Sounds a bit like the serial port bug that 0.65 has. Try my build (in the patches section here or on my homepage) it has that bug corrected along with some other improvements.

> we can run multiple plc's of the one PC
If you don't run out of CPU power and memory 😉

I wonder how much CPU/memory his program requires?

Didn't Qbix say that DosBox runs in simple by default?
He can also mess around with the memsize parameter in dosbox.conf. Although it's doubtful this program uses EMS/XMS.

Dosbox still needs 33MB memory on the host with memsize=1 and xms/ems=false. 32MB with sound hardware deactivated. I wonder what's so huge in there...

heh. I guess that's the next big optimization project. Every time I read forums for DosBox ports to consoles/PDA's I hear about how DosBox is a memory/processor hog. Not much we can do about the processor besides the obvious (frameskip/core/lower cycles).

Hmm, mabye I'll poke around in the sources for those ports and see what the differences are. Dreamcast port would be the best bet but IIRC it's based on 0.60 (Yuk!).

Dynamic core is 10MB worth 😉 22MB with normal core.

Yeah, I remember that from awhile back that dynamic ate up more memory. Probably due to the cache.

The other big memory consumers:

PAGING_Init (12324 kB)
VGA_Init (2092 kB)
GUS_Init (1044 kB)

yeps paging is the largest one of DOSBox

Still no joy. =(
I tried using the combined build off Hal's website but I get the same problem. Any other ideas?

Im not very familiar with dosbox but if it works for large amounts of data and has problems with small amounts perhaps thier is a buffer causing a problem?

Does the Dosbox status window say anything unusual?
Is a screensaver or other software running when the error occurs?

Nothing that strikes me as unusual in the status window and the pc's are running an almost fresh install of 2000. No screensavers either.

Some more info:
I ran the program once with the com ports setup incorrectly and when the program tried to access the ports dosbox would show an error message. I'll attach a screenshot. Anyway right after i attempt to download the logic this error pops up once every seccond.
The number of cycles does not effect the speed of this error message. These error messages seem to correspond to when the timeout occurs (if the com ports are setup correctly).

That tells me that your app uses the bios INT14 interface. If you'd like to help with debugging run this
http://home.arcor.de/h-a-l-9000/test/dosbox_sertest1.zip
and send me the status window output. (no need for huge screenshots, the text in the console can be copied to clipboard).

Hi h-a-l-9000

I have nearly the same problem with the INT14 interface and an old DOS Software.
Here is the output from the status window made with the Dosbox version above:

CONFIG:Loading settings from config file dosbox.conf
MIDI:Opened device:win32
Serial1: Opening com1
Ser1: RTS off.
Ser1: DTR off.
Ser1: CTS off.
Ser1: DSR off.
Ser1: RI off.
Ser1: CD off.
Ser2: RTS off.
Ser2: DTR off.
Ser2: RI off.
Ser2: DSR off.
Ser2: CD off.
Ser2: CTS off.
BIOS INT14: port 4 does not exist.
BIOS INT14: port 2560 does not exist.
BIOS INT14: port 3072 does not exist.
BIOS INT14: port 3584 does not exist.
BIOS INT14: port 4096 does not exist.
BIOS INT14: port 4608 does not exist.
.
.
.
and so on

I hope this will help you...

GZ

Missing some more info. Could you retry with this?

http://home.arcor.de/h-a-l-9000/test/dosbox_sertest3.zip

By the way:WinXP Home on a 2GHz Medion Laptop, original on a 386 20MHz.

Output from ...test3:

CONFIG:Loading settings from config file dosbox.conf
MIDI:Opened device:win32
Serial1: Opening com1
BIOS INT14: Unhandled call 40
BIOS INT14: Unhandled call 40
BIOS INT14: Unhandled call 40
BIOS INT14: Unhandled call 40

cheers

Looks like that app needs special hardware/TSR (what's a I1541)?

The software is running on an (standart) 19" 386 industry pc. it talks via rs2332 with a touch screen controller. it should send first "01h 52h 0dh" and then receive something like "01h 30h 0dh" and so on. (4800 7N2)

The original touch screen driver runs on dosbox, it seems to use the standart serial drivers from dos ? But the software don't use this driver.

When i start the software, the first thing ist to check, wheter the touch screen controller is "online". that's the output from above (...call 40) an nothing is coming out from serial port 1.

sorry, I don't no what "I1541" means. What is TSR?

oh, "echo text > com1" works not. no error-message, but also no output on com1...

thank you!

Well call 40 is nothing a "normal" PC would be able to handle (unless there is some secret about INT14). In the interrupt list (a collection of various API documentation) call 40 is described as I1541, some sort of communication API. Are you loading some extra drivers (TSR= terminate and stay resistent) in autoexec.bat / confi.sys which are missing in Dosbox?
"echo text > com1" only sends data if CTS and DSR are on (like on real DOS). As a workaround you can connect RTS->CTS and DTR->DSR on the serial plug.

I don't think that there will be a special driver loaded on startup, but i will test it on thuesday at work.
I found this
http://www.ctyme.com/intr/int-14.htm
and
http://sta.c64.org/cables.html
seems to be a commodore (may god rest his soul) serial cable...
and there is a driver to emulate it
http://members.surfeu.fi/1541/

Other question:
Will it be possible to "speak" with a I/O com. card like
http://www.visonet.ch/produkte.cfm?ID_n=79&la … =26&hauptkat=25
or is absolute impossible? if this not works, the serial stuff will not make sense...

have a good weekend!