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Does the live tab work?
Original comment by dale.l...@gmail.com
on 9 Jul 2009 at 11:13
What is the live tab?
Original comment by ronn...@aol.com
on 10 Jul 2009 at 5:35
If you connect using:
Show live data -> Connect via serial port
Does that open a new tab in the GUI, labelled 'Live', showing live data?
Original comment by dale.l...@gmail.com
on 12 Jul 2009 at 10:09
Thanks for your reply.
It automatically goes to that 'Live' page but then displays "waiting for data
from
current cost meter 1 update remaining". No data has been downloaded and the
process
just hangs.
I see drivers are needed when a USB connection is used. Do you need drivers for
ethernet connections?
Original comment by ronn...@aol.com
on 12 Jul 2009 at 11:22
Ethernet connection? How would you make an ethernet connection?
What settings have you been using when you tried to make a serial connection?
(i.e.
what COM port did you specify? How did you identify the COM port to use?)
Original comment by dale.l...@gmail.com
on 12 Jul 2009 at 12:49
My computer is running XP-sp3. Device Manager shows Ports (COM+LPT) The
communications port shows COM1.
In Current Cost I have therefore specified COM1 as the port to connect to. I
then
connected one end of the ethernet cable to the meter and the other end to the
port
at the back of my computer.
Original comment by ronn...@aol.com
on 12 Jul 2009 at 5:03
Ah - now I see where the confusion is!
CurrentCost devices do not have an ethernet connection. They provide a serial
connection only.
It is logically and electronically a RS-232 serial connection, that they
connected to
a physical ethernet port.
The first range of cables that CurrentCost made available had an ethernet-type
plug
at one end, and a serial port at the other. And the cable internally mapped the
pins
across, so that you could plug it into your computer's COM port and treat like
the
regular serial device that it really is.
Some people, like Alexis Birkhill, worked out how to do this for themselves -
his
blog (e.inst.in) shows how to wire such a cable together for yourself if you are
electrically minded.
My app was written back then, which is why it assumes that users will provide a
COM
port (if they use Windows) or a /dev/ serial device (if they use Linux).
It turned out that the majority of users plugged the CurrentCost-provided
serial plug
into a serial-to-USB converter, such as the one that I bought from Maplins.
This is a
cable with a serial socket at one end, and a USB plug at the other. It has a
chip in
it to perform the conversion, and requires the use of a software driver
installed in
either Windows or Linux to enable the computer to make a serial connection
through a
USB socket.
Fortunately, my software carried on working regardless - it didn't notice any
difference between people using the serial cable, or the converter USB cables.
(In
the config for the serial-to-USB driver, you specify the COM port that the
converter
driver software should make available to Windows as the virtual serial port. If
you
give that COM port to my software, it is "fooled" into thinking it is talking
to a
regular COM port).
This became so widespread that, at some later point, CurrentCost apparently
started
distributing combined serial and serial-to-USB cables. This means you have a
cable
which does:
RJ-45 ethernet socket -> (physical mapping of wires) -> RS-232 serial cable ->
(chip
converting to) -> USB plug
This still requires the use of a serial-to-USB driver as before - as it is the
same
approach as before... just giving a bundle of two cables in one.
This is all a long-winded way of saying that you can't just plug a regular
ethernet
cable in and hope that it will work. As I said at the start, CurrentCost
devices are
serial devices and need a serial cable and connection in order to communicate
with
them. Or you can't just pick an available COM port on your machine for the
combined
cable to be able to work - you need to choose the COM port that a converter
driver is
using to 'fake' a serial virtual connection.
I hope this has been helpful. And please accept my apologies for not spotting
the
confusion at the start - I didn't realise that you weren't aware what the
socket on
CurrentCost devices were.
(Finally - please note that I do not work for CurrentCost. I assume that the
use of
an RJ-45 socket was done for reasons of reducing production costs, but this is a
guess, and I cannot comment on the rationale or merits of using an ethernet
socket to
make a serial connection.)
Original comment by dale.l...@gmail.com
on 12 Jul 2009 at 9:28
Thank you for your very helpful reply.
I will have a go at wiring a cable myself and if I don't succeed I will buy one.
Your software looks great. It's a shame the meter, cable and your software are
not
packaged together!
Original comment by ronn...@aol.com
on 13 Jul 2009 at 6:03
Update: The link I gave for a blog post outlining how to make the cable was
wrong. I
should've wrote:
http://e.inste.in/2008/06/15/interfacing-the-currentcost-meter-to-your-pc/
Thanks for your reply - best of luck with getting it to work!
Original comment by dale.l...@gmail.com
on 13 Jul 2009 at 7:30
closing - as there doesn't appear to be a code problem here
Original comment by dale.l...@gmail.com
on 10 Aug 2009 at 10:00
This software does not work with Windows 7 RC1
And RS-232 serial cable ports are not available on new machines.
This also misleads: "RJ45 to USB(A) 'active' cables allow the download of data
from
the Current Cost display to a PC"; taken from
(http://www.currentcost.com/product-
datacable.html)into ones thinking that ethernet connections may be used
Original comment by charlesp...@gmail.com
on 30 Aug 2009 at 2:00
@charlesprattuk
Many thanks for your comment re: Windows 7 - this isn't something that I've had
the
chance to try.
It's true that most new computers don't have serial ports - I don't have any
computers with serial ports myself. Which is why most people use the USB cable
instead.
Finally, I agree that there is some confusion about the RJ45 socket on
CurrentCost
meters - it's something I've written about several times, including on this
page!
(Scroll up to my comment at
http://code.google.com/p/currentcostgui/issues/detail?id=8&can=1#c7 ). However,
it
might be more useful to talk to CurrentCost themselves rather than me if you
have
feedback about their website.
Kind regards
D
Original comment by dale.l...@gmail.com
on 30 Aug 2009 at 9:40
Original issue reported on code.google.com by
ronn...@aol.com
on 9 Jul 2009 at 5:33