help with mac

[damo185]

Hello, new to the forum and new to the 9x, Im after some help flashing my 9x, So the problem is I cant seem to get the usb to register on my macbook, I have installed the smartie parts board and connected the usb cable to the computer which i believe should then show up in system information under the usb tab. I have tried with the 9x turned on and turned off but nothing seems to work, I have also removed the board and reinstalled it.Do I need a program or something to get it to register? Any help would be much appreciated, Damo.

[w4kac]

Have you installed eepe or Companion9x? I didn't have to do anything on my macbook. It just worked with either of those apps running.

[Kilrah]

Indeed, no driver needed normally.

[damo185]

No I don't have either of those yet, I will download one and give it a go, thanks for your help

[damo185]

So I downloaded and ran eepe. when I try to flash the 9x it has an error code saying it can not find usb. do you think it might be a connection problem with smartipants board? Again I tried it with power to the controller and without, but no good.

[kaos]

try remount the SP board. some times it is a little tricky to have all those pins seated correctly.

[damo185]

Ok so I have had some progress, I can see the usb has been recognised by the computer. Now when I try to flash to the controller using eepe I get a message saying invalid device signature? Please help!

[Kilrah]

Can you post the complete error message or a screenshot?

[damo185]

avrdude:AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading |######################################### |100% 0.00s

avrdude : device signature = 0x000000

avrdude: Yikes! Invalid device signature.

Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check

avrdude done. Thank you.

AVRDUDE done- exit code 1

[Kilrah]

That would either mean a bad connection between the programmer and board, or the board not being powered. What version of the SP board are you using? If it's 2.2 or later you need to power the radio up for flashing.

Sent via mobile

[damo185]

Im guessing it's the latest version, Ive only just bought it. I have been trying to flash it with the radio powered up. When you say a bad connection between the programmer and board, do you mean between the computer and the radio? Ive just bought a new usb cable. sorry If my questions seem silly, Im not great on computers and the like.

[Redbrickman]

Make sure your connections are correct, may sound basic but easy to get it wrong!
Check with the images in the link below...

http://www.smartieparts.com/shop/index. ... =page&id=9

[damo185]

Yeah checked all the connections, they all seem to be the right way round etc, also the SP board is Rev 2.3 and Im not using a back light.

[Kilrah]

When you say a bad connection between the programmer and board, do you mean between the computer and the radio?

No, between the SP board and the radio's mainboard.
Have you checked your mainboard version?
http://www.smartieparts.com/shop/index. ... =page&id=8

If it's correct, then the SP board is probably not well seated, or the pads on the radio main board need cleaning.

[damo185]

Ok thanks Kilrah, i've tried refitting the SP board a few times but i will try to give it all a clean.

[damo185]

ok so i thought it had worked as it came up saying avr dude finished correctly, but the radio now has a constant beep and says eeprom error, I appreciate all the help you guys have given me but this is getting annoying and the whole thing is very close to going in the bin.

[damo185]

Well I finally got it to work using 9xcompanion, don't know what the difference was, but I would like to thank everyone who replied to help with my problems, I'll probably be back with more of them once I start using the controller, Cheers Damian.