PINNED - Info on PROGRAMMING PGDT and others

[jeffreyclay]

Hi fellows, I'm new here and I have run several searches to try and find answers myself but I'm striking out. I'm a amputee that currently can't wear a prosthetic leg and bought a lightly used chair. It is a Pride 300. 35Ah, 10" front drive and a 40A controller. Everything works as I would expect but I'm the curious type and an electronics technician by trade. Question is: Is there a downloadable schematic for the controller? I read many posts about reprograming. Is there service software available? Many of the office machines I worked on used a web based interface that was PC ready. Anything like that here? Thanks, the next pint is on me. Jeff

[LROBBINS]

Is there a downloadable schematic for the controller?

Not a chance.

Is there service software available?

Maybe. Depends on what controller is fitted. Try to figure it out from labels, or post a couple good pictures of the joystick pod. For some controllers the software is easily had, for some you just need a USB to TxRx serial adapter, for others the software can be hard to get, for others the software is free but the required licensing dongle is quite expensive. In other words - it depends.
Ciao,
Lenny

[penman]

Hi Everyone, I am new to this and this is my first post!
My wife is the wheelchair user and for a long time I have been grappling with the uncontrollable nature of one power chair after another. I recently stumbled across this forum and after the initial shock of seeing people applying common sense and, dare I say, logic to the issue, I read on. Now I am able bodied and I'm used to operating machine tools, which require a delicate touch. There is no way I can manoeuvre my wife's chair through a normal doorway without taking lumps out of the doorframe practically every time. That's not a good starting point! Having read this thread, practically from end to end, I can now recognise the problems - the speed on the minimum setting is far too high (surely, delicate manoeuvres need "dead slow" - or am I missing something?) - and it takes so long to react to the joystick, you can only guess at where the stick needs to be. Hmm.

P&G won't sell me the cable and the local mobility shop tell me it's dangerous to re-program the controller, though they couldn't explain why! I dare say you could make the chair dangerous if you are daft enough, but hey, it's a wheelchair, it's never going to be as dangerous as something really dodgy like a bicycle - or (good grief!) a car!! And we ARE adults.

So, having got the rant out of the way, how to proceed. I bought the Kenwood cable, which in my case has 3 wires, black, red and white. I've tried all the wiring possibilities, with and without the diode and although I can open the serial port, I always get "comms inactive". I've tried Win XP and Win 7 on two different PCs and I've been through all the com ports, 1 to 8. I should say, this is a VR2 controller, but I have the same problem on an older controller which I can't find a name on.

Any suggestions? I have also ordered the FTDI cable and I'll give that a try when it arrives. By the way, I suspect the copy of the programming software I have is the "user" version - how can I tell? and is there somewhere I can download the full strength version? Apologies for all the questions and thanks in advance!

[woodygb]

The software has the level displayed at the bottom of the screen....Service ,Dealer ,Manufacturer ...you need to have MAN.

SOME of the Chinese "Kenwood" leads simply will not work ...hence the current suggestion of the FTDI.

[penman]

Many thanks Woody. As suspected, I have "Service" level. Is there anywhere I can download the MAN level version? Or to put it another way, how can I get a copy?

Thanks also for the info on the Kenwood cables, I'll wait for the FTDI version to arrive and give it a try. I've also remembered that I have an iCom programming cable and after turning the house upside down I've actually found it. This plugs into a serial port and since there is only one wire and the screen in the cable, the one wire electronics must be built into the little circuit board in the serial plug. I haven't tried it yet, but I might well do. I am a little concerned about the logic levels - do you know if the programmer is expecting TTL levels? I'll let you know how I get on with the iCom lead.

[Burgerman]

I sent a PM

[penman]

Thanks! I did get the PM. Just to let anyone who's interested know, the iCom cable didn't work. That was the programming cable for the iCom F22SR walkie talkie. Same problem, Comms Inactive. Plenty of possible reasons why it didn't work of course. I would have tried a pull-up resistor as in one of the diagrams posted here, but of course there is no +5v available on that cable. So, I will have to be patient and wait for the FTDI cable to arrive. Thanks for the help and information!

[penman]

Hi there,
I have finally received the FTDI interface cable and made it up as shown on this forum, using the diode and the 47k resistor. I still have problems! I am using an old Dell laptop with Win XP. I have two versions of the programming software, "Service" version 14.4.3 and "Manufacturing" version 9.8.2. The service version works fine, it connects on any USB port and with any available serial port number. I can download the log, times etc. Of course this version is almost useless in terms of programming. The manufacturing version won't connect at all - "COMMS INACTIVE". I've tried all the ports but no joy. Any ideas? Am I missing something? Incidentally, there was no driver disc with the cable, so I've accepted the one provided by Windows.
Many thanks!
Joe.

[woodygb]

I'd suggest that you re-install the MAN prog.

[penman]

Thanks Woody! That wasn't actually the answer (at least I don't think so) but it set me off in the right direction. I re-installed the MAN programmer but with no improvement. However I then un-installed the Service level programmer and the Man version not only started working, but came up with a new version number (14.4.3). Either it doesn't like both versions on the same PC, or the problem was with the installation of the Service level version. Whatever, it now works fine!

2 minutes re-programming and the wheelchair is utterly transformed - from undriveable by anyone to perfectly easy to use. I'll give it a few days now and then I'll post a review of this chair - Rascal 320 Compact.

[Ralleygolfg60]

Hello people I'm Richard from the Netherlands and looking for the oem version of the program to program a penny&Giles DT125 and maybe pin-out for the ftdi at the controllers sp1 connection for a DIY project all help would be appreciated

p&gdt125.jpg (81.97 KiB) Viewed 10890 times

shoprider monza.JPG (37.05 KiB) Viewed 10890 times

[woodygb]

Hi Richard,

Unfortunately the Mobility programmer doesn't cover any of the scooter controllers other than the S-Drive ...SOLO , Egis etc are designated as Industrial controllers and require the Ind software.

http://support.pgdt.com/Customer-Servic ... -List.aspx

Industrial PC Programmer
Dealer D50390 & OEM D50391

[woodygb]

The PL4 connection.... if it's like the SOLO controller ... probably goes like this.

Pin 1 Positive
Pin 2 Negative
Pin 3 TX
Pin 4 RX

[D125HUV]

Hi all,

I hope you are all well and that someone can assist me.

I am trying to assist my Dad who has a Pride Mobility scooter which is running a PG S-Drive controller, there is an intermittent fault with it and the dealer has basically written it off and is unwilling to assist. We have been through everything we can with regards to the cabling, motor etc and would like to try looking into the controller in more depth.

I have been searching the forum for a couple of hours gathering information which has been amazingly helpful, I already have a suitable USB Interface as interestingly it is the same as the one for my cars LPG conversion and I have the latest PG Service program from their website but would like to also be able to try the Manufacturer version as mentioned earlier in this thread.

Does anyone have a link for a downloading the manufacturer software that I could have? If so that would be fantastic!

Many thanks in advance.

Neil

[woodygb]

The service software is next to useless..it only allows the downloading and uploading of files ...NO ALTERING or VIEWING of any parameters.

Check your messages.

[woodygb]

Which model/Amps S-Drive?

[Ralleygolfg60]

Hi Richard,

Unfortunately the Mobility programmer doesn't cover any of the scooter controllers other than the S-Drive ...SOLO , Egis etc are designated as Industrial controllers and require the Ind software.

http://support.pgdt.com/Customer-Servic ... -List.aspx

Industrial PC Programmer
Dealer D50390 & OEM D50391

Could anyone provide me some help/link on this software or does this use/require a dongle or special tool ?

[Burgerman]

I think if its not used on wheelchairs or scooters its unlikely any of us will have it.

[woodygb]

Richard,
I'd suggest that you try and find an S-Drive controller instead of the DT125 that you have..
OR see if you can find a SP1b Programmer

I made a mistake on the Egis controller ...it IS in fact covered by the mobility software.

[woodygb]

Some programming info page 60 onwards.

http://www.medema.no/files/Dokumentasjo ... _1.8.4.pdf

[Ralleygolfg60]

Thanks m8 but I already found that manual somewhere on the internet.
That was also the reason why I went searching for this program because it uses the same tool the sp1a/b so I thought this mobility programmer pc tool could also be used on this?

Thanks for the gift I have just seen the pm I will give it a try tomorrow

[Ralleygolfg60]

Update I have made a cable today and got coms active on the program and the controller identifies its self as a Solo DT125 but can't read out the std config of the controller, I guess because the program hasn't got a template for it.

Any suggestions anyone ?

[woodygb]

Get an S-drive.

[Ralleygolfg60]

Get an S-drive.

I was hoping/looking for some cheaper suggestion's like editing some file or different program I already was quite happy that the the controller even connected to the mobility programming software didn't expect that.

[wheels]

If anyone in Sydney (Australia), ever needs to program their R-Net controlled wheelchair, I have a programmer dongle & software that I'm happy to lend out to anyone who would like the use of it I realise this is mainly an American site, but thought I would post this just in case.

[woodygb]

I realise this is mainly an American site

Ummm ... the site itself is british ...the members come from all over the world.

[wheels]

I realise this is mainly an American site

Ummm ... the site itself is british ...the members come from all over the world.

Ummmmmm OK next time I will do a WHOIS search first. I assumed with just a .com without any country suffix, it was American. Most Australian sites finish in .com.au for example. Anyway it was purely an offer to help anyone locally here, without access to a programming dongle. I hope that it may help someone who was as desperate as I was to change the default settings on my wheelchair.

Cheers

[Burgerman]

I used a .com because it was the original.
And .com is actually interational. Or commercial. And can be used by any individual. And because its more internationally search freindly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_I ... el_domains

.us is USA only. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.us
.co.uk UK Company
.uk anything country specific to the UK.

Ummmmmm OK next time I will do a WHOIS search first. I assumed with just a .com without any country suffix, it was American. Most Australian sites finish in .com.au for example. Anyway it was purely an offer to help anyone locally here, without access to a programming dongle. I hope that it may help someone who was as desperate as I was to change the default settings on my wheelchair.

Cheers

I have a programmer freind look how easy it is to remove the dongle part... Obviously just for fun!

[wheels]

I have a programmer friend look how easy it is to remove the dongle part... Obviously just for fun!

Oh that would be wonderful! I'm one of the VERY rare and lucky people that do have a programmer, but if there's a way for end users to change the settings on their own wheelchair without a $400-$500 dongle, that'd be a winner! I was only offering here locally because getting a hold of a programmer isn't very easy to get in the first place, and then they are bloody expensive too.

I honestly don't know why wheelchair retailers don't enable the feature on R-Net controllers called "OBP Keycode Entry". Once you have that enabled, all you have to do is follow a simple button sequence. The problem for most people though is that they generally won't have this enabled by default... And you need OEM software AND OEM dongle to switch it on. For most wheelchair users, I think this would be sufficient but for wheelchair freaks then you really need access to the computer software IMHO.

[Burgerman]

http://www.dongleservice.com/service.phtml

It depends.

As long as there are no "walls" set up, in OEM level, as there often is, and as long as the things you want to change don't involve different configurations and only driving settings, and you don't need access to temp rollback settings for sport or motor compensation if you change motors etc then yes OBP can work.