Problems with computers and USB JP1 cables

wejones · Post by **wejones** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 1:31 pm

I've been doing JP1 for years with RS 1995, 2116, and OFA 9910 remotes.
For several years, I was using a simple cable which I bought, I can't remember if it was serial or parallel, but I THINK serial. But I switched over to a USB cable that I bought a few years ago, which worked directly with the above regular JP1 remotes, mainly because my new laptop didn't have serial or parallel ports. I've since lost the old cable.

The USB model I bought was one of those light gray square plastic boxes with a ribbon cable going to the remote. This worked well for a couple years, then several weeks ago, I tried it, and it not only wouldn't work, it caused a blue screen of death on my computer. Strange thing was, that if I switched to another computer, the cable worked fine. Both computers were XP, but the one it worked on was older and didn't have up to date service packs. Ie, I'm not sure if going to a newer service pack on my main laptop did something that killed the USB cable's capability or if some other USB devices I use conflicts with the JP1 stuff or what. The USB ports on my laptop are a bit flakey, due to poor connections, but generally work, even for high speed video from sat receivers, thumb drives, and other USB devices.

So I decided to buy a NEW JP1 cable. I bought one of those Tommy Tyler cables, along with the adapter to use it with regular JP1 remotes, and I also bought one of those little widget things.

They came a couple days ago, and after installing the USB-serial drivers, the widget thing works fine (that's a great little gadget!), however I cannot get the JP1 programmer cable to work.

When I use the test program, it gives the "NOT FOUND" error. When it's searching, the send light blinks a couple times, but the receive light never blinks. The cable installs itself on comm port #6, so it's not that it's greater than 19. In the IR program, it indicates that the drivers are OK, but it also gives the NOT FOUND error when I test the interface.

I am confident that the cable is OK, since I'm sure it was tested before shipping to me, and also since my OLD USB cable worked on another computer. So, it seems like something is wrong with the USB setup on my computer, but I am really confused relative to why that Widget thing would work, and yet the programmer cable won't work.

I had basically given up, and decided to switch to a spare laptop, however that laptop just died (power supply went out), so I'm back to somehow trying to figure out what would possibly cause my current laptop's USB ports to work with virtually all other USB devices, but NOT with the JP1 cables. The only thing I can think of is the powered vs unpowered USB device thing. Ie, is it possible that the JP1 cable needs a powered USB port, and all the devices I use don't require the power, and somehow the power function of all of my USB ports are burned out???

I'm really grasping at straws here, as this is very strange. I guess I can go do it on one of my desktop computers, but they aren't in the same room as the devices I control with the remotes, so it's not as convenient as to use my laptop.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

mdavej · Post by **mdavej** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 1:55 pm

Just to make sure the basics are covered, confirm that:
- Pin 1 on the JP1.3 cable is connected to pin 1 of the JP1 EEPROM adapter which in turn is connected to pin 1 of your remote (all the dots should line up)
- "JP1.x" is the selected interface in IR, not "JP1 USB"

In the old days, sometimes removing the batteries would help. I don't know if that's still necessary, but it's worth a shot (my 9910 works fine with Tommy's cable and JP1 adapter with the batteries still installed).

Post by **The Robman** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 1:57 pm

Do you have batteries in the remote? If not, try it again with batteries in.

wejones · Post by **wejones** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 3:27 pm

I think at one point I tried re-booting the remote by removing the batteries, but the instructions said that if the remote was still functional that that wouldn't be necessary. I'll try that again.

Yes, I had the batteries in. I tried 4 different remotes, as I figured maybe one or 2 of them had weak batteries, but all were the same.

I lined up the dots on the adapter, and tried both ways of connecting to the remotes.

I'm pretty sure it's an issue with my USB ports, but I don't know what it could be.

After posting the question, I found a USB hub I have, which I think supplies it's own power, and that didn't help either.

My USB ports work fine with a regular USB<--->serial converter. I use it to talk to sat receivers and my TIVO, and a couple GPS receivers.

Tomorrow, I'll try the cable in one of my desktop computers, and I'm guessing that it will work.

I've also re-installed the USB drivers in my computer, and installed a PCMCIA USB hub, which would seem to rule out hardware issues, but maybe not, if the bad USB ports are conflicting. Maybe I should try to disable the built in ports, and only use the PCMCIA ports? But I'm not sure I know how to do that.

Will the Tommy Tyler thing work in a Win98 laptop? I do have one of those I could try it in, and could use near the devices I'm trying to control.

Thanks for responses.

Post by **vickyg2003** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 8:29 pm

is the newer laptop a 64-bit xp?

wejones · Post by **wejones** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 5:45 am

vickyg2003 wrote:is the newer laptop a 64-bit xp?

No, it's 32 bit XP pro, SP3 . It's only "newer" by my standards. I think it's probably 4-5 years old. The USB ports on this computer have been getting flakey, connection wise, but they still work for other devices. When they got flakey, I bought a pcmcia USB hub that works better, but still doesn't work for the JP1 cables. I know it's likely that the on board USB ports probably have hardware problems, but that shouldn't be true for the hub, unless there are conflicts with the flakey ports.

I dug up an old Win98 computer to use with the JP1 cables. I was able to get it working with the old USB JP1 box, but I wasn't able to load both USB-serial drivers for the Tommy Tyler cable. One driver loaded, but the second one wouldn't. But I've set up the old W98 laptop with a VNC server so I can control it from my main laptop, so that's pretty convenient for now. Longer term, I've convinced my wife to get a new laptop, so that I can have her current laptop. Her laptop at least has good USB ports.

Thanks.

mdavej · Post by **mdavej** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 7:57 am

What do you mean exactly by "both" drivers for Tommy's cable? We may have some confusion here that's the source of your problem. Tommy's cable only uses a single FDTI driver found on THIS page. It's built in to XP and later. The Win98 version is at the bottom of that page. You shouldn't be using Delcom drivers at all with this cable. I'm doubtful the problem lies with your USB ports.

wejones · Post by **wejones** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 6:07 am

mdavej wrote:What do you mean exactly by "both" drivers for Tommy's cable? We may have some confusion here that's the source of your problem. Tommy's cable only uses a single FDTI driver found on THIS page. It's built in to XP and later. The Win98 version is at the bottom of that page. You shouldn't be using Delcom drivers at all with this cable. I'm doubtful the problem lies with your USB ports.

That's the url I got the driver(s) from. It's some kind of a combination driver, although I'm not sure which parts of it were really loading. By loading "BOTH" drivers, what I meant was that when you connect the cable, a found new hardware window pops up, and I would install one of the drivers, THEN when that finished, another found new hardware thing popped up, and another driver installed. I'm pretty sure that this was mentioned as what should happen in one of the readme files I read.
When I tried to install the thing on my Win98 computer, I got only one found new hardware thing, so I told Windows to look for new hardware, and it found some USB-->Serial item that looked like what I was installing on the XP computer, so I told it to install that. It tried, but came back with an error saying that it couldn't install it.

I still intend to try to de-activate on the on-board USB ports, and go with just the pcmcia USB hub, but I've been too busy with other things on the computer. I also think there is a possibility that the JP1 cable needs more DC power than my ports are able to supply. My pcmcia hub has a little jumper that is supposed to supply DC from other ports, but that jumper might have a broken wire.

Thanks.

wejones · Post by **wejones** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 12:20 pm

UPDATE:

I have now tried the Tommy Tyler cable (with the JP1 adapter) in 3 other computers, a Win2k, an old XP laptop, and a New XP-Pro desktop. I was sure that it would work in all three, as none have ever had USB problems of any kind. However it doesn't work in any of these computers either. I'm starting to think that either the cable or the adapter must be bad, unless I'm doing something really wrong on all 4 computers.
I'm thinking of seeing if I can find one of the remotes that work without the adapter to see if the cable itself works. I'm also wondering if maybe I downloaded the wrong drivers from that site, although they worked for the Widget thing.
I guess I'll also go back and read the info files once more, to see if I missed something.

wejones · Post by **wejones** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 12:31 pm

mdavej wrote:What do you mean exactly by "both" drivers for Tommy's cable? We may have some confusion here that's the source of your problem. Tommy's cable only uses a single FDTI driver found on THIS page. It's built in to XP and later. The Win98 version is at the bottom of that page. You shouldn't be using Delcom drivers at all with this cable. I'm doubtful the problem lies with your USB ports.

When I said before that the above URL is where I got the drivers, I was wrong. I was at the FTDICHIP.COM/DRIVERS URL, but I was at the VCP drivers section, not the D2XX drivers section specified by your URL. I thought that the directions for the Tommy Tyler cable said that it needed VCP drivers????
Should I have downloaded the D2XX drivers instead???? I'm confused now. I hope that it's the wrong drivers, as that would be simple, as long as I can figure out how to remove both drivers (only 1 is listed when I look at the serial port in the device manager).

mdavej · Post by **mdavej** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 12:43 pm

They appear to be exactly the same drivers on the D2 and VCP pages, so I don't think that's your problem. It's starting to look like a bad cable. Do you have access to a Win 7 machine? If so, you could try that to rule out a hardware problem since the driver is built into the OS.

Tommy Tyler · Post by **Tommy Tyler** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:42 am

Bill,

It sounds like you have taken all reasonable steps to try and get your USB JP1.2/3 Interface working. I'm sending you a replacement and instructions in a separate e-mail for returning the original unit to me. If it is faulty maybe I can learn something by performing a post mortem.

Tommy

wejones · Post by **wejones** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 12:32 pm

Thanks to Tommy for sending the replacement interface.
I just received the interface.
I've checked it out on 3 different computers with 4 different JP1 remotes, with the test program, IR.exe, and RealTerm. Unfortunately, I still can't get it to work on any of the above. All 3 programs make the interface blink, but I don't get any reply from the remote. I've replaced the batteries in the remote with brand new ones, just in case it's a battery problem. These remotes do work with one of those gray USB JP1 boxes, so I don't think the remotes are at fault.
I'm confident that the new interface, and the old one were working, and that the problem is on my end, but I can't figure out what I could have done wrong. I've tried 2 versions of the drivers at that FTDI site, one from last spring, and a newer BETA version, with same result. One of my computers is XP-Pro, two are XP-Home, one is Win-2k
Only thing I can figure is that I have some program or a driver on all 4 of the computers I tried that is somehow conflicting, but I'm at a loss as to what it might be.
I may try to find a JP1.2 or JP1.3 remote to try the interface without the adapter. Does anyone know of a multi-device JP1.2 or JP1.3 remote available at local chain stores like WallMart, Radio Shack, Home Depot, Lowes or Staples?? Or are they only available via mail-order. I really wish RS was still selling the things. I really like the old 2116 remotes I have, but they are all in bad shape.

Thanks. And thanks again to Tommy for trying to help with the replacement interface.

mdavej · Post by **mdavej** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 12:46 pm

If you can wait a few days and want to save some money, Atlas JP1.3 remotes are around $8 shipped from ebay. Otherwise try eferz suggestions below. Although the RCA is advertised as only 5 device, it's actually 8 devices in IR. You can of course add even more devices to the RCA and Atlas via multiplexing.

eferz · Post by **eferz** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 12:47 pm

wejones wrote:Does anyone know of a multi-device JP1.2 or JP1.3 remote available at local chain stores like WallMart, Radio Shack, Home Depot, Lowes or Staples??

The RCA RCRP05B remotes which I understand are JP1.3 compatible are often found in BestBuy, Walmart, Walgreens, Radio Shack, and Sears. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if you found it in a Piggly Wiggly.