[hpsdr] Newbie needs some help

[Bernie Huth]

I think the basic problem is that PowerSDR cannot read the firmware
revisions on Mercury and Magister, and therefore creates an error
message that there are incompatible (or improper) revision levels in the
hardware.

First some information:

The computer is a Dell Optiplex GX280 running Windows XP SP3 with a
3.2 GHz Pentium 4 and 1 GB RAM

The HPSDR is a Mercury board in J5 and a Magister board in J2.  Both
are mounted on an Atlas motherboard installed in a Pandora enclosure.
The power supply is a Dell Model PS-5161-7D 160 Watt ATX supply. Both
the Mercury and Magister boards are recently purchased from TAPR, and
I assembled the Atlas board.

The SCL and SDA jumpers have been installed on the Magister board.

The USBIO driver has been downloaded from Flex-Radio.com and installed.
In fact, given the problem I am having, I have downloaded it twice,
uninstalled and reinstalled it several times.

PowerSDR has been downloaded from the SVN site.

After applying power to the HPSDR and plugging the USB cable into
Magister, here is the condition:

The Windows Device Manager shows:
    LibUSB-Win32Devices
        OZY Host Assisted Firmware Load

The USB Device Viewer (UVCView) shows OZY Host Assisted Firmware Load
on Port6 of the Intel 82801 FB/FBM USB@ Enhanced Host Controller 265C.
However there is an "exclamation point" in a round yellow circle icon
indicated.

The "ConnectionStatus" for Port6 indicates an "ERROR: No open pipes!"
There is a "CAUTION This appears to be an invalid bInterfaceSubClass"
and "ERROR: 0xFF is the prerelease USB Video Class ID" in the Interface
Descriptor.

I ran "initozy11.bat >runlog.txt 2>$1".  The runlog.txt shows a sequence of
messages like:

"C:\HPSDR\PennyMerge>writeI2C 0xfffe 0x7 0x1a  0x2  0x1e 0x00
 usb_find_busses returned: 1
 usb_find_devices returned: 1
  ***** Write to I2C Failed ***** I2C Bytes written = 0 "

The red LEDs on the Mercury board are:  D3,D9, and D10. The four green
LEDs shown in the Mercury Manual are also illuminated.

The Magister board shows activity on three LEDs.
    D2 - intermittant
    D7 - continuous
    D8 - intermittant

The Atlas motherboard is showing Green LEDs for 12V, 5V, 3.3V and -12V.

Now I run PowerSDR which shows
"(KD5TFD 24Dec2009) FlexRadio Systems PowerSDR v1.10.4+ BaseSVN 2025" in the
top of the window.

In the Setup window, HPSDR tab the Firmware versions shown are:

    Ozy FX2: n/a
    Ozy: 0
    Mercury: 0
    Penelope: 0

Mercury is selected for both clock sources.

After pressing the "Start" button an error window appears which says:

"Invalid Firmware level. Ozy >=16, Penelope>=12 and Mercury >=27 required"

Now the Firmware Versions in the HPSDR setup screen are:

    Ozy FX2: 20090524
    Ozy: 0
    Mercury: 0
    Penelope: 0

Now the Magister boards is showing the following Red LEDs:
    D2 - intermittant
    D3 - continuous
    D7 - continuous
    D8 - intermittant


In conclusion, it appears to me that PowerSDR is complaining that it detects
improper firmware which is likely the outcome of being unable to properly
communicate with the Mercury and Magister boards.

Are there any suggestions for things to try or things to look at?

Thanks
Bernie Huth
W4BGH