Need MS assistance in SoCal
 

I am having communications issues with my MS and I need to verify if it's my laptop or the MS. When Braineack put it on his, it's fine and runs well. When I try to download a MSQ file or reflash, the firmware corrupts. It didn't always do this. When I first setup the MS, it would download perfectly. It gradually has gotten worse. It's now to the point that I have corrupted firmware and am unable to communicate with the unit at all, regardless of what I do. I have sent it back twice and each time, after a reflash to fix the corrupted firmware, it's fine.

Thinking the issue could be either the serial port or serial cable, I switched to an USB/serial convertor cable with no luck. Power to the unit is very straight forward and it has a dedicated ground running to the grounding point on the engine block. I am at a loss to figure out what is wrong.

If someone is in socal, near Mission Viejo (Orange Co.), I would very much appreciate it if you would try your laptop on the unit or if I can check my laptop comm to your MS. If for no other reason than to just determine if it's the MS or my laptop.

Saturday morning update.

This morning I connected with the serial cable and used DL to check the signature. It responded back but the sig was garbage. I then downloaded the s19 file but the sig at the end was garbage. I tried again and the sig was garbage again. I then closed DL and tried to read the sig with MT but it showed no response. I reopened DL but it wouldn't read the sig any more.

I've rebooted the laptop several times and cycled power on the MS several times but it will not resume comm. Any ideas?

After months of trying to get this to work, if I don't get working soon, I'm ready to return it and look for something else. Any help is appreciated.

You could try the loopback tests to see if its your cable/max232.

Assembly Guide - MegaSquirt^® V3.0 Main Board

Step #26.

Hopefully someone closer to your location could help out with your testing.

Thanks for the suggestion. I rang out the cable, it is straight through. The loopback test with Hyper-Terminal was normal.

Hopefully someone nearby will respond soon.

Thanks again,

Ric

Seriously, someone in socal help out Ric.

I'm at a loss as to why it's not working. When I reflashed it, it was fine and I ran my miata with it. As soon as he got it back, it worked, then he hooked up his laptop and it died.

Where in SoCal is he? I have a brand new USB/serial cable I got, tested and verified on a MS1 V3, had to buy it after I fried my DLP-TXRX USB mod :(


Get at me, I have no problem helping out a MS friend :)


I had problems with laptops not having enough juice to run that USB mod, but having corruption issues could mean the serial driver could be bad, or the MS ecu itself. Have you checked if thats all working? I can bring my MS unit and we can test the rest of your setup.

near Mission Viejo IIRC.

dj,

I am in Mission Viejo, which is in southern Orange County and a ways from Simi. If you decide you want to make the drive, I'll throw in lunch. I'll send you a pm with my info.

BTW, I did try deleting the serial driver but that didn't help.

Thanks,

Ric

Got in contact with Ric, I'll try to make it down next weekend :)