[Coco] DW4 beta 1.4

Sat Mar 13 11:52:30 EST 2010

On Saturday 13 March 2010, Aaron Wolfe wrote:
>On Sat, Mar 13, 2010 at 11:09 AM, Gene Heskett <gene.heskett at verizon.net> 
wrote:
>> On Saturday 13 March 2010, Jason Law wrote:
>>>I've had a bit of a look at it, so it's all Nitros9 yeah?
>>>
>>>Unfortunately I'm not an OS-9/Nitros9 user, but I'm sure there's plenty
>>> who are :)
>>>
>>>I double-clicked the DriveWire.jar file as mention in the readme, but
>>>nothing happened.
>>>
>>>So I checked which progam is asscoiated with .jar and it's Java(TM)
>>> Platform (SE) Binary.
>>>
>>>It might sound like a numbnuts question, but for us less Java oriented
>>> folk, is there something we need to donwload to run it?
>>>
>>>Also, will you still be updating DriveWire3 for DECB users?
>>>
>>>If DriveWire 3 could include ftp access, that'd be great!!! :D
>>>
>>>I sent Boisy an email regarding this, understanably he's busy.
>>>
>>>Sure sounds like a great product :)
>>>
>>>
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com
>>>[mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com]On Behalf Of Aaron Wolfe
>>>Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2010 11:24 PM
>>>To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>>>Subject: [Coco] DW4 beta 1.4
>>>
>>>
>>>I've uploaded a new version of the DriveWire 4 beta at
>>>http://sites.google.com/site/drivewire4/beta
>>>
>>>This version vastly improves disk image handling and introduces the
>>> Remote File Manager for OS-9, which I think is a really neat feature
>>> (but one that still needs a *lot* of work :)
>>>
>>>Details and documentation for the new stuff can be found on our wiki:
>>>
>>>http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/drivewireserver/index.php?title=Usi
>>>ng _ DriveWire
>>
>> One minor niggle, Aaron.  Those of us who used the prolific adapter,
>> pl2303, found that for UPS monitoring, and for low traffic stuff like
>> using it to talk to a cm11a (an x10 controller) from heyu, found that our
>> logs were being spammed by loss of connection messages and/or false
>> system shutdowns.  It seems to throw away the first byte of an infrequent
>> data packet, causing loss of data sync and it can take many packets in
>> the case of a slowly streaming UPS, to get back in sync.  The fdti
>> devices cure that.  It is so common that when someone on either mailing
>> list reports a comm problem, our first question is "are you using a
>> prolific adapter?"  90+% are.
>>
>> I wasn't aware of a latency problem though, and for me, it hasn't been a
>> noticeable problem as 9600 baud has been as high as I've ran them.
>>  However, they are speed sensitive, and I had to incorporate a 'tuneport
>> /p -s=30" into my startup scripts on the coco3/6309/nitros9-3.2.9 system
>> in order to get it within 3 or 4% of correct before the fdti would pass
>> the data reliably.  The default is 13, and nearly 17kilobaud when xmode
>> /p bau=6 in in effect.
>
>The speed problems with FTDI controllers and the fix are well
>documented by FTDI themselves:
>http://www.ftdichip.com/Documents/AppNotes/AN232B-04_DataLatencyFlow.pdf
>
>The fix suggested within seems to resolve the issue completely for me.
>
>My experience with Prolific adapters is limited to the one I own.  It
>is a pl2303 and actually works very well with DriveWire 3 and 4...
>except that it will cause my Windows 7 system to blue screen after
>several hours of operation.  Seems to be a driver issue because the
>adapter works without any issue on linux and OS X systems.  In fact
>it's been running the coco web server 24/7 for over a week now (linux
>server).
>
>I have heard the horror stories about Prolific adapters.  Maybe DW
>keeps it busy enough to stay in sync.  Or maybe I just have the only
>one that works :)

Or possibly later production may have triaged that bug?  I have two of them, 
one quite old and one 3 or 4 years newer, and neither unit could translate 
from my Garmin-12 GPS to linux's roadnav program, which I like to fire up on 
my lappy, leaving it in the suicide seat and the Garmin on the dash when I'm 
off on a long trip someplace.  Again, the fdti device works flawlessly for 
that also.  The Garmin isn't a particularly high traffic device either, 
streaming only its lat-long-elevation & speed data at about a 2 second repeat 
loop.

Roadnav averages readings to smooth the noise, but they were so scrambled at 
times that when I looked over to see where I was, in the farm country of 
northwestern Iowa not too far north of Harlan, it had then been redrawing the 
tigerline maps crazily and had me someplace in the northwest territories!  By 
the time that trip was over I'd found an fdti adapter, and it was bulletproof 
the rest of the 1700 miles back home.  Now I have about 8 of them.  They Just 
Work(TM) ;-)

>>>As always, feedback and bug reports are most welcome.
>>>-Aaron
>>>
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>>>
>>>
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>>
>> --
>> Cheers, Gene
>> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
>>  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
>> -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
>>
>> Do one thing and do it well.
>>
>>        - Andrew Grover, ACPI maintainer on Linux-power.
>>
>> --
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>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
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>http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)

The course of true anything never does run smooth.
		-- Samuel Butler