Modsoft COMM Problem

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Thread Starter

Mark Harris

I am having problems getting a Toshiba TECRA 8000 Laptop to communicate to a 984 PLC using Modsoft (DOS). I have not had this problem before with other laptops. Does anybody know what is different about the TECRA COM port?

Mark Harris
 
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Common problems with Modsoft (DOS) I've seen (just ideas):

1) Modsoft requires DSR to be asserted - or it acts brain dead. It does NOT (last I saw) even bother to tell you why it is acting brain dead.

2) The 984 style grounds pin #1 of the DB9 to frame ground. Most PC assume this is CD - it is possible a small ground difference is causing CD to be sensed wrong or causing it to change all the time. Perhaps you can cut the pin #1 out of the cable or make sure pins 4 & 6 & 1 are shorted together at the PC end.

It is possible the Toshiba notebook is more sensitive to floating inputs (pins 1/6/8/9) than your other laptops.

Best Regards

Lynn August Linse, Senior Product Application Engineer
15353 Barranca Parkway, Lantronix Inc, Irvine CA 92618
[email protected] www.lantronix.com
Tel: (949)450-7272 Fax: (949)453-7132
 
Toshiba Laptop Problem

The following may be of use to you:

At present there is a Class Action lawsuit against Toshiba involving any "US citizens or residents who own or lease a Toshiba Laptop... or
Notebook... manufactured after Jan 1, 1985....". The suit involves "any model... having an internal floppy disk drive or floppy disk
controller."

For specifics contact US District Court for the Eastern District Of Texas, Beaumont, TX. Case No. 1:99CV0120.

Regards,

Phil Corso, PE
Trip-A-Larm Corp
 
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R A Peterson

I have similar problems trying to get my windows CE handheld computer to talk with various computers. its almost random whether it will communicate. it does SEEM to work better on older computers though. tech support people are
not real helpful on these issues.

i had a similar problem trying to get taylor software to talk to a compact 984 on an old zeos laptop. I never was able to get it to work.
 
The lawsuit has been settled and each Toshiba owner will get a refund between approximately $100-400, however the floppy issue was related to the floppy controller dropping the last byte in a sector and not to communication problems.
 
M
Although I haven't seen it for a while (five or six years even) this used to be a major problem on brand name PCs.

Toshiba in particular (but also Compaq and IBM to a lesser extent), and was then due to the way the RS-232 interface was implemented.

We always had to carry a number of different cable configurations, depending on which notebook and which PLC, drive or whatever we were trying to talk to.

I thought that these problems had been solved on newer PCs, perhaps they have been replaced by new ones.

Try patching the connection with a breakout box if you have one. I'll try to find the specifics of the earlier problem.

Regards
Mark
 
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Roberto Baldassar

I had the same problem with a Toshiba Satellite 4090 purchased on February 2000. The reason is that the comm ports doesn't work under DOS if you had installed Windows 98 due to the "fantastic" new energy saving system implemented by Toshiba recently on their laptops.
I'm very upset to know from Toshiba help line, that there is nothing to do than install Windows 95 instead of Windows 98 !!
It's the fifth Toshiba computer that I bought and will be the last.

Roberto


> I am having problems getting a Toshiba TECRA 8000 Laptop to communicate to a 984 PLC using Modsoft (DOS). I have not had this problem before with other laptops. Does anybody know what is different about the TECRA COM port?

>

> Mark Harris

>
 
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you should not have this problem if you have the latest version of Modsoft V2.61. I have a 4090 and have no problem getting hooked up to Modicon PLC's
 
I bought a new Toshiba laptop in September 1999. I've heard about the lawsuit and possible refund, however I have no clue what I need to do to find out if I qualify. Do you have a contact address or place I can call to find out if my computer qualifies for the refund? Thanks for your help! Sarah [email protected]
 
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In fact, TECRA COM Port is no difference from the others. What you need to is to change the TECRA COM port factory IRQ 10 to IRQ 04 (normal).
For Windows 95 or 98 OS,
1) Right click "my computer" icon from you laptop screen.
2) Open "Properties", choose "Device Manager", under "Ports" and double click it.
3) Under "resources", uncheck "Use automatic setting", change Interrupt Request to 04.
4) After nomalization, reboot you TECRA.

Regards.

Deng Fenlin

 
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