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Messages - microdrome

#1
Hi all ,

I see my name mentioned in this post and want to add that i am not hacked as far as i know.
My account still has the same name and i can still acces it.

That's all.

Peter
#2
Applications / Re: DBExpert
2011.11.06, 19:04:30
I still use DBexpert on a daily base and still hoping for someone to pichk it up again ,but i have a hard feeling about this.

Did you move Dbase file manually to another location perhaps ?
Does it happen with every app ? - if so reinstalling would be a option ,then the QDBC driver get also reinstalled.

Peter
#3
o.k. i meant "As far as i know no other -controller- brands have OS/2 drivers ."

Problem is how to identify the controller brand inside. 
Finding the corresponding windows driver is not always the right way.
I know because i repair/sell a lot of touchscreens and for instance Digipos has the bad habit of putting different controllers into 1 model - if you are lucky there is a label which states which-

With serial/ps2 models i use the DOS calibration utility to identify the controller ,both ELO and Microtouch have them and you don't have to install/restart the machine to find out (works in a dos box too)

For USB models easiest way is to connect and look op the chip id's -but that is not usefull (yet) for os/2 
#4
About the touchscreen : it is in fact a "all in one" PC .
Most important is that there is a ELO touchscreen controller inside which is serially connected.
There is a (old) driver available for most ELO controllers as long as they are serial ,other interfaces are not supported by this driver.
Same applies for screens with a microtouch controller inside.
As far as i know no other brands have OS/2 drivers
#5
Yes ,i have managed to get a bunch of printers working through rexx commands.
It is not that difficult ,only a few lines of code are needed for simple operation.
But hopefully  another solution will arise in the future ,it would be so much easier to print through the normal print spooler ,no more extra coding to make things fit on the paper ,and also printing of graphics is now not a easy option.

But for now i have converted a pentium I -233 Mhz machine to a label printing touchscreen computer with 2 label printers attached running ECS.

Also i am using using a Epson TM-H 5000 receipt/slip printer and 2 Epson TM-L90 printers for administation purposes.
Even my Istec ISDN phone is connected ,and dials numbers when needed
So a lot can be done with a few rexx commands ! - and of course all this would not be possible if i did not use DBexpert for the forms and database manipulation

Peter
#6
Yes ,i know this one ,tried it ,has only comm functions an the note -windows only... :-[

#7
I feel as the starter of this the need to do something more usefull than waiting for this never to come driver ,
in the meantime the genmac is supporting this chipset and i think there is no longer need for a "native driver" -it is working fine for me-

My suggestion is therefore : let's transfer the funds to something more useful !  (if my co sponsor agrees of course)

Only active large projects (netlabs ?) and not small individual ones  of course:-\

question is ,to which project ?

Peter
#8
Rob ,
Thank for the info ,that will take care of the com port issues.

But no REXX for the parallel port (far more important ) ,but i have found something interesting :
The parallel port driver print01.sys is seems to have a lot of possible  parameters.
Found here in the configtool database , such as :

/IRQ Directs the driver to use IRQs for printing rather than polling.
/SHR This parameter in conjunction with /IRQ parameter directs the PP DD to service PCI IRQs as shared.

<<=NOTE=>> If your printer (for example, old dot matrix printer) generates IRQs without setting interrupt pending (occured) bit in PCI PP status register correctly then you cannot use PCI IRQ sharing and must not use /SHR parameter.

/TOU:ddd Specifies maximum wait time in seconds before canceling the print request. This is a 3 decimal digit value (by default - 120 seconds).

/F Find PPs on PCI combo (serial/parallel) cards automatically.

/MPL modifies polling procedure - makes it less processor resource consuming by scheduling other systems tasks at certain print points, may decrease print speed.


Sometimes i am lost seaching for a solution ,but now i am back on my way again (i think) .

Thx

Peter
#9
Rob ,
It is true that is is that simple to send character/commands to a serial/parallel port.
But .....
Problem are arising when you sent a lot of lines to a port and halfway the printer goes offline because out of paper or other situations.
In such a case the waiting clock appears and for a long time nothing can be done.
Until the time out is over and the remaining data is lost.
In order to catch such situations i want to make a sort of time out/error routine.

But to start i have no control over the time out period ,it seems 70 sec now or so.
But how to change this ,it is way to long

Tried - changing os2sys.ini -restarting- there is a port setting with a time out there (45 sec) but changing does not do anything -both serial /parallel

Could this be a rexx thing ?

I have several applications running now which involve this problem ,the one with a customer of mine is the most inportant because such situations seems to mess up the 2 label printer settings which are attached. (always happens when they change paper rolls)

Any pointers ??
#10
Yeap ,i know it can be done different ,but my main goal is to have to have as less computers active as possible and an easy way to upgrade/change my main office computer .
And the remote house automation is only possible over the internet ,so i need a network connection anyway.

Besides i like the network structure ,very reliable and usable everywhere from any location.

But then i am one of a kind . (thank goodness for the rest of the world)
#11

Would a 8 or 16 port serial card work?

I am sorry ,this will not help ,since i want to get rid of my current multi serial card which is also giving troubles (IRQ conflicts ).

Moving to another computer is a pain , now PCI ,then PCI-e and what next ....
And i want to get rid of all the cables attached .
I prefer to do all printing and other by network connection ,accesable by all computers etc.

And remotely from another location.
Especially my house automation ,done by X10 devices.

And who knows i think up next .....

#12
Indeed ,keep digging remains -
the answer from quatech was simple: we do not have os/2 drivers-

A pity ,but i did not expect anything else.

At least the drivers that are available are of very good quality.
I have tried several usb to serial converters and they all had some problem.
But the quatech works really well and behaves exactly like a legacy com port.

Since i have several serial device servers (very cheap on ebay) the last resort is use 4 of them and use the tunneling mode .

Not elegant ,still need more local ports and a lot of cables .

Still hoping someone has a fresh idea which does not involve writing or porting drivers.

thanks all that took the time to anwer this post

Peter
#13
It is almost identical to the vmodem ,only the command mode should be left out since the device server does not give responces back .
Still i have tried it ,but no go - only dialing and then time out.
#14
Quote from: ivan on 2009.07.27, 15:30:39
Peter, I've just pulled down the data sheet for the QSE100D.

From reading that you only need the 'setup utility' to update the firmware and maybe set the IP address.  It also appears to have a web server that should allow you to do all the setup you need using firefox.

I have here several pieces of equipment that say they need windows drivers but they work very well with OS/2 - the windows drivers are needed by windows because it doesn't have the necessary networking built in - I control them by telnet much quicker than using the windows interface.  For the one that I couldn't get at by telnet initially, I used win xp in virtual box to get in and enable the web interface now control is via firefox.

BTW USB2 should be backwards compatible with USB1.1


I better rephrase :

acessing through firefox is not the problem ,i can configure the device there.

But i cannot access the ports from my os/2 machine ,it needs "virtual ports" - ports that behave the same as those on the computer but are in fact the remote ports on the device server.

And for the usb device server ,you need the appropiate drivers from quatech ,unfortunately they stopped development after the 1.1 device (which is not compatible)

Thanks for trying ,
#15
Quote from: ivan on 2009.07.26, 23:27:52
If you want more serial ports then, if you have some USB ports then get a serial to USB adapter and use that.  My notebook doesn't have any serial ports available - something intel seems to want to do away with - but I have several pieces of equipment that connect via serial ports so I use several cheap adapters to do the job. 

Ivan ,i have just edited my orginal post - i messed the original one up- and that also explains why usb converter are no option.
Thanks anyway

Peter