Altec PC410 (BGA Rework) to communicate with PC

[Solac03]

Hi sir maybe you can help me out. https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=97677. It's easy to remove the controller you just press a tab on the right side and pull the unit out. Just make sure you don't plug it in the wrong direction like I did.

[azoor]

Originally Posted by vinifera

Hi Pronester,

i have the same problem and my connection is via RS232 to USB ?
have you found the solution ?
Can you give me feedback

thx

For those who have been having difficulties to get their Achi ir pro sc to connect with a laptop or pc via the psoft software. It may work for you too but you can only try to know if it will work. Please note I am not a pro and there is no logical process in this. I have seen others reported here no connect and myself after trying for days to connect this to my laptops via the laptops usb 2 or usb 3 ports on my two laptops, it refused to connect. When it failed to connect, I bought several usb to rs232 serial converters and they all failed although they were all recognised as com port.* I bought the Digitus USB 2.0 to serial convertor FTDI chipset, Ugreen usb* to rs232 serial cable with PL2303 chipset, Dtech 3 pin to usb to TTL serial and finally usb to rs232 XTVTXb pl2303HX to TTL. None of them worked when plugged in directly in the laptops usb ports of my Samsung galaxy book2 pro 360 win 11 and in my good old reliable Sony sve1713z1eb win 10. However, connecting to my very old pc in win 7 directly in rs232 port, it connected and worked but glitchy in win 7 and did not work on another PC with win xp. Even in the pc with win 7 it did not connect directly via the pc usb port through the cable usb to rs232 serial adapter.

*After giving up on the the 2 laptops, and after many days have passed I was reaching for something on a shelf an old usbV1 hub fell in front of me and I picked it up and I said let me try to connect that to my laptop and to the achi pro* sc V1 and to my astonishment it worked on both latops.** I was very happy and started to ponder why is it working via the usb hubs but not directly via the latops usb ports and in my view very strange. I thought may be it is to do with drivers of the PC410 or win drivers. I cannot explain and I do not know the answer. I eventually found out that it does work via usbv2 hub too.

The way I connect via the laptops, I ensure port settings in device manager match the port settings in psoft menu then first tab, configure com port. I connect cables to Achi pro first and then connect cable to laptop using an ordinary usb to rs232* serial converter to the USB v1 hub, from USB hun to pc, start laptop wait for it to boot to windows, I then switch on achi pro then open psoft and voila it works. When it connects the com port in psoft flashes green intermittently and on pc410, com flashes red intermittently. It can be temperamental too and If it does not work repeat the process switch off Achi and close psoft and start again and try in another port. It does work 99% of the time in my case.

I would also check inside the Achi which wire is ground, rx and tx to Din rs232 port (mine) or usb port may be in Achi v2, v3 and v4. Mine was different to the schematics which I found on a utoob video. There is no logic in this, I am merely sharing my experience.

[azoor]

Here are the pics

[clearchris]

Originally Posted by azoor

there is no logical process in this.

I bought several usb to rs232 serial converters and they all failed although they were all recognised as com port.* I bought the Digitus USB 2.0 to serial convertor FTDI chipset, Ugreen usb* to rs232 serial cable with PL2303 chipset, Dtech 3 pin to usb to TTL serial and finally usb to rs232 XTVTXb pl2303HX to TTL.

None of them worked when plugged in directly win 11 and in my good old reliable Sony sve1713z1eb win 10. However, connecting to my very old pc in win 7 directly in rs232 port, it connected and worked but glitchy in win 7 and did not work on another PC with win xp

I think I can help elucidate the issue. The issue is you have fake proliant and FTDI chips. Prolific and FTDI decided because there are so many fakes out there, that they would bar the fake chips functioning with their drivers. The problem is that, as a buyer, there's really no easy way to authenticate that the chips are real. So I just don't buy anything labeled FTDI or Prolific. I have bought an arduino, from a US seller, that was labelled, 100% real, not fake, guess what, it was a fake.

These cables will work under linux just fine as FTDI and Prolific did not write those linux drivers and did not black list the fakes. They may also work on older windows systems that did not get newer drivers that black list the fakes. Older windows systems also may not support the newer chips like XP and pl2303HX IIRC.

The solution is to just buy ch340 adapters. They are cheap chinese chips, and no one is faking them.

Sucks for FTDI and Prolific, they were losing revenue from the fakes, but I just will not buy any of their products because there's a (high) risk of getting a blacklisted fake. Arduinos pretty much all moved away from using the fake chips in favor of the ch340 chips, but the fake chips are still very much present in usb to TTL adapters.

[Per Hansson]

Some links if you want to read up more on what clearchris mentioned:

https://zeptobars.com/en/read/FTDI-F...is%20deep-down

http://hackaday.com/2016/02/01/ftdi-...e-chips-again/

[azoor]

Originally Posted by Per Hansson

Some links if you want to read up more on what clearchris mentioned:

https://zeptobars.com/en/read/FTDI-F...is%20deep-down

http://hackaday.com/2016/02/01/ftdi-...e-chips-again/

Thank you Clearchris and Per Hansson, I appreciate your knowledge and time. I did not mention in my first post that I had tried so many times to connect with the ch340 converters and it did not work with it. For it to work with my current method, I wired it as per the diagram in the picture attached of the “female rs232 port”. That is the only way I got it to work and any other way it does not work which is weird. Could it be wired as Rs485?
The original schematic of the achi ir pro sc V1, the pin top to the right is ground, the left top pin is TX and the bottom pin is RX.
In my achi pro the Right top pin is RX and the left top pin is ground and the bottom pin is TX. I made the 3-pin din cable with GX12 plug to female rs232 plug as I could not find any to buy. I acquired the second hand BGA working station about 3 months ago and all going well.
I have attached pictures if that can be of any help to others. I do not really need to connect to pc for it to work but can be useful when learning to get better. I can save profiles and tweak them to suit certain board. Easy to send and upload profiles.
Mine is working and so the quest for me stops here and hope someone can find a better way and solution to make the psoft software work easily with laptop or pc.

[clearchris]

Originally Posted by azoor

I did not mention in my first post that I had tried so many times to connect with the ch340 converters and it did not work with it.

Does your ch340 get recognized by the OS? Going from memory here, IIRC, you have to download a driver for the ch340, there aren't "certified" drivers for them. Has been so long since I have been using this chips for a very long time, I don't quite remember what I had to do to get them owrking.

Glad you got it working though!

[azoor]

Originally Posted by clearchris

Does your ch340 get recognized by the OS? Going from memory here, IIRC, you have to download a driver for the ch340, there aren't "certified" drivers for them. Has been so long since I have been using this chips for a very long time, I don't quite remember what I had to do to get them owrking.

Glad you got it working though!

Mine got recognised by the OS win 10 and win 11. Picture attached is Win 11. I had tried it on Win 10 too. It is a cheap one I bought from Alixpress many months ago. I never downloaded a driver as it was auto recognised. May be I should have downloaded the driver? I will google it.

[kukasIII]

hello to all, well after some time my altec stop 232rs connection.. try everything. adapters 340, pl2302.... etc.. and fck nothing.. altec became deaf.

so lets go inside.. RX is arriving at cpu, after the max232 and optocoupler, good signal in osciloscope, but nothing!!! he does never accept income data. rebuild the rs232 new max232ene+, new coupler, check cond.. all good but no comunication. .....

so i have in "bag ttl-usb" lets go direct to cpu .. and fck ... voila...

communication perfect everytime

PSoft Rework working good

placa.jpg

232.jpg

ttl.jpg

ttl2.jpg



solution: kill the rs232 ..kkkkkkk

Ps- sorry for the writing.

[Convenience]

Hi there thanks for all the Information shared. Im another guy who just bought a second hand achi ir pro with pc410 and im not able to connect to my pc via com port rs232.

Can you (kukasIII) please share the way you connected this usb via the USB TTL?

You just soldered the red white and yellow wires to the pc410 board and then connected this usb ttl adapter with the rxd and txd ?

i also tried different usb rs232 adapters with different chipsets.


ALSO can anyone please share their menu settings for the pc410 (when you press and hold the PAR/SET Button so Adress bAud all values please )


Thanks a lot and hopefully i will get it to work some day

[stormanimal83]

Originally Posted by kukasIII

hello to all, well after some time my altec stop 232rs connection.. try everything. adapters 340, pl2302.... etc.. and fck nothing.. altec became deaf.

so lets go inside.. RX is arriving at cpu, after the max232 and optocoupler, good signal in osciloscope, but nothing!!! he does never accept income data. rebuild the rs232 new max232ene+, new coupler, check cond.. all good but no comunication. .....

so i have in "bag ttl-usb" lets go direct to cpu .. and fck ... voila...

communication perfect everytime

PSoft Rework working good

Attachment 291663

Attachment 291664

Attachment 291665

Attachment 291666



solution: kill the rs232 ..kkkkkkk

Ps- sorry for the writing.

Bro! I could kiss you for your post here... tried myself what u did but it didnt´work.... tried to change parts... nothing worked out....

now my pc 410 is up and running again.... loooking forward to use my achi station...

Its very important for me to use the usb ttl virtual com port with 9600 baud. otherwise it´s not working in software. i´m using original software from achi (com port is fixed @com1) and PSOFT Rework in wich the port is changeable an its possible to change settings.. absolutely perfect... thanks a lot...

[Convenience]

Can you please post some pics how you did it?

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Originally Posted by Convenience

i also tried different usb rs232 adapters with different chipsets.

I had one that worked but it was a bit iffy. Eventually what I did is simply say F*** it and spent $20 on a Pentium 4 laptop with real serial and parallel ports and used a straight RS232 cable.