Some 3rd-party Mod software, just unzip and overwrite the ads7871_V3.exe
It might helps with English user, and some improvement of software were made.
Hope you guys enjoy!
Suggest English users go to see this thread. Erik and I are making efforts for optimizing this system, precisely the software.
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/equ...acer-lockyz-ui-translation-4.html#post6701379
It might helps with English user, and some improvement of software were made.
Hope you guys enjoy!
Suggest English users go to see this thread. Erik and I are making efforts for optimizing this system, precisely the software.
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/equ...acer-lockyz-ui-translation-4.html#post6701379
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@locky_z,
so it is working again and I replaced the CH340 and also the 7805.
The 7805 measure between 7.35 and 6V so I replaced them also.
Now it is working as expected an I sell it a friend on mine.
I wil contact you for the cal file of the new one.
so it is working again and I replaced the CH340 and also the 7805.
The 7805 measure between 7.35 and 6V so I replaced them also.
Now it is working as expected an I sell it a friend on mine.
I wil contact you for the cal file of the new one.
Hi!
Does the STC microcontroller need a program hex dump? If so, where can I get it?
If Locky_z has kept the hex. to himself this is yet another useless project that can't be bought or built anywhere – every eBay listing is dead, no longer available or long sold!
I can design and make a PCB myself, but without the hex this would be a waste of time!
Chris Williams
Does the STC microcontroller need a program hex dump? If so, where can I get it?
If Locky_z has kept the hex. to himself this is yet another useless project that can't be bought or built anywhere – every eBay listing is dead, no longer available or long sold!
I can design and make a PCB myself, but without the hex this would be a waste of time!
Chris Williams
That seems pretty harsh. When eBay dropped Paypal as their primary payment processor, Locky_z had to stop selling there for now. Apparently they now require a bank outside of China for payments/transfers. His hands are tied until he adresses this. He can't sell on Aliexpress because they no longer give accounts to individuals, only busnesses.
Hi!
If there's no further prospect of any more kits or pre-built units available due to China's restrictions on Bank accounts, lack of PayPal, etc., etc., (what about Bangood?) at least the hex should be uploaded somewhere, to give interested readers like myself to a chance to source my own parts and program them!
Chris Williams
PS!
I've no complaint about buying anything like this when it's available – I bought the Chinese THS–210 from Ali Express for far more than the cost of Locky's item, but if it's a goner, due to eBay/AliExpress selling restrictions, the means to program the micro used at least should be available!
If there's no further prospect of any more kits or pre-built units available due to China's restrictions on Bank accounts, lack of PayPal, etc., etc., (what about Bangood?) at least the hex should be uploaded somewhere, to give interested readers like myself to a chance to source my own parts and program them!
Chris Williams
PS!
I've no complaint about buying anything like this when it's available – I bought the Chinese THS–210 from Ali Express for far more than the cost of Locky's item, but if it's a goner, due to eBay/AliExpress selling restrictions, the means to program the micro used at least should be available!
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Hi!
Everybody has a right to keep their design files private whilst a product is for active commercial sale, but once it is withdrawn or made unavailable due to restrictions imposed by the host country of the designer, at the very least support should be available in the form of the programming files!
What happens of any of the μC's in any of the units many Members have already bought corrupt or fail, or an input/output pin is damaged due to an internal circuit defect?
We're not talking about a £3 or £4 module that can be thrown in the w.e.e.e. when they fail, the full price of these kits when on sale was almost £170 !
Apart from the above, the Chinese are no paragons of virtue about I.P., how many countless semiconductor devices and/or pieces of equipment have they faked or cloned?
I drew out the circuitry of the TSH-210 I bought, and with the exception of the front–panel microcontroller, and (obviously) the omission of the CRT/deflection circuits, it is identical to Huntron's 2000 Component Tracker !
Locky_z did say in one of his posts about protecting his software and micro, but do any of the Forum Members who've bought one of these want to be left with £170–worth of useless electronic circuitry in the event of micro corruption or failure? I am simply of the opinion that a designer from a nation that has built up a massive industry based solely on intellectual property and copyright theft, he should be prepared to give something back in return, by making, all the necessary files available, including micro dumps – many handreds of others do with projects far more expensive than his !
Chris Williams
Tak
Everybody has a right to keep their design files private whilst a product is for active commercial sale, but once it is withdrawn or made unavailable due to restrictions imposed by the host country of the designer, at the very least support should be available in the form of the programming files!
What happens of any of the μC's in any of the units many Members have already bought corrupt or fail, or an input/output pin is damaged due to an internal circuit defect?
We're not talking about a £3 or £4 module that can be thrown in the w.e.e.e. when they fail, the full price of these kits when on sale was almost £170 !
Apart from the above, the Chinese are no paragons of virtue about I.P., how many countless semiconductor devices and/or pieces of equipment have they faked or cloned?
I drew out the circuitry of the TSH-210 I bought, and with the exception of the front–panel microcontroller, and (obviously) the omission of the CRT/deflection circuits, it is identical to Huntron's 2000 Component Tracker !
Locky_z did say in one of his posts about protecting his software and micro, but do any of the Forum Members who've bought one of these want to be left with £170–worth of useless electronic circuitry in the event of micro corruption or failure? I am simply of the opinion that a designer from a nation that has built up a massive industry based solely on intellectual property and copyright theft, he should be prepared to give something back in return, by making, all the necessary files available, including micro dumps – many handreds of others do with projects far more expensive than his !
Chris Williams
Tak
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The hardware circuit is public and uses common components, if the fireware is also copied casually, the inventor's rights will not be protected.
Therefore, this fireware is not intended for public download.
Therefore, this fireware is not intended for public download.
My LZ curve tracer sits on the shelf for years for giving non-repeatable results
and its non-documentation. Yes, I feel unprotected, too.
Methinks, the easiest solution for me would be a heart transplant with a
BeagleBoneBlack, then the areas USB/network would be done, the real
time stuff like flipping some I/O bits or shoving out some SPI commands would
be natural food for the PRU. All the development environment like compilers/
editors are on-board. Debian & Web server for result display included if wanted.
Given the BBB's assortment of 8 own ADCs etc, it is questionable if the rest of the
hardware is worth keeping.
Gerhard
and its non-documentation. Yes, I feel unprotected, too.
Methinks, the easiest solution for me would be a heart transplant with a
BeagleBoneBlack, then the areas USB/network would be done, the real
time stuff like flipping some I/O bits or shoving out some SPI commands would
be natural food for the PRU. All the development environment like compilers/
editors are on-board. Debian & Web server for result display included if wanted.
Given the BBB's assortment of 8 own ADCs etc, it is questionable if the rest of the
hardware is worth keeping.
Gerhard
Hi!
The desiger of the "uTracer 3" intended for thermionic valves has also kept his firmware copy–protected, but he had also said any defective or wrongly programmed micros will be immediately replaced f.o.c., and he is selling them on their own at a reasonable fair price, so I have no complaint on him keeping the firmware protected, as he has given a written undertaking to support buyers of his products!
Copy–protected microcontrollers need to be supported by their authors at reasonable cost and availability otherwise these projects are worthless if the most essential item needed is unavailable!
I work in industrial electronics repair and failure/corruption of copy–protected GALs, microcontrollers, etc., etc., is unfortunately all too common, and I have had to return countless PCBs to their customers as "unrepairable" due to this type of fault in my five years service at my present employer!
Chris Williams
The desiger of the "uTracer 3" intended for thermionic valves has also kept his firmware copy–protected, but he had also said any defective or wrongly programmed micros will be immediately replaced f.o.c., and he is selling them on their own at a reasonable fair price, so I have no complaint on him keeping the firmware protected, as he has given a written undertaking to support buyers of his products!
Copy–protected microcontrollers need to be supported by their authors at reasonable cost and availability otherwise these projects are worthless if the most essential item needed is unavailable!
I work in industrial electronics repair and failure/corruption of copy–protected GALs, microcontrollers, etc., etc., is unfortunately all too common, and I have had to return countless PCBs to their customers as "unrepairable" due to this type of fault in my five years service at my present employer!
Chris Williams
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So, Could the STC controller in the Tracer be reverse-engineered?
If someone is willing and able to do, I am happy to donate my uC PCB as a sample to unlock the hex.
Can anybody do that?
If someone is willing and able to do, I am happy to donate my uC PCB as a sample to unlock the hex.
Can anybody do that?
I would find it surprising if the as-shipped-inside-curve-tracer microcontroller chips, did not have their Copy Protection bit set.
That doesn't mean they can't be copied but it does mean they can't be EASILY copied.
That doesn't mean they can't be copied but it does mean they can't be EASILY copied.
But should it be copied? This is locky_z's design. He has put a lot of effort into it.
I understand that it's frustrating not being able to buy one at the moment. But, that's just how things are at the moment.
This is a DIY forum. Why not design one yourself? I guarantee you that you will learn something and possibly also appreciate locky_z's effort.
I understand that it's frustrating not being able to buy one at the moment. But, that's just how things are at the moment.
This is a DIY forum. Why not design one yourself? I guarantee you that you will learn something and possibly also appreciate locky_z's effort.
I think the request for replacement if one fails is very reasonable. A simple solution would be you send in the bad one and you get back a new one. Can't be much more than $ 10 or so.
I faced a similar decision for my autoranger. I do replace the occasional defect controller without requiring the old one to be send back because I have not disclosed the schematics and layout.
But if you disclose schematic and layout and publish the firmware, you can be sure that somebody will find justification to produce a ripoff.
Jan
I faced a similar decision for my autoranger. I do replace the occasional defect controller without requiring the old one to be send back because I have not disclosed the schematics and layout.
But if you disclose schematic and layout and publish the firmware, you can be sure that somebody will find justification to produce a ripoff.
Jan
The discussion sounds strange to me. Its based on the assumption that Locky will not give any support in case there is a problem with the STC. In some previous posts you see that Locky was always willing to help and find a solution for there customer. All the other discussion about uploading the firmware and reverse engineering is in my opinion disrespectful according lockys work. My he can tell how much line of code and how many hours he spend. Mybe this trigger a mind change. BR
No. This is a discussion amongst people who have bought one and had less than optimum results, to say it friendly. Over years. All I got was some Id vs Vgs traces, some with outliers that cannot be explained. Not a single BJT worked. The traces are taken in a single sweep, so you get a mixture of semiconductor behaviour at 20°C for the low dissipation parts of the trace and Tj=100° where the chip dissipates. People are trying to reverse engineer it to get the kinks out.
The idea was NOT to deal with the innards of a curve tracer, so I bought one. There are things to do that interest me more.
Now I find myself playing with the idea to build a curve tracer around a BeagleBoneBlack.
The idea was NOT to deal with the innards of a curve tracer, so I bought one. There are things to do that interest me more.
Now I find myself playing with the idea to build a curve tracer around a BeagleBoneBlack.
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Been there, done that (sort of).
I had a LZ board. However, I decided it was useless to me because I could not figure out how to talk to it using my own software scripts (yes, I like to do this stuff in my way). I asked Loky to provide the RS232/serial command set, but he preferred to keep this for himself.
That's why I started this. Scroll down to see some examples.
The cost of repairing and replacing the curve tracer I sell in China is no more than 20CNY (less than 5USD). However, the shipping cost for sending and returning is paid separately by the buyer.
For foreign transactions, if you can pay the shipping and return costs, I can also do the repair for free. But in practice it is difficult to achieve, because the shipping cost and tax is difficult to predict.
For foreign transactions, if you can pay the shipping and return costs, I can also do the repair for free. But in practice it is difficult to achieve, because the shipping cost and tax is difficult to predict.
Really nice. Prêt-à-porter hardware and software... great!
You write:
All the Voltcraft's in the PPS Series?
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