I have here an Ancel BA101 battery tester, discovered by way of a YT video, and it's proved to be a handy gadget to have. In the "user manual" for this device (available online) it talks about the ability to print the data. Which requires you to
connect it to a computer by way of a USB cable plugged into the tester's USB port. The documentation further refers to inserting a CD into the computer (it didn't come with any CD), making sure a driver was installed, then "open the print software"
and select the appropriate COM port.

I'm pretty sure that I don't need to install a driver, since I can connect all sorts of USB stuff to this computer with no problems. I'm not sure what print software they refer to here -- the illustration seems to refer to "PrintCOM v1.50421" which
appears to have print, clear, and COM port selection options but also appears to be some kind of windoze software.

How would I address accessing this device under linux and getting its info out to my printer?


--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 10/20/24 10:51, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

I have here an Ancel BA101 battery tester, discovered by way of a YT video, and it's proved to be a handy gadget to have. In the "user manual" for this device (available online) it talks about the ability to print the data. Which requires you to

connect it to a computer by way of a USB cable plugged into the tester's USB port. The documentation further refers to inserting a CD into the computer (it didn't come with any CD), making sure a driver was installed, then "open the print software"
and select the appropriate COM port.

I'm pretty sure that I don't need to install a driver, since I can connect all sorts of USB stuff to this computer with no problems. I'm not sure what print software they refer to here -- the illustration seems to refer to "PrintCOM v1.50421" which

appears to have print, clear, and COM port selection options but also appears to be some kind of windoze software.

How would I address accessing this device under linux and getting its info out to my printer?

I suggest that you contact Ansel technical support and tell them the
model and serial numbers of the tester, the make and model of your
computer, and what operating system you are running.


David

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

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<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 20/10/2024 18:51, Roy J. Tellason,
Sr. wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:202410201351.07383.roy@rtellason.com">
<pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">I have here an Ancel BA101 battery tester, discovered by way of a YT video, and it's proved to be a handy gadget to have. In the "user manual" for this device (available online) it talks about the ability to
print the data. Which requires you to connect it to a computer by way of a USB cable plugged into the tester's USB port. The documentation further refers to inserting a CD into the computer (it didn't come with any CD), making sure a driver was
installed, then "open the print software" and select the appropriate COM port.

I'm pretty sure that I don't need to install a driver, since I can connect all sorts of USB stuff to this computer with no problems. I'm not sure what print software they refer to here -- the illustration seems to refer to "PrintCOM v1.50421" which
appears to have print, clear, and COM port selection options but also appears to be some kind of windoze software.

How would I address accessing this device under linux and getting its info out to my printer?
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>COM ports are serial ports and are a very basic method of
communication. Linux supports COM ports (the ports themselves)
really well. You can use, say, minicom or screen to communicate
with a device on the COM port. However, there are a number of
challenges to overcome before you'll be able to use the tester.<br>
</p>
<p>Firstly, the parameters of the communication are rather complex
(what speed, do you need parity bits / stop bits, who controls the
flow of data). If you can find this information, you can tell the
computer how to communicate with the other device. As a start,
though, you can try "9600 8n1" (9600 bits per second, 8 bits per
byte, NO parity, 1 stop bit) as this is the most common setting.</p>
<p>Next, you need to find out what data to send/receive over the
port. If you're lucky, the device will be really simple and will
just print battery results in plain text when you communicate. But
if you're unlucky, you'll need to send it commands to tell it to
do things. This communication protocol could be plain text, there
could be a menu, it could be binary.. there are even some
protocols (APC UPSes, I'm looking at you) which just consist of
sending a single character to activate a function - if you happen
to send the wrong character, something untoward might happen (in
this case, turning off the UPS).</p>
<p>As another poster advised, only Ancel <i>really</i> know the
right way to use their device.<br>
</p>
</body>
</html>

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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Hi,

I have been following the comments on this topic. From what I can tell, the company does not provide Linux drivers or software.

A friend of mine managed to access a heart rate monitor by using DOS emulation and the original DOS software.

Maybe you could use Wine to run the Windows "Printer_boxed.exe" software (see download page URL below) ?

Not having Ancel BA101 battery tester, I am not able to test.

https://www.anceltech.com/product/detail?id=1086074596467142656

https://www.anceltech.com/Public/Uploads/filetxt/20211007/6638733e-2053-4706-b775-e85cc12931ed.pdf

Here are a few words from the later (BA201) model's manual says:

https://www.anceltech.com/Public/Uploads/filetxt/20211007/8f5feaf1-3a4d-4090-89cd-d655de60c21d.pdf

This function allows you to update the tool software.
To update the tool, you need the following items.
1. ANCEL BA201 Battery tester tool
2. A windows PC or laptop with USB ports
3. A USB cable

1) downloading the applications from ANCEL website.
www.anceltech.com
2) run btlink.exe in your computer(Mac OS and linux does not compatible)

3.5 Print
The Print Data function allows printing out testing data recorded by the testing tool for or customized test reports.
To print out retrieved data, you need the following tools:
1.The tester tool
2.A windows PC or Iaptop with USB ports
3.A USB cable
1) download the applications from ANCEL website.
www.anceltech.com
2) connect the tester tool to computer with the USB cable supplied
3) run btlink.exe in your computer, as below

Hope this helps,

George.


On Monday, 21-10-2024 at 04:51 Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

I have here an Ancel BA101 battery tester, discovered by way of a YT video, and it's proved to be a handy gadget to have. In the "user manual" for this device (available online) it talks about the ability to print the data. Which requires you to

connect it to a computer by way of a USB cable plugged into the tester's USB port. The documentation further refers to inserting a CD into the computer (it didn't come with any CD), making sure a driver was installed, then "open the print software"
and select the appropriate COM port.

I'm pretty sure that I don't need to install a driver, since I can connect all sorts of USB stuff to this computer with no problems. I'm not sure what print software they refer to here -- the illustration seems to refer to "PrintCOM v1.50421" which

appears to have print, clear, and COM port selection options but also appears to be some kind of windoze software.

How would I address accessing this device under linux and getting its info out to my printer?

--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Monday 21 October 2024 07:47:39 am Darac Marjal wrote:

On 20/10/2024 18:51, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

I have here an Ancel BA101 battery tester, discovered by way of a YT video, and it's proved to be a handy gadget to have. In the "user manual" for this device (available online) it talks about the ability to print the data. Which requires you to

connect it to a computer by way of a USB cable plugged into the tester's USB port. The documentation further refers to inserting a CD into the computer (it didn't come with any CD), making sure a driver was installed, then "open the print software"
and select the appropriate COM port.

I'm pretty sure that I don't need to install a driver, since I can connect all sorts of USB stuff to this computer with no problems. I'm not sure what print software they refer to here -- the illustration seems to refer to "PrintCOM v1.50421"

which appears to have print, clear, and COM port selection options but also appears to be some kind of windoze software.

How would I address accessing this device under linux and getting its info out to my printer?

COM ports are serial ports and are a very basic method of communication. Linux supports COM ports (the ports themselves) really well.

Having had to configure modems and such back when, I understand this...

You can use, say, minicom or screen to communicate with a device on the COM port.

For some reason neither of those seems to be installed on this machine.

However, there are a number of challenges to overcome before
you'll be able to use the tester.

Firstly, the parameters of the communication are rather complex (what
speed, do you need parity bits / stop bits, who controls the flow of
data).

Been there, done that.

If you can find this information, you can tell the computer how
to communicate with the other device. As a start, though, you can try
"9600 8n1" (9600 bits per second, 8 bits per byte, NO parity, 1 stop
bit) as this is the most common setting.

Yup. Or sometimes faster.

Next, you need to find out what data to send/receive over the port. If you're lucky, the device will be really simple and will just print
battery results in plain text when you communicate. But if you're
unlucky, you'll need to send it commands to tell it to do things. This communication protocol could be plain text, there could be a menu, it
could be binary.. there are even some protocols (APC UPSes, I'm looking
at you) which just consist of sending a single character to activate a function - if you happen to send the wrong character, something untoward might happen (in this case, turning off the UPS).

Connecting the device with a USB cable I see it wake up, at which point there's a menu on its screen. One selection there is to print, so I'm guessing that it might be that simple. What I need is to somehow redirect what's coming from the device to
where I can use it.

As another poster advised, only Ancel /really/ know the right way to use their device.

Contacting them involved setting up an account, a bit cumbersome. I haven't seen any reply yet.


--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tuesday 22 October 2024 02:39:36 am George at Clug wrote:

Hi,

I have been following the comments on this topic. From what I can tell, the company does not provide Linux drivers or software.

A friend of mine managed to access a heart rate monitor by using DOS emulation and the original DOS software.

Maybe you could use Wine to run the Windows "Printer_boxed.exe" software (see download page URL below) ?

That's way more complicated than I care to get here...

(...)

Here are a few words from the later (BA201) model's manual says:

https://www.anceltech.com/Public/Uploads/filetxt/20211007/8f5feaf1-3a4d-4090-89cd-d655de60c21d.pdf

I did look that over, and from what I can see it's a pretty similar device, the major difference being that the display is very graphic, where on the one I have it's all text.


--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wed, Oct 23, 2024 at 11:14:52AM -0400, Jeffrey Walton wrote:

[...]

Installing software from a Chinese vendor does not give me a warm and
fuzzy feeling.

Yes, like
- Cisco
- Solarwinds
- Microsoft
- Crowdstrike

oh, wait...

Cheers
--
t

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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wednesday 23 October 2024 11:14:52 am Jeffrey Walton wrote:

On Tue, Oct 22, 2024 at 6:38 AM George at Clug <Clug@goproject.info> wrote:

I have been following the comments on this topic. From what I can tell, the company does not provide Linux drivers or software.

A friend of mine managed to access a heart rate monitor by using DOS emulation and the original DOS software.

Maybe you could use Wine to run the Windows "Printer_boxed.exe" software (see download page URL below) ?

Not having Ancel BA101 battery tester, I am not able to test.

https://www.anceltech.com/product/detail?id=1086074596467142656

https://www.anceltech.com/Public/Uploads/filetxt/20211007/6638733e-2053-4706-b775-e85cc12931ed.pdf

Here are a few words from the later (BA201) model's manual says:

https://www.anceltech.com/Public/Uploads/filetxt/20211007/8f5feaf1-3a4d-4090-89cd-d655de60c21d.pdf

This function allows you to update the tool software.
To update the tool, you need the following items.
1. ANCEL BA201 Battery tester tool
2. A windows PC or laptop with USB ports
3. A USB cable

1) downloading the applications from ANCEL website.
www.anceltech.com
2) run btlink.exe in your computer(Mac OS and linux does not compatible)

3.5 Print
The Print Data function allows printing out testing data recorded by the testing tool for or customized test reports.
To print out retrieved data, you need the following tools:
1.The tester tool
2.A windows PC or Iaptop with USB ports
3.A USB cable
1) download the applications from ANCEL website.
www.anceltech.com
2) connect the tester tool to computer with the USB cable supplied
3) run btlink.exe in your computer, as below

Installing software from a Chinese vendor does not give me a warm and
fuzzy feeling.

Jeff

Just so.

Looking at log files, the computer _does_ see the device when I plug it in, telling me that it's seeing a CH340 chip. In some messing around a while back, I had two of these visible in terminal windows when I was playing with an ESP32 a while back.
I can't recall how I did that, though. Which is why I asked how one might do that in here...

I did hear from the company, who gave me the very unhelpful advice to try the software on a windows box. I informed them that there was no windows box at all here, and that they were not addressing my question, which was asking for technical details
of what the device wanted.

When I plug it in to a USB port, it does liight up. I can scroll down to the print option and select that. What it does at that point I don't know, as I don't have anything looking at that port at the moment, I just need a bit of refreshing my
memory as to how...

--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wednesday 23 October 2024 09:38:04 pm Max Nikulin wrote:

On 23/10/2024 21:25, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

Connecting the device with a USB cable I see it wake up, at which point there's a menu on its screen.

Start "journalctl -f" as root before connecting the device. Logs may
contain some hints how to communicate with it. Perhaps "udevadm monitor" with some options may provide more low level info.

I did find some info in one of the log files:

Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.140032] usb 7-1.4.4: new full-speed USB device number 13 using ehci-pci
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249009] usb 7-1.4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=1a86, idProduct=7523
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249012] usb 7-1.4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249014] usb 7-1.4.4: Product: USB Serial
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249308] ch341 7-1.4.4:1.0: ch341-uart converter detected
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.251232] usb 7-1.4.4: ch341-uart converter now attached to ttyUSB0
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 mtp-probe: checking bus 7, device 13: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb7/7-1/7-1.4/7-1.4.4"
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 mtp-probe: bus: 7, device: 13 was not an MTP device
Oct 24 15:14:29 Workstation1 org.xfce.FileManager[1332]: thunar-volman: Unsupported USB device type "usb".
Oct 24 15:14:29 Workstation1 org.xfce.FileManager[1332]: thunar-volman: Unsupported USB device type "ch341".

I don't recognize that mtp stuff, and don't know how thunar-volman gets into the picture...

--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Thursday 24 October 2024 03:26:06 pm tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:

On Thu, Oct 24, 2024 at 03:21:24PM -0400, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

On Wednesday 23 October 2024 09:38:04 pm Max Nikulin wrote:

On 23/10/2024 21:25, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

Connecting the device with a USB cable I see it wake up, at which point
there's a menu on its screen.

Start "journalctl -f" as root before connecting the device. Logs may contain some hints how to communicate with it. Perhaps "udevadm monitor" with some options may provide more low level info.

I did find some info in one of the log files:

Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.140032] usb 7-1.4.4: new full-speed USB device number 13 using ehci-pci
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249009] usb 7-1.4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=1a86, idProduct=7523
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249012] usb 7-1.4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249014] usb 7-1.4.4: Product: USB Serial
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249308] ch341 7-1.4.4:1.0: ch341-uart converter detected
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.251232] usb 7-1.4.4: ch341-uart converter now attached to ttyUSB0

^^^^^^^

There it is. Now you can try "cat /dev/ttyUSB0" and wiggle your
tester. Perhaps it just dumps measurements out the serial?

Tried that, and when I plug the device in and it lights up, I select the print option. Then it displays "print wait" on the screen and after a few seconds goes back to the menu. Nothing comes through on the terminal. Perhaps a baud rate mismatch? I'
ll have to fiddle with it some more...

(More involved tests might offer better success chances, of course :)

Cheers

--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Thu, Oct 24, 2024 at 03:21:24PM -0400, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

On Wednesday 23 October 2024 09:38:04 pm Max Nikulin wrote:

On 23/10/2024 21:25, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

Connecting the device with a USB cable I see it wake up, at which point there's a menu on its screen.

Start "journalctl -f" as root before connecting the device. Logs may contain some hints how to communicate with it. Perhaps "udevadm monitor" with some options may provide more low level info.

I did find some info in one of the log files:

Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.140032] usb 7-1.4.4: new full-speed USB device number 13 using ehci-pci
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249009] usb 7-1.4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=1a86, idProduct=7523
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249012] usb 7-1.4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249014] usb 7-1.4.4: Product: USB Serial
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249308] ch341 7-1.4.4:1.0: ch341-uart converter detected
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.251232] usb 7-1.4.4: ch341-uart converter now attached to ttyUSB0

^^^^^^^

There it is. Now you can try "cat /dev/ttyUSB0" and wiggle your
tester. Perhaps it just dumps measurements out the serial?

(More involved tests might offer better success chances, of course :)

Cheers
--
t

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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

On Wednesday 23 October 2024 09:38:04 pm Max Nikulin wrote:

On 23/10/2024 21:25, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

Connecting the device with a USB cable I see it wake up, at which point there's a menu on its screen.

Start "journalctl -f" as root before connecting the device. Logs may contain some hints how to communicate with it. Perhaps "udevadm monitor" with some options may provide more low level info.

I did find some info in one of the log files:

Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.140032] usb 7-1.4.4: new full-speed USB device number 13 using ehci-pci
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249009] usb 7-1.4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=1a86, idProduct=7523
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249012] usb 7-1.4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249014] usb 7-1.4.4: Product: USB Serial
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249308] ch341 7-1.4.4:1.0: ch341-uart converter detected
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.251232] usb 7-1.4.4: ch341-uart converter now attached to ttyUSB0
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 mtp-probe: checking bus 7, device 13: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb7/7-1/7-1.4/7-1.4.4"
Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 mtp-probe: bus: 7, device: 13 was not an MTP device
Oct 24 15:14:29 Workstation1 org.xfce.FileManager[1332]: thunar-volman: Unsupported USB device type "usb".
Oct 24 15:14:29 Workstation1 org.xfce.FileManager[1332]: thunar-volman: Unsupported USB device type "ch341".

I don't recognize that mtp stuff, and don't know how thunar-volman gets into the picture...

mtp is media transfer protocol, an alternative to USB Mass
Storage. Hence thunar volume manager.

Overall it looks like the mtp-probe is deluded and trying to
mount the unmountable.

-dsr-

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Thu, 24 Oct 2024 14:10:53 -0400
"Roy J. Tellason, Sr." <roy@rtellason.com> wrote:

On Wednesday 23 October 2024 11:14:52 am Jeffrey Walton wrote:

On Tue, Oct 22, 2024 at 6:38 AM George at Clug
<Clug@goproject.info> wrote:

I have been following the comments on this topic. From what I
can tell, the company does not provide Linux drivers or software.

A friend of mine managed to access a heart rate monitor by using
DOS emulation and the original DOS software.

Maybe you could use Wine to run the Windows "Printer_boxed.exe"
software (see download page URL below) ?

Not having Ancel BA101 battery tester, I am not able to test.

https://www.anceltech.com/product/detail?id=1086074596467142656

https://www.anceltech.com/Public/Uploads/filetxt/20211007/6638733e-2053-4706-b775-e85cc12931ed.pdf

Here are a few words from the later (BA201) model's manual says:

https://www.anceltech.com/Public/Uploads/filetxt/20211007/8f5feaf1-3a4d-4090-89cd-d655de60c21d.pdf

This function allows you to update the tool software.
To update the tool, you need the following items.
1. ANCEL BA201 Battery tester tool
2. A windows PC or laptop with USB ports
3. A USB cable

1) downloading the applications from ANCEL website.
www.anceltech.com
2) run btlink.exe in your computer(Mac OS and linux does not
compatible)

3.5 Print
The Print Data function allows printing out testing data recorded
by the testing tool for or customized test reports. To print out retrieved data, you need the following tools: 1.The tester tool
2.A windows PC or Iaptop with USB ports
3.A USB cable
1) download the applications from ANCEL website.
www.anceltech.com
2) connect the tester tool to computer with the USB cable supplied
3) run btlink.exe in your computer, as below

Installing software from a Chinese vendor does not give me a warm
and fuzzy feeling.

Jeff

Just so.

Looking at log files, the computer _does_ see the device when I plug
it in, telling me that it's seeing a CH340 chip. In some messing
around a while back, I had two of these visible in terminal windows
when I was playing with an ESP32 a while back. I can't recall how I
did that, though. Which is why I asked how one might do that in
here...

I did hear from the company, who gave me the very unhelpful advice
to try the software on a windows box. I informed them that there was
no windows box at all here, and that they were not addressing my
question, which was asking for technical details of what the device
wanted.

When I plug it in to a USB port, it does liight up. I can scroll
down to the print option and select that. What it does at that point
I don't know, as I don't have anything looking at that port at the
moment, I just need a bit of refreshing my memory as to how...

The CH340 is a well-known device, and the usbserial module along with
something like cp210x should deal with multiple devices, assigning them
ttyUSBx device numbers. This should just happen when the adaptor is
plugged in. The stty command should allow setup of the device for baud
rate and parameters. Ancel should surely be able to tell you those
details. All you need then is a list of the commands the Ancel device supports...

I haven't dabbled with serial for a while, although I do have a CH340
plugged in permanently to my server, relaying outdoor temperature and
humidity though a pair of XBees, but that was all fit-and-forget some
years ago. My desktop does have CuteCom installed, so I think I used
that for getting it all working. It needs the serial parameters to talk
to devices, but it's fairly quick to try various values, probably
quicker than stty.

--
Joe

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Thu, 24 Oct 2024 15:21:24 -0400
"Roy J. Tellason, Sr." <roy@rtellason.com> wrote:

On Wednesday 23 October 2024 09:38:04 pm Max Nikulin wrote:

On 23/10/2024 21:25, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

Connecting the device with a USB cable I see it wake up, at
which point there's a menu on its screen.

Start "journalctl -f" as root before connecting the device. Logs
may contain some hints how to communicate with it. Perhaps "udevadm monitor" with some options may provide more low level info.

I did find some info in one of the log files:

Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.140032] usb 7-1.4.4:
new full-speed USB device number 13 using ehci-pci Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249009] usb 7-1.4.4: New USB device
found, idVendor=1a86, idProduct=7523 Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1
kernel: [1915052.249012] usb 7-1.4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249014] usb 7-1.4.4: Product: USB Serial Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel: [1915052.249308] ch341 7-1.4.4:1.0: ch341-uart
converter detected Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 kernel:
[1915052.251232] usb 7-1.4.4: ch341-uart converter now attached to
ttyUSB0 Oct 24 15:14:28 Workstation1 mtp-probe: checking bus 7,
device 13:
"/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb7/7-1/7-1.4/7-1.4.4" Oct 24
15:14:28 Workstation1 mtp-probe: bus: 7, device: 13 was not an MTP
device Oct 24 15:14:29 Workstation1 org.xfce.FileManager[1332]: thunar-volman: Unsupported USB device type "usb". Oct 24 15:14:29 Workstation1 org.xfce.FileManager[1332]: thunar-volman: Unsupported
USB device type "ch341".

I don't recognize that mtp stuff, and don't know how thunar-volman
gets into the picture...

It's just seeing what software you have installed that is likely to want
to talk to the device, and it didn't find any. It's mostly looking for
USB drives. But you can see it has assigned ttyUSB0 to the device. See
my other post, but once you have the right serial parameters set by
stty, you can just cat /dev/ttyUSB0 to see if your gadget is sending
anything by itself. Or any such text will appear in the CuteCom window,
if you run that. Other serial monitors are available...

--
Joe

--
Joe

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Thu, Oct 24, 2024 at 09:44:55PM +0100, Joe wrote:

On Thu, 24 Oct 2024 14:10:53 -0400
"Roy J. Tellason, Sr." <roy@rtellason.com> wrote:

On Wednesday 23 October 2024 11:14:52 am Jeffrey Walton wrote:

[...]

The CH340 is a well-known device, and the usbserial module along with something like cp210x should deal with multiple devices, assigning them ttyUSBx device numbers.

According to the logs posted elsewhere in this thread, that part is already happening.

I doubt all that baud rate, stop bits and parity dance we know and love
from the RS232s of yore are necessary with TTYUSBs. We are talking to
an abstraction layer in the kernel anyway.

My hunch is at one protocol layer higher: the device is waiting for a
magic word to get things started. Kind of the AT protocol of those modems (again, of yore -- rumour has it, tough, that baseband processors...),
which sit there, silent, waiting for an "AT" to which they then respond
"OK".

Cheers
--
t

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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tue, Oct 29, 2024 at 11:13:28AM -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote:

The CH340 is a well-known device, and the usbserial module along with
something like cp210x should deal with multiple devices, assigning them
ttyUSBx device numbers.

[...]

I doubt all that baud rate, stop bits and parity dance we know and love from the RS232s of yore are necessary with TTYUSBs. We are talking to
an abstraction layer in the kernel anyway.

The CH340 is a real USB<->serial converter, so somewhere inside the
device is a real serial connection which speaks at a specific speed and
the CH340 probably has to match that speed if we want to get valuable
output, I suspect. IOW, I think it's not "just an abstraction layer".

Hmmm. An interesting point. Yet another rabbit hole =:-o

Cheers
--
t

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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

The CH340 is a well-known device, and the usbserial module along with
something like cp210x should deal with multiple devices, assigning them
ttyUSBx device numbers.

[...]

I doubt all that baud rate, stop bits and parity dance we know and love
from the RS232s of yore are necessary with TTYUSBs. We are talking to
an abstraction layer in the kernel anyway.

The CH340 is a real USB<->serial converter, so somewhere inside the
device is a real serial connection which speaks at a specific speed and
the CH340 probably has to match that speed if we want to get valuable
output, I suspect. IOW, I think it's not "just an abstraction layer".


Stefan

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tue, Oct 29, 2024 at 04:28:14PM +0100, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:

On Tue, Oct 29, 2024 at 11:13:28AM -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote:

[...]

The CH340 is a real USB<->serial converter, so somewhere inside the
device is a real serial connection which speaks at a specific speed and
the CH340 probably has to match that speed if we want to get valuable output, I suspect. IOW, I think it's not "just an abstraction layer".

Hmmm. An interesting point. Yet another rabbit hole =:-o

Yep, after thinking a bit and poking the interwebs for good measure, I'm convinced now that you are right. The stty sets the UART "at the other
end" of the USB. So it better be right.

Of course one might hope it starts up with a sensible value, but hey.

Cheers
--
t

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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Yep, after thinking a bit and poking the interwebs for good measure, I'm convinced now that you are right.

Miscreant!


Stefan

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tue, 29 Oct 2024 17:36:18 +0100
tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:

On Tue, Oct 29, 2024 at 04:28:14PM +0100, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:

On Tue, Oct 29, 2024 at 11:13:28AM -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote:

[...]

The CH340 is a real USB<->serial converter, so somewhere inside
the device is a real serial connection which speaks at a specific
speed and the CH340 probably has to match that speed if we want
to get valuable output, I suspect. IOW, I think it's not "just
an abstraction layer".

Hmmm. An interesting point. Yet another rabbit hole =:-o

Yep, after thinking a bit and poking the interwebs for good measure,
I'm convinced now that you are right. The stty sets the UART "at the
other end" of the USB. So it better be right.

Of course one might hope it starts up with a sensible value, but hey.

Cheers

If the serial parameters are wrong, garbage characters will appear,
there won't be nothing at all. You play with the numbers until it isn't
garbage any more. This does require that the unknown source provides
continuous or at least frequent transmissions without getting proper
returns or handshaking.

There are systems which will automatically recognise baud rate by
assuming the shortest mark or space represents the rate, but this needs
fairly good signal strength and reasonable jitter to work. It generally
can't be done well through the UART, it needs a separate comparator to
bypass the UART's processing.

These days serial is usually one wire in each direction and a ground,
in earlier days it might be necessary to deal with hardware handshaking
lines, which had standard functions in the telephone business but were
often used elsewhere for proprietary signalling.

I once needed to deal with a serial remote control system which used
the parity bit as a flow control system, something which utterly chokes
a standard UART. I needed to convert this to standard usage to send it
through a conventional serial link and back again at the other end.

--
Joe

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Tue, 29 Oct 2024 19:06:08 +0000
Joe <joe@jretrading.com> wrote:

There are systems which will automatically recognise baud rate by
assuming the shortest mark or space represents the rate, but this
needs fairly good signal strength and reasonable jitter to work. It
generally can't be done well through the UART, it needs a separate
comparator to bypass the UART's processing.

Or you could look at gpsd's code to see how it auto-baud-rates its
serial ports.

--
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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