Has anyone been able to use the Picstart Plus with a Mac
running Soft Windows? The problem I'm having is that I'm
not sure how to hook up the serial cable or if there's
some different serial driver that may be required. The
Mac has RS-422 serial ports, which don't have some of the
lines that an RS-232 port has. A MicroChip rep talked to
someone at the factory who seemed to recall that some
customer was able to get this all to work with version
3.09 of the software (which he sent me), but didn't have
any information about the actual cable connections. Might
anyone have any suggestions on how to get this to work?
>Hi All,
>
>Has anyone been able to use the Picstart Plus with a Mac
>running Soft Windows? The problem I'm having is that I'm
>not sure how to hook up the serial cable or if there's
>some different serial driver that may be required.
As far as I know, most standard Mac modem cables handle the (easy to do)
conversion from RS-422 to RS-242. You should be able to go straight from
the Mac's Mini DIN-9 to the DB-9. If you actually need the wiring
diagram, you can open the connection tool 'Apple Modem Tool' (which
should be in your extensions folder) with ResEdit and look at the PICT
resources. One of 'em is the wiring diagram. Not sure why it's hidden
there, by the way.
> Hi All,
>
> Has anyone been able to use the Picstart Plus with a Mac
> running Soft Windows? The problem I'm having is that I'm
> not sure how to hook up the serial cable or if there's
> some different serial driver that may be required. The
> Mac has RS-422 serial ports, which don't have some of the
> lines that an RS-232 port has. A MicroChip rep talked to
> someone at the factory who seemed to recall that some
> customer was able to get this all to work with version
> 3.09 of the software (which he sent me), but didn't have
> any information about the actual cable connections. Might
> anyone have any suggestions on how to get this to work?
I have been through this whole process recently.
Here's what I learned:
The cable is not a big problem. You need a hardware-handshaking modem
cable. NOT a null modem cable, or a serial printer cable, the wires are
connected differently.
Ideally, you want the correct connectors already on each end, (Mac serial
<-> pc 9-pin serial), but those are VERY hard to find. (Global Village made
some for some of their modems)
I bought a Mac serial to 25-pin Pc serial handshaking modem cable, and then
a PC 25-pin to 9-pin plug adapter. It's ugly, but it works perfectly.
The next problem is the software. You may have better luck with
SoftWindows, but I tried to run MPLab under VirtualPC, and while the
software ran well, and assembled correctly, it does not communicate with
the serial port accurately. I verifed this with Connectix, and they
acknowledged bugs in their serial code that they were trying to fix in
V2.0. It currently either fails, or programs pics incorrectly.
A much better solution is to use MacPic, shareware available from: http://www.srv.net/~kxc/MacPIC.html
It supports the entire pic line and is well supported. It is a heck of a
lot easier to use than MPLab too.
If you have any other questions about programming Pics from a Mac, drop me
a note.
zipmail.com
