Finally got everything to work. Apparently it wants RTS pin only for auto-reset (when new firmware is flashed). But the bigger problem was that the firmware it came with was made for MakerBot Cupcake CNC, not RepRap (apparently they use different firmware even though Cupcake is derivative from RepRap). Anyway, I flashed the bootloader through ICSP with BP (as described here) and then flashed the main firmware using P4 serial/TTL adapter with DTR pin (apparently that works with autoreset perfectly).
What's interesting is that P4 doesn't need to know the baud rate, it either auto-switches or forwards everything as-is... Does BP in UART passthrough mode really need to set the baud/etc?
Ideally for this application there would be a pass-through mode to the FTDI chip.. but that's probably too much trouble I tried setting the baud rate for bus pirate as well as uart but still nothing
I think I have everything hooked up correctly right now, but still nothing. I'm on linux -- and this is the first time when I found it's harder to sniff a port than in windows.
So far it's not working The "proper" connector is here: http://objects.reprap.org/wiki/Mendel_U ... _connector Looks from their config like it's bus-powered mode and from their TTL cable description, it's 5V What do you make of VCC there? Is it input to FT232RL or output from it to the remote device?
I think there's a chance I already burned out the motherboard by connecting the pins the wrong way
Glad to hear that you're inspired! I'm just a newbie asking silly questions I'm putting together a reprap and noticed that I don't have a USB-to-TTL converter to get my computer talking to it. Their recommended method is UM232R which is a breakout for FT232R[L]. And then I realized that BP has the same chip and ...one thing led to another
Anyway, I'm just starting to play with BP so I don't know what it can do yet. "Transparent UART bridge" sounds like what I need - not a debugging mode but just letting the pc talk to the chip directly.
Is it possible to use a bus pirate to interface with a reprap motherboard? (see http://objects.reprap.org/wiki/Mendel_U ... _connector ) As you probably noticed that one wants RTS and CTS but bus pirate uart guide only mentions RX/TX
