sx-key debugger is "sleeping"

[crpalmer]

I encountered two problems, but likely only one of them is causing you grief: there is a 10K resistor across OSC1 and OSC2 that should not be there.  You can confirm/deny this - just look at the left side of the SX chip on your Prop-SX.  If you see a small resistor between the SX chip and the pads for the SMD resonator, then you've found the problem too.  If you are comfortable with a soldering iron, you can simply remove the resistor from the board.  If not, let me know and I will arrange to have a cross ship.
The other problem is that my software was old.  I went to the Parallax site to download the latest.  Now everything works perfectly.
Let me know what you find...

Yes, I have a resistor there so that sounds like that may really be the problem.  My soldering skills are pretty minimal which means I'll need to go with the cross-ship option.

[johnb]

Okay, that's fine.  Can you reference the invoice that accompanied the order?  I need the Sales Order number or at least the date the order was made.  I will get a new (and freshly tested) Prop-SX out to you.  When you get the new one, just send the old one to me via snail mail.  The address will be on the new Sales Order.

Sorry about the trouble.

John B
EFX-TEK

[johnb]

Hi Chris,
I found your invoice (to get your address, etc.) and have sent a freshly tested Prop-SX.  Here's the tracking number: 1Z759V1X0341152575
Please send the original Prop-SX and SX-Key back to:

EFX-TEK
214 Norfolk Drive
Knoxville, TN
37922

[crpalmer]

Hi Chris,
I found your invoice (to get your address, etc.) and have sent a freshly tested Prop-SX.  Here's the tracking number: 1Z759V1X0341152575
Please send the original Prop-SX and SX-Key back to:

EFX-TEK
214 Norfolk Drive
Knoxville, TN
37922

I guess this means you didn't get the email I sent on Tuesday?  If so, thanks for taking the time to dig the info out yourself.  FYI, I sent the sx-key back on Tuesday.

[crpalmer]

I received the new Prop-SX last night.  I didn't have time to do a whole lot with it, but I loaded up Blink1.SXB (posted earlier in this thread) and had no problems debugging it.  I think that the resistor was the problem and I'm good to go now.

[crpalmer]

As an FYI, it looks like the resistor you removed was doing something...

I have a program that sends data to a LCD display using serial I/O (clipped pin, on the ULN and all that).  If I run this with the SX-Key plugged into the Prop-SX and my computer, it works fine.  If I disconnect the USB for the SX-Key from the computer but leave the SX-Key attached to the Prop-SX then it doesn't work (either the serial communication is not working or it's not able to run at all).  If I unplug the SX-Key from the Prop-SX then it all works fine.

When I was doing this I had a 4MHz resonator and used the OSCHS1 device line.

Not a big deal, but wanted to let you know.

[JonnyMac]

The USB SX-Key gets its power from the USB port, so if you disconnect the port it cannot generate a clock signal for the Prop-SX, and may in fact load the OSC pins and prevent a resonator from working.

[gmatocha]

Hi,

I'm using a PropSX I've had on the shelf for a couple of years for the first time. I'm having the same problem described here, and the small resistor between the OSC1 and OSC2 pins is present on my board. I'm already using the latest version from Parallax - SXKey v3.3.0. I've been working around the debugging problem with an LDC display.

I could easily remove the resistor - do you still recommend removing the resistor as a fix? Since I'll probably never use another PropSX, using the SXKey debugger would be "nice-to-have" but not critical at this point. I would hate to damage the controller. Is this a pretty safe modification with no side effects?

[JonnyMac]

If you're not using the SX debugger don't worry about it.