Why won't launch.exe app complete the initializing of DRV8308?

Hi Douglas, sorry to hear you're getting this problem. I wonder if there might be another COM port in use from another device that's confusing things. Can you go to Device Manager and tell me everything listed under "Ports (COM & LPT)"?

Of course, when you connect the DRV8308EVM to your computer, a row should get instantly added to that Device Manager section. You could try disabling or uninstalling any other COM ports listed, and re-launching the GUI.

Best regards,
RE

Hello,
Thanks for prompt response. There are no COM ports showing in Device Manager before the board is connected. COM5 appears after I connect the motor board, and is the only COM port in use. LPT1 shows as the only parallel port, but is never used.

One odd thing is that when 24v power is brought to the board to drive the power section, a significant arc/spark occurs, indicating to me that at least two latches on the H-bridge are closed. I know the polarity of 24v input is correct.

Why is it drawing power from 24v before it has finished initializing? It seems odd that the board should be drawing 24v power, perhaps the charge pump?

Another oddity- the Device: icon at the top of the screen is blank, whereas the COM port (COM5) and baud (9600) do appear. Do you think the board is actually communicating with the PC launch app?

It's better not to hot-connect 24V.  Make the physical connection first, and then enable the power supply.

I suspect the reason for the spark is the bulk capacitor on the board.  When it charges up, it can draw high current.  The DRV8308 should be disabled by default as long as ENABLE stays low.

Back to your problem, 24V is actually not even needed for the GUI to load and finish initializing.  The GUI simply uses USB power to talk to the FTDI and MSP430, and if 24V isn't present, the DRV8308 won't be awake to receive SPI writes.

In Device Manager, can you double-click COM5, click the driver tab, and verify your info matches this:

If it doesn't, I would recommend uninstalling it and re-installing the FTDI driver.

If your info does already match, try clicking the Port Settings tab, Advanced, and change the COM Port Number to something else.  Then re-launch the GUI and see if the red X's go away after a minute.

Best regards,
RE

Changing the COM port number had no effect. But, my FTDI driver is not the one you show, its newer. It is FTDI, 8/26/2014, version 2.12.0.0. Thus, it may not be as functional as the Certified version 2.10.0.0. Try as I might, I cannot get rid of the 2.12.0.0 version. Windows automatically searches for an update version and even when I reinstall the correct 2.10.0.0 driver, Windows updates it to the newer version. I cannot get Windows to allow me to use the 2.10.0.0, which appears in the installed software list in the control panel.

I found another quirk - I measured with DVM the resistance between Hall power leads (red-black) on the Hall bundle of wires for the Telco motor and it reads in tens of megohms, so I don't know if the Hall power circuit in the motor is intact or not. The User Guide says this resistance should be less than 250 ohm for Hall elements, but does not say what it should be for a Hall IC. The Telco datasheet shows a proper Hall supply voltage of 2.5-6v, so I left the jumpers as they were when delivered (JP2, JP4 = jumpered, JP3 = not jumpered, JP1 jumped from 2-3). This should provide 5v to the Hall sensors. Does this have any impact on launcher.exe initialization? I doubt it.

When I right-click Uninstall, the pop-up window has a checkbox for "Delete the driver", and I think doing that should prevent it from automatically re-installing.

I don't think the driver is necessarily the problem though.  I just tried the 2.12 version and it loads the GUI fine for me.

Did you install the GUI Composer Runtime v6.0?  Do you have a second computer handy that you could try?  Once the files in all in place on your PC, you should be able to simply connect the USB cable to the board, run launcher.exe, and the GUI should fully load with no X's.  A Windows or file issue seems more likely to be the problem than having a bad MSP430 on your board.

Best regards,
RE

I got the drivers switched down to 2.10.0.0 with no improvement on this machine, so neither driver works for me (2.10 or 2.12).

Yes, I had installed GUI Composer Runtime v6.0. I reinstalled it with no effect, i.e. the GUI will not finish initializing.

I tried a fresh installation on a different PC - Win7 laptop, newer than the desktop, and with the I7 processor. I was able to install the "correct" drivers 2.10.0.0 first time (but I'm glad to see 2.12 should work, also), but it made no difference in the operation of the GUI - it still won't finish initializing and has the red x's everywhere, even after restarting the GUI and waiting 10 minutes, several times.

So it's not machine dependent, and appears to be a function of the files used to install the software, which came from the sources listed in the User Manual for the board. OR, it is a hardware failure on the board.

I believe I have done all I can to find out why this doesn't work for me. I need to have it returned to be examined and/or replaced or refunded. Let me know how to proceed. I purchased it from Mouser. Do you need to look at both motor and board, or just board?

Thank you for your patience. I'm tired of looking at screens full of red x's. We did our best.

I understand your frustration. We've shipped out lots and lots of these kits, and what you describe is the first of its kind I've seen. The fact that the problem still happens on a 2nd computer makes it sound like the HW is bad, whether it's the USB cable, FTDI chip, or MSP430.

If you email me your address, I'll ship you a new board and test it ahead of time. My email is xxxx.

Best regards,
RE

__________________________________

Update: Here was the answer, for anyone reading:  the base installation was instaspinuniversal_v104.exe instead of the GUI Composer Runtime.