i have 3 laptops here right now, and i can only get one of them to interface with my dfi computer via calmap. Maybe someone here has a suggestion or two, or some further information.

I have a Win 2k laptop that connected right up via the serial port and worked(works) great. However, this one is currently borrowed.

I also have an old 386 dos only laptop that was being thrown away at work that i figured would be great for the dfi tuning. It's a DOS 6.2 only setup right now. However, when I run calmap it just sits there and hangs and never brings up the initial screen with the EDIT FILE and EDIT ECM settings. I found some information online that said with calmap 6.32, which is what i have, they basically modified a lot of the code to make it compatible with newer 95/98, etc, systems, and in the process wiped out some older systems compatibilities. The problem is, you can't get the earlier versions of calmap anywhere that i've found, so that laptop is basically dead weight. If anyone here has access to an older version and would be so kind, I'd appreciate it, because i hit a wall completely with that laptop now, and i'm thinking that's about my only option.

Laptop #3 I just got, and it's an XP Pro SP2 setup, and like most new systems, particularly laptops, it doesn't come with a serial port. So I got a belkin USB to serial adapter and attempted to hook up. It won't connect to the dfi ecm. I've tried dozens of different settings, and got nowhere. Set it up as com1 or com2, )(and entered calmap with the com2 tag), ms dos and earlier windows compatibility modes, and a slew of different port settings. I even installed the usb to serial adapter in the Windows 2000 machine and no luck there either. However, it still works just great in the windows 2000 machine via the serial port directly, and just to rule it out as the problem, I was able to pull pictures off my old serial digital camera via the serial port/usb adapter on the win xp machine.

I read some stuff online about some other people having similar problems with serial port data on XP - basically because windows xp controls the port traffic, and you're apparently not directly interfacing with the port. So that would be an explanation as to why the adapter works fine for windows but not dos. However, it does actually see it in dos, so I figured maybe it was XP getting in the way of the port traffic.

So I was going to put 95 or 98 on my new laptop as a dual boot setup with the XP. Doesn't work. The 95/98 code wasn't written with the architecture of newer systems in mind, because i tried 98 second edition, 98, and a later version of 95 with usb, and struck out on all 3. none will get to a runnable state due to device drivers bombing out on the final load of the os after the install.

Anyone have any further suggestions? I'm kind of burned out here, and I'm willing to try anything at this point.

 

I've got several machines configured with various flavors of windoze 98 - XP that can dual boot into either windows or DOS 6.22. We are using a program from Symantec called BootMagic that creates a separate partition for the DOS stuff to live on so there are no conflicts when trying to boot in a pure DOS environment -- which is what you need to do to be able to run Calmap 6.22.

 

i actually made a pretty significant breakthrough on this last night. I set up Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 on the machine, and installed DOS 6.22. It allows you to map your XP com port to the com port on the virtual. I installed the dfi stuff, and it worked! however, the way the screen looks for some reason is really distorted. The fonts are really blocky and hard to read, and the screen itself kind of repeats, you can see the full screen on the top 2/3 of the screen, but on the bottom 1/3, sections of the screen mirror or shadow.

I have it functional, but i'm hoping to still get somewhere with changing the rest. It kills me that the software seems to completely ignore all the dos settings as you go into it regarding video settings and fonts.

It's not related specifically to the virtual pc software either, because i was able to run quite a few other things in dos without a problem.

I was even hoping that I could use the command line to redirect the screen output to a file, so I could write a wrapper windows app and make the presentation a lot better looking, but it won't do that either. Nothing like writing software that comes with a what? $1000 when it was new or more fuel injection harness setup, and cutting corners and not following standards on the application development.

but anyway, i do have a solution for now which will do the job, it just doesn't look all that pretty. I'd love it if they released the source code for calmap too, i'd have no problem rewriting the whole thing with a nice windows front end. I'm an application developer, and nothing drives me more insane that being stuck dealing with someone else's software that i know i could drastically improve.

 

the stumbling factor of running a pure dos environment, is that I don't even know if drivers exist to first off, get the usb ports active, and second, get the usb to serial adapter i bought active. If i had a serial port on the laptop itself, there wouldn't be a problem at all.

like i said though, i do now have a workaround, it's just a compromise.

 

I've gone through multiple old throwaway laptops for just using calmap. Currently I'm using an old thinkpad (dead battery-laptop was free-cost $75 for a new battery). Only DOS on it and it works great. I found a couple of these that work on ebay for around $25 or less (after I bought the battery). I would try the el cheapo used laptop route. Something happens to it, buy another. I will say of the 4 or 5 I've used, this one by far works the best (probably b/c just dos on it).