Unable to evaluate the LTC2607 with ACE using Linduino

Hi,

Thanks for getting in touch about this issue.

I've tried to reproduce the issue you are seeing with an LTC2607 eval board and a Linduino One loaded with the DC590B and DC590B_Enhanced sketch, but I have not seen the errors that you are seeing.
However, there are a couple of things to note, which you have pointed out above:

- I am seeing a link between the LTC607 and the Linduino in the System view

- The QuikEval connector is present in the Linduino view and the view is titled "Linduino One" rather than "Arduino One"

It appears that your Linduino is being registered as an Arduino in ACE for some reason, but I'm not able to tell why from the information above.
It would help greatly with the debugging of this issue if you could attach the ACE log file in a reply, which records all transactions and events in ACE.

You can access this log file at %localappdata%/Analog Devices/ACE/appTrace.log, or by clicking the menu button in the top right of your ACE screen and clicking "Show Log File".

Note that the log file is overwritten each time ACE is opened, so you will have to open/export the file after reproducing the issues above for them to be listed in the log (i.e. if you export immediately after opening ACE we will not be able to see anything)

Also, ACE differentiates between Arduino and Linduino boards by looking for Register Keys in Windows that relate to whether the board is communicating via FTDI bus (Linduino) or USB bus (Arduino).

Right now, I am not sure how exactly these could get mixed up between the two, but it is possible that this is a cause of your issue.

To rule it out, could you please check your COM port properties in Device Manager - Open the properties for the COM port of your Linduino and check the Driver page - mine is attached below as an example.

Linduino COM port details:

Arduino COM port details:

Hopefully once we get the log file and other details above we can narrow down the cause of this issue.

Thanks,
Eoin

Hi, EoinM.

 Thanks for you kind and fast response!

I’ve had a look to the Device Manager and it seems that the Linduino is communicating with Windows correctly (FDTI)

The log file is attached.You’re right, maybe at the end of the file there ‘s a clue about the problem (something about .NET (?); the graphic card is old but it seems it worked). 

drive.google.com/.../view

Many thanks, once again.

Hi jmgonzalez,

Apologies for the delayed response on this issue, 

I've reviewed your log file and unfortunately there is nothing in there that is indicating any errors or events occurring in ACE that would cause the issue you are seeing. 
Unfortunately this would indicate that this is a system issue which makes this more difficult to debug.

Thank you for sending on the device manager config, it seems that the Linduino is being recognized by Windows correctly, but since we use registry keys to identify which board is connected I'd like to verify that the keys are being added.

In order to check this, you can open the Registry Editor and navigate to the following Subkey path:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\FTDIBUS

You should hopefully see something similar to the below:

Again, apologies for the delay in response.

Hopefully the above will give some insight into what the cause of the issue is, this seems to be a highly unusual issue.

Thanks,
Eoin

Hi again, Eoin.

No apologies for the delay. Thanks for your interest in solving the problem.

Once ACE software has started and the attached hardware is detected, what I see in the Registry Editor is:

It seems that Windows can’t “communicate” to the LTC2607 board although ACE "sees" the board and using Arduino IDE and sending the command "I" it shows that LTC2607 is attached.

I have updated the FDTI drivers from https://ftdichip.com/drivers/ and restarted the computed and nothing changed. 

I do not know if the contents of the Device Parameters property of VID_0403+PID_6001+MU63AC09A could be helpful... Just in case...

Thanks, Eoin.

José M.

Hi José,

Hope you are well,

Apologies for the delayed reply, I have been out of office on vacation for the last week.

I've taken a look at the information you've supplied, and unfortunately have still not been able to determine a root cause for this issue - myself and my colleagues have debugged this and tried to reproduce, but have been unable to find why your ACE instance is recognising the Linduino as an Arduino, it seems to be a highly unusual issue. Everything is in order for it to be recognised correctly, however, evidently this is not the case for you.

For now, I think the best thing to do to get your ACE instance running for evaluation is to attempt a workaround and swap the definitions for Linduino and Ardunio in the plugin source in order to force ACE to recognize the Linduino as an Arduino. Unfortunately, this will require some editing on your side, but I have detailed steps below that should hopefully make the process straightforward:

- First, close any open ACE instances and navigate to the file being edited - it should be located at the path: C:\ProgramData\Analog Devices\ACE\Plugins\Board.Linduino.1.2021.29300\content\Board.Linduino.Extensions.xml

(I would advise making a copy of the file so that you can revert easily if the workaround does not resolve the issue.)

- Open the file and look at line 77, where you will see <Extension Id="LinduinoBoard"  - change this to  <Extension Id="ArduinoUnoBoard"

- Look at line 123 and you will see the extension  <Extension Id="ArduinoUnoBoard" - this is the original ArduinoUnoBoard definition. Delete this definition, removing everything in the <Extension> tags (i.e. remove lines 123 to 167).

This will swap the Arduino and Linduino board definitions - given that your system is erroneously looking for the ArduinoUnoBoard extension, we are trying to swap out the contents of the extensions so that even though it is looking for the wrong ID, it will still load the correct content for the Linduino.

Hopefully, this will allow you to proceed with evaluation with the device being recognized as a Linduino. If not, please let us know and attach the log file for the session and we will try to refine the fix to get it working.

Apologies again for the delays in response, and that we could not find a root cause for your issue. Unfortunately with the limited debug information we have access to without being able to reproduce the issue, we cannot determine what is causing this behaviour.

Thanks,
Eoin

Hello, Eoin.

Thank you so much for your interest. Hope you enjoyed your vacation. I’ve been out of the office for some days so excuse my delay also.

I’ve tried the steps you described and it (partially) worked. I mean, ACE recognizes the Linduino and the connection with LTC2607. But the link is in red, and maybe I am wrong but this color uses to mean problems… In fact, when the pointer is over the left dot of the red wire it says that LTC2607 is not compatible with Linduino One.

Anyway, neglecting the “risk”, I’ve tried what happens… The LTC2607 analysis window shows both DACs, and although everything seems fine any change in channel counts (neither A or B) does not change the voltages that can be measured on the board turrets (neither in the waveform graphs). I’ve closed ACE and tried with QuickEval and the same happens. Even I tried using basic serial commands of the board (DC590 USB controller specs) with the same negative results… Now it seems that this is another kind of problem.

To check that the problem regarding ACE is solved, I have carried out another test. Instead of using an LTC2607, I have connected to the Linduino an LTC2688-16 (a 16 DACs board having 16 bit resolution). Once ACE is started it shows the connection between the Linduino and the board, also with the (weird) red link. Neglecting the warning, I’ve evaluated the DACs and in this case everything works fine. Prior to the changes in the xml file I had the same problems with this board using ACE (but in this case the LTC2607 board worked correctly using the basic serial commands).

Well, to end up, and though I cannot evaluate the LTC2607, it seems that currently it is neither a problem of ACE, QuickEval nor basic serial comms. The problem is in “my field” now.

Thank you so much, once again.

José

Hi José,

My vacation was great, thank you! No worries on the delays.

On the connection error, I partially expected that due to the changes we made to the XML config but I think it should work fine, it doesn't seem like there are any error events in the events window so we can ignore this warning as a side effect of changing the XML.

The issues you're seeing with the LTC2607 are unfortunate, it seems like there may be a problem with the board if you are observing them in other software and serial commands as well. I would only be speculating as to what the issue is so I'm not sure I can be of much help here.

Glad to hear the LTC3688 is working for you with the workaround, again, neglecting the error, it's an indicator that the LTC2607 may work with your Linduino and the XML workaround if the board issues are resolved, so that should save you needing a new Linduino.

If you have any further issues in ACE please let us know, thank you for your help in debug and your patience with the delays, much appreciated!

Thanks,
Eoin