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DMXter4 RDM USB Driver and Terminal Emulator Support Page

This page provides the most up to date information from Goddard Design, on non-Goddard Design software to support the use of the USB port on the DMXter4.

To use the USB port on the DMXter 4 you must have drivers on your computer to support the FTDI - FT232R chip. Further you will need a user interface application. At the present this application will be a terminal emulator. While there are many terminal emulators for many operating systems, we recommend just one, Tera Term for the PC. We hope to have a recommendation for the Mac soon.

Terminal emulators	FTDI drivers	Finding out which COM port your DMXter is assigned too	Finding and removing phantom devices
Configuring Tera Term	Downloading software Updates to your DMXter4	Reloading factory code

Terminal Emulators

Tera Term

Tera Term is an old program that was written in Japan in the mid 1990s. It was written by T. Teranishi (Copyright © 1996-1999). It is available free of charge and is open source. It was special in that it supported the Japanese language. It received attention outside Japan because it was simple and worked! Development ended by 1999. However, that version is still available from the author’s web site, the Tera Term Home Page. The version for download there works with Windows versions Win95 thru XP. We do not know if it runs under Vista. Download (ttermp23.zip; 943,376 bytes) We recommend that you use the newer version described below.

Software development was re-started again in 2004 by Yutaka Hirata. This is also an open source project. He added an implementation of SSH2 and other features. A complete list of them is published on Tera Term Support forum.

Since 2007, Tera Term has been maintained by the Tera Term Project (Japanese developer team) as open source software. The latest versions of Tera Term are compatible with Win 98 and higher. While our application has no need of any of the security features, we recommend that you use this version. You can download it from the Source Forge Japan website. The current version is 4.65 . (left click this link)

Apple terminal emulator

(comming soon- any good ideas)

FTDI USB Drivers

The driver page for the FT232r devices can be found here or you can down load it below
"For most of these operating systems two types of driver are available: Virtual COM Port (VCP) drivers and direct (D2XX) drivers. The VCP driver emulates a standard PC serial port such that the USB device may be communicated with as a standard RS232 device." You want the VPC driver for the FT232R chip for your operating system.

For the following software :

Windows Server 2008 ,Windows Server 2008 x64, Windows Vista, Windows Vista x64,
Windows XP, Windows XP x64

Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 x64
use V2.06.02 (right click this link)

*******
For the following software:

Windows 98,Windows ME

use 1.09.06
*********
Mac OS X (Intel)
use 2.2.9 Requires Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later.

Customers who wish to use their own VID and PID with this driver should contact FTDI Support with their requirement.

**********
Mac OS X
use 2.1.9

Finding Out What COM Port Windows has Given to Your DMXter

Windows assigns a com port to every USB serial device that has been used on a system. It does this by reading the unique ID that is in the USB interface chip in the target device (your DMXter). Over the life of a system the number of assigned ports may grow rather large. Some terminal emulators don’t automatically detect which port Windows has given to your DMXter. Hence the following may be helpful.

If you use the new version of Tera Term this will be less of a problem.

First, install one of the proper drivers on your PC, then use a USB cable to connect it. (The DMXter does not have to be ON.) However, if it is on, and in the boot strap loader, you should see this display on the DMXter.

|Bootstrap v01 sn4xxx |
| USB Connected 57.6k |

You do not need to have the terminal emulator running. Then open Control Panel >, System>,hardware> (see display at right) Open Device manager. When you open the Device Manager, and you have expanded the port entry, you will see this display.

If you wish to see all the Com Ports your computer has assigned, you need to follow the method laid out in the quoted note, below. It is from FDTI application note AN232B-10 Advanced Driver Options

*****beginning of quote*****

7.2 Phantom Devices

Devices that have been installed on a system but are not currently available are referred to as "phantom devices". These devices are not usually displayed in the device manager, but can be made to be displayed as though they are attached. This allows device properties to be changed or devices to be uninstalled via Device Manger even though the device is not physically connected to the PC.

To display phantom devices in Device Manager, a new system variable is required. Open "Control Panel > System" then select the "Advanced" tab and click "Environment Variables". In the System Variables section (NOT THE USER VARIABLES SECTION), Display of new user variable

click "New..." to display the following window:

Create a new System Variable called "DevMgr_Show_NonPresent_Devices" and set the value to 1, then click OK.

Open the Device Manager ("Control Panel > System" then select the "Hardware" tab and click "Device Manager…", or "Control Panel > Device Manger" in Vista) and select "View > Show Hidden Devices". If you now expanded the port entries, Device Manager will show all hidden and phantom devices assigned on that PC. The entries for phantom devices will be shaded.

***** end of quote ******

To see the display click here.
You can now uninstall the driver for the phantom devices by right clicking on them in this display, and click on 'delete'. Remember to leave at least one copy of the driver installed.

If you need to uninstall one of these drivers in Vista you must follow the instructions in section 12 of AN232B.

Configuring Tera Term

Download and install Tera Term. It should place a shortcut on the desk top. The easiest way to configure the program is to download a modified version of Teraterm.INI from our website.
Place this file in C:\Program Files\teraterm\. Before installing this, you should rename the existing ini file for future use.
This ini file should configure Tera Term for a serial interface (not TCP/IP)
Port com     3
Baud:        57600
Data         8 bit
Parity       none
Stop bits    1
Flow control none

A clean copy of the TERATERM.INI as of July of 2008 is on our website too.

Starting Tera Term
If Tera Term is configured as shown above, it will attempt to connect on COM 3. Unless COM 3 happens to be the port the USB driver selects, Tera Term will report 'Cannot Connect Com 3'. Go to the 'SETUP' pull down menu and select 'Serial port . . .' It will now display all the configuration details including a COM port pull down. Pull it down ; it will allow you to make COM port selections. Choose the number higher than 3. This is the COM port you need to use. Select it.

Downloading software Updates to Your DMXter4

If you are getting a software update for your DMXter, you must provide us with your correct serial number. Each update file is made for one and only one DMXter. The file we will email you will have its file name in the following format: DMX4Vx_yy.hex.1234, where DMX4V shows that it is DMXter4 code, X_yy shows that it is Version x.yy code, .hex shows that it is in Intel hex format, and .1234 is the serial number of the unit that this code is built for.

Put the code in a folder (directory) and open that folder in a small window.

Turn on your DMXter4 by holding down <LEFT><RIGHT><UP><DOWN> keys while pressing and releasing the <TOP>. The display should then read

|Bootstrap v01 sn 4xxx|
| USB Not Connected |

“Sn 4xxx” will be replaced with the serial number of your DMXter. Assuming you have USB serial drivers fitted on your computer, once you connect the USB cable between the DMXter and the PC the display should change to:

|Bootstrap v01 sn4xxx |
| USB Connected 57.6k |

This means that the PC driver and the DMXter’s USB driver can talk. Now launch the terminal emulator (see details above).

Start your emulator. For Tera Term see ' Starting Tera Term' above.

Once it is launched and you have configured it by selecting the right com port, you should start to see the following displayed on the PC.

Press "?" to connect
This message is repeated every few seconds until you comply. Then you will see the following:
S=Send New Code
E=Erase Flash
C=Checksum
B=Blank Check
R=Restore shipped code

To download the new code to your DMXter4 you need to do the following steps

E - erase the current code.
- This will erase the operating software,
- Are you sure? (y/N)<Y>
B - Blank checks the memory that will hold the code. This is not required but is a check to make sure everything is ready. You should see: Firmware is Blank
S - Type “ S” to send the new code. -
- Serial Number is 4010
- Send .HEX file now (Control-C to abort):
Now open the provided hex file as the source of a download. How you do this will depend on the terminal emulator you are using. With some emulators you may need to open the file first. With the new version of Tera Term you can drag and drop the hex file into the emulator window.
If it finishes correctly you will see something like the following message: ......Done 0x00C9C1 bytes on line 0x0DDE Checksum=0zZZZZZ
Now hit the <TOP> key and the new software should come to life and run your DMXter. Note: If you have added ShowPlayer with this update, or if instructed to reformat memory, you will need to do an additional step. Only perform this step if you are instructed to do so; it will clear all stored show data. Go to the user setup menu and find the item called "erase ShowPlayer cues". Press <YES/Q> and reconfirm that you wish to erase.

Reloading Factory Code
If the down load fails, you may try again. If it fails repeatedly the unit may require service. You do have one fall back. You may reload the code that the unit was originally shipped with. Exit and restart the terminal emulator. Relaunch the boot loader. Select option R. This will reload the code that the unit was shipped with or the code that was loaded the last time the unit was updated. You will lose the update. However, you may get a working DMXter back.
Reloading Factory Code wthout a Computer
The restore option may also be done without the use of a terminal. Launch the boot loader as explained above. Press and hold the <RIGHT>, <LEFT> <UP>, and <DOWN> keys then press and release <TOP>. Now without a USB cable plugged in, press and hold the <LEFT>, <YES/Q>, and <RIGHT>. The following will be displayed.
|Bootstrap v01 sn4000|
|FirmwareReload in 10|
If you want to reload the software, hold the buttons down until the number counts down to zero. If you don't want to reload, let go now!

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Last update April 16, 2010