blackwave

I am a firm supporter of ZA, and have been using it since day 1... that is why I was so suprised to hear Dave Joyce say the only way he could get this ware to work was to remove it from his system...!!! Yikers!

I was hoping to hear more detailed feedback as to why it was needed to be removed, so that perhaps a workaround could be made... but there certainly their would be no way in hell that I would uninstall ZA from any of my systems

__________________
-=BW=-

QuienEs

Well, I tried to get this working and failed. I'm pretty sure it is because I am trying to run it on a laptop under Win-ME and that DeciceCommMgr [DCM] won't operate properly under ME. I tried adding the English Language verion 221 of the German W&T CommPortRedirector [CPR] to the mix without success.

All the above programs have pretty good documentation as to how to install them and select options but my limited knowledge has me guessing at the "missing documentation" i.e. "Here's what this program does and here's how it fits in"

I'm posting here what I puzzled out after dinking around for hours in hopes that
either I will get laughed at and corrected [very likely]
or that the scribbling below,
or a version of it revised by BPOE and/or KC5EVE
might be of help to others.

The Project:

I have a laptop with a single physical serial port, COM1.
I have no trouble running NS and/or MapPoint with my GPS,
ONE AT A TIME.

I'd like to install software which would
look at the 4800 baud NEMA data from my Garmin [which is attached to physical COM1]
and present it to two virtual COM ports, COM3 and COM4.
Then I would tell NetStumbler to look at COM3 and tell MapPoint to look at
COM4 and enjoy using both programs at the same time with one GPS receiver feeding COM1.

If I had Win2K, NT or XP I think this is the intended flow of data:

GPS -> physical COM1,

COM1 is read by ComFoolery and CF sends it "out" to
IP addresses 127.0.0.1:5750 [which is really the
laptop - 127... is some kind of default IP address
which means "this PC".

DCM looks at 127.0.0.1:5750 and replicates the data,
outputting it to virtual ports COM3 & COM4.

NS is optioned to input from COM3 and is happy.
MP is optioned to input from COM4 and is happy too.

Since DCM doesn't function under ME, I tried CommPortRedirector [CPR]
as a substitute for DMC. Is trying to substitute CPR for DCM a reasonable approach
or is CPR more like ComFoolery ?

If someone will take the time to straighten out the above mess and answer the
questions it would be very welcome. What I need, and maybe others do too, is
to see the data flow from the GPS to the 2 programs that use it, one step at
a time.

TIA, QE

KC5EVE

Here is the deal,
You have the correct idea of how it works. The version of DCM that is on there web site is for NT/2k/Xp only. I now have access to the other versions (from there CD) that include Dos, 3.1, 9x,Me I have NOT installed or tested YET!!!! I was also having some problems with ComFoolery under 9x that Brian and I will get resolved...(I with the testing and he with the programming). I/We hope to get it sorted out soon.

In the mean time....The concept does work and is working under 2k!

It is also on my list to build a test port on my server with data flowing OUT for you to test with! As well as some documentation with diagrams of the physical and virtual layout to help eliminate the confusion.

Mark

Grey Wolf

-Grey-

Grey Wolf

Also in comfoolery you want to check the default port settings and see that they match your equipment, look at the parity setting, I needed none.

I wish you would add a drop down list of port speeds, like all the other settings! My poor little mind can never remember those speeds.

-Grey-

blackwave

Has anyone tried CF with a USB to Serial converter? I do not have a wired serial port and wanted to know if anyone can provide feedback. Thanks

and a friendly FYI QuienEs,
It is NMEA as in The National Marine Electronics Association.

__________________
-=BW=-

Grey Wolf

I've tried it with an old entrega usb to Serial converter, seems to work ok except as notted above.

-Grey-

blackwave

Thanks Grey Wolf, I will have to try CF soon

__________________
-=BW=-

Grey Wolf

Ok Mappoint 2002 seems to see my e-map ok and an it gets an update and shows a fix, ok. However NetStumbler will not work for me, When outside I'm getting a time out error. Someone needs to give NetStumbler a longer delay to get the GPS info.

I first tested the software indoors, connected to a cisco router, the software seems to work. It's Netstumbler that's timing out.

-Grey-

blackwave

It would be great to have this an a ton of other configurable stuff in a .reg or .ini file

__________________
-=BW=-

KC5EVE

The GPS timeout can be fixed in DCM by changing the port timeout from 1 to 1000. (500 make is come and go...750 is mostly stable). Netstumbler is looking for a stream of data and Comfoolery sends in Chunks.

The timeout changes that.

Mark

blackwave

Thanks, I would like to request for bpoe to put up an FAQ, or mini-FAQ up on http://www.brianpoe.com/comfoolery/index.html ... and perhaps include it in the downloadable archive that cf comes in.

__________________
-=BW=-

Grey Wolf

Download ComFoolery from here. And run it. You'll need to point it to your Com port the gps is hook up to. Also you'll need to check the port settings for your serial port. I needed to change the parity setting to none.

Then download DeviceComm Manager from here. run the program. It will install in your control panel. run the program from their. Select two ports you are not using between 1 and 9. Click on edit for each port. Click enable for each port. Set each port host to 127.0.0.1 and each port to 5750. click on setting and change each timeout value to 1000.

Reboot your computer.

You'll need to go to | Start Menu | Programs |Comfoolery |and run Comfoolery each time you want to use it.

Start netstumbler and point your gps to one of the two ports you dreated in DeviceComm Manager.
Start MapPoint 2002 and select the other port.

That's basicly it.

With the above everything is working with my usb to serial converter, on win2k on a Sony C1XS

-Gray-

KC5EVE

That is MY job ....Just have been too busy to get it done....I hope to do it this weekend...but I should have time next week while traveling on business.

Mark

Ashlar

Anybody want to attach or otherwise mirror the DeviceComm Manager? Seems it's not on their FTP server anymore (or nowhere that I can find it).

-Ashlar