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FONIX 6500 RS232 Troubleshooting Guidelines04/30/97 You should use these guidelines if you are having problems getting your FONIX hearing aid analyzer to communicate with your host computer. If you are trying to install an RS232 option upgrade, refer to the document titled "RS232 Installation Instructions". The most common problems encountered by Frye support personnel are listed below. It is always best to troubleshoot the most common causes first, before moving on to more complicated causes. For example, if you had the RS232 option installed at the factory, you should start out with the assumption that it has been installed correctly and troubleshoot problems external to the analyzer first. Most common RS232 problems encountered:
To help you troubleshoot the RS232 operation of your FONIX instrument and RS232 software, Frye now supplies the following items with all analyzers which have the RS232 option and with all RS232 option upgrades:
If you purchased your RS232 option before these items became available and you are having trouble with your RS232 operation, you should contact Frye to obtain these troubleshooting tools. TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURE1. Check the analyzer's RS232 option When you turn on your analyzer, it checks for RS232 software on the system software EPROM. If it detects the software, it performs a limited self-test of its RS232 hardware. A status message is displayed below the Frye Electronics copyright notice on the opening display screen. This message can be any of the following:
This could also indicate bad system software EPROMs, but this is unlikely if the instrument is operating normally in all other functions. Contact Frye to verify that you have the RS232 option or to get replacement EPROMs. Have your serial number handy.
If your RS232 option was factory installed, contact Frye. If you installed the RS232 option yourself, check that none of the pins on the UART chip are bent under or sticking out of the socket on the I/O board. Check that the notch on the UART chip is toward the top of the I/O board. Refer to the RS232 installation instructions for more information. If the UART looks like it is installed correctly and you still get above message, contact Frye for a replacement UART or additional help. In addition to the limited self-test described above, you may perform a more detailed check of your RS232 option using the diagnostic plug shipped with your analyzer. If you did not receive one of these plugs with your instrument, contact Frye to obtain one. To perform the detailed RS-232 self-test, turn the analyzer off and insert the 25-pin plug labeled "RS232 Diagnostic Plug" into the 25-pin connector labeled "RS232 Computer Interface" on the back of your analyzer. Turn the instrument power on. The analyzer will automatically perform a detailed check of RS232 functions. One of the following status messages will be displayed under the Frye copyright notice:
!!! NOTE !!! If you get any of the following messages with the diagnostic plug installed and your RS232 option was factory installed or installed by a distributor, please contact Frye or the distributor. Be sure to have your instrument serial number handy when you call.
If you get this message with the diagnostic plug installed, then the 7-pin RS232 connector on the I/O board inside your instrument is probably misaligned. Check to make sure that this connector is covering all the connector pins on the I/O board. Refer to the RS232 installation instructions for more information. If the connector is correctly installed and you are still getting this message, contact Frye.
When this connector is correctly installed, the white dot on the connector is toward the bottom of the I/O board and the gray wire on the ribbon cable is toward the top. If the connector is installed correctly and you still get this message, contact Frye.
You should refer to the RS232 installation instructions for correct jumper installation. If the IO board was an old style board, it may also require that the run under the jumper be cut. This should have been done during installation. (Note: The cut run applies only to old style IO boards.) 2. Check that the analyzer is sending polls When the analyzer is ready to accept commands from the computer it sends a stream of special data packets, called "polls", to the computer, usually about 5 times per second. To determine if the analyzer is sending polls, connect the Frye RS232 cable with the red and green LEDs between the analyzer and the computer (the LEDs go on the computer end) and reset the analyzer. The analyzer will come up with the opening logo screen and begin sending polls. You should see a flickering red LED on the RS232 cable to indicate that polls are being sent down the cable. If you do not see the red LED flickering, there is a problem with your analyzer (or your test cable is bad). Note: If you do not have the Frye cable, but you have an oscilloscope handy, you can use the scope to look for pulses on pin 3 of the 25-pin connector or pin 2 of the 9-pin connector. If your analyzer is sending polls and you are not communicating, you can assume the analyzer is functioning properly and look for problems in the cable or computer. 3. Check the RS232 cabling A bad RS232 cable is often the cause of communication problems between an analyzer and computer, particularly if the problem seems to be intermittent. The quickest way to check for a bad cable is to try a known good cable. If you don't have a cable that you are sure is good, you may want to purchase a new one. The odds of the new cable being bad are slight, so if you still have the problem after trying a new cable, you can assume that the problem is in the computer or application software. The FONIX RS232 option expects a standard 'straight-thru' RS232 cable. These cables are available from most stores that carry computer supplies. If you want to use a longer cable, the RS232 standard supports cable lengths up to 50 feet at the communication rate used by FONIX instruments, but you can probably go up to 100 feet without having any problems. Do not use RS232 cables which are designated as "Null Modem" cables. Your computer's serial port connector may be either 9-pin or 25- pin connector (or you may have both types). You may connect your analyzer to either of these ports. You may use a standard 25- pin-to-9-pin adapter to adapt the Frye RS232 cable (or any other standard 25-pin RS232 cable) to use the 9-pin port. 4 4. Check the computer's serial port Most computers have one 25-pin female parallel port and one or two male 25-pin or 9-pin serial ports. With few exceptions you can identify the serial ports by looking for 25-pin or 9-pin connectors on the back of your computer which are male (they have pins sticking out). The serial card(s) in your machine usually have jumpers which disable or enable these ports and jumpers to determine which connector gets assigned to which communications port: COM1, COM2, COM3, or COM4. If you have two COM ports, they are almost always configured as COM1 and COM2 at the factory or at the computer store. It is important for you to determine which COM port has been assigned to each connector so that you are not trying to communicate with COM1 when you are connected to COM2. Some computers have these ports labeled, but most don't. You can usually look at your computer documentation or the documentation that came with your serial cards to determine this information, but often it is easier to just run some program which uses the serial ports and figure out which port works when you have the software configured for that port. This is the approach we have taken with the RS232 diagnostic program. Your RS232 disk contains a program called FCHECK which checks a several functions of your RS232 communication from the computer side. To use FCHECK, you should have your computer and analyzer connected with an RS232 cable. Reset your analyzer so it is in the opening screen sending polls. If you have the Frye RS232 cable, you should check the red LED to make sure you are receiving polls as described above. In order to run FCHECK on an MSDOS or Win3.1 system, you must first load the FRYERS.COM driver. Load FRYERS and then start FCHECK. FCHECK will start up and begin testing COM1 by default. For 32 bit systems (Win95 or WinNT), you should run FCHECK32. FCHECK32 does not use FRYERS.COM, but it does need FRYERS32.DLL to be located in the Windows subdirectory. When FCHECK starts, the Status box in the upper right hand corner will display the message "-- Testing --". Eventually this status box will display either the message "No Poll" or the message "Test Completed". A "No Poll" message indicates that the computer is not receiving polls from the analyzer on COM1. If you see pulses on the red LED, you know you are getting polls, so you can assume that the port you are connected to on the back of the computer is not COM1, or that COM1 is disabled or malfunctioning. The Help window describes error conditions that might be causing the problem. A "Test Completed" status message should be accompanied by a message in the Help window saying that RS232 communication on COM1 is functioning successfully. If you get this message, then you have a functioning communications link via the Fryers FIPP protocol between the analyzer and the computer. If your application still isn't working, you probably have an error in your application. If your application can be configured to use COM1 or COM2, such as the Frye CHAP program, you should check to make sure that the program is configured for the correct port. If you receive a 'No Poll' on COM1, press '2' to begin testing COM2. Do not change the connection on the back of your computer. If you get a successful connection, you know that the connector you are currently connected to on the back of the computer is COM2. If you get a 'No Poll' on COM2 as well, you know that the port is disabled, or malfunctioning, or is configured as COM3 or COM4. To test for COM3, press "3". To test for COM4, press "4". If you cannot get a successful communication using FCHECK, then you most likely have a malfunctioning or incorrectly configured serial card. Note: Sometimes the COM ports use non-standard interrupts. This is sometimes done to allow more than the two standard COM ports to exist in the computer. If you know the interrupt number for the card, you can set it by pressing "I" followed by the interrupt number (use "A" through "F" for interrupts 10-15). During startup of the test, FCHECK will look for the available valid interrupts (on 16 bit systems only). Note: Some laptops do not provide a full RS232 compatible output. This may cause a problem if you are using the Frye supplied RS232 cable with the red and green LEDs. If you are using a laptop, try replacing the Frye supplied cable with a standard RS232 cable (without the LEDs). 5. If you have performed all the checks in steps 1 through 4 and still cannot get the computer to communicate with your analyzer, call Frye for additional help. History: Return to Communications Troubleshooting Guide
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