# [EVDL] SIADIS on modern laptop?



## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

I actually have a brand new macbook pro running windows xp and with a
serial port to USB adapter I can access my BRUSA charger etc.
I have had the hardest time finding a computer that will connect to my
Siemens Inverter, I have a really old desktop that does but it is a
pain to use because I can't have it running in my truck while I am
driving.
Anyway I downloaded a program called DOSBox which is a DOS emulator
which is cool because you can adjust how much ram etc it has available
to it and I have succeeded in connecting it to my inverter!!! but...
it has a hard time making a clean connection or something and it gets
semi scrambled results which makes it kind of useless. I'm not sure
how to fix it. I may try some different serial port adapters and see
if I get better results.
Has anyone else figured out anyway to make SIADIS work on a new
computer? or know of an old laptop that is guaranteed to work?
I bought a few with 486 processors off of ebay and they either didn't
work, or I couldn't even get the program on them because they were in
such bad shape.
Thanks,
Tehben
'90 Toyota 4x4 Pickup
'hElix EV'
Website: www.helixev.com
evalbum: http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/1225

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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

> tehben wrote:
> > Has anyone else figured out anyway to make SIADIS work on a new
> > computer?
> 
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

If it is a DOS program you may want to try to get your hands on a copy 
of an original DOS System Software and try loading that up under 
Bootcamp and see if that works. You will still need to use your 
adaptor and thinking about it you may need a different driver. What 
you have should work. It is just that you will need to figure out 
which driver you will need. That alone is a real pain.

Is there a newer windows version of SIADIS? If so get it.


Pete 




> tehben wrote:
> 
> > I actually have a brand new macbook pro running windows xp and with a
> > serial port to USB adapter I can access my BRUSA charger etc.
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

Have you tried DOSBox? That's what I ended up using on my Windows 2003
server to access the serial port on my Toshiba phone system. NT would lock
the serial port on the regular cmd.exe window, but DOSBox does a full
machine emulation and works great for me.

www.dosbox.com


Tim

------
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:04:18 +1200
From: Tom Parker <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [EVDL] SIADIS on modern laptop?
To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List <[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain



> tehben wrote:
> > Has anyone else figured out anyway to make SIADIS work on a new
> > computer?
> 
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

Tim, I tried DOSBox and that is what almost worked, it read data but
it was having errors and reading it incorrectly...

Pete, I wish there was a new version of SIADIS but have had not luck
in the research I have done 

Thanks eveyone,
Tehben
'90 Toyota 4x4 Pickup
'hElix EV'
Website: www.helixev.com
evalbum: http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/1225





> Tim Clevenger<[email protected]> wrote:
> > Have you tried DOSBox? That's what I ended up using on my Windows 2003
> > server to access the serial port on my Toshiba phone system. NT would =
> lock
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

The one method I would try first is not listed? Wine in default w98 mode
on linux.
I have run the free software that the chip guys provide like
swithchercad and old games.

Just a suggestion.

>


> tehben wrote:
> >
> >> > Has anyone else figured out anyway to make SIADIS work on a new
> >> > computer?
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

IIRC the problem is that the software does not work well in the presence of
a FIFO'd UART (16550). The trick is to run a dos program that disables the
fifo before running the inverter software. I think victor had a tool for
this.

Mark



> Jeff Shanab <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> > The one method I would try first is not listed? Wine in default w98 mode
> > on linux.
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

Yeah, I havn't been able to figure out how to make that work... I
still need to do some more research, the instructions with the app
were very minimal and I am not very familiar with dos  I am a mac
guy 
Tehben
'90 Toyota 4x4 Pickup
'hElix EV'
Website: www.helixev.com
evalbum: http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/1225





> Mark Farver<[email protected]> wrote:
> > IIRC the problem is that the software does not work well in the presence =
> of
> > a FIFO'd UART (16550). The trick is to run a dos program that disables=
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

If you need dos, take a look at FreeDOS (http://www.freedos.org/) I've 
had really good luck getting old decrepit software working on it - even 
windows 3.1 and Windows 95 <<shudder>>

Hardware-wise, you may want to look at some of the embedded pc104 
systems. They're usually pretty rugged and have very low power 
consumption. Usually you can get something in a 486, 586, pentium and up 
(and usually all the way down to 8086/8088 - yikes). Perhaps something 
like this (http://www.allproducts.com/ee/aaeon/07pcm-4335.html) will 
give you some ideas of what to google.

> From: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [EVDL] SIADIS on modern laptop?
> To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List <[email protected]>
> Message-ID: <[email protected]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
> If it is a DOS program you may want to try to get your hands on a copy 
> of an original DOS System Software and try loading that up under 
> Bootcamp and see if that works. You will still need to use your 
> adaptor and thinking about it you may need a different driver. What 
> you have should work. It is just that you will need to figure out 
> which driver you will need. That alone is a real pain.
>
> Is there a newer windows version of SIADIS? If so get it.
>
>
> Pete 
>
>
>


> tehben wrote:
> >
> >
> >> I actually have a brand new macbook pro running windows xp and with a
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

I can't say that this is the problem, but some devices just won't work with a
USB to Serial adapter. I think that might be your problem. Try and find a
laptop with a built in serial port to test with.



> Tehben Dean wrote:
> >
> > I actually have a brand new macbook pro running windows xp and with a
> > serial port to USB adapter I can access my BRUSA charger etc.
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

Install wine on mac, open terminal and type "wine <your window app>.exe"
Not sure how good wine is on mac.
I don't have a mac or SIADIS so I can't test it out.

If it was an x86 notebook I would say a live-cd with wine on it might be
a great way.

Is SIADIS a purchase only program? I can test it on any number of linux
boxes I have.


> Yeah, I havn't been able to figure out how to make that work... I
> still need to do some more research, the instructions with the app
> were very minimal and I am not very familiar with dos  I am a mac
> guy  
> Tehben
> '90 Toyota 4x4 Pickup
> 'hElix EV'
> Website: www.helixev.com
> evalbum: http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/1225
>
>
>
>


> Mark Farver<[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >> > IIRC the problem is that the software does not work well in the presence of
> >> > a FIFO'd UART (16550). The trick is to run a dos program that disables the
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

> Jeff Shanab wrote:
> > Is SIADIS a purchase only program? I can test it on any number of linux
> > boxes I have.
> 
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

>
>


> Jeff Shanab wrote:
> >
> >> > Is SIADIS a purchase only program? I can test it on any number of linux
> >> > boxes I have.
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

I actually have xp on my mac and the problem is not getting SIADIS to
run, it runs on xp no problem. The problem is getting it to connect to
the inverter...
When I have more time I will experiment more and see if I can disable
the fe, fi, fo, fum thingie 
Tehben
'90 Toyota 4x4 Pickup
'hElix EV'
Website: www.helixev.com
evalbum: http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/1225





> Jeff Shanab<[email protected]> wrote:
> >>
> >> On Sat, 2009-07-25 at 18:04 -0700, Jeff Shanab wrote:
> >>
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

If you're trying to disable the FIFO buffer to run SIADIS, there's the "eatXMS" program that Victor wrote that was supplied with my SIADIS software. I think it blocks out the buffer memory so the data streams in real-time but I do know that when it's running SIADIS works, when I forget to load it before running SIADIS it won't respond. HTH

Suhas
89 eMR2


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

> Jeff Shanab wrote:
> 
> > I did a little googleing and it seems that if the micro at the other end
> > has a non-fifo uart, the fifo causes a problem.
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

Warning, a little OT people....

The forum I heard about it in was talking about the problem in 2.6.17.

I run 6 machines, kernels are all in the 2.6.27 to 2.6.30 range.

I do not keep up with all these distro's releases and code names, so I
don't know where juanty is at. (Type "uname -a" It'll tell you)

(P.S. I run gentoo, this machine was installed in 1999 and has been
continuously upgraded. I don't install new iso's or do major upgrades or
migrations because it is a source based distro. People scoff at the
compile time just like others scoff at charge time, But they both happen
while I sleep most the time ;-) )

Speaking of compiling, I can't tell you if they even compiled in support
for 8250 mode.
This may work on jaunty if they are not trying to be like windows and
actually packaged the files
cd /usr/src/linux
cat .config | grep 8250
you should get a list of the kernel features used with 8250 and whether
or not they were enabled in the kernel




>


> Jeff Shanab wrote:
> >
> >
> >> > I did a little googleing and it seems that if the micro at the other end
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

I was looking up on some "hacking the Kindle" and came across a blog
mentioning these.
http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/391
http://www.chip45.com/index.pl?page=littleUSB

Both of these use the silabs 2102, (
https://www.silabs.com/products/interface/usbtouart/Pages/default.aspx
hey the 2103 looks interesting )

I think the statements about easy to connect to micro are marketspeak,
the 2102 appears to have a fifo. But it gave me an idea. When you use an
adapter, It gives you new UART hardware and drivers. Maybe allowing
configuration.
The FTDI chip is popular (grabbed a usb to serial off my desk and that
is what chip is used) And the drivers are well documented.

just a thought


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General EVDL support: http://evdl.org/help/
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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

SIADIS is DOS program and does not understand USB.

FTDI drivers indeed make USB adapter look like serial
port to the OS, but the OS itself must be windows (or any USB-aware).

Victor




> Jeff Shanab wrote:
> > I was looking up on some "hacking the Kindle" and came across a blog
> > mentioning these.
> > http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/391
> ...


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