Troubleshooting Freestyle to SSR4

[tcbeaton]

I have a Freestyle and ten SSR4s. All voltages in the Freestyle instructions match, no smoke when I plug the boxes in.

1) Is there a way to use a digital meter to look at the outputs of the Freestyle to see if they're sending out the RJ45 connectors? Can I hook standard LEDs with current limiting resistors to the end of an ethernet cable to test the outputs of the Freestyle (if so, what's the schematic)?

2) Is there a way to trigger the SSR4 channels to light to test them? Can I jumper anything on the opto's to trigger the triacs to power the load?

Not sure at this point what else to troubleshoot at this point?

PS-PIC Chip is programmed and verifies on the Freestyle.

Thanks for any help you can offer?

[JoeFromOzarks]

Did you get this worked out?


(1)  You can hook up LED’s as shown in the picture (Freestyle tester) below.   (The drawings are old, hence in black and white.)  (grin)

(2)  You can use three batteries adding up to 4.5VDC (don’t exceed 5.0VDC) (and possibly a 680R in series to protect the opto from construction errors) and connect (+) to pin_1.   Then connect (-) to each RJ45-F connector, 2=channel  1, 4=channel  2, 6=channel 3 and 8=channel  4 to light each channel respectively.  (See SSR Tester picture.)

Make sure the SSR is configured properly.   From the Assembly Manual:
“The SSR4 jumpers are setup like this:
The C/S (Controller / SSR ); for Controller set it to C and for SSR set it to S.
The (S) jumper is needed to be on for SSR operation and off for Controller operation.“

There is also a trace missing on the Freestyle PCB.  Without an quick add-on jumper one of the channels won’t work, but I cannot remember where the fix is or what channel is broken.   I’m using all of my Freestyles but I can open up a case and shoot a picture or two of the jumper fix if you need it.   I bet someone will jump in and point to the post to add the jumper.

Let us know if you get it worked out or need more help.

joe

[KeithTarpley]

Greetings,,,

Channel 49 had a trace missing, but only on the older FS pcbs.

Keith

[JoeFromOzarks]

Thank you Keith!

(Ah yes, the sweet memories of the ol' days...)   

joe

[tcbeaton]

Joe and Keith,

Thanks for the schematics... Black and white works fine (the parts are in color when you build it). ;-)

My Freestyle has a date of 2008, so the info (or pix) of the missing jumper will probably be helpful, although I only have ten SSR4s do I won't quite make it to channel 49 this year.

I'll let everyone know when I figure out what's not working with these things. Gotta get some parts to build the tester(s).

Thanks,

--Tom

[tcbeaton]

Latest Update...

The Freestyle is working and all channels of the ten SSR4s are working except one. Need to look for cold solder joints, etc.

I read another Freestyle post and it mentioned having problems changing the starting channel. I had used the Lynx Address Utility to change the starting channel, and assumed it had worked. The other post mentioned that the default starting channel was one, so I tested there and the SSR4 responded. :-)

At this point, I have not tried alternative methods to change the starting channel (ie, using different software), but I'm cool if it wants to start at one. I can just move my 4 Expresses to higher starting channels, leaving the Freestyle at one for now.

Thanks for all the help from Keith and Joe for the schematics and responses.

--Tom