Manual DINAMO Plug & Play
Control your miniature world
Page 8 of 32
Version 1.2 – Dec 21
st
, 2017
2017 Leon van Perlo
If your PC has no Internet access or when using an older version of the Windows OS,
before
connecting your RM-C USB for the first time, you will have to download and install the
correct driver software manually. You can download them free of charge from the Future
Technology Devices website:
www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm
Alternatively the driver can be downloaded from the Dinamo User Group although then you
may not necessarily have the latest version..
The easiest way is to download and run the
“
setup executable for default VID and PID
values
”
.
The FTDI drivers are available from Windows98 up. Correct operation under Windows95 is
not guaranteed. Besides Windows, there are drivers for Linux and Mac OS-X. The latest
Linux kernels have default support for the FTDI chipset used in the USB interface.
After you have loaded the correct driver
software onto your PC, or have made
sure your PC has Internet access, you
can connect the RM-C with a standard
USB A-B cable. Preferably use one
specified for USB2.0, because usually
these have better screening. If all is well,
your RM-C is recognized automatically
and a “virtual com-port” is created for it.
When the PC is connected to RM-C, the
blue LED on the RM-C will be lit (during
installation of the driver the LED may
flash a few times).
2.5
Testing using DinamoConfig (Windows) and learn some of the basics
Testing whether your RM-C is correctly attached and recognized by your PC, can be done
with the DinamoConfig test –and configuration program. DinamoConfig can be downloaded
free of charge from the VPEB website (www.vpeb.nl) or the Dinamo User Group
(www.dinamousers.net). Make sure you have
DinamoConfig 1.30A or later.
Before starting DinamoConfig, the program
needs to be installed. Run the “Setup”
program (once) and follow the instructions.
After you have successfully installed
DinamoConfig, you can start the program.
You should see the window in fig 6. In the
top/left-hand corner you can select the com-
port by which DinamoConfig communicates
with your Dinamo system. Click on the
triangle next the blue field and select the
correct com-port. Sometimes it can be
troublesome to find out which com-port is
assigned to your RM-C. If this is the case,
follow this procedure:
Disconnect the USB cable between RM-C
and PC. Wait 5 seconds and click the
“Refresh” button. Now look at the list of
com-ports you can choose from and
remember this, or write it down. Reconnect
the RM-C to the PC. Wait 10 seconds and
click “Refresh”. Look again at the list of
com-ports you can choose from. You will have one additional port, that’s the one.
Fig 6: DinamoConfig 1.30A
Fig 5: RM-C USB Interface
Control your miniature world
Manual DINAMO Plug & Play
2017 Leon van Perlo
Version 1.2 – Dec 21
st
, 2017
Page 25 of 32
6
Commissioning your Dinamo system
6.1
Power-up your system
Now you have connected all your TM44’s and OC32/NG’s, and assigned unique addresses to
all modules, you can verify whether they are correctly identified by your RM-C.
While the power to your Dinamo system is off and your RM-C is connected to your PC,
watch the yellow Tx1 LED on the RM-C flash quickly. As written in paragraph
2.5 this
indicates that is RM-C is transmitting on the RS485 bus, but does not receive any
reponses. Every flash of the Tx1 LED is a message asking “is there anything out there?”
When you switch on your system power supply, the RM-C will continue scanning for
connected modules, but your modules will start to answer. This search process will take
from 5 to 20 seconds, depending on the size of your system (read: the number of TM44
and OC32 modules). The bigger your system, the faster the search will be finished. During
search, the yellow Tx1 LED at the RM-C will continue to flash and the orange LEDs at your
TM44’s and OC32’s will flash now and then.
When the search is finished, the yellow Tx1 LED at the RM-C will be lit continuously and the
orange LEDs at your TM44’s and OC32’s will either be lit constantly or flash quickly. The
RM-C now knows how many players are in it’s team and what kind they are. It will constantly
monitor the status of all members. If one module fails (e.g. is disconnected) the RM-C will
keep trying to reach this unit while still communicating with all others. It will do so until all
units are gone. If there is nothing left to take care of, the RM-C will initiate a new search.
Note while the RM-C is communicating with it’s team members, it will never search for
additional modules. So if you add another module “on the fly”, it will not be recognized until
you either:
•
Interrupt communication with all modules or
•
Reset the RM-C
Note that in case you power TM44’s and OC32/NG’s from different power sources, these
power supplies shall be powered up more or less at the same time. Should the detection of
your TM44’s be finished and just after that you power up your OC32’s, the OC32’s will
never be found since the application to become a team member is already closed.
If, once the search is finished, the Tx1 LED on your RM-C is not lit continuously, but goes off
briefly now and then, this is an indication that your network is not stable. In that case,
check connections and terminators!
6.2
Testing communication
If you repeat the test from paragraph
2.5 and hit the “Status” button, the status window
now should show for each connected TM44 module the type (TM44), the status and it’s
version. Also it will show the status and version of each OC32 module.
See figure 25 for an example: This system has two TM44’s and two OC32’s. Two TM44’s?
Yes. The TM#0 address reports Type=TM44 and reports a Primary module (0.0) and a
Secondary module (0.1), both version 1.20. In the column at the right you see OC#0 and
OC#1 both reporting version 3.01
Note that the RM-C only reports detected modules when the search is finished. While
search is running and therefore, if you hit the Status button to early, the list will be empty.
At this point
check
that the reported version numbers of all your TM44 modules are
identical. If you mix different versions your system may behave unexpectedly. If you
