AD3 appearing in device manager but not detected by Waveforms

[nanderson]

I'm on Waveforms v30.20.20 and am having trouble getting my AD3 to connect to Waveforms. It appears as "Digilent Analog Discovery 3" under USB controllers in Device Manager, but Waveforms isn't detecting a device. If I go through the "My device is not listed" tool, Waveforms crashes when I hit the Find Devices button. 

I'm working with other USB controlled sensors (specifically a ValueCAN 3 dongle) that have made Waveforms spit an error when I connect them, but didn't get one immediately before Waveforms stopped wanting to connect. I've also noticed that I need to slightly angle the USB-C cable down towards the bottom of the device when plugging it in or else the green LED doesn't light and the device doesn't connect at all, if that's relevant. Currently the LED is lighting and windows is recognizing it, however.

[JColvin]

Hi @nanderson,

I don't have any insight into WaveForms reacting to the ValueCAN 3 module that you mentioned, but I have the following questions/would try the following things:

- Are you connected to a USB hub of some kind? If you running the AD3 through an external (unpowered) hub that has other devices on it that are also competing for power draw, that could cause some issues.
Newer versions of the WaveForms software (starting with 3.21.15 onwards) add support within the WaveForms Device Manager to have a notification for when a low supply voltage is detected.

- If connecting to a different/more direct USB port doesn't work (or external power supply), it would probably be worth trying a different cable to help eliminate that source of error, though needing to wiggle the connector to get the LED to turn on is not expected.

Since Windows is detecting the device, a lack of power seems like the most likely issue to me.

Let me know what you learn.

Thanks,
JColvin

[attila]

Hi @nanderson

It is probably an issue with the FTDI driver.
Disconnect the device and reinstall WaveForms (check Adept Runtime section which includes the driver) or install the driver manually from:
https://ftdichip.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/CDM-v2.12.36.4-WHQL-Certified.zip
https://ftdichip.com/drivers/d2xx-drivers/

 

[nanderson]

14 hours ago, JColvin said:

Are you connected to a USB hub of some kind? If you running the AD3 through an external (unpowered) hub that has other devices on it that are also competing for power draw, that could cause some issues.

I tried powering the AD3 with the external supply input, no dice. I'm running directly from my laptop, which has never given me problems before.

 

14 hours ago, JColvin said:

If connecting to a different/more direct USB port doesn't work (or external power supply), it would probably be worth trying a different cable to help eliminate that source of error, though needing to wiggle the connector to get the LED to turn on is not expected.

I also tried a different cable. It looks like the needing to wiggle the connector was just an issue with the USB-C cable that came with it, other cables are working fine.

 

I'm able to connect to the AD3 after a full shutdown+reboot (usually) and there seems to be some order of operations I can use to launch it with the ValueCAN successfully, but I haven't nailed down exactly what that is. I've attached a screenshot of the exact error I get when I plug in the ValueCAN with Waveforms running: The "Device communication failed" error is somewhat common for me when plugging in other devices, but usually it reconnects fine. The "JTAG init failed" seems to be what's killing it, if I try to reconnect to the AD3 manually in Waveforms that's the error I keep getting. To clarify, I can get that error to pop up when Waveforms drops the AD3, if I restart Waveforms it simply doesn't connect and gives me no errors.

50 minutes ago, attila said:

It is probably an issue with the FTDI driver.

Would you agree with that assessment given the above?

[nanderson]

I installed the FDTI driver from the setup exe file, no luck either. I'm also not able to connect to the AD3 even after a full reboot today after it first crashed out this morning. The device works with no issues on other computers. When I hit the "Find devices" button in the Waveforms device fix menu with the AD3 plugged in, Waveforms crashes.

[attila]

Hi @nanderson

1. Have you checked the used driver version, as shown in the other post ?

 

I've seen 'broken' Windows where the driver files are not getting replaced.

2. To clean up the system from 'bad' drivers see the following post:

 

3. Verify the ftd2xx.dll version located in C:/Windows/System32

As a secondary solution you could try to copy C:\Program Files (x86)\Digilent\Runtime\UsbDriver\amd64\ ftd2xx64.dll
so WaveForms to use the correct dll version to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Digilent\WaveForms3\ as ftd2xx.dll 
or for the entire system to: C:\Windows\System32\ as ftd2xx.dll

[nanderson]

The driver version reported by Device Manager for the AD3 is 2.12.36.4, and the properties of ftd2xx.dll match the screenshot you sent, save for the last modified date being in august 2021.

I did notice that the ValueCAN dongle opens a COM port when it's plugged in (I noticed while ensuring that the AD3 wasn't opening a COM port, which it isn't).

I've attempted to uninstall the driver but only succeeded in getting Windows confused about it to the point where I had to reinstall Waveforms to fix it. 

I copied the .dll around like you said and it seems to be working as of the time of writing this, I'm going to try to avoid using the ValueCAN at the same time as the AD3 for now to avoid breaking it, but I'll reply here if it does break again.

[attila]

Hi @nanderson

The AD does not use the COM port but a faster communication method with the device. The Virtual Com Port is disabled in the device eeprom, but this can be overridden from the computer. If this is enabled and an application opens this it will block WaveForms access to the device.
Make sure the 'Load VCP' is unchecked, see: