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pl2303_get_line_request - failed: -32

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bob prohaska

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Jan 7, 2018, 8:42:07 PM1/7/18
to
I'm trying to use a pl2303ta usb-serial adapter with a nulsom
ns-rs232 level shifter. The goal is to connect an RPi3 to an old
Graphtec MP3100 pen plotter.

On its own, with tx looped back to rx using a resistor, the pl2303ta
seems to work fine; opening up a screen session at 9600 baud allows
me to type with no problem, everything I type shows up on the terminal
window.

When I interpose the Nulsom ns-rs232 level shifter and loop pins 2 and 3
back, about five characters can be typed, then characters quit showing up
in the terminal window. Screen does not exit, just quits working. Unplugging
the USB connectors does cause screen to exit, plugging the connector back
in lets me restart screen and type a few more characters.

Dmesg reports

[304143.580388] usb 1-1.5: New USB device found, idVendor=067b, idProduct=2303
[304143.580398] usb 1-1.5: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[304143.580402] usb 1-1.5: Product: USB-Serial Controller
[304143.580406] usb 1-1.5: Manufacturer: Prolific Technology Inc.
[304143.581172] pl2303 1-1.5:1.0: pl2303 converter detected
[304143.586617] usb 1-1.5: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[304160.462033] pl2303 ttyUSB0: pl2303_get_line_request - failed: -32


Might this be a driver problem? Most references to the pl2303 are to
other, presumably older, chips. Uname -a reports
Linux raspberrypi 4.9.35-v7+ #1014 SMP Fri Jun 30 14:47:43 BST 2017 armv7l
GNU/Linux
so the OS is as up-to-date as I know how to make it.

Thanks for reading, and any ideas.

bob prohaska




Paul

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Jan 8, 2018, 5:30:03 AM1/8/18
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In article <p2ui9e$nsm$1...@news.albasani.net>, b...@www.zefox.net says...
First check your power and gnd wires between the two devices it may be
drawing more 5V via the USB-serial than the USB port can handle. Putting
the USB-serial in a funny mode.

Check the voltage levels on the output of the USB-SERIAL, when that is
the only device plugged in, to determine what power level it should be
operating on. Then try powering the Nulsom ns-rs232 level shifter from
the appropriate 3V3 or 5V pin on the Pi.

The PL2303TA can operate with signals at different output levels, the
VCC being 3V3 or 5V determines the signal levels it sends and receives
to your USB-Serial.


When you get the level shifter working, The printer probably uses MORE
signals at the printer end, as many RS232 printing devices did.

Research NULL Modem cable pinouts.

More than likely at the PRINTER end the 9 way or 25 way D type connector
will need links between the pins for

DTR to DSR
CTS to RTS

These are flow control signals to stop, pause or resume data flow from
computer. You might be able to get RTS/CTS handling by the USB-Serial
passed through, but from experience these do not always work well on
MANY USB-Serial adapters. See

http://www.nulsom.com/datasheet/NS-RS232_en.pdf

You still might lose characters at 9600 baud as you are ignoring the
Modem flow control signals, see if you can set the printer up in
XON/XOFF flow control mode, which the terminal software and device
driver will be able to handle.

If you still lose characters drop baud rate to 4800 then 2400 until you
get success.

--
Paul Carpenter | pa...@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk
<http://www.pcserviceselectronics.co.uk/> PC Services
<http://www.pcserviceselectronics.co.uk/LogicCell/> Logic Gate Education
<http://www.pcserviceselectronics.co.uk/fonts/> Timing Diagram Font
<http://www.badweb.org.uk/> For those web sites you hate

Dave Liquorice

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Jan 8, 2018, 5:32:03 AM1/8/18
to
On Mon, 8 Jan 2018 01:42:07 +0000 (UTC), bob prohaska wrote:

> When I interpose the Nulsom ns-rs232 level shifter and loop pins 2 and 3
> back, about five characters can be typed, then characters quit showing
> up in the terminal window.

RTS/CTS connected or pulled up/down correctly?

--
Cheers
Dave.



Dave Liquorice

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Jan 8, 2018, 5:38:05 AM1/8/18
to
On Mon, 08 Jan 2018 10:32:00 +0000 (GMT), Dave Liquorice wrote:

>> When I interpose the Nulsom ns-rs232 level shifter and loop pins 2
and
>> 3 back, about five characters can be typed, then characters quit
>> showing up in the terminal window.
>
> RTS/CTS connected or pulled up/down correctly?

Or dump the USB <> serial device and connect the level shifter
directly to the Pi's serial IO.

--
Cheers
Dave.



bob prohaska

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Jan 8, 2018, 12:42:26 PM1/8/18
to
Paul <pa...@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk> wrote:
>
> If you still lose characters drop baud rate to 4800 then 2400 until you
> get success.
>

Contrary to expectation, lowering the baudrate makes the problem worse.
Raising it to 115200 actually seems to fix the problem. The loopback
works for at least a screenful of characters, which is all I've had the
patience to type using autorepeat.

Unfortunately, the plotter is limited to 9600 baud. Hardware flow control
isn't required, Xon/Xoff is good enough.

Dmesg now reports
63695.621538] usb 1-1.5: new full-speed USB device number 50 using dwc_otg
[363695.656491] usb 1-1.5: New USB device found, idVendor=067b, idProduct=2303
[363695.656511] usb 1-1.5: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[363695.656520] usb 1-1.5: Product: USB-Serial Controller
[363695.656528] usb 1-1.5: Manufacturer: Prolific Technology Inc.
[363695.657965] pl2303 1-1.5:1.0: pl2303 converter detected
[363695.663613] usb 1-1.5: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[363706.314462] pl2303 ttyUSB0: pl2303_get_line_request - failed: -32
[363706.315696] pl2303 ttyUSB0: pl2303_get_line_request - failed: -32

but the error seems nonfatal. The screen session is still running and
characters are still being returned.

I'm stumped on what to try next.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

Kiwi User

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Jan 8, 2018, 3:34:18 PM1/8/18
to
On Mon, 08 Jan 2018 17:42:25 +0000, bob prohaska wrote:

> I'm stumped on what to try next.
>
A different make of USB-serial converter?

Some of these have always been garbage. I had good results quite a while
back from a pfranc device, but that website has since vanished.

I'm currently using the one supplied by PICAXE,

http://www.picaxe.com

which successfully connects to a PICAXE chip on one of their experimental
PCBs from a Lenovo laptop or my RPi. This is their AXE 027 cable,

http://www.picaxe.com/AXE027

which is terminated at the PICAXE end with a stereo, i.e. three contact,
3.5mm jack. They also sell matching 3.5mm plastic sockets with pins
positioned to fit a 0.1" grid breadboard.

This connection is running at 4800baud, using 8 bit characters with no
parity and 1 stop bit.

I've not done a lot with it yet, except to upload compiled programs into
the PICAXE and display messages returned to the RPi by test programs
running on the PICAXE, but I think that much is enough to show that the
cable was providing a solid connection to both computers.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie
| dot org

Dave Liquorice

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Jan 8, 2018, 7:58:21 PM1/8/18
to
On Mon, 8 Jan 2018 20:34:17 +0000 (UTC), Kiwi User wrote:

>> I'm stumped on what to try next.
>
> A different make of USB-serial converter?

Worth a try, I had a PL2303 based convertor connected to an APC UPS.
Every so often the adpater would disconnect from the USB and
reconnect breaking the UPS Tools monitoring...

Got a FTDI FT232L based convertor and not had a sniff of the problem
since.

Curiously I still have 3 of the same PL2303 adpaters in use with
other devices without a hitch. Yes, I did try some of those with the
UPS and they also failed in the same way.

--
Cheers
Dave.



bob prohaska

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Jan 8, 2018, 9:42:58 PM1/8/18
to
It looks as if the problem is solved. The fix was to add pulldown resistors
to ground from the PL2303's rx and tx pins. It now seems to work with the
ttl-rs232 level shifter down to 1200 baud. At 300 baud about one character
in ten is garbled. At 110 baud the loopback test fails completely, but that's
ok 8-)

Perhaps the same fix would help with your UPS.

Andrew Gabriel

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Jan 9, 2018, 5:15:38 AM1/9/18
to
In article <p31a7h$q7c$1...@dont-email.me>,
There are lots of products using counterfeit PL2303 around, which
often don't work to spec.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Kiwi User

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Jan 9, 2018, 11:00:10 AM1/9/18
to
On Mon, 08 Jan 2018 20:34:17 +0000, Kiwi User wrote:

> http://www.picaxe.com/AXE027
>
On reflection, this was a really silly suggestion because it only
provides a 3 wire serial connection (Tx,Rx,Grnd).

I know the OP's problem is now solved, but here are comments about other
gadgets I've run across and kept references to

I have no practical knowledge about the Nulsom NS-RS232, though I have it
bookmarked in case I need something like it.

However, there is another family of devices that could be useful in some
circumstances: Ethernet to RS-232 interconnects. These are self-contained
devices that connect a TCP/IP session to serial RS-232 lines

Gridconnect Xports are basically an enlarged RJ-45 socket that mounts on
a PCB and implements CTS/RTS signals. It is expected that you'll connect
it to an UART chip, so its really all about letting you use a Telnet
session to talk to legacy kit with a serial port. It has a built-in HTTP
and telnet servers.

The NEMO10 https://www.kanda.com/products/Sena/NEMO10.html is
functionally similar to the Xport but without the built-in HTTP server
(but they sell a cased server with a built-in web server).

Microcontroller DS203 Pros http://microcontrollershop.com/
product_info.php?cPath=98_284&products_id=1459 sell a plastic cased
module with RJ-45 on one end and 9-pin RS232 on the other. It provides
similar functionality to the NEMO10.

Radicom's LSDB-200 http://www.radi.com/modular64.htm offers the same
functionality as the NEMO10 as an uncased module with RS-232, RJ45 and
power sockets.

None of these are amazingly cheap (the NEMo10 cased server and the DS203
are in the $100 range) but all offer interesting expansion paths because
an RPi can talk to several of them: plug a network switch onto the RPi
and it can talk to a serial device on every adapter that you plug into
the switch.

Kiwi User

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Jan 9, 2018, 12:38:41 PM1/9/18
to
On Tue, 09 Jan 2018 16:00:09 +0000, Kiwi User wrote:

> Gridconnect Xports are basically an enlarged RJ-45 socket that mounts on
> a PCB and implements CTS/RTS signals. It is expected that you'll connect
> it to an UART chip, so its really all about letting you use a Telnet
> session to talk to legacy kit with a serial port. It has a built-in HTTP
> and telnet servers.
>
Missed out the URL, which is:
http://gridconnect.com/network-components/xport.html

bob prohaska

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Jan 9, 2018, 12:57:41 PM1/9/18
to
Andrew Gabriel <and...@cucumber.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
> There are lots of products using counterfeit PL2303 around, which
> often don't work to spec.
>

That was something I checked shortly after purchase in 2016. The adapters
worked with Prolific's drivers on a Mac running OSX, which seems to imply
they're "adequately" genuine.

The fact that they spam the log files with
86806.334529] pl2303 ttyUSB0: pl2303_get_line_request - failed: -32
[387013.952810] pl2303 ttyUSB0: error sending break = -32
[387020.897773] pl2303 ttyUSB0: pl2303_get_line_request - failed: -32
[387020.900679] pl2303 ttyUSB0: pl2303_get_line_request - failed: -32
[389038.293922] pl2303 ttyUSB0: error sending break = -32
is most unwelcome, but seems harmless so far.

bob prohaska

Henri Derksen

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Jan 10, 2018, 2:23:40 AM1/10/18
to
Hello Bob,

BP>> I'm stumped on what to try next.

DL> A different make of USB-serial converter?

I have good results with this FTDI USB-RS232c cable converter:

EasySync ES-U-1001-R100 = <http://www.antratek.nl/us232r-100>

This USB2 to/from RS232c converter cable has all the hardware handshake
lines active in it, such as DCD, DTR, DSR, RTS, CTS, Rx, Tx, Ring, and Earth,
and has golplated contacts on both the USB and RS232c sides.
It als has a large temperature scale to work in good condition,
very nice for using at (sailing-)ships in almost all weather.
It costs about Euro 50,00 incl. VAT in the Netherlands.
The fun of the (very) low price of other make conversion cables is alreay gone,
when the trouble of the bad working of your cheep one continues ;-(.

FTDI= Future Technology Devices International Limited.
This FTDI cable works good on all machines, like Windows, MacOSX, or Linux,
even on the Raspberry Pi all models: 1B, 1B+, 2 and 3 with Raspbian Linux.

I use it for a connection between a Pi 3B and an AIS-transponder on inland
ships for ECDIS with OpenCPN sailing chart viewing software on European inland
waters. But of course it can be used worldwide if you download and install the
OpenSaeMaps of the area you want to sail at.

For Windows you need to install the appropiate USB-RS232-driver from FTDI.
There a 4 versions;
two for Intel 32 bit or 64 bit,
and two for AMD 32 bit or 64 bit.
See: <http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm>
for this Virtual COM Port Drivers, and manuals if necessarry.
See: <http://www.ftdichip.com/US232R> for the manuals.

For the AIS transponder connection you also need a 9-pole male- female cable.
You can buy that at the same store to, or solder one yourself.
It must be 1:1 connected, and is necessarry because the FTDI converter cable
only simulates a RS232 port as was present at old machines,
i.e. with bolds on it.


There is also another version with 2 RS232 ports which works good at Windows
machines, but I did not test it on a Pi.
It uses the same FTDI VCP drivers.
EasySync ES-U-1002-M USB-2COM-M
Serial 1 (RxD, TxD, Gnd)
Serial 2 (RxD, TxD, Gnd)
USB-B
+5 Vdc= / 150 mAdc=
So I do not think it has hardware handshaking.
See: <http://www.easysync-ltd.com/product/536/es-u-1002-m.html>
Or: <http://www.antratek.nl/USB-RS485.html>
I tested this version with OziExplorer and OpenCPN on a Windows XP laptop
computer.

UK Office (Global Headquarters)
EasySYNC Limited
Unit 1, 2 Seaward Place
Centurion Business Park
Glasgow
G41 1HH
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 141 418 0181
Fax: +44 (0) 141 418 0110
E-Mail (Sales): sa...@easysync.co.uk
E-Mail (Support): sup...@easysync.co.uk

US Office
EasySYNC Limited (USA)
7130 SW Fir Loop
Tigard, OR 97223-8160
USA
New! Sales and Order inquiries, call toll free: +1 (855) 531-5825
Tel: +1 (503) 547-0909
Fax: +1 (503) 547-0990
E-Mail (Sales): <sa...@easysync-ltd.com>
E-Mail (Support): <sup...@easysync-ltd.com>

No, I do not have shares of this firm,
but I hate bad quality cables for my good money.
So spent a little bit more and have no troubles.

More information about ECDIS you can find here in Dutch:
Infopacket selfbuilding ECDIS:
<http://home.hccnet.nl/htg.derksen/Schepen/ZelfbouwECDIS.zip>

Infopacket Ships Electro:
<http://home.hccnet.nl/htg.derksen/Schepen/Electro.zip>
124 schematic diagrams for ships electro.

Note: My both packages are in the Dutch NL language!.
Write FidoNet mail or e-mail if you have questions.

I think the EasySync ES-U-1001-R100 is the best offer in your case.
Good luck with it.

Henri.

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