Atomic Cobalt

[Kurt]

On Dec 26, 2011, at 2:20 PM, Jef Driesen wrote:

>> Additionally, this version kindly defaults to "COM3" for the Device.
> 
> The serial port (e.g. COM3) isn't used for the cobalt because it downloads over USB directly. You can set this parameter to whatever you want, because it's simply ignored.

I figured as much. I have the complete C# source for the Atomic log software as well as access to the folks in Washington that developed the Cobalt. I was just reporting the default change because it changed. I have not had time (nor will I) to read and assimilate the inner workings of your library. Though I have the basic gist from the sparse design docs, working through the execution path takes a bit of time. Suffice to say that I was hoping that you weren't actually using the Device name.  Looking from the outside I have no way of knowing what you are doing with it or what hidden dependencies you might have, so I was simply reporting for completeness sake, and because that is what the instructions say to do. For all I know, you may have centered on a Serial-like interface in your state machine that transforms to whatever protocol is necessary on the way down and pack. Message/reply protocols can be written anyway the author likes and I've seen weirder things on source forge.

A little documentation would go along way.

> Have you also switched from the "libusb0" driver to the "WinUSB" driver using the "zadig" installer? This is explained here:

Absolutely not. This is most unfortunate, since it renders subsurface a non-starter. I read the docs but did not make those changes, playing a strictly defined role: Interested user looking for an acceptable dive log for Cobalt.

I assume from your prior comments that you have no intention of undertaking firmware flashing on the Cobalt. Changing to a driver that makes that impossible (WinUSB) is an unacceptable cost for my purposes or any other likely user.  Switching drivers and remembering which one is installed is just not acceptable. That is really too bad. 

>> Importing from my Aladin Smarts thru USB IrDA using "com3" continues to work well.
> 
> Uwatec Smarts also don't use the serial port.

I used MSFT's IrDA Tcp stack as I recall…I haven't touched that code in several years. Again, haven't looked at your code for the actual implementation. Just trying it out to see if subSurface is worth looking into. The docs say to use COM3, so I use COM3.

>> Universal -b cobalt com3 reports Error 660 "Error opening device"
> 
> That is expected, because the test applications are build without USB support. If I would build with usb support, everyone would have to download the libusb dll too, and that's making everything even more complicated for non-technical people.

You have a different idea of what non-technical means than I do. The average diver out there can barely turn on an iMac and most can't figure out where a USB cable plugs in. non-technical people are not going to be running universal.exe. That said, I copied the libusb dll from subsurface install in its[universal.exe] directory figuring it would need to find it. 

> I have access to a cobalt myself (including excellent support directly from Atomics Aquatics!), so I can perform all testing locally, and the lack of support in the test app isn't an issue.

Understood. Not having any more documentation than you supply, I offered that information in case 1) it worked, and 2) subsurface implementation was suspect.

I'm not sure what's going on with winusb/libusb0/libusbk and don't really want to know. Atomic is probably using libusb0 because thats what libusbdotnet uses and that's that.

Oh well, I guess I'll never have a useful dive log for the Atomic on the Win platform, MacDive here we come….