Re: battery tester
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.
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ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
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