FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions

Loss of communication with the Freescale 9S12 (HCS12) processor on the PDQ Board can happen for a number of different reasons.

• Do you have the correct baud rate set in the Mosaic Terminal? The default is 115200.
• Do you have the correct com port set in the Mosaic Terminal? See → Serial communication without a pdq board
• Is the serial cable connected to Serial 1 on the pdq board? There are two serial ports, but by default, only Serial 1 may be used for comunications.

This question is meant to diagnose serial problems not related to the PDQ board. It can be helpful to run through these steps as a way of narrowing a communication problem down.

• Do you have the right com port selected? To view available com ports go to your windows desktop. Right click on the "My Computer" icon and choose Properties. Click the hardware tab and click device manager. Expand the list item: Ports (COM & LPT) and look at all available Communications Ports. You should choose one of these ports in the mosaic terminal
• Short pins 2 and 3 of the serial cable as shown here.

You can also short these pins with a jumper.

• With pins 2 and 3 connected, type some characters into the terminal. If you can see each character as you type it, the serial cable is working fine. If you do not see the characters, there is a problem.
• Is your serial cable bad? Although it may not seem likely, serial cables do fail. Just recently my serial cable went bad, and it can happen to you too.

To automatically start your application, see the autostarting-your-application section.

—-

See also → Checklist
PDQ Board Users Guide