Hello, Nerds, long time.

Fired up the array after months, everything was fine, then the Nk003 just sorta seems to have quit. The sematics never did make sence to me with the red power in no man's land.

I don't remember why, but mine was hooked direct to the red rail and worked, for awhile. Is this why she quit? Seems to me power red didn't work hooked to a dead spot.

I wasn't drunk, but the wacky was/is wicked.

fjc

Hey Grant,

How have you been!!! I was thinking about you around Christmas and had mentioned here that I hadn't seen you in a while. I hope all is well with you.

Anyway, on to your issue. Is the NK003 you talk of the USB to serial cable. If so, I wouldn't think it would provide power to the array (at least not for long anyway). Depending on how many LED's are lit, the array could probably pull more current than the USB is going to provide through that adapter.

I tried to find a reference to NK003 but couldn't so if I'm talking about the wrong part, just let me know.

It's really great to hear from you!

Rick

Hello Rick, :)

Yup, it's the standard ttl cable for the nerdkit.

I was running a feed for awhile, then switched chips and ran a program for awhile, when I swithched it back, she didn't work no more. I did all the trouble shooting, and no go.

Too strange again, I think I'll just order another.

I was curious why the nk003 is not regulated, probably because it comes from the comp usb. no? And, do you know why the red/NK003 is not hooked to a power?

It can be used to power the Nerdkit for lower power operations. It's recommended to use a wall wart type power supply for higher current projects.

Good to have you back Grant!

Rick

Not for long at this rate my friend.

The last time it worked, and the mysteriosly quit, all the dependancies were in place. First time starting the listener the pyserial mod was missing. So go to get another and it would not authticate the download. That was last night, today it installed it, now it does not open port /dev/ttyUSB0: Suggestions?

Are you saying you use a walwart "together" with the NK003. Where do you put the extra ground? That would explain the NK003/red in no-mans land.

1st, make sure your wall wart is rated for 9 to 12 Volts DC. Current should probably be 500mA or greater. Use the voltage regulator like when using a 9V battery for power - so build the circuit that way. Connect the ground wire from the USB Adapter to the ground rail of the breadboard, connect the red wire to nothing (or plug into an unused row). Connect the ground side of the DC wall adapter to the ground rail. Connect the Power side of the DC wall adapter to the input row of the regulator (where the 9V battery red wire would go)

I got the old girl to fire with just the NK003, that's a good sign, but the frigin system is screwed again, still using Kbuntu, still can't get by /dev/ttlusb0. I've never cd'ed to documents/code/ledarry2/ I've always just opened the counsel on the folder. don't matter, right? but if the NK003 is shot, the comp still should recognize the port, no?

Long time ago...

If the USB/Serial adapter (NK003) is totally shot, the computer may not see it. I'm not much of a Linux guy so on that end, I won't be of much help.

If the adapter is shot the system will not recognize it at all. Do however watch /var/log/messages when you are plugging it in, sometimes there will be something worth seeing there. On my electronics PC, the PL2303 nerdkit cable had an issue that the linux kernel was not happy with, and I had to pass the kernel a boot time option to get it to work.

From treymd....A note here.. If you are being a good linux user and not running as root, /dev/ttyUSB0 will not be writeable. Change to root momentarily and do something like:

chmod a+rw /dev/ttyUSB0

Can someone refresh my memory, how to change to root?

So if my NK003 is shot , why does it still power up the array?

The power lines probably tie directly to the power bus of the USB port. You would probably get power even with the controller chip inside the "NK003" removed.

The command "su" elevates you to the "superuser" aka root.

One of these days I should write a wiki page on how to properly set permission on that item. The preferred method is to add yourself to the group that owns it, on my system it is the "dialout" group.

Thanks Rick, treymd.

All checks done I'm on my way to the store. Two down one to go. Thinking of getting an extra chip but you know me I don't write code, I modify code. What's good out there these days?

Not really a whole lot, I don't think any of the other tutorial projects ever caught on like the LED Array did. Blinky lights are quite attractive after all.

I played around with building a driver board for the LCD so you only need two wires from the microcontroller to operate it... (There will hopefully be more on that in a few weeks) I played with a larger LCD (4x40) and updated a library for it. There have been several personal projects people have worked on, photography club rating counter, tractor pull timer, wii nunchuck interfacing, etc...

Do you have something in mind you are wanting to do?

Yeah Rick, What do you think of this. Since blood is a conductor and if a guy can figure a way to incorporate it into a circut that would, blink, peep, or basicly turn something on. You would in theory have eternal life. Just by adding a loved ones blood to the circut. Wild hey? Just a thought, plants work just as good.

fjc

Wow Grant,

Really don't know what to say to that one. Visions of Dr. Frankenstein pop in my head.

Gettin' a little bored up there in the cold winter?

Rick

Yup. It's not the cold, hasn't really been winter here this year. I retired when I was 50, and in eight years I've plum run out of stuff to learn or just stuff to interst me. I didn't get my first comp until Nov of 2006 at 53, all it is to me now is a go between the tv, mostly music vids and flickr. And my "DNA Blood Circut" is still just kickin around in my head.

Thanks Rick, I'll keep you posted, I bought a Development board that only blinks, maybe I'll mess with that, again too.

Grant

Just reviewing and I suppose I should get a rundown of the proper use of the USB TTL SERIAL ADAPTOR OR THE 'NK003'.

Since programming the chips, one with the Array, One with Ricks Array code, I only change chips to run a feed or program. When doing this I hook the NK003 red to the red rail, start the array and send the feed through. This is where it a little fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure all I did was change the chip, nothing else. My walwart was accross the room.

So now obviously if you hook them both, pop! Is this what I did? If this was the case then I need to cut the red off the NK003 and run the feeds with just the walwart power too, yes? Like programming mode through out, just using the reset pin.