TOPIC:

I have a MiniDSP 2X4 HD. I can successfully connect and communicate to the unit using the 2X4 HD plug-in.

I purchased the Dirac Live upgrade for this unit. I can not connect to the unit using the DDRC-24 plug-in. The bridge window briefly appears and then disappears and the plug-in makes it's few attempts to connect and fails. Failure message is'Cannot connect to the DSP, please plug in the board'.

I have tried connecting with two different computers and two different USB cables. Both successfully connected using the 2X4 HD plug-in and both failed using the DDRC-24 plug-in.

I verified that all required software (Flash, Air, .NET, C++) is installed and updated.

I reinstalled the USB driver software multiple times (Windows 7 Professional on one machine and Windows 10 on another).

The device manager and the UAC Control Panel both recognize that the unit is plugged in.

I tried running MiniDSP.exe in the DDRC-24 'add' directory before launching the DDRC-24 plug-in. It very briefly launches and then disappears almost instantly. I can see '1234' in the 'Connection' box occasionally before the bridge window disappears.

I tried launching MiniDSP.exe in the 2X4 HD 'add' directory. It instantly connects and states 'Waiting connection, please launch the air application'. I then tried launching the DDRC-24 plug-in. The DDRC-24 plug-in greys out and says 'Connecting to the System' and the bridge 'Status' changes to 'Message from USB 6 Byteread=65'. Nothing else happens and if I close the DDRC-24 plug-in the bridge window closes.

I am out of ideas. Is this a software bug? Something peculiar to my 2X4 HD (I haven't upgraded the HD firmware, BTW).

You have to upgrade the firmware. Try that, the firmware file is in the DDRC-24 download.

John,

Thanks for the reply. Do you mean:

1) Connect to the unit through the DDRC-24 plug-in and upgrade the 2X4HD firmware to the DDRC-24 firmware?
2) Connect the unit through the 2X4HD plug-in and upgrade the 2X4HD firmware?
3) Connect to the unit through the 2X4 HD plug-in and upgrade to the DDRC-24 firmware?

For 1), I can not communicate with the unit as described in my original post. This is the first step described in the MiniDSP DDRC-24 manual for the upgrade process. I should add that I tried every combination of boot order, connection order, etc. I could think of.

For 2), presumably this would change something in the unit that would fix the connection issue using the DDRC-24 plug-in?

For 3), this was the next thing I was going to attempt but didn't want to risk bricking my unit without getting the advice of more knowledgeable folks and/or MiniDSP dev support.

Are you on Mac or Windows?

Never mind, since you refer to UAC than you must be on Windows.

So, you would use the firmware upgrade tool... could you look at the manual? You use that to upgrade the firmware first to the DDRC-24 first.

The DFU tool. That's what it's called. (Perhaps unfortunately so!)

I used the DFU tool to update the firmware using the DDRC-24_XMOS_v1.5.bin file included in the user download .zip file. This was reported as successful by the DFU tool (which instantly recognized the attached device).

After a reboot, the UAC2 control panel recognizes the unit. Product is listed as DDRC-24, there is a VID/PID number displayed, and the Revision is listed as v6.F2.

I then launched the DDRC-24 plug-in and hit connect. Again, the 'bridge' window appeared, almost instantly disappeared, and the three attempts to connect to the unit failed as described in my original post.

I re-installed the drivers from the miniDSP_UAC2_v3.34.0_ForWin7_8_10.exe file included in the user download .zip file (I am currently on Windows 7 professional). The UAC2 control panel lists the Driver Info as Version 3.34.0 Release Build.

Again I attempted to connect using the DDRC-24 plug-in with the same results.

I made multiple attempts to launch the 'bridge' using the MiniDSP.exe executable in the DDRC-24 'add' directory. It pops up and instantly disappears. I can make out the numbers 1234 in the 'connection' box before it closes. The 'status' box is empty.

OK, another update.

I scorched the earth and uninstalled everything related to MiniDSP. I also deleted any folders in the program files and my download files from the user downloads.

I rebooted and grabbed a fresh download of the DDRC-24 .zip file.

Everything was freshly installed... and... the DDRC-24 plug-in is now talking to the processor and displaying my activation code.

Posting this for posterity. Thank you for your help on this.

I will follow up with another post to this thread with constructive criticism on suggested changes to the user manual.

@kpoling

Glad to hear that you're now up and running. Not sure what would explain this issue of upgrade from 2x4HD to DDRC-24.
IF you have some specific comments, feel free to include them and we'll see how we can include them.

Devteam

Well, I have the same problem. Purchased the upgrade, uninstalled everything but cannot connect through the plugin.
What am I doing wrong???

Could you post the text in you copy.bat file?

My bad... Upgrading firmware with the DFU tool did the trick! Request for Activation sent and getting ready to test Dirac

Thanks for stepping in John!

devteam,

Sorry, got busy with work!

My main feedback is a suggestion to add a step in Section 2.2.4 of the user manual (2X4 HD to DDRC-24 upgrade) before the existing Step 1 to upgrade the firmware as described in Section 9.2.

Up to this point in the manual (Page 13), there is no instruction that a manual firmware upgrade must be performed. In the firmware upgrade section (on Page 56), the wording is "miniDSP may occasionally provide an upgrade to the DDRC-24 MCU firmware to enable new features." Nothing in that sentence implies that a firmware upgrade must be performed prior to performing the step in Section 2.2.4.

That a manual upgrade to the DDRC-24 firmware must be performed prior to the steps in Section 2.2.4 is probably obvious without being stated by advanced users like john.reekie, but not to someone like me (and johoo, apparently) that is learning this stuff on the fly. I can follow detailed instructions to the letter, but am unlikely to experiment without guidance on things like firmware where I can possible brick a device.

Other than that, I had a few issues like the device serial number not reporting correctly, where a power cycle of the device fixed the problem. Also, the failure to connect to the unit after the firmware upgrade that was solved by uninstalling all software (from the original 2X4 HD install), deleting the program files directory, and reinstalling the software. Some general troubleshooting steps for power cycling or software removal/reinstallation would likely be useful.

@ Kpoling and Johoo

Thanks very much for the feedback on the user manual and steps to take. This unit is indeed very new and we always apreciate feedback to make the user manual better. We'll certainly look at making these 2 suggestion happen as they are indeed steps we failed to add in the case of the upgrade configuration (i..e need to upgrade first with DFU, then you can read the string.)

Thanks much for your patience and feedback!

DevTeam

I recently purchased the DDRC-24 upgrade for the mini DSP 2x4 HD. I cannot get it to connect as well, I tried clearing out all the 2x4 HD items from my computer as suggested on this thread and re installing the DDRC-24 software to no avail. I have tried to upgrade or open the firmware downloaded with the DDRC-24 labeled DDRC-24_XMOS_v1.6 but whenever I try to open this, windows says: "what program do you want to open this with?" What is the DFU tool and how do I access it? There seems to be no DFU tool I can see in the DDRC-24 pop up window. Will this tool once I locate it then open the firmware and somehow allow the mini DSP to then connect to my laptop? I'm running windows 10. I also had no trouble connecting with the 2X4 HD software prior to doing this upgrade.
Note: first I added the DDRC-24 software along with the previously installed 2X4 software on my computer, began experiencing the connection problems, then tried removing all miniDSP software and reinstalling the DDRC-24 by itself, all to no avail. Please help.

Hi, the instructions are in the DDRC-24 user manual (page 15).