Tag Archives: Economatics

BBC Micro, Electronics and Computers, Linux, Posts, Programming, Smart Box

Using Smart Move on a Modern Computer

Using Smart Move on a Modern Computer

This page is a DRAFT as I do not currently have the correct hardware to fully test and debug the process. Feedback welcome, but do not rely on this being correct!

The Economatics Smart Box serial interface boxes used to come with a program called “Smart Move”. The software appears to have been available for a number of platforms (BBC Micro, RISCOS, MacOS and DOS), but I have only seen copies of the DOS software while searching. The software appears to load machine code directly into the memory of the Smart Box rather than sending serial commands. This is interesting as it goes some way to overcoming the speed limitations of the 9600 baud serial connection.

The following details my experiments in trying to get the DOS version of Smart Move running on a modern Linux computer, although most of the detail should also be applicable to other modern OSes. Note that the original DOS software will no longer natively run on Windows.

Step 1 – Get DOSBox

On Linux, DOSBox is installed from you packet manager of choice. If you’re using a Debian / Ubuntu style setup, you can just type “sudo apt install dosbox” at the command line.

Step 2 – Finding the Serial Port

If you don’t have a built in serial port (not many people do these days), you’ll need a USB to RS232 adapter. There are really cheap ones available, but just to warn you – I’ve been through two of the cheap ones that have a silver cable and blue plugs. I’d advise spending double the money and getting something that will last. I have one of these, which seems to be marginally better made.

On Linux, run the command “ls /dev/tty*” – this will list all available terminals (including serial ports). Now plug in your USB adapter, and run the same command again… an extra file should have appeared. This is your serial port. In my case, it is called “/dev/ttyUSB0”. If you’re using Windows, you’ll need to work out what COM port the device is connected as. Past experience on Windows says that sometimes you need to keep plugging into the same USB port to get the same COM port between sessions, but this might just be a permissions thing at work. On MacOS, the process for finding the name of the serial port is basically identical, except that the name of the port is usually a little bit different under MacOS.

Step 3 – Configuring DOSBox for Serial

Now that you have written down the exact name of your serial port (either something like “/dev/ttyUSB0” for Linux/MacOS, or “COM9” for Windows), open the DOSBox configuration file. On Linux, mine was located in “~/.doxbox/” and was called “dosbox-0.74-3.conf”. I opened it in nano to edit it by running “nano ~/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74-3.conf”.

Note that a foldername starting with “.” is an invisible folder on Linux. Additionally, it looks like the config file name will change depending on the version you have installed. The fastest way to open the file on Linux will be to type “nano ~/.dosbox/*.conf” and then press enter.

Details of where to find the config file on other platforms can be found here.

Within the now open config file, find the section titled “[serial]”. This can be done in nano by pressing “Ctrl-w”, typing “serial” and pressing enter. There are a load of examples / explanation lines which start with the “#” symbol indicating that they are comments. Scroll past these to where there are (in my file) for lines, each starting with “serial” and then a number. Modify the first of these lines, which starts with “serial1” to the following, substituting your own serial port (note on Linux, you do not need the “/dev/” as shown) :

serial1=directserial realport:ttyUSB0
serial2=dummy
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

Or perhaps on Windows :

serial1=directserial realport:COM9
serial2=dummy
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

Save and close the config file.

Get the Software

The following two downloads are the Smat Move DOS software for the Economatic Smart Box (“SmartV1-6”) and a DOS serial driver (“adf_150”). Both are needed to connect to the Smart Box.

SmartV1-6Download
adf_150Download

The Smart Move software has kindly been made available here : http://flaxcottage.com/Oddments/default.asp – I have removed the “Finder.dat” file as this is a file added by MacOS and is not needed.

The driver comes from here : http://www.digsys.se/Obsolete/ADF.aspx.

Setup the Software

Extract the SmartV1-6 archive as a folder and store in a convenient location. You should now have a folder containing “SMART.EXE” and “AL.COD”. Create an additional folder called “Driver” within this first folder, and extract the contents of adf_150 into this folder.

Within the “Driver” folder, find the file “ADFCOM1.BAT”. Copy it, and name the copy “SBCOM1.BAT”. Open the file in a text editor. The contents should like like this :

@echo off
rem
rem Loading ADF for COM1
rem
rem    ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄCOM-port number, COM1-COM127.
rem    ³   ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄAddress in hex of COM-port, 0-FFFF.
rem    ³   ³  ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄIRQ number of COM-port, 0-15.
rem    ³   ³  ³      ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄLocked baud-rate, 1-115200.
rem    ³   ³  ³      ³     ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄSize of receive buffer, 256-16384.
rem    ³   ³  ³      ³     ³     ÚÄÄÄÄSize of transmit buffer, 256-16384.
rem    ³   ³  ³      ³     ³     ³  ÚÄReceiver FIFO trigger level, 1, 4, 8, 14.
rem    ³   ³  ³      ³     ³     ³  ³
adf COM1 3F8  4  57600  8192  8192  8
rem                        ³        ³
rem    ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ        ³
rem    ³               ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ   Advanced options:
rem    ³               ³
rem 8192,7168,6144 16650,16,8    3  11
rem         ³    ³        ³ ³    ³   ³
rem         ³    ³        ³ ³    ³   ÀÄ Modem Control Register.
rem         ³    ³        ³ ³    ÀÄÄÄÄÄ Line Control Register.
rem         ³    ³        ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ 16650 Transmit FIFO trigger level:
rem         ³    ³        ³             8, 16, 24 or 30.
rem         ³    ³        ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ 16650 Receive FIFO trigger level:
rem         ³    ³                      8, 16, 24 or 28.
rem         ³    ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Flow control continue or restart.
rem         ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Flow control hold or stop.
rem

Edit the line “adf COM1 3F8 4 57600 8192 8192 8”, replacing the number “57600” with “9600”. This is the serial baud rate (the speed of the connection). 57600 baud is way too fast for the Smart Box, which runs at 9600 baud. Save the changes and close the file.

As an aside, 9600 is 9600 bytes per second, plus one stop bit. If I remember correctly about this, this means that 9 bits are sent for every 8 bits of data, which is why technical people get irritated when you say 9600 bits/second instead of baud.

Run the Software

With the USB serial adapter connected, the Smart Box connected and the Smart Box powered on, launch DOSBox in the folder containing “SMART.EXE” (but don’t actually use it to run any specific program, we just want it to open at the command line). On linux this is done by navigating to the folder you want to start in in the terminal, then running “dosbox ./”. I can only assume it is the same under Windows, but I do not have any way of testing. Windows user can get a command line by typing “cmd” straight after opening the Start menu, and then pressing enter.

At the DOSBox command line, enter “cd DRIVER” to move into the Driver folder. Then enter “SBCOM1.BAT” to run the serial driver setup script we modified with a 9600 baud rate.

This should tell us “ADF loaded.” and dump us back at the command prompt.

Enter the command “cd ..” to return to the parent directory. The command “dir” shows us the files in this folder which should include “SMART.EXE”. Enter the command “SMART.EXE”.

At this point the Smart Move software is running. You should see “FOSSIL detected” showing that the serial driver is running and working with Smart Move.

Unfortunately, this is as far as I have got. The software sits at this point with a spinning progress glyph until it times out ages later. I am not yet sure if the issue is because I have the more modern SB-04 (this will surely cause issues as it must speak a different assembly language, and doesn’t have as much RAM as the older 6502 based variants?), or I have more software issues to solve. Hopefully this will be solved if either I get my hands on an SB-01, or someone else tests these instructions for me 🙂

Note the copyright notice names G.W.Babb – a name that is all over the internet, but I haven’t found any recent forum posts by him to ask for help tracking down the software. Gareth – if you’re still about, please get in touch with us as we’re trying to bring the Smart Boxes back to life and would love to know more about loading code into RAM and executing it!

BBC Micro, Electronics and Computers, Environmental Measurement, Posts, Programming, Python, Smart Box

Smart Box Analogue Sensor Types

Smart Box Analogue Sensor Types

Based on the responses from the “ReadSensorTable” command in my Economatics Smart Box SB-04, I’ve concluded that the following official sensor exist :

IndexNameVal1Val2Units
3Temp range 1TmpTempdegC
4Voltage range 1VVoltsmV
5Temp range 2TmpTempdegC
6Voltage range 2VVoltsvolts
7Temp range 3TmpTempdegC
8Voltage range 3VVoltsvolts
9Temp range 4TmpTempdegC
10Sound (standard)SndSound?
11pHpHpH?
13PositionPosPostndeg
17Light (standard)LtLight?
21R’HumidityHmdHumid%RH
22Sound range 1SndSounddbA
23Light range 1LtLightLux
24Sound range 2SndSounddbA
25Light range 2LtLightLux
26Barometric PressureAtmAtmosmBars
27Light range 3LtLightLux
28User adaptorUAUser?
290-1 Volt adapatorVAdapt?
30Temp (low range)TmpTempdegC
31Light gateLGLGate?
33Temp (standard)TmpTempdegC

There is more data being fed back by the box regarding these sensor types, but it is a little bit of a pig to understand as my terminal is reading it as escape characters. I suspect it would be easier to understand if I had some official sensors myself. I suspect that some experimentation is in order! I’ll connect a variable voltage to the detection pin and watch what sensor types the box detects at each voltage. With an ADC connected to my computer I might be able to automate the process… but that is probably more effort than it is worth.

BBC Micro, Electronics and Computers, Posts, Programming, Python, Smart Box

Smart Box List of Commands

Smart Box List of Commands

Having got a copy of the Economatics Smart Box “Operating System Serial Protocols” document curiosity of John and flaxcottage.com, I noted that one of the commands returns the name of a command based on the provided command number. Given that the instruction manual is most likely for an older version of the Smart Box (mine is an “SB-04”, rather than the older “SB-01”), which is build around a 6502 processor rather than the Mitsubishi microcontroller in mine, I wrote a short program which iterates through every command number between 0 and 99 and returns the “CodeName”. The following table shows the resulting output – I’ve also included room for other Smart Box variants for when I get access to one, or if someone runs the same program for me.

Command No.SB-01SB-01/EVSB-04
0Blank*Blank
1VersionVersion
2ResetReset
3NameCodeNameCode
4CodeNameCodeName
5MultipleSetupMultipleSetup
6MultipleReadMultipleRead
7MultipleServerMultipleServer
8IdentSystem
9CreditsCredits
10WriteMotorsWriteMotors
11ReadMotorsReadMotors
12MotorForwardMotorForward
13MotorReverseMotorReverse
14MotorHaltMotorHalt
15MotorPowerMotorPower
16PatchMF*PatchMF
17MotorVoltage
20WriteOutputsWriteOutputs
21OutputPowerOutputPower
22GetSensors*GetSensors
23CheckSensors*CheckSensors
25ReadSensorTable
28SetBitHighSetBitHigh
29SetBitLowSetBitLow
30ReadADCReg*
31WriteADCReg*
32ReadACIAReg*
33WriteACIAReg*
34ReadVIAReg*
35WriteVIAReg*
36SetVIAHigh*
37SetVIALow*
40ReadADCReadADC
41ReadADCsReadADCs
42ForcedADCReadForcedADCRead
44HighResADCHighResADC
45LowResADCLowResADC
47ReadResolutionReadResolution
50DownloadDataDownloadData375
52UploadDataUploadData375
54ExecuteCodeExecuteCode375
55StoreByteStoreByte375
56ReadByteReadByte375
57ReadRAMSize
59ExtendCall
60SetClockSetClock
61ReadClockReadClock
62ReadTopmem
63WriteTopmem
64ReadLomem
65WriteLomem
66ReadHimem
67WriteHimem
90ReadInputsReadInputs
91ReadBitReadBit
92ReadOutputs
93CountReset
94CountRead

Items marked with a * in the SB-01 column are undocumented. The SB-01 commands were taken from a machine belonging to mph1708 on the stardot.org.uk forums. The machine was running ROM OS 2.073 dated 12/07/96.

The program I used is as follows – don’t forget to change the serial port from “/dev/ttyUSB0” to whatever is applicable on your setup :

#!/usr/bin/python
import time
import serial

ser = None

def getCommandName(cmd):
        global ser
        if ser.is_open:
                ser.write(chr(4)+chr(cmd))
                time.sleep(0.2)
                readText = ""
                while ser.inWaiting() > 0:
                        readText += ser.read(1)
        return readText

ser = serial.Serial('/dev/ttyUSB0', 9600, timeout=1)

x=0
while x<100:
	theText = getCommandName(x)
	if len(theText)>1:
		print str(x)+" : "+theText
	x+=1

ser.close()

Please let me know if you have any interesting results via my contact page.

Things to note looking at the results, compared to the available documentation…

  • Command 0 (Blank) is undocumented
  • Command 8 (IdentSystem) is undocumented
  • Command 9 is called “Credits” instead of “Copyright”
  • The documentation contains both “MotorHalt” and “MotorPower” (an typo?) as Command 14. The SB-04 box reports Command 14 as “MotorHalt” and Command 15 as “MotorPower”
  • Command 16 (PatchMF) is undocumented
  • Command 17 (MotorVoltage) is undocumented – this is not a surprise as some older Smart Boxes used a key to change voltages, whereas it seems that this is a software feature on the SB-04
  • Command 22 (GetSensors) is undocumented. I assume this reports what sensor types are connected?
  • Command 23 (CheckSensors) is undocumented
  • Command 25 (ReadSensorTable) is undocumented
  • The documentation contains both “SetBitHigh” and “SetBitLow” (an typo?) as Command 28. The SB-04 box reports Command 28 as “SetBitHigh” and Command 29 as “SetBitLow”
  • Command 43 is not present on the SB-04. This is “ReadSensor” and may have been replaced by Command 22, 23, and 25
  • Commands 50, 52, 54, 55 and 56, all of which relate to accessing the Smart Box memory and executing the contents of the memory, have been renamed with “375” on the end. I believe this refers to the microcontroller type? I am surprised to see they are still implemented at all.
  • Commands 51 and 53 have been omitted. These commands related to transferring data to and from the Smart Box using an Xmodem transfer format (with and without error checking)
  • Command 57 has been omitted (ReadRAMSize)
  • Command 58 has been omitted (ReadModule). This command seems to be for identifying some kind of hardware additions fitted to the equipment when the Smart Box was used embedded within a machine or similar.
  • Command 59 has been omitted (ExtendCall) this seems to be a method by which additional commands could be added and it seems unfortunate that it has been excluded. Reference is made to “Appendix B, machine code programming”. Unfortunately I don’t appear to have a copy of this appendix.
  • Command 62 is omitted (ReadTopMem)
  • Command 63 is omitted (WriteTopMem)
  • 64, 65, 66 and 67 (“ReadLoMem”, “WriteLowMem”, “ReadHiMem” and “WriteHiMem” respectively) are all omitted
  • Command 93 (CountReset) is undocumented. I guess this is a hardware counter, but don’t currently know what input it is connected to.
  • Command 94 (CountRead) is undocumented. I guess this is a hardware counter, but don’t currently know what input it is connected to.

I’d be very interested to run the same program on an older Smart Box to see if there are any undocumented commands there. A fair few commands appear to have been removed for the SB-04, many of which were likely difficult or impossible to implement on the microcontroller as opposed to the full 6502 embedded computer that existed before.

BBC Micro, Electronics and Computers, Environmental Measurement, Linux, Posts, Programming, Python, Smart Box

Working with the Economatics Smart Box Serial Interface on a Modern Computer

Working with the Economatics Smart Box Serial Interface on a Modern Computer

Well, I had all sorts of fancy plans for how I would reverse engineer the serial protocol to control my ebay purchase “Smart Box” (some of which I will document at some point as they’re useful). Ultimately, I had so much difficulty installing MS .net 1.1 in Wine / PlayOnLinux that I went back to trawling the internet looking for alternative software to wire tap.

Smart Box
Smart Box

I struck gold when I found the following website :

http://old.ftcommunity.de/ftComputingFinis/smartboxe.html

The website includes a download of example code, the core of which is in VB6 and includes many serial commands for controlling the Smart Box (SB-04 version – I understand that older versions work differently, so be warned!), as well as an instruction manual that goes some way to explaining how the box data formats work.

After a bit of messing about in Python, it was fairly trivial to test a number of commands and witness the results. The only major feature I’m not currently sure about is the Analogue Inputs – I don’t know what the pinout is of the 5 pin DIN sockets, and so can’t easily test them. Perhaps a bit of circuit board investigation will help with this.

In summary, I have found the following :

DescriptionCommandParameterResponsePython Example
Set All Motors108 bit value. Note, each pair of bits represents a motor. 01=left, 10=right and 00=stopn/aser.write(chr(10)+chr(0b01010101)) # rotate all motors to the left
Motor <x> Left121 to 4n/aser.write(chr(12)+chr(1)) # rotate motor ‘A’ to the left
Motor <x> Right131 to 4n/aser.write(chr(13)+chr(1)) # rotate motor ‘A’ to the right
Motor <x> Stop141 to 4n/aser.write(chr(14)+chr(1)) # stop motor ‘A’
Set All Digital Outputs208 bit valuen/aser.write(chr(20)+chr(0b11111111)) # turn all digital outputs on
Get Analogue <x>40 (TBC)1 to 48 bit value??ser.write(chr(40)+chr(1)) # send me analogue input ‘A’
Set Low Resolution Analogue45 (TBC)n/an/aser.write(chr(45)) # set low resolution analogue mode
Get All Digital Inputs90n/a8 bit value. Note the command seems to respond with three bytes, although the first identifies the status of each input.ser.write(chr(90)) # send me the status of the digital inputs
Get Digital Input <x>91 (TBC)1 to 80 or 1 (in 8 bit value)ser.write(chr(45)+chr(1)) # send me the status of digital input 0

The following example switches on motor ‘A’ for 5 seconds, stops it for 0.5 seconds, runs it backwards for 2 seconds and then stops it. Note the serial port will need setting – I have used ‘/dev/ttyUSB0’ as this is the correct port for my USB to RS232 adapter on my Linux machine.

#!/usr/bin/python

# https://elephantandchicken.co.uk/stuffandnonsense
# 04/03/2020

import time
import serial

# This example tests motor output A

ser = serial.Serial('/dev/ttyUSB0', 9600, timeout=1)

ser.write(chr(12)+chr(1))
time.sleep(5)
ser.write(chr(14)+chr(1))
time.sleep(0.5)
ser.write(chr(13)+chr(1))
time.sleep(2)
ser.write(chr(14)+chr(1))

ser.close()

The following example reads the status of all digital inputs (aka “Digital Sensors”) 20 times.

#!/usr/bin/python

# https://elephantandchicken.co.uk/stuffandnonsense
# 04/03/2020

import time
import serial

# This example reads in the digital sensors and displays their status

ser = serial.Serial('/dev/ttyUSB0', 9600, timeout=1)

# Flash Digital Outputs to show that the program is running
ser.write(chr(20)+chr(255)) # all on
time.sleep(0.1)
ser.write(chr(20)+chr(0)) # all off
time.sleep(0.1)

i = 0

while i < 20:
	ser.write(chr(90)+chr(1)) # request digital input status
	time.sleep(1) # wait (ages) for the response
	readVal = 0 # clear variables
	readByte = 0
	readByte = ord(ser.read(1)) # read the first waiting byte in the buffer
	while ser.inWaiting() > 0: # if there is more data in the buffer
		readVal = ord(ser.read(1)) # read it to clear it
	print "result : ",format(readByte, '08b') # print the first byte in boolean format
	i+=1 # increment counter for the while loop
ser.close()

I still have some more work to do, regarding confirming exactly how these commands work (for example, what are the second and third bytes from the digital read response?). Additionally, I suspect that it is possible to set the voltages, but don’t know how. I’m (absolutely) guessing that command 11 might be motor speed.

Additionally, please contact me if you know any more details of the control scheme, or the analogue port pinout.

BBC Micro, Electronics and Computers, Posts, Smart Box

Economatics Smart Box

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Economatics Smart Box

A little while ago, I bought myself a Economatics Smart Box (SB-04). My intention is to reverse engineer the serial protocol so that I can use it from a modern (Linux, but the information will be useful to others) computer. These boxes were common in schools in the UK through the 90s (and possibly before). Older variants worked with the BBC Micro. This is what they look like if anyone has forgotten or hasn’t seen one before :

Image

A couple of minor issues so far – Number 1 – This specific model (the SB-04) doesn’t have mains in like some of the older versions, it has 12v AC in – don’t know about you, but I’ve hardly seen any AC-AC PSUs in years.

I’m aware that often you can just use a DC PSU of the same voltage with such equipment because the first thing that happens on the circuit board is that the supply is rectified and smoothed… using a DC supply just means that the supply is always going through two of the diodes and the capacitor remains permanently charged. As long as you’re within the diode ratings and the resultant voltage is close enough, there isn’t an issue. My thought was to check the circuit and see if there was any obvious reason why this wouldn’t work, which is where we get to issue Number 2…

Anti-tamper screws. I managed to get these out using a tiny socket and pushing down hard.

Lovely looking PCB inside designed by “G A Assembly Ltd” and “Mindstorm” (I wonder if there is any connection to the Lego Mindstorm?). Note one bodge wire, a socketed chip with the firmware version (with an unusual pitch), a missing MAX4622 chip (single pole double throw fast acting switch https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/prod … X4622.html) and space for a USB B socket. The digital outputs are buffered with ULN2064b chips (these are darlington pair arrays).

Anyway, I’ve got distracted.

First point – there is no obvious rectifier, the PSU portion of the circuit is complex and includes two large inductors by the look of it. I’ll have to do a bit more digging and look up what some of the components are.

Second most important point – does anybody have a photo of the USB version of this board – I’d be interested in adding USB if I can. Current theory – the bodge wire is hardwiring my board to Serial and saving the need for the MAX4622 chip for switching between USB and RS232. There are a bank of jumpers that look interested and are next to the USB lines. I’m also wondering is the firmware the same in the USB and Serial variants?

Photos of the top side of the PCB (actually the bottom as it sits on the desk) for interest.

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I think the main chip might be some kind of 6502 based MCU or similar – I can’t find a good datasheet online that exactly matches. It has a reduced pin pitch, 42 pins and it looks like the Crystal is connected to pins 19 and 20.

A 6502 based MCU would make sense given that the company made BBC Micro peripherals.

Older versions of the board are basically an embedded 6502 computer with RAM, ROM, an ADC and a VIA. My newer version is based on a Mitsubishi microcontroller, the M37536E8SP.

I’ve taken the board completely out of the case now. No components on the reverse, but useful for tracking traces. I’ve also noticed that there is a cut trace next to the test point that the bodge wire is attached to (separating it from a capacitor that looks like it is attached to a power rail judging by the track width – they must have accidentally tied it high).

Underside of the PCB :

Image

Thoughts welcome, photos of the USB variant would be gratefully received!

___________________________________________________________________

Update – Some progress. I have digital write working from Python. I was lucky enough to find this page, which includes a download of sample code for controlling the Smart Box from VB6. Helpfully, this includes a number of the serial commands for making the box do various things. I’ve been able to extract the commands for the core functionality.