additional serial ports

hi. has anyone had any experience with the arcom aim104-com4 expansion
board. i am having problems getting my elan104 board, also from arcom,
to recognize the com ports. the jumpers on the expansion board are set
to the setting i want but i can’t seem to communicate with it. if anyone
has any suggestions, i’d appreciate your help. thanx.

will

after some more testing, somehow after a reboot, i would be able to transmit one
character through a serial port (i’m using a null modem cable for testing) and
then it never transmits again. this leads me to believe the board is working but
somehow it’s not configured to send and receive correctly. anyone with any clues
as to how i can fix this. thanx.

Will wrote:

hi. has anyone had any experience with the arcom aim104-com4 expansion
board. i am having problems getting my elan104 board, also from arcom,
to recognize the com ports. the jumpers on the expansion board are set
to the setting i want but i can’t seem to communicate with it. if anyone
has any suggestions, i’d appreciate your help. thanx.

will

“Will” <will@oohwill.com> wrote in message
news:3D22474F.11B39492@oohwill.com

after some more testing, somehow after a reboot, i would be able to
transmit one
character through a serial port (i’m using a null modem cable for testing)
and
then it never transmits again. this leads me to believe the board is
working but
somehow it’s not configured to send and receive correctly. anyone with any
clues
as to how i can fix this. thanx.

It looks like there is a problem with interrupts.

Pavol Kycina

Hi,

maybe also flow control.
What do you like to use: hardware or software?

Friedhelm Schuetz
H.Kleinknecht & Co. GmbH

i’m not sure. i just have it on the default setting. the regular serial ports on
the cpu board seem to work like that. i assumed the expansion board ports would
too. should i try enabling hardware flow control? thanks for your help.

“Friedhelm Schütz” wrote:

Hi,

maybe also flow control.
What do you like to use: hardware or software?

Friedhelm Schuetz
H.Kleinknecht & Co. GmbH

i have com 4 on it’s own interrupt, but com 3 is sharing an interrupt. i’m out
of interrupts to assign, but neither com 3 or 4 works the way i want. i thought
qnx could support irq sharing according to the dev.ser help. i could be worng.
i’m fairly new to qnx. thanx for helping. i need lots of it.

Pavol Kycina wrote:

“Will” <> will@oohwill.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3D22474F.11B39492@oohwill.com> …
after some more testing, somehow after a reboot, i would be able to
transmit one
character through a serial port (i’m using a null modem cable for testing)
and
then it never transmits again. this leads me to believe the board is
working but
somehow it’s not configured to send and receive correctly. anyone with any
clues
as to how i can fix this. thanx.

It looks like there is a problem with interrupts.

Pavol Kycina

Can you post output of sin -P Dev ar ?

Pavol Kycina

“Will” <will@oohwill.com> wrote in message
news:3D233E94.C4BE3346@oohwill.com

i have com 4 on it’s own interrupt, but com 3 is sharing an interrupt. i’m
out
of interrupts to assign, but neither com 3 or 4 works the way i want. i
thought
qnx could support irq sharing according to the dev.ser help. i could be
worng.
i’m fairly new to qnx. thanx for helping. i need lots of it.

Pavol Kycina wrote:

“Will” <> will@oohwill.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3D22474F.11B39492@oohwill.com> …
after some more testing, somehow after a reboot, i would be able to
transmit one
character through a serial port (i’m using a null modem cable for
testing)
and
then it never transmits again. this leads me to believe the board is
working but
somehow it’s not configured to send and receive correctly. anyone with
any
clues
as to how i can fix this. thanx.

It looks like there is a problem with interrupts.

Pavol Kycina

Hi Will,

try stty for setting options and also retrieving actual information about
the serial device. It shows also status of the control signals.

Friedhelm Schuetz
H.Kleinknecht & Co. GmbH

Pavol Kycina <kycina@microstep-hdo.sk> wrote:

Can you post output of sin -P Dev ar ?

Palo, I think, interesting it would be to have also snapshot of screen
after boot, listing individual interrupts used by PCI devices.

Those interrupts which are used by the card for com3 a com4 must not
be used by other devices, since Dev.ser behaves racklessly to other
devices sharing the same interrupt - of course, it is only my experience.
Sometimes it is not easy to get such state - you have to switch off as
much interrupts in BIOS as possible - for VGA, USB, Monitor, …

Another (and similiar) problem can be what you have focused - that Will runs
Dev.ser twice (one for com3 and one for com4) and there is only one card
(one device). This could also cause problems.
E.g. instead
Dev.ser -N ser3 c400,11 &
Dev.ser -N ser4 c800,11 &
it should be
Dev.ser -N sup c400,11 c800,11 &
(int his way you get /dev/sup1, /dev/sup2, may be also
Dev.ser -N ser3 c400,11 -N ser4 c800,11 & works but I haven’t tested)
But probably this is not Will’s case since it seems that
he has different interrupts for com3 and com4

Andy

Pavol Kycina

“Will” <> will@oohwill.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3D233E94.C4BE3346@oohwill.com> …
i have com 4 on it’s own interrupt, but com 3 is sharing an interrupt. i’m
out
of interrupts to assign, but neither com 3 or 4 works the way i want. i
thought
qnx could support irq sharing according to the dev.ser help. i could be
worng.
i’m fairly new to qnx. thanx for helping. i need lots of it.

Pavol Kycina wrote:

“Will” <> will@oohwill.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3D22474F.11B39492@oohwill.com> …
after some more testing, somehow after a reboot, i would be able to
transmit one
character through a serial port (i’m using a null modem cable for
testing)
and
then it never transmits again. this leads me to believe the board is
working but
somehow it’s not configured to send and receive correctly. anyone with
any
clues
as to how i can fix this. thanx.

It looks like there is a problem with interrupts.

Pavol Kycina

pavol,

sorry i haven’t responded in a while. i was away. here is the output you
requested:

PID USER NAME ARGUMENTS
16 System Dev
23 System /bin/Dev.ser -N/dev/ser1 3f8,4
24 System /bin/Dev.ser -N/dev/ser2 2f8,3
25 System /bin/Dev.ser -N/dev/ser3 3e8,10
26 System /bin/Dev.ser -N/dev/ser4 2e8,7
31 System Dev.ansi -Q -n1
35 System Dev.par
36 System Dev.pty -n16


here’s something new that happened. somehow, when i got back to the office
today, com 4 seem to be working fine. the led on the expansion board lights up
when i’m getting a constant feed of data through that port. when i ran my code
to read the data, it seem to be working. also, sometimes when i did NOT initiate
com1 and com2 on the main board, com3 would work. sometimes. i’ve been testing
with a null modem connected to another computer and it was actually trasmitting
data back and forth. but most of the time i get one character transmitted
through the null modem and then nothing happens again. but now com4 is working
normally. com3 is my problem. any suggestions. did the output help. thank you
for helping.

will

Pavol Kycina wrote:

Can you post output of sin -P Dev ar ?

Pavol Kycina

“Will” <> will@oohwill.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3D233E94.C4BE3346@oohwill.com> …
i have com 4 on it’s own interrupt, but com 3 is sharing an interrupt. i’m
out
of interrupts to assign, but neither com 3 or 4 works the way i want. i
thought
qnx could support irq sharing according to the dev.ser help. i could be
worng.
i’m fairly new to qnx. thanx for helping. i need lots of it.

Pavol Kycina wrote:

“Will” <> will@oohwill.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3D22474F.11B39492@oohwill.com> …
after some more testing, somehow after a reboot, i would be able to
transmit one
character through a serial port (i’m using a null modem cable for
testing)
and
then it never transmits again. this leads me to believe the board is
working but
somehow it’s not configured to send and receive correctly. anyone with
any
clues
as to how i can fix this. thanx.

It looks like there is a problem with interrupts.

Pavol Kycina

“Will” <will@oohwill.com> wrote in message
news:3D2E05F9.8972DF36@oohwill.com

pavol,

sorry i haven’t responded in a while. i was away. here is the output you
requested:

PID USER NAME ARGUMENTS
16 System Dev
23 System /bin/Dev.ser -N/dev/ser1 3f8,4
24 System /bin/Dev.ser -N/dev/ser2 2f8,3
25 System /bin/Dev.ser -N/dev/ser3 3e8,10
26 System /bin/Dev.ser -N/dev/ser4 2e8,7
31 System Dev.ansi -Q -n1
35 System Dev.par
36 System Dev.pty -n16


here’s something new that happened. somehow, when i got back to the office
today, com 4 seem to be working fine. the led on the expansion board
lights up
when i’m getting a constant feed of data through that port. when i ran my
code
to read the data, it seem to be working. also, sometimes when i did NOT
initiate
com1 and com2 on the main board, com3 would work. sometimes. i’ve been
testing
with a null modem connected to another computer and it was actually
trasmitting
data back and forth. but most of the time i get one character transmitted
through the null modem and then nothing happens again. but now com4 is
working
normally. com3 is my problem. any suggestions. did the output help. thank
you
for helping.

[snip]

I assume IRQ 7 and 10 are marked in BIOS as “ISA”, not “ISA/PNP or PCI”, and
also that you use ISA expansion card with jumpers to select base address and
IRQ of additional ports.

Can you check output of traceinfo for messages from Dev.ser (traceinfo |
grep Serial) when a problem arrises?

Pavol

:slight_smile: on contrary I assumed that the cards are PCI cards…
Andy

Pavol Kycina <kycina@microstep-hdo.sk> wrote:

“Will” <> will@oohwill.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3D2E05F9.8972DF36@oohwill.com> …
pavol,

sorry i haven’t responded in a while. i was away. here is the output you
requested:

PID USER NAME ARGUMENTS
16 System Dev
23 System /bin/Dev.ser -N/dev/ser1 3f8,4
24 System /bin/Dev.ser -N/dev/ser2 2f8,3
25 System /bin/Dev.ser -N/dev/ser3 3e8,10
26 System /bin/Dev.ser -N/dev/ser4 2e8,7
31 System Dev.ansi -Q -n1
35 System Dev.par
36 System Dev.pty -n16


here’s something new that happened. somehow, when i got back to the office
today, com 4 seem to be working fine. the led on the expansion board
lights up
when i’m getting a constant feed of data through that port. when i ran my
code
to read the data, it seem to be working. also, sometimes when i did NOT
initiate
com1 and com2 on the main board, com3 would work. sometimes. i’ve been
testing
with a null modem connected to another computer and it was actually
trasmitting
data back and forth. but most of the time i get one character transmitted
through the null modem and then nothing happens again. but now com4 is
working
normally. com3 is my problem. any suggestions. did the output help. thank
you
for helping.


[snip]

I assume IRQ 7 and 10 are marked in BIOS as “ISA”, not “ISA/PNP or PCI”, and
also that you use ISA expansion card with jumpers to select base address and
IRQ of additional ports.

Can you check output of traceinfo for messages from Dev.ser (traceinfo |
grep Serial) when a problem arrises?

Pavol

Pavol,

i’m not sure what irq 7 and 10 are marked as in the bios and i cannot seem to
findthe info anywhere in the manual. the reason i picked those irq is because 7
was originally used for the lpt port and i have no need to connect a printer so
it was disabled. irq 10 was originally used for com3 (rs-422/rs-485 interface)
on the main board and as of right now i have that disabled. the expansion card
is jumpered to use the variable base address of 180h and 188h with irq 10 and 7
respectively. i assume the bios has it marked for isa, because there are no pci
slot available. only one expansion slot. just for your reference it’s the arcom
ELAN-104NC processor card with the arcom AIM104-COM4 expansion board.

the traceinfo results are as follows:

Jul 16 15:3612 2 00002004 Serial Port 0180, Tx Timeout

i entered “traceinfo | grep Serial” after the serial port stopped transmitting.

thanx for helping. i appreciate it greatly.

will

Pavol Kycina wrote:

I assume IRQ 7 and 10 are marked in BIOS as “ISA”, not “ISA/PNP or PCI”, and
also that you use ISA expansion card with jumpers to select base address and
IRQ of additional ports.

Can you check output of traceinfo for messages from Dev.ser (traceinfo |
grep Serial) when a problem arrises?

Pavol

“Will” <will@oohwill.com> wrote in message
news:3D34A2A4.26A63298@oohwill.com

Pavol,

i’m not sure what irq 7 and 10 are marked as in the bios and i cannot seem
to
findthe info anywhere in the manual. the reason i picked those irq is
because 7
was originally used for the lpt port and i have no need to connect a
printer so
it was disabled. irq 10 was originally used for com3 (rs-422/rs-485
interface)
on the main board and as of right now i have that disabled. the expansion
card
is jumpered to use the variable base address of 180h and 188h with irq 10
and 7
respectively. i assume the bios has it marked for isa, because there are
no pci
slot available. only one expansion slot. just for your reference it’s the
arcom
ELAN-104NC processor card with the arcom AIM104-COM4 expansion board.

the traceinfo results are as follows:

Jul 16 15:3612 2 00002004 Serial Port 0180, Tx Timeout

This is the problem - Dev.ser wrote first char to the UART and waits for the
End of Transmission
interrupt, which doesn’t come, so it makes trace entry -Tx Timeout.

From my experience there is something wrong with interrupts, try to use
different one, just for test disable
onboard ports (and use irq 3 or 4), …


Pavol Kycina

i entered “traceinfo | grep Serial” after the serial port stopped
transmitting.

thanx for helping. i appreciate it greatly.

will

Pavol Kycina wrote:

I assume IRQ 7 and 10 are marked in BIOS as “ISA”, not “ISA/PNP or PCI”,
and
also that you use ISA expansion card with jumpers to select base address
and
IRQ of additional ports.

Can you check output of traceinfo for messages from Dev.ser (traceinfo |
grep Serial) when a problem arrises?

Pavol

i commented out the lines in sysinit that initiates com1 and com2 to irq 3 and 4
and assigned those to com3 and com4 on the expansion. i got the same results.

Jul 17 11:03:27 2 00002004 Serial Port 0180, Tx Timeout

just a side question, shouldn’t the end of transmission int come after the whole
string is transmitted instead of only one char.

will

Pavol Kycina wrote:

“Will” <> will@oohwill.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3D34A2A4.26A63298@oohwill.com> …
Pavol,

i’m not sure what irq 7 and 10 are marked as in the bios and i cannot seem
to
findthe info anywhere in the manual. the reason i picked those irq is
because 7
was originally used for the lpt port and i have no need to connect a
printer so
it was disabled. irq 10 was originally used for com3 (rs-422/rs-485
interface)
on the main board and as of right now i have that disabled. the expansion
card
is jumpered to use the variable base address of 180h and 188h with irq 10
and 7
respectively. i assume the bios has it marked for isa, because there are
no pci
slot available. only one expansion slot. just for your reference it’s the
arcom
ELAN-104NC processor card with the arcom AIM104-COM4 expansion board.

the traceinfo results are as follows:

Jul 16 15:3612 2 00002004 Serial Port 0180, Tx Timeout

This is the problem - Dev.ser wrote first char to the UART and waits for the
End of Transmission
interrupt, which doesn’t come, so it makes trace entry -Tx Timeout.

From my experience there is something wrong with interrupts, try to use
different one, just for test disable
onboard ports (and use irq 3 or 4), …

Pavol Kycina


i entered “traceinfo | grep Serial” after the serial port stopped
transmitting.

thanx for helping. i appreciate it greatly.

will

Pavol Kycina wrote:

I assume IRQ 7 and 10 are marked in BIOS as “ISA”, not “ISA/PNP or PCI”,
and
also that you use ISA expansion card with jumpers to select base address
and
IRQ of additional ports.

Can you check output of traceinfo for messages from Dev.ser (traceinfo |
grep Serial) when a problem arrises?

Pavol

Will <will@oohwill.com> wrote:

i commented out the lines in sysinit that initiates com1 and com2 to irq 3 and 4
and assigned those to com3 and com4 on the expansion. i got the same results.

Jul 17 11:03:27 2 00002004 Serial Port 0180, Tx Timeout

just a side question, shouldn’t the end of transmission int come after
the whole string is transmitted instead of only one char.

Nope. The hardware might have up to a 16-byte receive fifo, but I don’t
think they have any tx fifos at all. I think they generally work by you
writing them one byte, then they generate an irq when that is txed, then
you write them another byte.

-David

QNX Training Services
http://www.qnx.com/support/training/
Please followup in this newsgroup if you have further questions.

“Will” <will@oohwill.com> wrote in message
news:3D35B277.8D6DF726@oohwill.com

i commented out the lines in sysinit that initiates com1 and com2 to irq 3
and 4
and assigned those to com3 and com4 on the expansion. i got the same
results.

Jul 17 11:03:27 2 00002004 Serial Port 0180, Tx Timeout

just a side question, shouldn’t the end of transmission int come after the
whole
string is transmitted instead of only one char.

Have you disabled onboard com ports in BIOS? Have you set the right IRQs in
your HW?

Pavol Kycina

i cannot disable com1 in the bios but i can disable com2 and com3, which i did
for those tests. and the irqs setting on the hardware (the expansion) match the
irq settings in sysinit.

Pavol Kycina wrote:

“Will” <> will@oohwill.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3D35B277.8D6DF726@oohwill.com> …
i commented out the lines in sysinit that initiates com1 and com2 to irq 3
and 4
and assigned those to com3 and com4 on the expansion. i got the same
results.

Jul 17 11:03:27 2 00002004 Serial Port 0180, Tx Timeout

just a side question, shouldn’t the end of transmission int come after the
whole
string is transmitted instead of only one char.

Have you disabled onboard com ports in BIOS? Have you set the right IRQs in
your HW?

Pavol Kycina

I am out of ideas what else should you try. But the symptoms look like there
is a problem with IRQs.

Pavol Kycina


“Will” <will@oohwill.com> wrote in message
news:3D3C517F.EF90DAF9@oohwill.com

i cannot disable com1 in the bios but i can disable com2 and com3, which i
did
for those tests. and the irqs setting on the hardware (the expansion)
match the
irq settings in sysinit.

Pavol Kycina wrote:

“Will” <> will@oohwill.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3D35B277.8D6DF726@oohwill.com> …
i commented out the lines in sysinit that initiates com1 and com2 to
irq 3
and 4
and assigned those to com3 and com4 on the expansion. i got the same
results.

Jul 17 11:03:27 2 00002004 Serial Port 0180, Tx Timeout

just a side question, shouldn’t the end of transmission int come after
the
whole
string is transmitted instead of only one char.

Have you disabled onboard com ports in BIOS? Have you set the right IRQs
in
your HW?

Pavol Kycina

i’ll just have to deal and hope it fixes itself. thanks for your help.

Pavol Kycina wrote:

I am out of ideas what else should you try. But the symptoms look like there
is a problem with IRQs.

Pavol Kycina

“Will” <> will@oohwill.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3D3C517F.EF90DAF9@oohwill.com> …
i cannot disable com1 in the bios but i can disable com2 and com3, which i
did
for those tests. and the irqs setting on the hardware (the expansion)
match the
irq settings in sysinit.

Pavol Kycina wrote:

“Will” <> will@oohwill.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3D35B277.8D6DF726@oohwill.com> …
i commented out the lines in sysinit that initiates com1 and com2 to
irq 3
and 4
and assigned those to com3 and com4 on the expansion. i got the same
results.

Jul 17 11:03:27 2 00002004 Serial Port 0180, Tx Timeout

just a side question, shouldn’t the end of transmission int come after
the
whole
string is transmitted instead of only one char.

Have you disabled onboard com ports in BIOS? Have you set the right IRQs
in
your HW?

Pavol Kycina