Problems with older 1.0 Slink-es

A Slink-e 1.0 user had a question I thought was worth posting an answer to here - Colby

>
>Are older slink-es supposed to work ok with your latest software?
>
Yes.

>I have one of your original slinkes, I believe you refer to these as
>version 1.0
>(as opposed to 2.0 for the new slinke).
>
>I can't get your latest software to work with my slinke, It recognizes
>the slinke
>on the comm port but doesn't recognize my cd players.
>
...
>
>Older cdj.exe software (8/24/98) recognizes the players and I'm able to
>play
>cd titles but I'm even having problems with this software as well, e.g.,
>alternating
>players in the playlist is producing errors.
>
>At first I thought maybe my slinke was damaged but the fact that older
>software
>partially works and newer software doesn't at all, suggests to me
>problems with
>newer software being backward compatible with older slinkes.
>
>BTW, I tried the latest cdj.exe both with and without the slinke server.
>

I hooked up a Slink-e 1.0 and tried the new software out with some mixed results. Basically the software is 100% compatible - the problem lies in a bug in the Slink-e firmware (versions 1.0-2.1 have this problem - I currently ship 2.2 and 2.3) which I have mentioned previously on the BBS. This bug essentially causes the Slink-e to no longer listen to commands from the PC, at which point it needs to be power cycled to become functional again. It is statistical in nature and is more likely to happen when the Slink-e is very busy AND lots of new information is being received on its serial port. The newer versions of CDJ attempt to do more with the Slink-e (particularly at startup) and exacerbate this problem. In my experimentation I found that setting the Slink-e baud rate to 19.2k instead of 38.4k and having the IR sampling rate set to 200us seems to keep the Slink-e 1.0 working fine because of the reduced IR port sampling rate and incoming serial data rate. Give this a try.

I am offering a replacement IC for Slink-e 2.0-2.1 owners to correct this problem for a nominal price ($15 + shipping). I also intend to create a corrected version for the 1.0 model, but haven't had the time to modify and test the firmware yet.

Colby