Canon 5D serial cable support

[Zeranoe]

I purchased a serial cable from Hap Griffin's and I cannot get it to work in BackyardEOS 3.1.9.

I'm using a serial to USB adapter for the cable which is plugged into a USB 3.0 port.

Windows 10 (32-bit) device manager shows the USB adapter as COM3 (see attached image), but both "Serial COM3" and "Relay COM3" in BYE do not activate the shutter when running a cable test.

I was able to activate the shutter using "DSLR Shutter" from Stark Labs using either "COM3" or "COM3-IR", so I'm pretty sure the cable is fine.

Lastly, I'm not sure if the "Port Settings" (see attached image) need to be adjusted, as I couldn't find information about this in the manual.

[Zeranoe]

I see that version 3.1.11 has a change:

Quote

Change: Minor change in serial cable initialization; need additional work.

I'd like to try this version, but my key has expired. Can I get a new trail key?

[admin]

It's not work still.

I user was kind enough to send me his cable for testing, which was know to not work with the latest released version, BYE 3.1.11 and BYN 2.0.4.

I have found that this issue is caused buy the installer, but I have no clue yet why.  If I run from my development environment all cables (include the one from the user who sent me his cable) works.  If I then create the setup.exe from the same working .exe from my deve environment it no longer works... no code change... just installed software versus not.  

I need to dig more into this issue to find the root cause and fix it.

Regards,

[Zeranoe]

Hm, I'd advise checking the SHA sums to make sure the exe isn't getting tampered with during the pack/unpack.

Is there a chance I could still have the trial extended/renewed now?

[admin]

I've archieved your old trial, go ahead and add a tril in your cart again

Regards,

[admin]

I have some issues with serial port recently, I'm trying to fix them.

However, I have tested with a Hap cable in the past and it did work, but only when plugged in a USB2 port, not USB 3.  Try that in the mean time.

Regards,

[Zeranoe]

1 hour ago, admin said:

I have some issues with serial port recently, I'm trying to fix them.

However, I have tested with a Hap cable in the past and it did work, but only when plugged in a USB2 port, not USB 3.  Try that in the mean time.

Regards,

I don't have a machine with USB 2.0 ports that has 32-bit Windows installed.

Is there a previous version of BYE that should work and that I could test with?

[astroman133]

Just to be clear, in addition to the Hap Griffin cable you also must connect a regular USB cable, in parallel, between the camera and the PC. This cable handles all communication between the PC and 20D, except for controlling the shutter during BULB exposures.

The port settings should automatically adjust, if needed.

Previous versions of BYE are available on the web site, but only 3.1.0 and later use the current license.

[Zeranoe]

17 minutes ago, astroman133 said:

Just to be clear, in addition to the Hap Griffin cable you also must connect a regular USB cable, in parallel, between the camera and the PC. This cable handles all communication between the PC and 20D, except for controlling the shutter during BULB exposures.

The port settings should automatically adjust, if needed.

Previous versions of BYE are available on the web site, but only 3.1.0 and later use the current license.

I'm also using a USB cable to connect the camera, and BYE is able to communicate with it.

I'll start working my way back in versions to test, and I also installed 32-bit Windows on a older machine with USB 2.0 ports.

[Zeranoe]

I tried to revert to version 3.1.8, but keep getting "License activation error! Internet access is required to activate a trial key."

The machine has an internet connection, so perhaps I cannot activate an older version with a trail key?

I installed 3.1.9 on a machine with USB 2.0 and it activated fine, but did not work to trigger the shutter over serial.

[admin]

Trial requires the latest version, you have to use 3.1.9 with a trial key.

[Zeranoe]

7 minutes ago, admin said:

Trial requires the latest version, you have to use 3.1.9 with a trial key.

I guess I can't help test then...While the program seems great, I'm not willing to buy it until I know it works with my camera.

Is it possible for my trial to be extended until this issue is resolved?

[admin]

yes, I can give you a second trial.

[admin]

Oh, in the mean time it would help yu your can try this little test app.

 

 

[Zeranoe]

23 minutes ago, admin said:

Oh, in the mean time it would help yu your can try this little test app.

 

 

Single, Loop 1, and Loop 2 worked to activate the camera shutter.

[admin]

Awesome, thank you for running the test and reporting back your findings.

[Zeranoe]

Based on the change log and some brief testing of 3.1.10, it appears this issue was not resolved in this update.

Can you confirm that this issue should still be present, and is there a time frame on when this will be addressed?

[admin]

Sadly it is not.

I got it to work with a sample test and this was confirmed with 3 users.  However, the same code in BYE/BYN to actuate the shutter has failed.

I did make a change in 3.1.10 so it may work but I doubt.

One the of the 3 users who tried with the sample test app was kind enough to send me his cable.  Once I get his cable I will start to work on it.  Having a cable that does not currently work will be of tremendous help trying to debug this.  I have 2 serial cables here and they work with with 3.1.10... but then again they both work with 3.1.9 too.

This will be for the next release... but fear not,.. I will release as soon as I get it to work and will not wait for a major update.

Regards,

[Zeranoe]

Il y a 2 heures, admin a dit :

Sadly it is not.

I got it to work with a sample test and this was confirmed with 3 users.  However, the same code in BYE/BYN to actuate the shutter has failed.

I did make a change in 3.1.10 so it may work but I doubt.

One the of the 3 users who tried with the sample test app was kind enough to send me his cable.  Once I get his cable I will start to work on it.  Having a cable that does not currently work will be of tremendous help trying to debug this.  I have 2 serial cables here and they work with with 3.1.10... but then again they both work with 3.1.9 too.

This will be for the next release... but fear not,.. I will release as soon as I get it to work and will not wait for a major update.

Regards,

Thank you for the the 3.1.10 update and support for this issue.

Was the working cable you tested a DSUSB? Perhaps all non-DSUSB cables (straight serial cables) are failing?

[admin]

I will lock this thread because it is a duplicate.

Please reply to the thread below, it's the same issue and I think I was just able to resolve it.

 

 

[admin]

I have 1x DSUSB, 1x Hap Griffin serial cable, and 1x Pierro Astro serial cable.  They all work here in 3.1.10 as they did in 3.1.9.

 

 

[Zeranoe]

Just now, admin said:

I have 1x DSUSB, 1x Hap Griffin serial cable, and 1x Pierro Astro serial cable.

 

 

The Hap Griffin cable you have is working with a serial-USB adapter?

[admin]

Yes, I have StarTech serial-to-usb adatper.  I use the same adapter for both the Hap Griffin and Pierro Astro cables.

[admin]

3 hours ago, ryrat said:

Hey!

It is not necessary that there is any issue in your serial port, sometimes the fault is also present in PC or laptop that you are using. I am sharing few tips with you that lead to resolve the cable failure that you are facing:

• Unplug Computer
• Update Device Driver
• Restart & Disconnect USB Device
• Another thing you can try is to open Device Manager, expand USB Serial Bus Controllers, right-click on USB Root Hub and then click on Properties.
• Connect Directly to PC
• USB Troubleshooter
• Update Generic USB Hub
• Power-on the system.Press F1 when the Setup Utility program appears.Using the right arrow key (->), select Devices.Using the down arrow key, select Serial Port Setup, then press Enter.Ensure that serial port is marked Enabled.
• Approach Canon 5d Manual for another options and suggestions.

You are correct in that sometimes the cable it at fault.

However, I have had 3 separate users reporting the same thing and the same serial cables using the small test app I provided worked with those cables so there is a bug in BYE/BYN I need to fix.

Regards,

 

[Zeranoe]

I wrote my own program to test the cable further, and it works as expected:

#include <Windows.h>
#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  LPCTSTR portName = argv[1];
  DWORD dwMilliseconds = atoi(argv[2]);

  HANDLE hFile = CreateFile(portName, GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE, 0, NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, NULL);

  if (hFile == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
    std::cerr << "Unable to open " << portName << std::endl;
    return 1;
  }

  EscapeCommFunction(hFile, SETRTS);
  std::cout << "Sleeping for " << dwMilliseconds << "ms" << std::endl;
  Sleep(dwMilliseconds);
  EscapeCommFunction(hFile, CLRRTS);

  return 0;
}

I don't know how BYE is calling the interface, but i feel like it should be pretty straight forward.

[astroman133]

Guylain is using the .NET serial port class which is likely a wrapper around the Win32 routines. His test program apparently works for all those who have used it, so he just needs to figure out the differences between the test program and what he is doing in BYE.

Thanks,