Programming Curtis Controller

[th3joker]

Cool many thanks it's for my mobility scooter and the company want to charge me £400 ($650) to re-program it for me.

[paul-home]

Originally Posted by Monsterezgokid

we are still workin on it..

Right, apparently it is a normal rs-232 serial interface. Just the 3 wires to connect, but some other wires have to be shorted at the PC end. Its 9600bps.
The wires to short are the handshaking ones shown here:
http://www.daniel-hertrich.de/rs232/#sercab

4,6,1 shorted together
7,8 shorted

The official cable contains a chip which is an opto isolator. This protects the PC serial port if the controller is broken.
So, who has the time to test this??

[Monsterezgokid]

Okey dokey, thanks for the heads up


ok so i just wanted to post all the pinouts we know of right now..

So i am going to hook pin 2 on the serial plug, to pin 1 on the controller

Pin 3 on the serial plug to pin 3 on the controller

and pin 5 on the serial plug to pin 2 on the controller (i am assuming that B- is the ground for the interface, because on the 1236 controllers the the B- is now designated a I/O ground.)


My only question is that should i switch the TX and RX on the serial plug around so that the RX pin on the controller is going to the TX pin on the serial plug, and vise versa? That just seems more logical just like the handshaking null modem diagram.. IE.. the controller's TX (transmit) would go to the PC RX(recieve), and the Controllers RX(Recieve) would go to the pc's TX(transmit)







BTW im using a USB to RS232 adaptor on my laptop.. so i dont have much concern for using an isolator.. if i blow anything up, it would only be the rs232 adaptor, and thats no biggie.

Also i have the molex plug that fits perfectly into the curtis controller

[Monsterezgokid]

This is from the 1236 controller, just ignore that 840 display all it is is the on dash display for voltage speed, ect..

[paul-home]

Originally Posted by Monsterezgokid

This is from the 1236 controller, just ignore that 840 display all it is is the on dash display for voltage speed, ect..

Yes, ignore the 12v - this is for supplying the power, which we dont need.
I dont know which way round the TX to RX goes, but you cannot do any harm if you get it wrong, and there are of course only 2 possibilities.
Please let me know how you get on! I am keen to get it hooked up as soon as I have some free time.

EDIT: Your pin assignments look correct, but as I said, be prepared to have to swap TX and RX.
I got the info above from someone that seems to work at Curtis.
We will get this working somehow!

[Monsterezgokid]

I just finsihed making the cable.. now i just have to wait for my neighbour to come home.. his poor ezgo workhorse has been my testbed for any curtis stuff. I usualy deal with alltrax controllers, which has a simple serial hookup, but once i have the conectivity thing figured out, ill move onto my 1236 controller

[th3joker]

I was seriously considering replacing my working 1228 controller with something else just to get this solved.

[th3joker]

Would this work for connecting it to my PC
USB-RS232

[Monsterezgokid]

Originally Posted by paul-home

Right, apparently it is a normal rs-232 serial interface. Just the 3 wires to connect, but some other wires have to be shorted at the PC end. Its 9600bps.
The wires to short are the handshaking ones shown here:
http://www.daniel-hertrich.de/rs232/#sercab

4,6,1 shorted together
7,8 shorted

The official cable contains a chip which is an opto isolator. This protects the PC serial port if the controller is broken.
So, who has the time to test this??

Well i just finsihed trying out the pinout.. and its a no go.. well kinda........i crossed the tx and Rx connections like i mentioned before. and i did get some type of reaction from the controller. It was giving me some sequential beeps (and i could hear a realy click inside the controller (not the main contactor relay)), then the curtis software would say "error communicating with controller"....

I tried different serial speeds and settings in the pc control panel, but to no luck. However when i experimented with the different speeds, the controller would give a different beep. some times it was solid.. others it was like beep.. beep. beep....................................... beeeeeep.

Anyone else have luck with it.. .... Or did anyone who used the TTL adaptor, try by switching the rx and tx wires around?


I have my ttl adaptor here, i just finished soldering up the new wire to it.. now i have to wait till tomorow to try her out!

[th3joker]

I made a cable but had to use a USB to Serial converter and I'm not succesfully syncing. With the tx to rx I get a constant beep and when I set tx to tx, rx to rx I get no sound.
But either way it doesn't connect. I have a PC I can pull out of retirement to rule out the USB to serial adaptor.