[time-nuts] TBOLT communication

[Jeroen Bastemeijer]

Hi Neville,

I use USB-Serial converters. Brand is"Sweex", there is a common 
USB2serial chip inside. There was no need to modify anything (pull up 
resistors or what so ever).

First I had communication, but from time to time strange behaviour. It 
made me think the Thunderbolt was faulty... I reported this to the 
Time-nust list. Someone suggested to update the driver , to the latest 
version. For me it worked out! It's working fine ever since.

In you case you might do the following things:
* connect a scope to the RS-232 pins to check the logic levels.
* use the USB converter with another PC, maybe the USB port cannot 
supply the current needed (or use a USB-HUB with power supply in series).

Good luck!

73 Jeroen PE1RGE

Neville Michie wrote:
> Hi,
> I have just spent a week or two trying to talk to a Trimble Thunderbolt.
> I have a laptop running VISTA, about which there is little to say.
> The laptop has no serial ports, but I have some USB/Serial converters  
> that successfully run
> my HP 3815A and a Samsung GCRU/D, and also communicate with my HOBO  
> loggers.
> The USB/Serial converters are a little difficult to use, sometimes  
> hanging, necessitating
> unplugging and plugging back in. They get assigned to various Port  
> numbers but tend to keep
> the same number from day to day. The ports can be configured in the  
> management function.
> However the TBOLT refuses to talk to the converter, to the extent  
> that I thought that I must have
> damaged the TBOLT.
> Today, as a last resort, I remembered an old PC, dragged it out and  
> stoked it up, and to my delight
> the TBOLT monitoring program ran without difficulty under Windows  
> 2000 with a conventional serial port.
> Now I vaguely remember talk about RS232 communications and the need  
> for pull up or down
> resistors and supplies, but searching the archives I could find  
> nothing relevant.
> Can anyone tell me how I could run the TBOLT off a USB/Serial converter?
> cheers, Neville Michie
>
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