[slinkelist] Is there any chance of Firecracker support?

[Colby Boles]

Passthrough devices like the CM17 (firecracker) are basically hacks. It
relies on twiddling handshaking lines which it hopes have no effect on the
downstream device. You can do this fairly sucessfully. The problem I have
with it is that it does not work with Windows NT since in NT only one
application can be using the port at once. I have a number of Firecrackers
here, and you can't use the serial port when they are being used by
software. If we do add CM17 support to slinkeserv, freeing up COM ports
won't be one of the benefits unless slinkeserv also was to use that port for
something else it was controlling like the slink-e.

Colby


-----Original Message-----
From: slinkelist-admin@nirvis.com [mailto:slinkelist-admin@nirvis.com]On
Behalf Of Ken Geoffrion
Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2000 11:07 AM
To: bhunt01@ibm.net; aue@nirvis.com
Cc: slinkelist@nirvis.com
Subject: RE: [slinkelist] Is there any chance of Firecracker support?


I had to add an additional serial card to my desktop system, since I needed
three serial ports (slinke, cm11a, and a modem for callerid displays).
Using the passthrough on the Firecracker would have been an obvious
advantage!

I also had to buy an additional ActiveHome (for another cm11a) so I could
run ActiveHome on one computer, and let CDJ software communicate with the
cm11a on the other.

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Brian L Hunt" <bhunt01@ibm.net>
To: "David Aue" <aue@nirvis.com>,"Jay Pfaffman" <pfaffman@relax.com>
CC: <cboles@nirvis.com>,<slinkelist@nirvis.com>
Subject: RE: [slinkelist] Is there any chance of Firecracker support?
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 10:48:56 -0800

David, the benefit of Firecracker support is that the device is a
passthrough device. The CM11a has no passthrough ports. Unless I am missing
the obvious this means that the user needs two serial ports (and potentially
a third for a modem to do the look-ups on CDDB) when using a CM11a plus
slink-e. Adding to the problem is the use of notebooks as a common machine
for slink-e control. Notebooks typically only have one physical serial port
so its CM11a or slink-e.

Perhaps other users of CM11a might comment on how they are dealing with the
serial port requirements?

Brian

 > -----Original Message-----
 > From: slinkelist-admin@nirvis.com [mailto:slinkelist-admin@nirvis.com]On
 > Behalf Of David Aue
 > Sent: Friday, January 21, 2000 1:06 PM
 > To: Jay Pfaffman
 > Cc: cboles@nirvis.com; slinkelist@nirvis.com
 > Subject: Re: [slinkelist] Is there any chance of Firecracker support?
 >
 >
 > Hi Jay,
 >
 > We've considered firecracker support but it is way down on along list of
 > things and since we have CM11a it's not much of a priority.  In
 > other words
 > it might happen but I wouldn't hold my breath.
 >
 > David Aue
 > Nirvis Systems
 >
 > At 01:40 PM 1/19/00 , Jay Pfaffman wrote:
 > >I, like several on the list, bought a Firecracker package because it
 > >was really cheap.  Now I've bought a bit more X11 stuff & of course
 > >want Slinke/CDJ to control it all.  Colby, is there any chance you'll
 > >add support for the firecracker any time soon (I have no idea what's
 > >involved & don't know if it's 2 hours or 200) or should I buy a CM11a?
 > >
 > >I'm checking x10.com's site & don't see cm11a at first glance.  It's
 > >there somewhere, right?
 > >
 > >(Completely off topic: After a year of having two 200 cd changers, I
 > >had to buy a new one.  For the first time I read the manual to
 > >discover why I've never been able to get mega-control to work--set the
 > >ID of the changer to be controlled to 3.  Now I can see how it
 > >interferes with CDJ's work. Alas, my CDJ computer died & I have to
 > >wait for its repair.)
 > >
 > >--
 > >Jay Pfaffman                           pfaffman@relax.com
 > >+1-615-343-1720 (office)               +1-615-460-9299 (home)
 > >http://relax.ltc.vanderbilt.edu/~pfaffman/

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