The all-inclusive IRIS software/interface trouble shooting note

[plsdiver4377]

How old is the Darwin (IRIS program)?

I've had both the Mares M1 and Darwin and had zero problems so far (installed on the Win98Se, WinMe and WIN XP PRO and the Home versions).

The only thing I can think to suggest at this time is go online to the Mares website and download the software for the IRIS and reinstall considering you had a problem with installation the first time. Also just a really stupid suggestion, recheck your connections and then try removing the Com-Ports through Control Panel/System/Device Manager and then rebooting the system (by the way I hope you remember the keystrokes for shutting down since your mouse will probably become inoperable .

Here is the website for the IRIS download:

http://www.mares.com/iris.asp

I hope this helps.

 

[Erik Il Rosso]

The IRIS program is recent and I also tried using the software downloaded from the Mares site, no result...
I installed the program on 3 different pc, no result...
I changed link cables, no result...
I went to the LDS and he gave me a new IRIS, no result...

At this point it must be the wirst computer or the Iris software could be bugged...

The problem is that there is a "Time Out" and this means that there is no handshake between the two units...

I feel a little bit frustated...

Hope to find some more help here...

Ciao Erik Il Rosso

 

[plsdiver4377]

and then I'm out of suggestions other than the computer itself has a bad IR interface.

Does the com-port on your computer operate any other peripheral without any problems? Probably a dumb question but I thought I would throw it out anyway.

Best of luck in resolving the problem.

Later, Jim

 

[Erik Il Rosso]

I spent the last two days trying to donwload data stored in my Dacor Darvin without success...

1) Used software on a W98SE and on other 3 PCs, no success...
2) Swapped serial cables, no success...
3) Removed com ports from Win configuration, no success...
4) Slowed down com port speed, no success...
5) Reinstalled software from original CD and the tried the one dowloaded from the Mares site, no success...
6) Obtained a new Iris interface from LDS, no success...
7) Obtained another brand new wrist computer from LDS to try if my wrist computer was faulty, no success...
8) Opened the IRIS interface because I thought the envelope might disturb transmission, no success...

I keep obtaining the same error msg :"Time out from the serial port"...

At this point I start to think that it could be a very serious software problem...
Do you agree with me ???

Nobody had a similar experience ???

Ciao Erik Il Rosso

 

[PurduEE]

I have an old Mares Surveyor. I know that on that particular computer, I needed to put the dive computer into a download mode to make it work. Are you sure that you have the dive computer itself in the right mode? Otherwise, I find it hard to believe that Mares would ship the product without any testing. Since you failure is a pretty blatant one, I would think even a cursory test would catch a 'bug' of that magnitude. I'm no fan of the Mares software, but it does sort of work, at least for me, and the Iris stuff has been out for almost a year (maybe more).

Do you have any other serial devices to verify that your serial ports are working correctly (modem, old mouse, other dive computer? Are you sure that the serial port you are connected to is the appropriate serial port connected to the Iris? Is the IR transmitter/receiver lined up?

 

[Erik Il Rosso]

All the tricks you suggested with no luck...

I know where com1 and com2 are located and I tested them both...
I checked the alignment and it is ok...
I put the wrist pc in "Pc Mode" as written in the manual...

I saw that there is a 3rd party (National Instruments) library installed when you install the Iris software...

This software, as far as I know, should serve to control data exchange between wrist pc and Iris...

Could it be that this piece of software is bugged ???

I cannot think of anything else, I also tried to change batteries in the wrist pc but without success...

Ciao Erik Il Rosso

P.S. If i will find a solution I will surely let you know...

 

[PurduEE]

to get a hold of a serial device and see if your ports are working correctly. I assume that your serial ports appear in device manager with no exclamation points... Are they enabled in the BIOS? What are the IO ranges/IRQs/etc. Are they the standard 3F8h IRQ4 and 2F8h IRQ3 that they should normally be? I assume that you have the parity, stop bit, and data size correctly set to whatever the manual says.

Have you tried this on any other operating systems than 95? If I had to guess, the software (or pieces) is probably written in labview (good for data acquisition), requiring the National Instruments library. I don't think it's necessarily true that this code is causing the problem. In fact, it's highly likely it's not, since NI's code is used all over the place, in more than just dive computers.

 

[kavka]

I had problems with Spora sub Zenix (Mares Tutor). It worked only on one old Pentium 166Mhz. With every other PC that I tried mesage : Runtime error acured

 

[RobK]

I had a Mares M1 which used the IRIS interface to download data to the PC. I found that it was very fussy about the position it was in relative to the IR reader. If it wasn't exactly right it would not be found by the IR reader and I'd get the timeout message.

It was also very sensative to the amout of power left in the batteries. If they were not brand new it tended to get worse.

My suggestion is try fiddling around with the position relative to the reader.

It may of course be the serial ports on your PC but I think that's unlikley.

BTW I'm not sure how buggy the interface library is but the IRIS software itself that got provided with the computer was obviously tested by someone with their eyes shut!

HTH
Rob.

 

[Erik Il Rosso]

PurduEE once bubbled...
to get a hold of a serial device and see if your ports are working correctly. I assume that your serial ports appear in device manager with no exclamation points... Are they enabled in the BIOS? What are the IO ranges/IRQs/etc. Are they the standard 3F8h IRQ4 and 2F8h IRQ3 that they should normally be? I assume that you have the parity, stop bit, and data size correctly set to whatever the manual says.

Have you tried this on any other operating systems than 95? If

I checked the IRQs and they are correct and enabled in the BIOS settings...
No exclamation points in device manager...
Tested on 2 Win98SE and 1 Windows 2000 pc without success...

Manual does not say anything about parity, stop bit and data size...

These things keep on recalling my fist pc experience when the Internet was only for scientists and we had to connect to FidoNet...

Just received an e-mail from the owner of the LDS where I bought the wrist pc...
He is not able to download any data...

Ciao Erik Il Rosso

P.S. I am tempted to return this wrist pc and buy the Oceanic VT-100...