QP Cable

[Guest RDaniell]

Hi Folks, can anyone help me out in locating a download cable for a PC to a Quickpanel , I believe the part number is a HMI-CAB-C49. I've located a place on the web to buy one for about 75$ , but was wondering if there might be a "lower cost" alternative ? Perhaps a used cable that someone doesn't need anymore ? My project is a hobby project with a very limited budget. Is there any chance of making one of these cables ? Anybody have any experience in this area ? Any help would be great !!!!!!! Thanks Rick

[Steve Bailey]

That cable contains a circuit that converts the TTL-level voltage on the QP port to RS232 standard. Its list price is $250, so $75 is a decent discount. They don't publish the details. You could try ebay. Somebody might be selling a QP and including the download cable. Do you have the Quick Designer software?

[Guest RDaniell]

Hi Steve, Thanks I just double checked and your right the price is 250$ !! , I was looking at a different item. That's more than I paid for the QP itself ! I bought the QP off Ebay and it came with an older version of Quickdesigner. I've gotten it running on my PC , but have gotten to the point to download into the QP yet. Any thoughts on where to try to hunt down a cable ????? Rick

[Steve Bailey]

Since you're on a tight budget, it might be easier to build your own cable. Did you get manuals with your QP? Page 9 of the first chapter (Communications) of the manual (Communications User Manual, Publication number 800-1000-122) shows a generic description of the cable with a box labeled "TTL to RS232 Converter". I took the hood off my cable and the converter has the following numbers on it. MAXIM MAX232CPE 9942 It's a sixteen-pin IC. There are also five 10 microfarad capacitors on the circuit board. There has been much discussion on the Mitsubishi forum about the SC09 cable. I believe the SC09 is also an 8-pin Mini-DIN to 9-pin Dsub, but I don't know if the signal levels on the Mini-DIN end are TTL. You might try researching along those lines, although the cost of the SC09 appears to be the key factor driving much of the discussion.

[Guest Guest_Russ]

You can try one of these, I do not know if they work but they are cheaper, even though you will need to build some cables etc. http://www.bb-elec.com/product.asp?dept_id...d=34&sku=232TTL http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/aug...ug97/cable.html Good Luck,

[Guest Guest_Russ]

If you want to make a cable this looks very promising. If you use any of these please keep us informed on your progress. http://www.hvwtech.com/pages/products_view...p?ProductID=168 http://www.hvwtech.com/downloads/manuals/R...2Driver_v20.pdf

[Steve Bailey]

That MAX232 chip that the Seattle Robotics site talks about is the one inside my cable. The must be using the original MAX232 chip, because the capacitors are 10 uf. It looks like the 5 volt supply comes from the QP. Thanks Russ. I'm assuming you're the Russ from GLAS??? If you decide you want to try building one yourself, let me know and I'll reverse engineer the pinouts from the Mini-DIN to the IC and from the IC to 9-pin DSub for you. Edited July 1, 2004 by Steve Bailey

[Guest RDaniell]

Thanks Steve, yup I was looking at that schematic in the manual, seems like it's just a ttl to rs232 converion ???? This group is awesome !! I think I'm going to give building one a try. If you could give me the pin outs to the cable to ic m that would help a bunch ! I'll give it a try , with the information you folks have passed along , and post my results , I hope it works , it should. Thanks for the help !!!!!!! Rick

[Guest RDaniell]

Hi Steve, Did you have any luck in determining the pinouts on the QP Cable ? Just thought I'd check in with you and see if you got them . Thanks Rick