DSATX wont work with brainstem(s) plugged in

**Sonicxtacy02** · 11-10-2009, 01:01 PM

I have a DSATX i bought from mp3car about 2 months ago. Its connected to my dg45fc motherboard. The device works fine with no brainstem connected.. however if i install a brainstem the device fails to boot my computer. I have both the serial brainstem and the mp3car TTL 232R usb cable(with brown/yellow swap) and both devices do the same thing. I'm not hotplugging either device. With either device connected, i get nothing but a little blip of power every ~30 seconds that i can hear through my car speakers (thump). No light comes on the dsatx. However, as soon as i remove the brainstem the dsatx comes back to life like normal. Jumping A2 + B2 dont seem to do anything. Whats the next step i should take?

**Sonicxtacy02** · 11-13-2009, 10:27 AM

Jeff where ya at bud? Can anyone shine some light on the issue i know i'm not the only one.

**RipplingHurst** · 11-13-2009, 12:34 PM

I have tried to fix this a while ago - there are some threads about this already. I even did a firmware upgrade that didn't solve things (1.13 or 1.14?). In the end, I gave up on the brainstem completely. I thought that by now this issue would be solved...2 months ago? I bought mine in 2007...

If you ever find a solution to this, please post it here, I'll be very happy.

**Sonicxtacy02** · 11-13-2009, 12:36 PM

well thats going to suck if i've got $40 bucks in useless hardware for this already expensive product.

**RipplingHurst** · 11-13-2009, 12:39 PM

There are some guys in the CF forum who apparently happily use the DSATX with the braintem, since they even developed a plug-in for controlling it.

**Punky** · 11-13-2009, 01:13 PM

my dsatx goes out of control whenever the brainstem is plugged in.
I've concluded its only useful for changing settings, but not for constant monitoring.

**TeamRSX** · 11-14-2009, 12:23 PM

I found the brainstem was very unreliable. I had to play around with it hours on end to get it to work successfully. I have only used the brainstem for the advanced configuration. Which firmware version are you running on the dsatx? I think the latest version i am aware of is 1.14. I am using 1.14 and the dsatx works amazing.

For me, to get the brainstem to work i had to play around with it a lot. I had to slide the brainstem up and down on the pins of the dsatx. Sometimes it would boot up with the brainstem and sometimes it would just restart my computer. I also found once i got the computer to boot up with the brainstem and opened the com port it would freeze up a lot and i would have to start over. I had to work fast once i connected it to the com port.

I wish i could give you more tips, but my experience with the brainstem was not the best. It took be countless hours to get it to work, but i'm sure if you play around with it you will eventually get it.

Are you trying to change some of the advanced settings or using it as a monitor? I wouldn't recommend using it as a monitor, but rather just to configure the settings.

Once i was able to configure the settings the dsatx works amazing. I am very happy with the reliability of the dsatx, but the problem is the brainstem doesn't work consistently from my experience. Others may have different opinions.

Good luck man..
Blair

**RipplingHurst** · 11-19-2009, 06:09 PM

The most reliable way to use the Brainstem is to connect to an old pentium notebook with one good old external com port. Nor COM-to-USB drivers involved. I practically kept this notebook just to test all those COM devices (the HD radio is another one).

It can stay connected there for days reliably.