Getting started with VMUSIC2

Step 3 Getting Connected

The first step is to connect the VMUSIC module to 5V and ground. Refer to the picture below for the pinout.

After powering up the VMUSIC2, insert your USB drive with the FTRB.FTD file on it.

You should see the lights blinking. It will take about 20-30 seconds to program the new firmware. Do not remove power while it is flashing or you will have to go the more expensive and complicated route I went through (or worse -- you loose the bootloader completely.) The light should glow RED for a second or two and then stay a steady green once flashing is complete. Don't be impatient. It will be pretty obvious while it is programming. Normally, there is no activity light on the USB flash drive upon start up. The lights will be going crazy while it is programming and verifying.

Disconnect the 5V from the VMUSIC module.

You are now ready to hook the rest of the signals up and start talking to it with hyperterminal.

This is where a bunch of information is unclear in the documentation. First of all, the VMUSIC2 UART interface is 3.3V logic. You will need some type of converter for your connection. I am not going to go into too much detail on how to do this, because there are many options. One of the easiest is to purchase a Nokia DKU-5 cellular phone data cable and modify it by cutting off the Nokia connector. This cable is a USB to RS232-TTL3.3v cable based on the FT232R. There is no CTS or RTS handshaking signals in this cable, which is one of the reasons that we modified the firmware for no flow control.

There are several articles on the internet that tell you how to modify this cable and it is useful for many purposes. It doesn't matter what converter you use as long as it is designed for 3.3V TTL, not 5V. Prepare for the next step by making sure that you have installed the drivers for your converter (if USB.) It should be showing up in device manager. Make a note of the COM Port assigned to it.

If enough people have a problem with this step, I will create a separate instructable based on the nokia cable. But this cable is extremely popular in many modding communities and the mod is pretty well documented. I am using a different (more expensive) converter right now and do not have access to my nokia cable ATM, otherwise I would add it here.

UPDATE: Found a good article explaining different options and sources to cheap cables. I don't know how I missed it, but the TTL-232R-3V3 from FTDI is practically made for this purpose. Check out thisthis link for other options (you might even have something lying around)

Before connecting anything else to the VMUSIC2, again, make sure the power is not connected.

Connect the RXD on your converter to the TXD on the VMUSIC2
Connect the TXD on your converter to the RXD on the VMUSIC2
Connect the GROUND on your converter to the GROUND on the VMUSIC2
Connect CTS on the VMUSIC2 to GROUND (This is not optional. You will be able to send commands, but you will receive no responses if you do not connect this signal to ground.)
RTS can be left disconnected
RI is left disconnected

Now would be a good time to load the flash drive up with some MP3s (I renamed mine 1.mp3, 2.mp3, etc... to make it easier) and also delete the FTRFB.FTD file from the flash drive. The firmware can only read DOS filenames. This means 8 characters for the filename and 3 for the extension. I believe you can leave off the extension and just use all eleven characters for a filename, but that might break in future firmware, so I don't advise it.

Leave the 5V line disconnected. We will be connecting it again in the next step.

I want to make a few final notes regarding this section just to make it complete, as it will not be relevant in future steps:

If you do have a converter capable of RTS/CTS flow control, this is actually preferred. If you ever need to reload the firmware the hard way, this is absolutely necessary. The bootloader only supports this mode. There are two reasons that we turned this off, however. The first being that most people are going to find cheap cables that do not support this, and programming a microcontroller to handle RTS/CTS flow control is a bit more complex and requires more IO and software overhead. Most libraries do not support it, so just turn it off. If you run into trouble flashing your firmware, you are going to need an RTS/CTS capable serial converter to recover it, though.

To use RTS/CTS flow control, swap the two signals between devices. This means RTS on the converter should be connected to CTS on the VMUSIC2 module, and vice versa.

Finally, RI is Ring Indicator, which can be pinged to wake the VMUSIC2 module out of standby. We will not be using it here and it is not used in firmware recovery. Just leave it unconnected.

The pinout of the VMUSIC2:

Comments

[rustyroadie]

just a note: if you make up a cable with a Nokia DKU-5 using this guide, http://buffalo.nas-central.org/index.php/Use_a_Nokia_Serial_Cable_on_an_ARM9_Linkstation the RXD and TXD wires on cable go to the RXD and TXD pins respectively on the vmusic - not the opposite as implied above. i.e. Cable pin 6 - Vmusic pin RXD Cable pin 7 - Vmusic pin TXD Cable pin 8 - Vmusic GND

[woyzeck]

I ran into some trouble here. I bought the TTL-232R-3V3 from FTDI, matched up the colors of the cable that came with the Vmusic2 and don't get any blinking light. What do I connect the ground to other than the USB cable that I got? What am I missing?

[RetroPlayer]

You left alot of detail out, but I assume that you are connecting up the 5V and ground on the VMUSIC2 module to some 5V supply, right? The FTDI cable is not going to supply power to the module. It is only for communication with it. You have to power the module separately. The ground from the FTDI cable will connect to the ground on your 5V power supply, And remember that the CTS signal of the VMUSIC2 needs to be connected to ground as well. So, you will have three signals going to ground.

[woyzeck]

Thanks so much for the reply. I was not using a separate power supply. I thought the USB connection would power it. :P So, just to clarify, I'll need to connect a separate 5V from an independent power source to the 1st (ground), the 3rd (pos), and the 5th (gnd) pin even if there is already a black and red and green lead on there from the USB cable? Thanks so much for the help. newb here.

[RetroPlayer]

Woyzeck, also check out Joe Gangi's posts below. He was asking a similar question and he discovered on his own that the CTS and RTS should have been connected together. You should disconnect them from the FTDI cable first, though. Try that first since it is easier to do. Then look into the suggestion I made above.

[RetroPlayer]

I just went and looked at the specs on the cable again and you are correct. It supposedly will provide 5V from the cable. It can supply up to 75mA which I would think would be enough to power the module. And connecting the colors together should have worked. I apologize for that. It sounds like you are missing even the loader and may have to do it the more complicated way. Thankfully, the FTDI cable does have all the signals that you need. You are going to need to go to the FTDI website and grab the VProg reflash utility that I mentioned above. You will also need to be sure that you have the D2XX drivers for your cable (should have come with your cable.) This will probably require that you go into device manager on your computer and choose update driver for the cable and manually choose the D2XX driver instead of the VCP driver that it would install by default. Once you do this, you should be able to use the VPROG utility to load the firmware in. An additional note to everyone: Sorry for such late replies. I just changed my email address on here because I wasn't checking the old email address very often any more and wasn't seeing your comments. Now, I should be able to get them right away.

[andyman2u]

First off - thanks so much for writing this. The timing was totally serendipitous.

Being a newbie, I'm having a little trouble with this step. I managed to load the firmware, but I'm not sure in what direction I should head next (regarding the TTL-232R-3V3). I do have a USB adapter (link) that I bought with a BASIC Stamp kit, from Parallax, that looks like it's based on the FTDI chip. Can I use that adapter?

Thanks again,
Andy

[RetroPlayer]

Unfortunately no. That converts USB to regular RS232 which will use the wrong voltages. The 3.3V is extremely important. Anything higher than that (5V or >9V for RS232) may damage the Vmusic2 module.