CBM and 5500PCU

Discussion in 'C-Bus Serial Protocols' started by jboer, Aug 1, 2013.

  1. jboer

    jboer

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    Hey All,

    We have been making use of the CBM module and have had no problem in using it ect. However we have been finding that a few times a day it will report a closed port and needs to be reinitialized. I have been trying quite a few things but ultimately found that whenever I used the 5500PCU it would continue to disconnect, but when I changed it to a third party USB-serial adapter and a 5500PCI interface it remains happily connected. I would generally prefer to use the PCU and so am wondering if anyone else has come up with issues with similar?

    Ta!
     
    jboer, Aug 1, 2013
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  2. jboer

    ashleigh Moderator

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    Wild guess: you may need to load updated drivers for the PCU.

    Depending on how long ago you bought it and loaded the drivers, it could be a long way out of date.

    Actually loading updated drivers can be a bit of fun (thats irony).

    In add/remove programs, or whatever its called this week, you may find an entry for the clipsal USB drivers package. If this is there, then uninstall it WITH ALL CLIPSAL USB DEVICES UNPLUGGED.

    This *should* remove it all.

    Then download and install the latest Toolkit. This *should* then install the USB drivers package which will give you the latest version.

    If that does not do an update (and finding if it did or not is difficult) then there are other tricks you can use with Device Manager - but thats a separate long and involved set of instructions.
     
    ashleigh, Aug 1, 2013
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  3. jboer

    jboer

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    Hey Ashleigh,

    Thanks!

    This was my first thought and I did make sure they were the latest drivers. I was actually thinking tonight though that because the .dll was last modified at least 5 years ago and it looks like the USB driver was last updated not that long ago it could actually be a miss-match the other way. When I get some time I will roll back the drivers to the 2008 edition or so and see what happens :)

    J
     
    jboer, Aug 1, 2013
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  4. jboer

    ashleigh Moderator

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    Unlikely. The DLL just talks to a COM port.

    The device drivers for the USB IC expose a VCP (Virtual Com Port); and if the device drivers have any strangeness or problems they will be closing the connection. The DLL neither knows or cares about the drivers.

    Nevertheless, rolling back to older drivers may be wise simply because they are different and may therefore have different stability.

    ----

    The relevant device drivers are provided by the silicon vendor in object code form only. The level of tweaking that is done in Clipsal is minimal: setting the relevant Vendor ID, Product ID and device descriptor strings. If the drivers are a bit dodgy the most Clipsal can do is whine to the silicon vendor.
     
    ashleigh, Aug 2, 2013
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  5. jboer

    jboer

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    Fair enough, that is what I presumed.

    I do find it interesting though that C-Gate seems to have no problem with using the PCU on the same machine, hence why I thought it may be a .dll thing. I haven't really looked into the dll as such as I have just been calling it as per the spec.
     
    jboer, Aug 2, 2013
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  6. jboer

    jboer

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    Just to update on this, It does seem to be related to the drivers.

    5.4.29: After about 5 hours in XP the driver just crashed with no responce when trying to re-initialized and then just BSOD.

    6.4: Much better. No more BSOD and able to re-initialize. However still closes the port after a few hours of initializing.

    6.6.1: Same as 6.4

    However the core problem remains of it crashing/closing the port after a few hours of the port being open. Currently dealing with this by polling the module to check the connection status and if it is closed to initialize and re-connect. This is OK, but as we don't want to be constantly polling the status there is a delay of sometimes 30 seconds between the port closing and then us being able to re-connect. Obviously this means it is unresponsive to the CBus commands during this time.

    I am sure there are others out there who are using the module with a PCU, I am just trying to find if I am the only one who has this problem and so it is something I am doing weird!

    J
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 7, 2013
    jboer, Aug 5, 2013
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