NP-41 Emulator (may be)

[Chris Chung]

(12-14-2017 12:04 AM)Sylvain Cote Wrote:  I have tried lots of things and my unit has the same behaviour as mwthomasjr.

I have a FTDI TTL-232R-3V3 cable (manual) on hand.
It has Ground, 5 Vcc and Rx/Tx at 3v will that be ok ? if not then I would have to order one like yours.

Regards,

Sylvain

Hi Sylvain

I was reading your post on my phone and thought your cable is not suitable. Looking at the pdf, it seems suitable as it's a 3.3V model and has 0.1" female headers.

You will however, need to have 0.1 male-male jumper wires to connect the unit to your Serial dongle. If you are able to establish this setup (also shown in the photo share), please try previous mentioned bootloader firmware upgrade procedure.

1. remove battery
2. connect dongle via 4 wire (Rx to Tx, Tx to Rx, Ground and 3.3V)
3. connect dongle to PC while holding USER key. Blank screen is expected
4. run Tera Term or Realterm (now I prefer Tera Term)
5. press any key on PC, unit replys w/ a single '?'
6. press @ key only, unit reply w/ a '>'
7. perform file transfer (select np41_??????.bin), make sure it is a BINARY transfer.

Be careful w/ step 7, select the right file, ensure it's binary mode and do not interrupt during transfer. Transfer is about 1 min.

* when connecting the unit w/ 0.1" jumpers, they are not a tight feed and you may need do press against them on the PCB to ensure proper connection. They are not proper connectors and I just design the PCB to have smaller holes to friction-fit the jumpers.

(12-14-2017 10:32 AM)Sylvain Cote Wrote:  I will send you my unit back and take the time to investigate the issue, there is no hurry here.
I will send you back my the two older units as well, they are not working but you may be able to salvage some pieces out of them.
I will ship the package tomorrow morning.
Best regards,
Sylvain

Thanks. In this case please hold on w/ your units. And we try to get the serial interface work. I am more eager to see this working on any shipped units. As the firmware is not mature, it is important that initial users be able to upgrade via serial.

If you are not able to have a USB-Serial connection, please let me know and I will send you a serial dongle w/ the appropriate wires. This can be done in letter mail and should just be a couple of days.