vmusic2 and prop1 wiring

[tugman]

I have read in this forum that someone has had problems with wiring between the prop1 and the vmusic2 but they didn't say what the problem was.  Is there anything special I need to know about the connections between these 2 units.

[JonnyMac]

The VMUSIC is a persnickety beast, but I've made it work well -- IF you follow my connections and code guidelines you shouldn't have any troubles.  Remember that you need to load the 2400 baud firmware into the VMUSIC in order to get the Prop-1 to talk to it.  Our friend, Scary Terry, has done us all a favor and made the 2400 baud firmware file available:

http://www.scary-terry.com/vm2/ftrfb_2400.ftd.zip

After unzipping this file you must put it onto your media and rename it ftrfb.ftd.  You can find all of Scary Terry's info here:

http://www.scary-terry.com/vm2/vm2_bs1.htm

BUT... you must use my connection scheme (below) for my code to work.  Please trust that my code is written the way it is for very specific technical reasons (having to do with serial comms) and it does work without adding artificial delays (which Terry and others have been forced to do).

Here are the connections I use with my code:



You can build this buy cutting off one end of two 14" extenders (or cutting one in half if the VMUSIC is going to be right next to the Prop-1)

[BigRez]

If you downloaded the firmware prior to Jan 09, go back to the link above and get a new copy; you MUST have the latest firmware loaded on the device in order for it to recognize 2gb and larger usb drives.  Scarry Terry updated his site with the latest firmware in Jan after I notified him of this fact.  See thread at http://www.efx-tek.com/php/smf/index.php?topic=952.msg5210#msg5210 for more info.

Another important note that I ran into is that on many devices, the firmware update must be done initially from a USB drive of < 2gb. (Since the original firmware doesn't support 2gb drives, you can't use them to do the update.)  At least this is the case for me and all four of my VMusic2 players.

Lastly, using the connections above would require P6 and P7 without ULN, correct?

[tugman]

My computer fails to recognize the needed .ftd files.  What's the fix for that?

[JonnyMac]

The .ftd file is the VMUSIC firmware and has nothing to do with your computer.  You need to get the 2400 baud file (you can get it from Scary Terry's site) and drop it onto the media that you're plugging into the VMUSIC.

@BigRez: Yes, you must remove the ULN influence from P7 and P6.