Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Windows 7 just looks at me with a stupid grin on its face when I plug it in. It looks all very positive for a while, then not a lot happens.

My disk has some chinese written on it, and some files in chinese, and some drivers under a folder called windows 7.

But windows doesnt like them.

I'll sort it tonight, after I walk around in a pool for a bit, and then have a few drinks

Beer goggles will make widows look good

Assuming you have 64-bit Win 7, your drivers may only be 32-bit, and won't work.
When you say "not a lot happens" do you get a message saying something like "Windows cannot find a driver" for the device?
If it does, at least at that point you should be able to identify the device and download some 64-bit drivers.
The other messy alternative is to run Win XP in a VM Window (Oracle VM box is very good) and use the old drivers, or just buy a genuine cable

windows says it can see something connected to a USB port, but doesn't know what it is.

But the guy I got it from said he'll call me tonight, and get it sorted.

Apparently there's a trick to it, so it isnt just me.

Which is nice.

OK cool.
Let us know how it goes, Win 7 is pretty good at finding drivers for things.
The only thing I've had to "throw away" was a very old blue-tooth adaptor, because the company went out of business eons ago and the only drivers that were available were 32-bit XP drivers.
But a new adaptor was $2
Hope you get it sorted.

I just ordered some PIC18F4550 Micros with USB support and 16MIPS, should be able to run the AP system and the Thai Economy at that speed

Hahaha thats funny!

Hey BW is the air pump an oscillating magnet or a motor? My small air pump is a motor. Although it is DC and runs on batteries. And very loud. And cheap. Did i mention load?

oscillating thing like a fire alarm, but with a rubber diaphragm instead of a bell.

Just my 2 cents!

I believe it will cost you more than $10 to come up with something to convert to 12V AC. As an old Electrical Engineer, sometimes it is much easier and cheaper not to try to convert stuff that was built DC.
Unless you have access to an electronics lab with good supplies of diods and resistors and capacitors, and few transistors.

But there is no fun in not hacking something to bits and making it work how it wasn't designed

100% true

101% true

it's a close thing

and throwing good money after bad is a fundamental human trait

Yay! I got my driver working.

If anyone needs help getting picaxe drivers for 64 bit windows 7 to work, just sing out

so what now, H-bridge ?

I just bought a 16 pin motor driver. I guess that's an H bridge or two in a box.

So tonight's project is either, clean up the mess I made making my zero head test system, or build a new air pump

Before you connect anything up, please draw a schematic and post it for feedback. Hopefully your motor driver chip takes care of everything but post a schematic and we can just check it out.
I would hate to see you blow more things up. I can read schematics better than road maps so it will be easy to spot any issues

I bet you cant read MY schematics

now...where's my white paper and white crayon