Mac + Analog Discovery 2 + Waveforms 2015: No device detected

[Krizzle]

Hi folks - I have a Mac running 10.10.5 and another with 10.11 both not connecting to the Analog Discovery 2 hardware over USB. What I know:

• Hardware works fine from a Windows VM on the Mac
• Plugging in the AD2 loads kext com.digilent.driver.DigilentFtdiDriver AND com.apple.driver.AppleUSBFTDI
• Neither removing com.apple.driver.AppleUSBFTDI via kextunload nor deleting the kext file helps
• Following the *awesome* steps at this post didn't help - WaveForms sees and loads the driver (no logs spit out normally; logs spit out when I rename driver) but still no dice
• Keeping AD2 unplugged while restarting: no dice
• Reinstalling WafeForms and DigilentFtdiDriver-1.0.3.pkg - no dice

Any ideas? Eager to get working on Macs. 

[JayRoe]

Looks like this thread died out without any resolution.  Does anyone know if the latest build of Waveforms 2015 works properly on macOS Sierra (10.12) or High Sierra (10.13) ?  (I do see that Digilent's list of supported OS versions for Mac only goes up to 10.11, but that could just be a case of not being updated.)

As a prospective buyer of the Analog Discovery 2 who only has a Mac, I'm really hoping the Mac support hasn't been dropped!

Thanks!

John

[attila]

Hi @JayRoe

Sure, OSX support is maintained. 
WaveForms v3.6.8 was built on OS-X.12 and it should work on X.13 too.

[bentwookie]

Good luck buddy! If it doesn't work, you'll never hear from Attila again. The reason this thread died is because everyone I know gave up on it. There are plenty of other USB scopes out there. Go find one where they actually support their product. 

[attila]

Hi @bentwookie

We have several Macs in the office and have no problems using the devices.
As you can see in the earlier posts we care about the clients and solve most of the issues.

I did not get any feedback on the following version which includes the latest driver.
Do you still have the AD? Could you try if it solves the problem?

The main problems I see in general:
- powering issues: Due to high speed amplifiers and ADC/DAC the AD needs about 2.5W. Here the USB host, cabling or plugs could be a problem.
As solution you could try using another port, or use powered hub or 5V auxiliary supply for AD2.
- driver loading on OS-X :
After installing the USB driver restart without having the device connected in order to load the proper driver filter.

Some reviews for the product page:
Wow! 
Posted by Kitt on 10th Sep 2017
OK, finally figured out how to get this to work on my Mac. I really hope this product continues to be supported and updated. It's great. I love having a software based test bench!

Decent scope, waveform generator and logic analyzer in one. 
Posted by M on 29th Dec 2016
This is a decent scope and logic analyzer, and the price is right.
What is good:
* You get a scope, logic analyzer, signal generator, low amp variable power supply. That is a lot, and the price is good.
* The software is pretty good, but takes a little clicking around to learn.
Some minor gripes:
* On the MAC, the FTDI driver from diligent is a "blocker", that sometimes interferes with the OSX one, so you have to reboot before you can use your other FTDI items. This cost me a day to try to get the Analog Discovery 2 to work.
* The scope or logic analyzer are not quite fast enough for 20 MHz signals, which is what my AVR chips run at. Frequencies of 5 MHz (may be 10 MHz) are OK.
* If you are not careful, there is cross talk on the inputs, so your scope signal is not so clean. With a bit of attention it gets better.

[bentwookie]

I don't see a great dedication to customers or product in this thread, especially in Dec '16, where I gave up on your product in order to make deadline. I see plenty of "hey is anyone here", "I never got this to work". I see customers flailing around trying to decipher Python search paths over a year's time. Those aren't traits I associate with a great product, or great support. Maybe you've turned it around in a new version. I'll never know. 

[Natsu]

Hello!

I'm by no means an expert or anything like that on oscilloscopes or software or drivers or anything like that, but it seems like there are a lot more threads on the WaveForms software than just this thread that seem to have been resolved successfully... and if you've given up and have no interest in seeing if anything has changed, why are you still here? Mostly I'm just a curious passerby.

~Natsu

[bentwookie]

I had plenty of interest in getting it to work when I still had one in my possession and a job to finish.

You're right in wondering why I'm still bothered by it. The only answer I can give is that I've spent my entire career striving to build products that are as perfect as I can make them. Bugs happen, (I've had some real doozies) but when they do, it's on you and your support org to make it right; to fix the engineering and processes so it doesn't happen again. Quickly.

So when the product completely fails, and the support fails as well, I get itchy. The people I work with get itchy too, which is why we've made great stuff together over the years.

Anyway, when called out on it, excuses like "that guy is gone for weeks" or "we only have a few people" don't scratch my itchies. Proof of "good" reviews including a guy complaining that the serial driver scrambled his Mac really don't help either.

Regardless, you're right. It's not a great use of time. Thank you for the reminder.

Edited November 17, 2017 by JColvin
word choices

[JayRoe]

On 11/16/2017 at 9:45 AM, attila said:

Hi @JayRoe

Sure, OSX support is maintained. 
WaveForms v3.6.8 was built on OS-X.12 and it should work on X.13 too.

Thanks Attila.  Glad to hear it's being built with a newish SDK and I'm hoping it will work for me.  But I also understand the frustration of those here who haven't been able to get it working with their particular setup.  I'd like to at least give it a try, but the 20% restocking fee ("Opened or used items being returned will be charged a 20% restocking fee", as per http://store.digilentinc.com/shipping-returns/) is still a concern--I'd hate to have one of the setups that doesn't seem to work for whatever reason, spend hours or days failing to get it working, and then pay a $60 restocking fee for the privilege.  Would the restocking fee be waived in a case like this?

[JColvin]

Just to help others reading this thread, @JayRoe, I've sent you a PM about this.

[Cajjed]

Just wanted to add that I just purchased one of these and hooked it to my Mac, after installing the software, and it did not work.  Did a power cycle and tried plugging in to different USB ports and still no go.  Left it connected for a while to my powered USB hub (which I had initially tried and it did not work) while I read this forum and then started up and everything worked fine.  Might want to try hooking a couple dozen to a Mac laptop and seeing if any have a hard time coming up.  Mac laptops are notorious for not being able to drive instruments via USB.

[Krizzle]

Aw, @Cajjed, you're blaming the Mac here!? 

I've been using FTDI for professional HW dev on Mac for 7 years now... never hit a problem like the one with this DM2 product. 

[Cajjed]

Well if we are having an "my FTDI is bigger than yours" contest,  I once had over 50 FTDI cables hooked to my laptop at the same time ;-).

I was worried that there might be an FTDI conflict but I can still terminal into my linux devices and log debug data with cool term so not seeing any issues.  I did check on initial connection and I did see the the AD2 device in /dev even before is started functioning.

I did say that they should hook up several dozen of these to macs to see what the problem might be.  Maybe they should just hire you and I and we can fix it for them :-).

Edited November 29, 2017 by Cajjed

[zaxxon]

On 12/31/2018 at 11:59 AM, hartfort said:

This Issue still seems to persist.

I have the just downloaded the digilent.waveforms_v3.9.1.dmg and always get the message saying no device detected.

Im running MacOS 10.14.2 Mojave.

I noticed that the device is listed in my networking devices(see picture attatched).

Also i am also running a VM on my system, is it possible that parallels somehow messes with the drivers for the AD2?

I would love to get this fixed. Thanks!

 

Same issue here.  Same OS.  Same problem. I tried a powered USB hub - no go. The device is recognized by the os FWIW.

Thanks for any help.

[malexander]

@hartfort
@zaxxon
I have Mojave 10.14.2 and Waveforms 3.9.1 is able to open my Analog Discovery 2 when it's attached to the USB port on my MacBook Pro. Mojave appears to list any and all attached serial devices under the Network Manager, and that would include any FTDI chip that uses the standard VID/PID combination, even if you don't utilize at as a COM port. Nevertheless this does not seem to impact the ability to access it using the libftd2xx library, which is utilized by our lower level software to communicate with the Analog Discovery 2.

Can you confirm that you installed both the WaveForms application and dwf.framework and did NOT install DigilentFtdiDriver.pkg?

Can you confirm that you haven't opened the device as a serial port through any terminal applications? If you open the device with a terminal application then Waveforms will not be able to access it.

Can you run the attached python script with the Analog Discovery 2 attached and post the output?

Thanks,
Michael

digi_enum.py

[zaxxon]

Thanks for the input.  FWIW, I have used various development boards with FTDI chips over the years.  I am sure I have installed drivers. 

I did install Waveforms 3.9.1 and the dwf.framework.  Not the DigilentFtdiDriver.pkg.  I have not tried to access the device through any other application - with the exception of the MacOS System Report to review USB devices. 

Here is the output from the digi_enum.py script :

dyld: warning, LC_RPATH @executable_path/../Frameworks in /Library/Frameworks/dwf.framework/dwf being ignored in restricted program because of @executable_path

Digilent FTDI Enumeration library loaded
Devices: 1
 1. SN:210321AA28F7 'Digilent USB Device' flags: 0x0 type: 0x8 id: 0x4036014 locid: 0x141b0

FTDI Version: 0x10202
Devices: 1
 1. SN: '' flags: 0x1 type: 0x3 id: 0x0 locid: 0x0

DMGR Version: 2.8.4
Devices: 0

DWF Version: 3.9.1
Devices: 0

Run as user or sudo - same result.  I am not sure why, but with the powered USB hub the device is not seen by the OS (or the script).  Those USB ports are otherwise functional.

Thanks,

Doug

[attila]

I'm using Macbook with powered USB hub and never had such problem.
@malexander have you seen such problem?

 

[malexander]

@attila
No I haven't observed any issues a powered USB hub, and that is in fact, the only way that I've been using the Discovery with my Macbook pro because it doesn't have enough physical ports for me to plug it in directly.

@zaxxon
The output from the script should look similar to this:

Digilent FTDI Enumeration library loaded
Devices: 1
 1. SN:210321A2A6D8 'Digilent USB Device' flags: 0x0 type: 0x8 id: 0x4036014 locid: 0x141d0

FTDI Version: 0x10202
Devices: 1
 1. SN:210321A2A6D8 'Digilent USB Device' flags: 0x2 type: 0x8 id: 0x4036014 locid: 0x141d

DMGR Version: 2.8.4
Devices: 1
 1. SN:210321A2A6D8 'Analog Discovery 2' PDID: 0x40300360

DWF Version: 3.9.1
Devices: 1
 1. SN:210321A2A6D8 'Analog Discovery 2'

It's odd that libdftd2xx can see and access the device but libftd2xx cannot. Our library, libdftd2xx only implements some of the enumeration functions, and does not support any of the data transfer functions. We rely entirely on libftd2xx for those. Since libftd2xx cannot see the device neither DMGR or Waveforms will be able to open it. I wonder if this is the same bug that we found in the Linux version of FTDI's libftd2xx library. Do you have any other FTDI devices attached to your system, and if so, can you detach them and try running the script with only the Discovery attached? I realize that this isn't the solution you are looking for but having that information would give me an idea of what to look for, and likely lead to me being able to work with FTDI to address the issue in their library.

Thanks,
Michael

[zaxxon]

I do not have any devices attached.   I have in the past, and have installed drivers from FTDI on a few occasions.

[attila]

Hi @zaxxon

Could you confirm that you don't have the /Library/Extensions/ DigilentFtdiDriver.kext?
If you have it, please delete this kext.

[zaxxon]

I do not have  /Library/Extensions/ DigilentFtdiDriver.kext.

I do have /Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext/

So, I deleted that - and restarted.  Still not working.

Thanks.

 

 

[malexander]

@zaxxon

I'm not sure what's preventing libftd2xx from accessing the device, but if we can't resolve that issue then Waveforms will never be able to see the AD2. I read back through your posts and noticed that you were running Parallels desktop. Can you confirm that the AD2 USB device is not being taken over by parallels and passed to a VM?

Thanks,
Michael

[zaxxon]

Sorry for the confusion.  The comment about parallels was posted by a different user.  I do not have that installed.

Thanks.

1 hour ago, malexander said:

@zaxxon

I'm not sure what's preventing libftd2xx from accessing the device, but if we can't resolve that issue then Waveforms will never be able to see the AD2. I read back through your posts and noticed that you were running Parallels desktop. Can you confirm that the AD2 USB device is not being taken over by parallels and passed to a VM?

Thanks,
Michael

 

[zaxxon]

@malexander @attila

So, the saga continues.  Recent news :

• RMA'ed the device and got another.  I bought another powered USB hub.  Still not working.
• Dug up an old laptop, put linux on it.  Device verified as working - at least in linux.
• Spent more time clicking in the google machine.  Someone posted this as a diagnostic maneuver :

  • 
    export ADEPT_RT_LOGDETAIL=1
    export ADEPT_RT_LOGFILE=~/adept_erc.log
    python digi_enum.py
    
    dyld: warning, LC_RPATH @executable_path/../Frameworks in /Library/Frameworks/dwf.framework/dwf being ignored in restricted program because of @executable_path
    
    Digilent FTDI Enumeration library loaded
    Devices: 1
     1. SN:210321A96879 'Digilent USB Device' flags: 0x0 type: 0x8 id: 0x4036014 locid: 0x140e0
    
    FTDI Version: 0x10202
    Devices: 1
     1. SN:210321A96879 'Digilent USB Device' flags: 0x2 type: 0x8 id: 0x4036014 locid: 0x140e
    
    DMGR Version: 2.8.4
    Devices: 1
     1. SN:210321A96879 'Analog Discovery 2' PDID: 0x40300360
    
    DWF Version: 3.10.9
    Devices: 1
     1. SN:210321A96879 'Analog Discovery 2'
    
    cat adept_erc.log
    
    System Time     Process     Thread        ERC     ERC String                  Message
    2330798318      4468        4517828032    1       ercNotSupported             FTDIC::FGetInfo unsupported device attribute

Does that error message mean anything to anyone??

Edited May 7, 2019 by zaxxon
clarification : output above is from my machine

[Krizzle]

I'm on my 3rd year of battling this problem. It still hasn't been solved. I just use the HW from within a VM on my Mac - no other way to do it. Quite disappointed in Diligent claiming Mac support here and then failing to solve this for the third year now. Good luck, and if you find a way to make it work, please share with the class. 

@malexander @atilla, @jclovin - it sure would be great if you could get some of Diligent's engineers to shed a couple of hours on this - you've got a growing group of dissatisfied customers here. 

[malexander]

 

@zaxxon It looks like the Analog Dscovery 2 that you have connected to your machine now can at be enumerated by everything in the chain, which is an improvement from the results you posted in January. Are you using the same MAC to run the script or is this on a different MAC? Did you try running Waveforms again to see if it can access your discovery 2? I assume you did and the answer is no.

The error message means that something called DmgrGetInfo and requested a device attribute field that's not supported by the device. I looked at the python script and all of the calls that it makes to DmgrGetInfo specify attributes that are supported. Plus the output that you posted doesn't show any error messages specific to the Dmgr calls made directly from within the script. Perhaps the offending call is in the Waveforms framework. @attila can you give me a list of the DmgrGetInfo calls that Waveforms makes so I can try to figure out what the unsupported attribute is that's being requested?

Thanks,
Michael