EXTERNAL CONTROL - USB

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EXTERNAL CONTROL - USB

Unread postby gianfranco » Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:48 pm

I have been using XNote for almost 1 year, with external control & Excel and it has always worked fine with tabletop PC's with serial RS232. Now I wish to use it with laptops (less clutter on the lab workbench) but almost all modern laptops do not have the serial connector. I have been using old Thinkpads (IBM 600E or IBM T20 / T30) which have the serial input. With newer laptops I have tried the USB to COM adapter (Prolific Technolgy) to try and have external control work on USB imputs, but it does not work.....

Why you do not implement USB inputs? It would be a smash!

With USB you could implement CHRONO outputs as well and then this software would be miles ahead of the competition.

Gianfranco
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Re: EXTERNAL CONTROL - USB

Unread postby Stopwatch » Tue Sep 18, 2012 7:26 pm

gianfranco wrote:With newer laptops I have tried the USB to COM adapter (Prolific Technolgy) to try and have external control work on USB imputs, but it does not work.....

Sorry, but "does not work" is so comprehensive! What exactly happens?

gianfranco wrote:Why you do not implement USB inputs? It would be a smash!

USB doesn't allow direct wire's manipulations.

gianfranco wrote:With USB you could implement CHRONO outputs

What is it?

gianfranco wrote:as well and then this software would be miles ahead of the competition.

Isn't it already? :)
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Re: EXTERNAL CONTROL - USB

Unread postby gianfranco » Thu Sep 20, 2012 6:46 pm

Here are my replies:

1) DOES NOT WORK means that making the contact closures after the USB to COM adapter there is no response and therefore START/STOP and SNAP commands are no longer available.

2) I agree that USB does not allow direct wire manipualation. After software modification a small USB interface with USB to wire conversion could be easily implemented and/or marketed.

3) Once the USB interface software is ready, then the interface described above could also be connected to provide external closures programmable at selectable times (Clock) elapsed times (Chrono): look at www.pc-control.co.uk.
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Re: EXTERNAL CONTROL - USB

Unread postby Stopwatch » Sat Sep 22, 2012 1:20 pm

gianfranco wrote:1) DOES NOT WORK means that making the contact closures after the USB to COM adapter there is no response and therefore START/STOP and SNAP commands are no longer available.

Try orher adapter. Also make sure you are closing right pins.

gianfranco wrote:2) I agree that USB does not allow direct wire manipualation. After software modification a small USB interface with USB to wire conversion could be easily implemented and/or marketed.

Aren't a COM adapter such an interface? :)

gianfranco wrote:3) Once the USB interface software is ready, then the interface described above could also be connected to provide external closures programmable at selectable times (Clock) elapsed times (Chrono): look at http://www.pc-control.co.uk.

It's already so. See countdown options.
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Re: EXTERNAL CONTROL - USB

Unread postby ICEAV » Sun Jan 06, 2013 10:11 pm

I have written a short article about using the XNotes Stop Watch external triggers with the adaptor USB>RS232 cable. We needed to ensure that the external sensors would work well as this feature is an important element to use with our new series of Plas480 LED Timers. Like some of you we found that at first the adapter cable we purchased to test the timing switch with our LED timing screens, it would not work, despite everything seemed to have installed correctly. This caused a certain degree of frustration and thus began a number of hours of research as we had not previously needed to consider using USB>RS232 cables since our computers have always had a RS232 port.

Image

I spent some time researching the situation re USB>RS232 adapter cables and found their is quite a lot of diversity from low grade solutions to robust high end solutions including cables built with counterfeit chips out of China. Added to this variances in drivers and OS systems, I can understand that many folk can hit a brick wall.

The article here http://iceledscreens.wordpress.com/gene ... r-screens/ includes the Prolific User Sheet plus driver download, chip test and cable tester. Once we installed these drivers we found our problems were solved immediately and pleasantly delighted to say that our LED screens are work well using the XNotes Timer software.

Image
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Re: EXTERNAL CONTROL - USB

Unread postby Russell » Mon Oct 07, 2013 6:10 pm

I bought a USB - RS232 adapter cable on eBay cheap. It works.
Windows even found the driver for it.
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Re: EXTERNAL CONTROL - USB

Unread postby mava716 » Tue Oct 08, 2013 7:41 pm

Hello guys, I found an opportunity to use a usb external control. There is no need to use RS232 adapter. If you are interested PM.
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Re: EXTERNAL CONTROL - USB

Unread postby Stopwatch » Wed Oct 09, 2013 4:43 pm

How?
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Re: EXTERNAL CONTROL - USB

Unread postby mava716 » Tue Oct 29, 2013 7:45 pm

you just need to take a usb keyboard to pieces and sold wieres to right pins.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-H6Wh ... 213240.jpg

It worked with the mouse, but the keyboard is better.

Martti
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Re: EXTERNAL CONTROL - USB

Unread postby mava716 » Tue Nov 05, 2013 7:44 am

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