Re: tripmaster/tripfax for linux?
From: ray (ray_at_zianet.com)
Date: 09/07/05
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Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2005 19:03:05 -0600
On Tue, 06 Sep 2005 11:30:11 -0500, ERACC wrote:
> On Tue, 06 Sep 2005 18:36:23 +0800, suttie wrote:
>
> [...]
>> The primary problem is twofold, the computer which does the download is
>> getting unreliable and the current procedure in place is to print out the
>> tripmaster data and then re-enter it manually into the accounts (billing)
>> system and also into the mainenance program. This was ok when there were
>> only a few trucks/loaders etc had to be taken care of, but with an ever
>> expanding fleet, this method has become too unefficient and time consuming.
>
> Regarding the DOS PC becoming unreliable what exactly is the problem?
> Is it that the hardware is failing? If so it is just DOS. You should
> be able to build, or have built by a white-box PC builder like me, a
> new PC with DOS and copy the relevant data to the new PC.
>
> If you cannot find a commercial DOS use FreeDOS which you can find
> here (http://www.freedos.org/). I know IBM still has PC-DOS available
> (Bizrate has it listed here http://tinyurl.com/bwoh6). If this is
> some sort of proprietary DOS then you are likely not going to be able
> to solve the problem with this suggestion.
DR-DOS is also available for free download.
>
>> Does anyone know if there is software along this line available that could
>> be used for the downloading the data and which runs under Linux, preferably
>> storing the data in either mysql or psql.
>
> That is unlikely to be available if the OEM (Rockwell Automation) did
> not make it. I doubt this is a system that many software hackers
> would need or to which they have access so it is not likely to have
> been done as open source software (OSS). I am not saying it has not
> been done, just that the likelihood of this is improbable.
>
>> A secondary problem is that the blackbox is in fact a blackbox, nobody has
>> any clues of what the format of the data stream is (7/8 bit, parity, stop
>> bits etc) and what the record format of this data stream is.
>
> There are ways to discover this, I think, but I have never done it
> myself. Probably some sort of "sniffer" hardware/software combo in
> between the two devices could determine everything that is taking
> place. Since I've never done this myself I am speaking theoretically.
> Perhaps someone else has more specific information to contribute.
>
Basically, you try the various combinations for parity, etc. until
something works. Not particularly time consuming if you at least know the
data rate. But, with no info, it's going to be extremely time consuming
and difficult (if not practically impossible) to discern the record format
unless you can at least log raw data to compare to a printout. If you have
raw data and a printout to compare it to, it's probably not going to be
too difficult (I've done things like that in the past) unless they are
using a really obscure method of encoding the data. Once that's done,
writing software for Linux should be quite easy.
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