There is no set direction which ever you choose you'll find products which do the reverse, a usb extension comes in useful when you come across them. I personally have both 6 and 5 pin connectors, so mount them on different sides as this is most convinient.

Okay. Thanks, Matt and Miles.

In that case, I'll use a right angled header for the 5 pin Xino connector and solder it on the underside of the URF PCB so I can still read the legends for it. I'll just leave the 6 pin one off for now.

I take it RST on the Xino connector takes care of the automatic reset when you program it from the Arduino IDE?

Indeed, the 5 pin connector provides the IDE with a seamless way via the URF to program and power a xino

That's good to know. Thanks, Miles.

I probably should have mentioned I've already bought the URF and a couple of Xino Basic kits, which arrived a short while ago, but I haven't got round to soldering them up yet. I used up my soldering energy yesterday building a PICAXE based 16x2 LCD display, and an 8 pin PICAXE module to test the display with. Hopefully the urge to solder will return soon.

Having got my first Xino Basic Arduino mostly built (apart from finalising the power supply options), I find I can't program it with Windows 2000 because it rejects the supplied drivers for the URF, even though Win2k is listed in the .inf file. I've started a new thread about that here:

www.openmicros.org/index.php/component/kunena/7-communications-and-protocols/1482-urf-drivers-not-recognised-in-windows-2000?Itemid=0#1482

I've solved the Windows 2000 driver problem for the URF, with help from CisecoDev, and a lot of experimental hacking. The final solution was very simple, and the IDE now treats my Xino Basic as an Arduino Uno

openmicros.org/index.php/component/kunena/7-communications-and-protocols/1482-urf-drivers-not-recognised-in-windows-2000?Itemid=0#1495


Woohoo!

Thats great news

Yep. I added my modified .INF file to that thread too, in case anyone else has trouble with the supplied driver.

Windows 2000 may not be very popular any more but it's perfect for recycling old computer bits to experiment with. I first had it running on a 200MHz Pentium II with 256MB RAM and it seemed pretty impressive at the time. I'm glad the Arduino 1.0.1 IDE is still Windows 2000 compatible too. I probably wouldn't have bothered with Arduino stuff if it wasn't.

I may put together another Win2k PC with some of the left over computer junk I've been hoarding all these years - for my underground laboratory (i.e. cellar).

Since a jpeg is worth 2^10 words, here's a picture of a URF plugged into the 5 pin Xino connector of a Xino Basic Arduino - which is what I asked to see earlier in the thread. Hopefully it will save someone else some confusion:



The Xino Basic is being powered via the URF, and I haven't got the 5V regulator installed on the Xino board, even though I've added a 2 pin header to feed power to it.

A jumper to disconnect the output of the 5V regulator might be useful, to be on the safe side, but it would be easy to forget to disconnect it, of course.

As you say a picture is so much clearer, my URF is a green one (proto) and been messed about with so much it's not worth a photo

I've been meaning to ask; what's the purpose of those three pads near A5, at bottom right in my photo? - the ones labelled SLEEP and RESET with Cut between the second and third pad. I assume the Cut refers to cutting that bit of track as an option, for some reason.

The reset on the xino connector can be changed to support sleep instead for the XRF, I don't know anyone that uses it but us internally.

Can i use this to program the Xino for Arduino IDE?

www.dipmicro.com/store/BTE-PL2303HX-MOD

and to what pins would I connect to the Xino?

Thanks,

At first glance yes, but at closer look shows it does not have the DTR or RTS pin needed for Arduino's auto reset.

It will still work but you would need to hit the reset button at the correct time when you upload a sketch


for pin out see the doc's
openmicros.org/index.php/articles/88-ciseco-product-documentation/124-xb4a-how-to-build-arduino-compatible


Matt

The prolific chipset on this device is nowhere near as good in support, software or reliability to the FTDI based boards which cost a little extra. Most FTDI boards have DTR which will mean you can Auto Reset the Arduino when programming other wise as Matt says you'll have to manually reset it which becomes a real pain in the rear.

Miles