How to report dive computer download problems?

3rd party extensions (phpDivingLog, dive computer downloader,...)
rene
Posts: 65
Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 19:07
Location: France

Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by rene »

BTW, if you have the professional (or ultimate) edition of W7, you can install a Windows XP with Virtual PC.


TnT wrote:rene: Using com0com (or a similar solution) only allows to capture the data. But to get the communication right you also need the other serial settings (baudrate, DTR/RTS lines, etc) and the timings right. These are not always available in all tools.
I'm sure you see the signals, the baud rate, the data and their timings with a RFC 2217 client/server (hub4com). But it's really difficult to set up, and, moreover, it's impossible to capture the loopback without a commercial software (CommView for example): so you have to put the client and the server on different machines.
TnT
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Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by TnT »

I didn't knew com0com supported RFC2217. Most similar applications support only the data stream, and that's not sufficient. But as you say this kind of setup very complicated compared to using a simple sniffer like PortMon. Not something that most non-technical users can get to work.

Instead of Virtual PC you can also use Virtualbox. It's open source and works on all Windows version.
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Swulf
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2012 04:55

Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by Swulf »

I have borrowed a Windows XP machine with both physical serial ports and USB, so I should be able to get SDM 1.6 and PortMon running on it this weekend. I'll post as soon as I have something to report...
Swulf
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Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by Swulf »

BTW, I found the 'Windows XP with Virtual PC' solution but couldn't get it to start on my Windows 7 machine (by which I mean I could create a virtual Windows XP machine which would attempt to start and fail to boot every time).

Later on I will probably use VirtualBox (which I have had some success with in the past) and install XP on that. But as I now have a non-virtual XP box to try I will stick with that for the time being.
Swulf
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Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by Swulf »

As yet, I have not got downloading to work even on the old Windows XP box. :( As you probably know there is a 'Test' function in SDM 1.6 which checks whether or not the PC interface to the dive computer is connected to the PC, and if so to which COM port. The first time I tried it, success, it reported it was connected to the correct port. But it seems to be very unreliable; sometimes it will recognise it, sometimes not. It doesn't see the dive computer at all; you get the same 'timeout' errors.

In some desperation I opened up the Suunto PC interface (I work in electronics and controls, I am not scared) as I suspcted the dodgy 'rubber' contacts that they used. In the end I made up a set of copper contacts to ensure good connection to the dive computer. Strangely enough, even with rock-solid contacts the PC program would continue to fail the 'is the interface connected?' test.

So - at this point, if it is not some internal cable problem in the interface, it could be the CMOS line driver chip. I have ordered a couple of replacements and it is socketed so it will be easy to replace. Maybe then I can get a reliable connection.

For no good reason, I attach a couple of pix of the morning's shenanigans.
Inside the Suunto PC Interface.jpg
Inside the Suunto PC Interface.jpg (73.67 KiB) Viewed 36403 times
COM port success.jpg
COM port success.jpg (52.8 KiB) Viewed 36403 times
Tranquility
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 19:21

Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by Tranquility »

Hi,

I tried to use your instructions for a Suunto D4i using the universal.exe (guess this is the right one for the D4i as it works in Diving Log)

When calling universal.exe COM6 (the only listed COM port after plugging the USB cable in) I just get

DATETIME 2012-09-24T19:18:40Z (1348514320)
REVISION 0.3.0-devel (909679a48c20c7ef1c4d79774b3d9507d6ff5390)
../../source/examples/universal.c:806: No matching device found.

What did I wrong? :cry:

Thank you
Sebastian
TnT
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Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by TnT »

For the D4i you can use the d9 test application. You can use the universal test application too, but then you need to supply the correct options to select the correct device type:

universal.exe -b d9 <serialport>
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RogerSelwyn
Posts: 38
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Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by RogerSelwyn »

Hi Jef,

Is there any chance of getting Gas changes added to the Universal downloader, i.e. what has was used at what point of the dive. I posted here about it - viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1862 - and Sven says neither SuuntoXML or Universal do it. I can see the output from Suunto and believe that to be true, not sure I have an output from Universal that I can interpret eaily (maybe I need to convert it to another format I can understand).

I'm after this for Vyper Air and Vytec DS. I guess others would be interested as well. I can provide dump files for both, if that helps.

Cheers
Roger
RogerSelwyn
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Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by RogerSelwyn »

Ok, figured out how to get the XML output out. I can see it showing a gas change, so I'll ask Sven whether this information in their is sufficient.
TnT
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Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by TnT »

As you already noticed, gas changes are supported as "events" in the libdivecomputer api. I don't remember whether the Universal downloader ignores those events or not. However support for the events will be reworked significantly in the near future. Some events are likely to be removed, but gas changes will definitely remain supported.
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RogerSelwyn
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Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by RogerSelwyn »

Have you got a view on what events will be removed. Keen to keep the warning types, e.g. ascent warning, deco, gas change, etc

Personally I'm not worried about Bookmark or Heading events...

Thanks
Roger
TnT
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Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by TnT »

The idea is that nearly all events will be dropped, because there is simply too much variation to support them in a device independent way. Instead the application will get the events (and other device specific data) as the raw binary data. We'll try to document the format as good as possible, so applications can still get at the data if they wish too. But it will require some device specific knowledge and code. It might be possible we'll provide some device specific helper functions to simplify this task, but the main focus is the device independent interface.

Critical events like gas changes will remain supported through the standard device independent libdivecomputer interface.
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NeilP
Posts: 1
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Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by NeilP »

Guys,

I cant download from my Hollis DG03 computer, every time I try i get an error message stating that there is a "DC_STATUS_Protocol" error, any ideas ? FYI I have recently bought the Hollis and its the first time I have tried to connect to DL5

Cheers,

NeilP
TnT
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Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by TnT »

Follow the instructions in the first post of this topic. I need that logfile to be able to see what is going wrong. For the Hollis DG03, you need the atom2 test application.

Alternatively, you can generate the logfile directly from the Diving Log. Simply enable the "Log errors" checkbox, and then when the download fails, click the "Show error logfile" link to open the error log. Send this logfile by email, or if it's short you can post it directly on the forum.
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ElenRey
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Re: How to report dive computer download problems?

Post by ElenRey »

rene wrote:Hello,

I can send you tonight an old version of SDM if you want to try with it.

You can certainly capture serial ports with com0com (http://com0com.sourceforge.net/) with hub4com. I think also you can capture the serial port with a linux machine running xp with virtualbox and wireshark. It's not easy...

rené
Hi!
Would it be worth trying software such as RS232 Port Logger (http://www.eltima.com/products/rs232-data-logger/)? As I know com0com can create virtual serial ports but not capture and analyze the data.
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