ILPer v2.2 + update of Virtual HP-IL devices

[Christoph Giesselink]

Hello together,

a new version of ILPer is available at http://hp.giesselink.com/hpil.htm

Primary ILPer v2.2 is the result of refactoring the complete source code. Using a base class, all instruments now use the same source code file for decoding the HP-IL frames. This makes software maintenance and even creating new instruments much easier. The method implementing threads has been changed too. The restriction for member variables and methods to be in the public area of a class for access inside the thread function has gone.

Behind all these source code changes ILPer got some improvements:

• Instruments can removed from the internal loop now. To do this set the "LoopPos" setting of the instruments you want to remove to 0. But just remember, in ILPer v2.0 and v2.1 a "LoopPos" 0 setting inserted an instrument first in the loop.
• No baud rate setting for the PIL-Box any more.
• Improved PIL-Box transfer speed at 115200 baud when PIL-Box working in device mode.
• Added 230400 baud support for next PIL-Box generation with firmware 2.1.
• The printer output speed was significantly improved by factor 10 to 30.
• In most cases the printer and scope window show one more line.
• The DOSLINK GUI interface has a new button. "C" close opened in- and out-files like the HP-IL command CLEAR :LOOP or CLEAR :DOSLINK do.
• Bugfix in the physical drive settings of disk1. With ILPer v2.x overwriting the physical dimension settings of disk1 was not possible. This took only effect when you initialized a disk in disk drive1 with a HP71 or a HP75. The virtual disk size remained to the default size of disk drive1.
  

Along with the refactoring of ILPer all other Virtual HP-IL programs have been refactored too.

• ILCtrl v1.13
• ILDoslink v1.03
• ILper v2.2
• ILPilbox v1.62
• ILScope v1.52
• ILVideo v1.32
• ILVideo80 v1.22
  

I also made an update of Lifls in the PC Utilities section. v0.03 and prior may not show the complete LIF directory. Parsing stopped on directory entries completely filled with zero.

[rprosperi]

(04-19-2016 05:23 PM)Christoph Giesselink Wrote:  a new version of ILPer is available at http://hp.giesselink.com/hpil.htm

Thanks Christoph, the speedup is very obviously cool, but other changes are appreciated as well. Ability to disable a virtual device simply like this is nice.

It's clearly a very large update effort to improve all these tools!! Thanks very much!

[Christoph Giesselink]

(04-20-2016 11:00 AM)Mike (Stgt) Wrote:  Question: how close is the LIF disk simulation to real devices? May I use it as reference?

In general there's no LIF disk logic inside ILPer.

The only exception, because it's also in the 9114 disk drive, is the workaround for the HP 82401A rev. 1A bug writing wrong LIF information in sector 0 of a disk drive.

So the LIF disk logic for a 9114 disk drive is always inside the controller and not in the device.

[J-F Garnier]

(04-19-2016 05:23 PM)Christoph Giesselink Wrote:  a new version of ILPer is available at http://hp.giesselink.com/hpil.htm
...

• No baud rate setting for the PIL-Box any more.
• Improved PIL-Box transfer speed at 115200 baud when PIL-Box working in device mode.
• Added 230400 baud support for next PIL-Box generation with firmware 2.1.
  

As mentioned by Christoph, ILPer 2.2 supports a faster communication speed at 230 kbps. If you recently bought a PIL-Box with firmware 2.1 (from sn P229-2016), all you have to do is to remove the internal jumper on JP2 inside the PIL-Box and will enjoy the improved speed.
For users of PIL-Box with firmware 1.x, it is possible to upgrade to 2.1 by changing the microcontroller. No modification of the board is needed. The performance gain vs firmware 1.5 is about 40% (°), depending on your PC hardware and OS. Contact me for more details.

J-F
Edit: (°) performance gain with the HP-71B. No significant gain with a HP-41C since it is sooo slow...

[jch]

Great update !
I had some "side by side" issue on first run.
Solved after install of Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package MFC Security Update.
BTW, did you switch to Visual Studio 2005 ?

Working fine with my all new PILBox V2.1 (@115200 bauds)
Many Thanks to you, Christoph & J-F.

[Christoph Giesselink]

(04-24-2016 05:45 PM)jch Wrote:  I had some "side by side" issue on first run.
Solved after install of Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package MFC Security Update.
BTW, did you switch to Visual Studio 2005 ?

Yes, I did. Since January 2016 (ILPer v2.1) the regular distributions with source code contain binaries compiled with Visual Studio 2005. Visual Studio 2005 is the last compiler supporting Win9x (Win95/98/Me) and NT4.0 and more important for me, supporting the IPv6 protocol. To run MFC programs compiled with Visual Studio 2005 you need the latest Visual Studio 2005 runtime installed.

When you're not able to install the VS2005 runtime for some reasons the actual MSVC6 binaries are still available at http://hp.giesselink.com/HPIL/ILProgsIPv4.zip.

BTW, for some years now, in all my emulator distributions the binaries are compiled with Visual Studio 2005. The main reason for this, the compiled binaries are faster than compiled with MSVC6 because of better code optimization.

[jch]

(04-24-2016 09:04 PM)Christoph Giesselink Wrote:  Since January 2016 (ILPer v2.1) the regular distributions with source code contain binaries compiled with Visual Studio 2005.

ILPer v2.1 was Ok, no need to install the service pack. Some MS Update there ?

[Christoph Giesselink]

(04-25-2016 07:01 PM)jch Wrote:  

(04-24-2016 09:04 PM)Christoph Giesselink Wrote:  Since January 2016 (ILPer v2.1) the regular distributions with source code contain binaries compiled with Visual Studio 2005.

ILPer v2.1 was Ok, no need to install the service pack. Some MS Update there ?

I don't think so. I have two PC's which don't update the Runtime automatically. Both use this copy http://hp.giesselink.com/Runtime/vcredist2005_x86.exe of the Runtime for over a year now.