It Won't Work :(
Moderators: JeffC, rdoherty, stieg, brentp
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- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2011 6:53 pm
It Won't Work :(
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?
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- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2011 6:53 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!
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!
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- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2011 6:53 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...