What USB to IrDA device do you use with JTrak on Mac?

[LAJim]

Orange Diver:

I spent a couple of hours on this last night. First I found a Mac driver for a third party IrDA dongle I have (it was buried on a disk of PC drivers). Installed but not tested with the computer yet. Second I've installed a copy of Virtual PC7 I had for a different reason but couldn't get installed due to a problem I fixed finally last night with permissions on my hard drive. I then installed the UWATEC software and a PC IrDA driver. Again, not tested with the dive computer yet. Maybe tonight. So, I'm close either way but not there yet.

Regarding Hollywood Divers: I think they are an excellent LDS for the serious sport diver who wants to pick up some technical skills. For example, Bill helped me put together a BP/W system and gave me a great price. It immediately improved my trim and streamlining. Next summer they will help me move to doubles and some light technical diving. My wife is a more casual diver and I think she gets overwhelmed there, but I handle most of the gear anyhow. After my initial purchases there I did look at other LDSs, but I've come back because I like the service, inventory and philosophy of incorporating some technical concepts into sport diving without going fully into DIR. They have been good about loaning me gear, like Bill's Smart-TEC, before I bought my own.

Jim

 

[orange_diver]

hey Jim:

yeah, repair permissions has sometimes been the answer to more than a few pesky problems...im interested to know how it goes once u try it with the dive computer...

u sound just like i do in regards to wanting to add a bit of DIR into sport diving. i guess it's a different thread but i dont think this one is just burning up with comments, so i'll just continue on here. if anyone has a problem, post and i'll pm Jim directly...

what bp/w and harness did u go with? ive got some ideas of what i'd like to see, just based on user comments here but have not actually got my hands on any of the various options so i guess this week i'll take a trip to HD and check them out...i love my seaquest balance (backwing and very neat trim - its an older one, the newer ones have added a bunch of crap to the front that does away with this unfortunately) but am intrigued by the whole HOG setup, minus the long hose/bungeed second aspect, for open water rec dives...

A.

 

[JustinW]

I already have a Polar IR dongle also that is incompatible with my SmartPro. Jim

I noticed the same thing. My IR interface for my Polar HRM doesn't work with my smartcom. Guess I will have to get multiple IR interfaces. The one SP sells is gawd-awe-ful overpriced. But I am hesitant to purchase an IR interface and have it not work.

 

[LAJim]

We'll keep this at least semi-on topic. I didn't get to work on the Mac problem last night - it will either be tonight or Sunday when I'm back from travel. Regarding orange_diver's question: I'm diving a DiveRite Transplate that I've added a Halcyon STA (single tank adapter). I got a very god deal on the Transplate. It has the Recwing which some DIR people would be very highly critical of because it has a very well designed bungee system to constrain the wing for single tank use. The SS plate adds 6 lbs. and there is 1 or 2 from the STA. So, I'm carrying only 10 lbs. of lead in two small pockets on the waist strap of the harness.

Now if I can just download those dives to my Mac ....

Jim

 

[orange_diver]

Jim, thx for the BC info...now back to the thread at hand. I found this tip on macosxhints, and it may work not only for the belkin but for other irda adapters as well. my smart tec is in the shop for a few weeks, so i couldn't test the theory before posting. it may help someone else tho, so here it is:

"Apple currently sell the Belkin Infrared adapter on their web Apple Store sites, but loads of people have had trouble using it with Mac OS X as it includes a floppy disk with PC drivers on it. After reading loads of sites, and seeing everyone having the same problem, I thought I'd better post the answer I have found...
First, plug the SmartBeam into USB port one on your PowerBook G4 (that's the one closest to the power socket). Turn on your infrared device, and activate its infrared dectection and place it in range of the smartbeam. Now load the Apple System profiler by clicking "About This Mac" in the Apple menu and then the "More Info" button (or via the Applications -> Utilities folder). Click on the "Volumes & Devices" tab and wait for it to load then select "Window" and then the "Refresh" option. The IrDA adapter should now show up as a USB connection.

Load the System Prefs and select Networking, and this should force Mac OS X to find a new Comms Port and it will load IrDA USB Modem into the available options!

Hope this helps all the lost people out there took me a week to crack it -- it worked on PB 12" G4 Superdrive running 10.2.6."

 

[LAJim]

Looks like I might have time to give it another spin tonight and then I'm flying off on business. I'll either post a progress report by tomorrow AM or it will be late on Sunday. While I like working with Macs and diving, the combination is a lot less fun than either alone - so far at least. Still some tricks up my sleeve ....

Jim

 

[LAJim]

I guess failure might be an option. My Virtual PC recognizes its IrDA dongle. Even slowing down the connection speed I can not connect to the Smart TEC using the UWATEC software. Even with a Mac driver installed JTrak can not connect using the Mac side of my machine.

I am at the point where I believe I should have gotten a connection. I think the next steps are going to involve either a PDA or someone's Window compter (not a virtual machine).

If someone out there has a solution .... Anyone done this with Virtual PC on a Mac? Has anyone made JTrac work with a currently available IrDA dongle?

Jim

 

[maractwin]

Often Virtual PC cannot communicate on a USB device if there's a Mac OSX driver installed for that device. When I'm doing this kind of development, I have to keep moving the framework in and out of /System/Library/Extensions and restarting the computer to enable and disable the driver.

-Mark

 

[LAJim]

Mark:

I'll try those and similar notions when I'm back in town. I'll say that running Windows again - even XP - makes me really appreciate OS X 10.4. But Mac is so straightforward that when you do all the obvious stuff it starts becoming impossible pretty quckly. There is always another undocumented trick with Windows.

Jim