Headline:
a DOS program for communication with a micro-controller through the serial
port working in Dosemu gives "Communication Error, Message time-out"
although leds in the serial line show communication is taking place. On
the same laptop this program works ok when the laptop is booted with DOS.
Versions Dosemu-0.66.6, Linux kernel 2.0.36, Laptop Toshiba T1910, 486SX,
4 Mb. DOS 6.22
The story:
I'm using a number of the above mentioned Toshiba laptops to monitor field
tests of an experimental heating unit, controlled by a micro-controller.
On these laptop is a DOS program with which I can read a number of data
from the microcontroller and alter some settings in this microcontroller.
This program can not do any data logging. For that I use a separate
program and dataloger.
Soon the pre-production series of these heating units will be build. For
field testing those units datalogging will be indispensable, but it will
be very impractical to use a separate datalogger for that.
As I'm a Linux fan, I would be very happy if I could find a solution for
this problem with Linux. So on one of those laptops I now installed Linux
(Slackware 3.3, but with 2.0.36 kernel build on my desktop) and
Dosemu-0.66.6, also build on my desktop.
In src/base/serial/ser_defs.h I changed #define SER_DEBUG_HEAVY from 0 to
1. In dosemu.conf I put debug { debug config on serial on } and I start
dosemu with dos 2>dos.debug. Dosemu starts ok, the above mentioned program
starts ok, but when I try to get data from the microcontroller I get
"Communication Error, message time out". The dos.debug file stays empty.
In the line between the serial port and the microcontroller there is some
electronic device. At certain settings of the Dos program I can see two
leds on that device flashing, like they do when I run this program
straight from dos, so I suppose that at those settings some communication
takes place over the serial port
What I wanted to try was, to write a Linux program that, based on the data
passing through the serial port, could log those data I wanted to log, and
perhaps write a Linux equivalent for the DOS program I'm using now, but
with the possibility to log selected data.
I also tried to run this program after starting dosemu with 'dos -D+a -o
debug'. When I do that, the above mentioned leds do not flash. I get a
long debug file, in which SER0 is mentioned many times, but don't have
much off a clue at the moment what to do about it.
I would be very happy if somebody could give me some hints that would help
me get the communication between this dos program and the microcontroller
working in dosemu. Suggestions that could help me with my goal to log
selected data passing through the serial port would also be very helpfull,
for example references to source code of other programs that do something
simular.
NB 1: I subscribed to this list about a week ago, because I first wanted
to get some impression of what was going on in this list before posting my
own question. In that week I have not received a single message. Is that
the normal traffic on this list?
NB 2: A Happy New Year to all of you!
Aart
Aart Koelewijn Linux 2.0.36
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mtack/
