It Won't Work :(

brainbug007 · Post by **brainbug007** » Mon Nov 28, 2011 7:07 pm

I just got my megajoltE from trigger wheels and tried to get it working today. I bought the serial to usb cable from them but didn't opt for a hard rev limiter. I wanted to bench test it 1st and get it talking to my laptop before fully wiring all the connections for the MJ plug. So I only wired the power & ground in and connected it up to a 12v battery. The light comes on nice & bright at the back. I then tried connecting it to the laptop (netpad running xp) and as soon as I load the software (v4.02) it crashes with a visual studio error. I tried loading the software the with usb cable unplugged and it loads fine, but then as soon as I plug the usb in I get the visual studio error and it crashes. I tried changing the com port under the device manager to various other com ports but that didn't resolve the problem either. I also tried starting up hyperterminal and I get a slow stream one character appearing at a time (character changes a lot and looks like various symbols). I have changed the bit rate to 38400 but that didn't seem to make any difference. I also tried it on 9v battery but I still got the same error. I've also tried it on 2nd laptop running windows 7 but I get the same error. I don't have access to another laptop/desktop which has a serial port so I need to get this running with the usb cable. Considering I paid 14 quid for the cable from trigger wheels I expected this to be a quality product and not running into these problems. From everything I've read these problems tend to be the cable?

spandit · Post by **spandit** » Tue Nov 29, 2011 11:57 am

I had endless problems with this error but it turned out to be the power supply I was using (which was duff, even though it made the LED light up OK)

I see you've tried a couple of batteries - were they fully charged?

brainbug007 · Post by **brainbug007** » Tue Nov 29, 2011 5:37 pm

Yup as far as I know both batteries are fully charged. I checked the + & - on the MJ connections with a multimeter and got 5.8v when using the 9v battery and 12.75v when using the 12v battery.

Post by **brentp** » Tue Nov 29, 2011 9:04 pm

Often with the Configuration Software crashing it's due to a problem with the display drivers - the Configuration software uses OpenGL 3D graphics and might have problems with out-dated display drivers.

Look for some updated drivers from the manufacturer, update them and try again.

Also: try booting your computer into Safe Mode (Specifically, "Safe Mode with Networking"). This loads a bare-bones, 'safe' VGA driver and bypasses the regular display driver.

If the program runs successfully in Safe Mode this will also point to a Display Driver issue.

Let us know what you find out!

brainbug007 · Post by **brainbug007** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 8:05 pm

Don't think its the graphics drivers as the program loads fine without the MJ plugged in and then only crashes once it's plugged in. Also the drivers are fairly recent as I use my laptop for alot of graphic intensive games

Anyhow I bought a cheap laptop off ebay with a serial port built in which arrived today. Installed the software and plugged the MJ in on the 9v battery and it worked straight away with no messing around

Just goes to show how crap the serial to usb converters are, even when bought from somewhere reputable like Trigger Wheels and the right drivers etc in. I definately wouldn't recommend anyone even bother wasting their money on them, just pickup a cheap 2nd hand laptop off ebay. It would be nice however if future editions of the MJ had USB, wireless, ethernet, bluetooth, etc built in and didn't need to rely on something as old as serial connections...

spandit · Post by **spandit** » Thu Dec 01, 2011 5:47 pm

Glad you got it working

dr.occa · Post by **dr.occa** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 4:43 pm

I was having issues trying to get my Serial to USB adapter to work on my new Win 7 Dell. What fixed it was getting the latest and greatest Prolific drivers (by appropriate chipset of course) and it solved my errors.