Basic 2DOF Configuration and FAQ

Hi just to say nice work, another sim is on the move just a thought and their are other guys on the forum that know a lot more about sims than i could ever do, but from my lurking around the net and this forum i get the impression that if your building a simforcegt type sim driven with wiper motors then the fixed streering wheel /pedals and movable seat combination gives better results, also i belive the motors are able to give sharper/ faster forces without the extra load/inertia of trying to move the driver/pedal/wheel setup ... just my two cents worth .. nothing wrong with the whole lot moving but i belive the motors may be overloaded by the inertia if the setup is not balanced correctly .. bigger motors may help :thbup: but dont quoye me on that :

ok..I am back!!! and now with my boards...
they finally arrived ...now i will start to do some tests, install Ponyprog, test potentiometers, etc and I will post soon some feedback ... I hope I dont need to ask a lot of help from you guys...

I think I should make a new post on the DIY section now that I really started the project...
regards
Caue

I hope they are also functional....just found the first trouble (fixed)

When I try to Probe PonyProg to config the Atmega 8535 it says FAILED.
I am using a 24Mhz crystal, but the guy who did the board has the crystal 'inserted' on the board as you may see...(not the same as Thanos video guide)
also, the five wire that connect the the ponyprog module to the AMC ISP port seems to me to be a 4 wire, can you see in the pic??? He also used three jumbers right beside the connections that I could not see on Thaos board... (sorry so many newbie questions...but I am learning and I hope some can learn with this forum later)

(UPDATED) I got the probe test to work I think I had a problem with my serial cable.


But now I get an error message when I try to command > Security and Configuration Bits...
DEVICE MISSING OR UNKNOWN DEVICE (-24)


thanks for any help
Regards
Caue

Great quality boards!!! Where did you get them? Fully assembled? And how much?

I think that the problem is the 24Mhz crystal. Many others that replicated my AMC1.5 board, could not get it start properly on 24Mhz. So they used lower 22.1184Mhz or 18.432Mhz crystal. And you MUST replace the 24Mhz crystal after all since I no longer release the firmware with supported speeds above 22.1184Mhz...!!!

You can solder IC base legs to easy mount and replace the crystal if needed. I hope you also have purchased the 22.1184Mhz and 18.432Mhz crystals...


Regards, Thanos

HEY!!! I just noticed on the photos that shows the DSMhb, that the IRF4905 mosfets are soldered facing in WRONG direction!!!! Do not power it up or it will blow the mosfets instantly!!!!!

EDIT: And in your second DSMhb1.2b board I see that BOTH pairs of mosfets are soldered facing wrong direction!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

post16241.html#p16241

I guess he could not figure that the DSMhb1.2b has larger space holes to mount TC screw terminals and screw on them the mosfets!!!! Haven't you gave him any photos of my make as example? :brows:

Here is how the mosfets should be facing, mounted on the blue TC connectors!!


Regards, Thanos

Many thanks for the feedback about the wrong direction for the Mosfets...I think both boards are wrong, right?

The board actually looks very nice and it was ordered from a professional maker here in Brazil. Then I hired this guy who is a professional/freelancer on electronics to build the whole thing..the total cost for both boards, all the components etc all together was 350US$...including one power supply 7V 1A, and one potentiometer for testing - I built two boards because my brother in law who is also a rfactor addicted will build another sim, so we can play against each other during the weekends when our wifes give us some free time...and I can kick his ass in realtime It was also our idea if something goes wrong with one of the boards...

now back to the problems with the boards, I had a long delay with the person who mounted the board for me and as you may see there are some small issues (I think he learned a lot with this project as well).

1. He used a 24Mhz Mosfet that is alread 'soldered' on the board, not the same as you guys use (IC Base Legs), that you can just plug in there. Is there a difference for this crystal and the one using IC Base Legs ??

2. The 5 pins wire bridge for programming the atmega has only 4 wires...I think he forgot to wire the 5th connector, I think I should make an extra wire-bridge for that, correct? I actually already did that but nothing changed with the missing device, I will try the new crystal tomorrow and I will let you guys know...

3. Nothing is showing on my LCD. It has a blue backlight ad I saw some people had problems with that. Not even the blac dots are showing before I programa the atmega. SHould I go for a different LCD or make any correction?

Thanks for your guys hel, tomorrow morning I will go to downtown sao paulo, there are a lot of places there to find the crystals and to get this done, so I appreciate any help from you guys still today

thanks
Caue

No much difference. The 24Mhz crystal is a low profile, while the smaller 22.1184Mhz crystal is a full size profile (bigger). But their leg distances are the same and can fit on a piece of IC base, so you can plug it in and out easily.

It works with just four cables, but in some cases it helps to have all five cables connected. The one that was missing was the Ground cable that is already routed by the board. For some reason though, it works better if this is just connected by a piece of cable too.

I think your problem is the contrast of the LCD. I had the same problem on my Blue backlight LCD's and fixed them by adding a potentiometer on their tiny LCD board. Look here for the complete steps: post13837.html#p13837


Best Regards, Thanos

thanks a lot man, I will work on this tomorrow morning and I will keep you guys updated.
About the potentiometer with LCD, isn´t easier (and cheaper) to buy new LCDs that wont cause this problem? What is the easier LCD to work with?
I am jyst trying to avoid extra work on areas that I am still not experienced.

BTW, I am buying a 'solder machine' tomorrow (sorry dont know the name in english), and I am thinking about learning myself to mount the board, fix the wrong components, etc...avoiding this stress of being dependent on other people work...I think you know what I mean, aight

thanks for your help and I will post tomorrow again

regards
Caue

OK guys here are some updates:

1. I bought a electric solding iron this weekend to fix my Mosfets and 24Mhz crystal.
I didnt notice when I bought the crystals that they gave me a 18.000Mhz one, instead of the 18.432 Mhz (I hope for that), because it didnt work, it still cant find my device!!! I also tried the 22.1184 Mhz and also didnt work...

the user Jeroen who had a similar problem told me to try with the correct 18.432 Mhz crystal..I am hoping this is the problem!!! I have a 14mhz crystal here and I will try that now, otherwise I will go back and buy the correct 18.432 Mhz crystal tomorrow...
Any thoughts about that???

2. Also, for some reason the RESET RED LED for one of my boards just stopped working... what you guys think it could be?? Could I have burned something when I was changing the Crystals??

3. I also need to fix the Mosfets position on the H-bridge and I bought a new power supply for my motors (24V - 10A), but I will get into more details about that later. One thing at the time right ...I need to get ponyprog working for now...

Thanks for all the help and good words...I am really learning a lot with you guys and without tht help I wouldn´t go very far

thanks
Caue

Hi,

1. Valid crystal speeds are: 14.318181, 18.432000, 22.118400 and 24.000000

Valid crystals means that they are required for the proper communication through the Serial port protocol (USO). Otherwise, with a non-valid crystal (say 18.000000Mhz) you would still be able to set its fuse settings, program a firmware on it and possibly display some informational text on the LCD display.

If you still can't program it with ponyprog you should follow Erich's fixes, or check the parts on the board that are the correct on listed on the AMC1.5 part list. For example the Atmega8535 chip should be the ATMEGA8535-16 NOT ATMEGA8535-8L etc...

2. If the reset led doesn't work, wrong resistor was selected for the LED (proper value is 220Ohm) that leads in burning it, or perhaps the reset button gone bad (happened to me a couple of times...)


Regards, Thanos

Thanos many thanks for your help..
I am going back to the store to buy the correct Crystals..I am worried that this is not the problem because you said I should be able to set its fuse settings and program a firmware even with the wrong crystal...and this did not happen...

I am using the ATMEGA8535-16PU, is that a problem?

I will try to change that as well, but I am also worried that it is a little more difficult to change that then the crystal...I am still a begginner with the solding iron with my shaking hands...

I will buy the ATMEGA 8535-16 now (if I find) and I will post the result to you later on...

thanks a lot
Caue

No, ATMEGA8535-16PU is the same as ATMEGA8535-16PI I used. Just more ROHS (green tegnology :lol: )

Try a smaller than 16Mhz crystal to see if you can set the correct fuses for external crystal, first, and then move on to larger crystals to see how fast you can get it work...!!


Thanos

OK, I tried with the 18.432 crystal and still missing device, then I tried with a new Atmega and nothing..now I tried with a 14.3024 Mhz (the only one I could find below 18) and still nothing...F*****

I dont think the 5 wire programming bridge has something to do with this, right? Any wrong jumper could be related to this?? Some short circuit?? Wrong component different than the crystal...or should I keep focusing on a low crystal??

Perhaps I need to setup something on my serial board...it has to be rs232 right? Any special requirement?

I am realy frustrated with that...really struggling to move on...
I uploaded some new pics just in case you can find something out of that... I will keep thinking about a solution and wait to see if someone can share some thoughts here to help me with that...any comment is welcomed...

PS. board 2 has the reset red LED not working...I bought a new one to change after I fix the problem wth ponyprog...

thanks
Caue

Can you post higher resolution photos? I can't really see anything....

1280x1024 resolution works best. And you can compress them down to 25% (JPEG quality 85%) to reach for the 250Kb of the forum...

Thanos

I am doing that right now..tks

ok...here they are..let me know if the camera flash is an issue. and if the size is ok

the guy who built the board just told me to verify if there is something wrong with my serial board configuration... could it be (I am using my onboard serial - bits per second 115200)?
He also told me that it could be possible to use an external Pic Programmer and then install the PIC on the AMC after that...Any thoughts about it? Could it be an easier solution?

I have the 14.302Mhz on board 1 and the 18.432Mhz on board 2. I have some more 18mhz and 22mhz crystals...otherwise I will have to buy more tomorrow... I also have an spare atmega8535...
help guys... I didnt expect to get stucked so bad right at the begginning
I hope I can get it to work and that all my questions will be helpful for some more people...thanks a lot for your patience Thanos..let me know whenever I am bothering you too much

thanks
Caue

Well, for Professional job he could have just used some cleaning spray for the soldering residues and then Plastik spray it a layer or two... Not a very clean work! makes hard to see the details on the solder points. Some of the solder point appeared to me a cold ones. You can distinguish them from the normal solders by the ball shape and their dull reflection.

Anyway, I suppose you could just use an external STK500 USB programmer with a small adapter to be able to program the Atmega8535 chip on the AMC1.5 board!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:VRI&item=290321038325

I use such a programmer for the AMC board to program my Atmega644 chip that has huge 64kb memory and needs several minutes to download firmware though the Ponyprog circuit. With that I flash it in seconds and I never had any problems as I did in ponyprog some times...







It easy to assebly the small adapter board. You need a piece of protoboard, 90 degree long legs SIP header, IDC connector and a few wires to connect the IDC legs to proper SIP header legs.

Here is the IDC leg assignments:



Or use the provided split cable to directly plug it in the ISP port of the AMC:



Another thing I just have thought is you should check for the type of serial cable you have used to program the AMC with ponyprog circuit.... It must be an extension one or straight through, not Null-Modem !!!!!

Regards, Thanos