.

I'm not sure if my configuration is ok on the FTDI side. I'm pretty sure that i didn't burn that.
When my breadboard wasn't final, there were so many places in my circuit to burn the other side, that everyone could say it was hillarious xD. But at the end it worked even with SIOCONS.

I'd need some psx app which sends some crap to see that through terminal on PC to be 100% sure about my FTDI. If not i have to buy another... but at the moment i don't have any $$ :////

[Greg]

...
I'd need some psx app which sends some crap to see that through terminal on PC to be 100% sure about my FTDI. If not i have to buy another... but at the moment i don't have any $$ :////

look at: C:\psyq\psx\sample\serial\SIO\TUTO1
and http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.p ... =349#p2592
set terminal speed to 9600 Baud