Hardware & Devices

FirstPrevNext

Re: 3.5" Floppy to USB conversion hardware supercat930-Jun-09 9:30 supercat9 30-Jun-09 9:30  What do you know about the hardware/software in question? Do you need read/write access, or would read-only be sufficient? There exist SmartMedia-to-floppy interfaces which allow a SmartMedia card to be used as a very large (but still slow) floppy disk, but those unfortunately require the installation of special drivers. If you need something that physically looks to the rest of the system like a 3.5" drive, I would expect such a thing could probably be constructed with a small microcontroller, a CPLD, a flash chip, and some buttons and a display to switch disks. Sounds like that would be an interesting project; not particularly difficult, but I don't know if anyone's done it. Re: 3.5" Floppy to USB conversion hardware cvogt6145730-Jun-09 11:13 cvogt61457 30-Jun-09 11:13  It has to look like a floppy to the controller. Also, need both write and read. I have found something that might work... http://www.plrelectronics.com/floppy_to_usb.php[^] Thanks for the reply. Re: 3.5" Floppy to USB conversion hardware supercat930-Jun-09 13:13 supercat9 30-Jun-09 13:13  That device looks interesting. I'm a little curious, though, how it would work with devices that don't use a DOS-compatible file system. Something like an Ensoniq DSK just has three sample-storage areas per disk; push 1, 2, or 3 to select the area to save/load. It's conceivable that it might use a file system, but I think it's far more likely that it just reads a fixed range of tracks based upon the button selected. Re: 3.5" Floppy to USB conversion hardware Dan Neely1-Jul-09 2:16 Dan Neely 1-Jul-09 2:16  If it's being honest about working almost anywhere I'd assume it emulates the device at a very low level... *IF* It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. -- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Re: 3.5" Floppy to USB conversion hardware cvogt614571-Jul-09 3:44 cvogt61457 1-Jul-09 3:44  The file format used by the equipment is FAT. The disks written by the equipment can be read on a PC and vice versa. The equipment can format a disk and then be used with a PC. Re: 3.5" Floppy to USB conversion hardware SleepRequired4-Jul-09 14:07 SleepRequired 4-Jul-09 14:07  What is a floppy drive? Re: 3.5" Floppy to USB conversion hardware kwalityenterprises27-Nov-10 2:32 kwalityenterprises 27-Nov-10 2:32  Hi Guys Just had this done. The floppy to usb converter is now available foronly 50USD+freight and can be shipped to any part of world. Its compatible with 1.44 mb floppy format and works fine in CNC / Knitting/weaving/Embroidery/ Yamaha Keyboards/Korg Keyboards and several otrher machines . If anyone needs the converter pls mail me at vishal@keindia.com or info@floppytousb.net for more details about unit please visit floppytousb.net Regards Vishal. Server hardware for a startup raicuandi22-Jun-09 21:48 raicuandi 22-Jun-09 21:48  Hello, I'm developing some client-server software, and the server side is running Linux, Postgresql and Python, the bottleneck will probably be the DB. The problem is, I don't know what sort of hardware to buy for my clients. Performance requirements are modest, but its reliability I'm worried about. A DIY job with my local PC shop can get me a quad-core 12MB L2 cache Intel, 8GB DDR3 Kingston RAM, and 4x500GB SATA 7500rpm WD HDDs (software RAID 0+1) with a $150 power source, extra cooling and a better case (from Thermaltake), and a $400 UPS, all of this should make it more reliable, and it costs less than $2k. (I've yet to do any stress-testing, but that kind of hardware should be able to cope with quite a beating) Then I looked at brand-name servers, like IBM X series, and Dells, and good God, the prices. If I want the same toys, I have to pay many times that amount. I understand that they have hot-swap, hardware RAID, and a nice badge, but what (else) on hell do they charge so much for? Is a Xeon with apparently the same performance specs as a normal Intel really worth a grand more? Dell must have gold-plated their keyboards, else I can't figure out why they charge ~70 bucks for a standard 104-key one, and a tape backup unit is around $700 My test server is a dual-core Intel with 2GB DDR2 RAM and 2x500GB 7500rpm HDDs (software RAID 1), hosting a low-traffic website, email and my software, for less than $500 (no UPS) and it never missed a beat since I installed it half a year ago. For a brand system with my performance specs (the quad-core set) I've seen quotes as high as 20 grand, so I must ask, CP folks: if you'd have to buy servers with roughly those specs, one for each customer, reliability is a huge concern, and higher server cost means less profit, would you pick DIY or brand name? Thanks for the help! Re: Server hardware for a startup Henry Minute28-Jun-09 10:26 Henry Minute 28-Jun-09 10:26  Apart from substituting Hardware RAID, I'd steer well clear of Software RAID if reliability is a concern, which would add approx $100. For your spec I would be tempted to go for a local builder, provided I was satisfied with their build quality/after sales service. Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” Re: Server hardware for a startup raicuandi28-Jun-09 13:45 raicuandi 28-Jun-09 13:45  Thanks Re: Server hardware for a startup SleepRequired4-Jul-09 14:08 SleepRequired 4-Jul-09 14:08  Its overkill. No reason to be spending 2k on a startup server. You probably wont use anywhere near its limitations before it becomes obsolete Screen black-outs Kevnar14-Jun-09 21:15 Kevnar 14-Jun-09 21:15  This is an odd problem I've been having for about 2 years now. I was hoping some of you hardware gurus could help me out with it. Here's the issue: Whenever my hard drive starts to get full, like as in less than 10% free space left, the screen begins to randomly black out for a few seconds every ten minutes or so. It blacks out, turns itself back on, and then blacks out again, a few minutes later, over and over. Annoying as hell of course, when you're trying to get work done. Now, I *know* it's a result of the full hard drive, because this only ever happens when the hard drive is full and it is fixed when the hard drive is emptied again. I'd thought it was viruses in the past, since the problem was fixed as soon as the thing was reformatted. I'd also thought it was maybe an overheating issue, or a powersupply issue. But now I'm convinced that it's a hard drive space issue. Why would the thing work fine again, with the exact same hardware running, once Windows was re-installed? My only guess is that it has something to do with the lack of virtual memory space taxing the RAM, and in turn taxing the graphics processes enough to black the whole thing out for a few moments every 5 to 10 minutes or so. It seems to be worse with memory intensive programs running in the foreground. I'd like to get this thing figured out without having to delete half my programs and files, or reformatting yet again. Hopefully there's a solution. (I have 1GB Ram. Win XP. AMD Sempron processor (3000+, 1.8 ghz). The hard drive is 150GB, with about 9GB free. The display adapter is a GeForce 7600 GS. All drivers and programs have been updated and virus/spyware scanned--clean. Please help.) "Go to, I’ll no more on’t; it hath made me mad." - Hamlet Re: Screen black-outs Sebastian Schneider14-Jun-09 23:43 Sebastian Schneider 14-Jun-09 23:43  I thing you have it all figured out. However, 9GB should be enough to hold a 2 GB swapfile or something like that. You should consider letting Windows handle the swapfile, if you don't already, and maybe defrag the HDD (with swapping disabled, of course). Linux has a clever solution for those problems: It uses a dedicated swap partition, so no file fragmentation ever happens. You could simulate that by moving your swapfile to a separate partition. Good luck! Cheers, Sebastian -- "If it was two men, the non-driver would have challenged the driver to simply crash through the gates. The macho image thing, you know." - Marc Clifton Re: Screen black-outs Dan Neely15-Jun-09 2:18 Dan Neely 15-Jun-09 2:18  That's serious overkill. Killing the old swap, defragging, and creating a new non-resizable swapfile will accomplish the same thing without complicating your filesystem. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. -- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Re: Screen black-outs Sebastian Schneider15-Jun-09 3:35 Sebastian Schneider 15-Jun-09 3:35  I disagree. He has had the problem several times, and I think that warrants a special setup. However, for most people, it really IS serious overkill. Cheers, Sebastian -- "If it was two men, the non-driver would have challenged the driver to simply crash through the gates. The macho image thing, you know." - Marc Clifton Re: Screen black-outs Kevnar15-Jun-09 11:00 Kevnar 15-Jun-09 11:00  How do you create a partition without reformatting? "Go to, I’ll no more on’t; it hath made me mad." - Hamlet Re: Screen black-outs Luc Pattyn15-Jun-09 11:45 Luc Pattyn 15-Jun-09 11:45  Depends on the Windows version. On Vista, Computer Management is capable of shrinking an existing partition, and adding one in the empty space. On older Windows, you would need a utility, such as Partition Magic (AFAIK does not exist for Vista). In both cases, the problem will be your current partition is quite full and fragmented, you can only shrink a partition with Vista for as far as it topmost part is empty (don't expect that). And the Windows defragmenter is crap, it does hardly move the files to the lower parts of a partition, all it does is concatenate file fragments. Again Partition Magic should solve that. Whatever solution, be prepared to spend a couple hours. Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles] DISCLAIMER: this message may have been modified by others; it may no longer reflect what I intended, and may contain bad advice; use at your own risk and with extreme care. Re: Screen black-outs Sebastian Schneider15-Jun-09 23:21 Sebastian Schneider 15-Jun-09 23:21  JKDefrag should take care of the fragmenting, any better PartEd-containing LiveCD (like Knoppix) should be able to do the resizing. However, resizing is a delicate thing. It might fail, and leave you with no data, so you should backup you data before attempting to resize. I've never had ntfs-resize fully fail on me. However, I've had my share of problems with it: I had to write down the new partitioning information and perform the repartitioning in GPartEd TWICE. Otherwise, there would be trouble with the partition's size information. Happened on all Dell-Laptops I've ever resized partitions on. Just a suggestion for the original poster... Cheers, Sebastian -- "If it was two men, the non-driver would have challenged the driver to simply crash through the gates. The macho image thing, you know." - Marc Clifton Re: Screen black-outs Kevnar20-Jun-09 12:12 Kevnar 20-Jun-09 12:12  Okay, my theory is shot all to crap now. I wound up reformatting my hard drive due to some other on-going issues that I was tired of fighting with. Once everything was reinstalled, it started flashing black and coming back on again while running one of the two programs I had installed, other than the operating system and all my device drivers. There's now 127 GB free on the HD, and the virtual memory is coming off of it's own dedicated 5GB partition. Strangely enough, the problem only occurs on certain programs. Even on resource intensive games like Sims3, it works fine. On the other program, Terragen2, it cuts out on virtually every click. So basically I'm at a loss. It must be a hardware issue, with either the RAM sticks or the memory card. Oh, I also have EI installed, and for some reason it takes 35 seconds from the time I open the browser to the time it loads Google. I know. I timed it. I have no idea what's going on there, on a brand new OS install. Surely there's no viruses or spyware already. "Go to, I’ll no more on’t; it hath made me mad." - Hamlet Re: Screen black-outs Kevnar20-Jun-09 12:29 Kevnar 20-Jun-09 12:29  Yup. It's the RAM. I checked the mem usage of Terragen 2, and there was a huge amount of objects loaded. Once I deleted the population of objects, it quit blacking out. Go figure. So how do I fix it? "Go to, I’ll no more on’t; it hath made me mad." - Hamlet Re: Screen black-outs Luc Pattyn20-Jun-09 12:33 Luc Pattyn 20-Jun-09 12:33  What is your OS? how much RAM is present? Is your memory running low? Was there a lot of disk activity, i.e. memory being swapped out to the page file? Check Task Manager, Performance, Physical Memory, Free if low, and you are below the max RAM your system could hold, add 1 or 2 GB. If that is not possible, try freeing some memory by terminating/not starting apps & tools you don't need at the moment; reduce file system caching; ... Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles] DISCLAIMER: this message may have been modified by others; it may no longer reflect what I intended, and may contain bad advice; use at your own risk and with extreme care. Re: Screen black-outs Dan Neely22-Jun-09 2:22 Dan Neely 22-Jun-09 2:22  If it's low memory, add more. YOu should test that your memory is actually good though with www.memtest86.com/ [^] Burn the CD, let it run overnight. Any errors reported mean your ram is faulty and needs replaced. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. -- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Re: Screen black-outs Michael Dunn21-Jun-09 22:09 Michael Dunn 21-Jun-09 22:09  At first, I suspected the built-in disk cleanup wizard. The wizard could be kicking in, and you have a buggy cleanup extension installed. But I don't see how that would affect the video. The video driver could be crashing. IIRC starting with XP SP2, the system can recover from a crashed video driver without bluescreening. (I know Vista does this, I'm not positive but I think XP can too.) Update the video driver and see if that helps. --Mike-- Re: Screen black-outs SleepRequired4-Jul-09 14:08 SleepRequired 4-Jul-09 14:08  Hah that is strange - I have experienced almost every kind of computer problem - except yours. problem sending on rs232 August Brower8-Jun-09 18:37 August Brower 8-Jun-09 18:37  I am creating a program for a children's ATM for the local kids museum, and I'm having problems sending data to the machine (over RS232). I am using a .dll supplied by the manufacturer that is used to interface the dispenser with a computer. I think the problem is in sending the hex characters to the machine. I open the port find (according to the generated log file), but then I send and don't recieve the ACK. here is the pertinent part of the code. thanks for any help #include "stdafx.h" #include <windows.h> typedef struct { unsigned int uiPort; //communication port unsigned char ucDataBits; //Data bit unsigned char ucParity; //Parity bit unsigned char ucStopBits; //Stop bit unsigned long dwBaudRate; //Baud Rate HWND hwnd; //Parent window handle unsigned char ucCommandType; //command type(1: ezCDM-1000 ) }SETINFO; typedef unsigned int (*EZLINKOPEN)(SETINFO* setInfo); typedef unsigned int (*EZLINKCLOSE)(void); typedef unsigned int (*EZLINKPATH)(PCHAR pcMessage); typedef unsigned int (*EZLINKSEND)(DWORD dwCmdExcuteTime, PUCHAR pcMessage, UINT uiCmdSize); typedef unsigned int (*EZLINKRCV)(PUCHAR pcMessage, UINT *piRspSize); int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[]) { //Loading dll------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ HINSTANCE hdll = NULL; hdll = LoadLibrary(TEXT("ezlink")); //load the dll if (hdll == NULL) { printf("Didn't load dll\n"); //tell me if it failed } //Mapping the dll's functions-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EZLINKOPEN ezLinkOpen; EZLINKCLOSE ezLinkClose; EZLINKPATH ezLinkPath; EZLINKSEND ezLinkSend; EZLINKRCV ezLinkRcv; ezLinkOpen = (EZLINKOPEN)GetProcAddress(hdll,"ezLinkOpen"); ezLinkClose = (EZLINKCLOSE)GetProcAddress(hdll,"ezLinkClose"); ezLinkPath = (EZLINKPATH)GetProcAddress(hdll,"ezLinkPath"); ezLinkSend = (EZLINKSEND)GetProcAddress(hdll,"ezLinkSend"); ezLinkRcv = (EZLINKRCV)GetProcAddress(hdll,"ezLinkRcv"); //handle the error if(!ezLinkOpen) //end program if dll mapping fails fails { FreeLibrary(hdll); printf("Failed to map open function!\n"); return -1; } else //otherwise, lets send some commands { unsigned int result; //Setting the log path-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- char message[] = "C:\\Documents and Settings\\august brower\\My Documents\\Visual Studio 2008\\Projects\\cash machine"; result = ezLinkPath((PCHAR) &message); printf("Result of Path: '%i'\n", result); //Opening the port--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SETINFO pSetInfo; pSetInfo.uiPort =3; pSetInfo.ucDataBits = 8; pSetInfo.ucParity = 2; pSetInfo.ucStopBits = 0; pSetInfo.dwBaudRate = 9600; pSetInfo.hwnd = GetActiveWindow(); pSetInfo.ucCommandType = 1; result = ezLinkOpen(&pSetInfo); printf("Result of Open: '%i'\n", result); unsigned char response[20] ; UINT *rspSize; rspSize = (PUINT)malloc(sizeof(UINT)); //Sending commands unsigned char command[6] = {0x01,0x30,0x02,0x50,0x03,0x60}; unsigned char command9[1] = {0x06}; unsigned char command1[12] = {0x01,0x30,0x02,0x4B,0x42,0x32,0x42,0x32,0x42,0x32,0x03,0x0B}; unsigned char command2[7] = {0x01,0x30,0x02,0x42,0x21,0x03,0x53}; PUCHAR cassette; //check cassette PUCHAR ack; //acknowledge PUCHAR bill; //set bill dimensions PUCHAR dispense; //dispense 1 bill cassette = command; ack = command9; bill= command1; dispense=command2; //--get cassette info------------------------------------------------- result = ezLinkSend(4000,cassette;message,6); printf("Result of Send: '%i'\n", result); result = ezLinkRcv(response,rspSize); printf("Result of Receive: '%i'\n", result); result = ezLinkRcv(response,rspSize); printf("Result of Receive: '%i'\n", result); result = ezLinkSend(4000,ack,1); printf("Result of Send: '%i'\n", result);

Last Visit: 31-Dec-99 18:00     Last Update: 25-Apr-24 13:50 Refresh ᐊ Prev1...90919293949596979899 Next ᐅ

General    News    Suggestion    Question    Bug    Answer    Joke    Praise    Rant    Admin   

Use Ctrl+Left/Right to switch messages, Ctrl+Up/Down to switch threads, Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right to switch pages.