I needed a control program to control my robo tube welder for the low
 cost universal motor mount.

 As far I have discovered I have found nothing better than an old
 mother board with a printer port on it, DOS and Quick Basic.

 DOS and QB is as close to a real time OS as you are likely to find.
 More than powerful enough to control most machines. Very low cost and
 very easy to program.

 <http://www.aaroncake.net/**electronics/qblpt.htm<http://www.aaroncake.net/electronics/qblpt.htm



 http://www.aaroncake.net/**forum/ <http://www.aaroncake.net/forum/

 Quote:

 You need to know the address of the port you want to use. You will
 also need two other things; the command to access the port and the
 number you want to set it to. The command will be explained in a
 little while. The ports work with numbers. These can be expressed in
 hex, binary or decimal, but for this document all values will be
 expressed in decimal. It's just easier that way. Anyway, you operate
 the port by sending it a number that represents the binary pattern of
 the physical outputs on the port. For example, to set the 8 data
 lines to 11111111, you would send 255. To set them to 00000000 you
 would send 0. Note that these are all 8 bit binary numbers, and the
 port is also 8 outputs. Coincidence? I think not.

 Now that we know how to tell the port what bit patterns we want, we
 have to actually apply that to the BASIC language. BASIC uses two
 commands to talk to the computer's ports. These are OUT and INP. OUT
 is a statement and is used like the following:

 OUT [port],[number]

 We will get to INP later. As you can see, the two parameters required
 are the port address and the value we want to set it to. The address
 can be decimal or hex, as can the value. Because there are only 8
 data lines, we can only send a maximum of 255 to the port (255 is
 decimal for binary 11111111). The examples below illustrate sending a
 few different bit patterns to the data lines.


 'set port to 00000000 OUT 888, 0 'set port to 10000000 OUT 888, 1
 'set port to 01000000 OUT 888, 2 'set port to 00100000 OUT 888, 4
 'set port to 00010000 OUT 888, 8

 Of course, you can also turn on more than one bit:


 'set port to 10110000 OUT 888, 11


 The control lines are just as easy to control, but there are a few
 differences. First, the address of the port is 890. Second is that
 there are only 4 outputs, so the highest decimal representation of
 the binary bit pattern you will be using is 15 (binary 1111).

 Outputting information is easy, and inputting is just as easy. If you
 actually want to get information into the computer, you will be using
 the 5 status lines. Reading the bit pattern of a port is done using
 the INP function. This function is used in the following way:


 [variable]=INP([port])

 End of quote;

 With those four printer control lines you can use a data selector to
 control up to 16 eight bit ports. Way more than Adriano. This idea
 struck me like a bolt of lighting :)

 Here is a device to control two pulse width modulated DC electric
 motor speeds.

 Only three chips and two FET's!!!!!

 It does not need the data selector as it uses two printer port
 control lines directly to store data in a D to A. The D to A controls
 a very linear $1 CMOS 555 pulse width modulator. You need a another
 555 as a trigger oscillator. The speed of the rotation can be
 measured by using RS232 ON COM hard ware real time QB interrupt.

 In theory this could be used to build an EFI for a couple of hundred
 including the mini form factor PC mother board.

 It is trivial to program in QB. Compiled QB is lightening fast on
 modern hardware. QB64 is not real time unfortunately.

 Paul Lamar

 --

 I wrote this program is 5 seconds and here is the output on the
 scoop.

 start: out 888,1 out 888,0 goto start

 Square wave more or less 3.25 ms cycle time. The Q BASIC is running
 in interpreted mode. This old mother board is not fast enough for
 timed fuel injection but batch mode fuel injection would work.
 Tracy's EFI is batch mode. You would have to use a CD ignition system
 and fire the plugs directly.

 Paul Lamar

 Here are a couple of charts that come in handy when programming.

 The colors are for the brand of printer cable I had lying around.
 Your cable may vary.

 I print these out because DOS is not multi tasking :)

 BTW since I am doing the PWM in hardware it makes programming half as
 hard and the program needs far less overhead time. All single chip
 computers have a PWM problem because they use a difficult to set up
 timer and a hardware interrupt routine. Many of these timers are mind
 boggling complicated :)

 Paul Lamar

 I fooled around with this some more and compiled a QB stand alone exe
 PWM program.

 I got a PW of 22 usec off and 45 usec on. Resolution about 1 %.

 Here is the simple program

 start: out 888,1 for x = 1 to 100:next out 888,0 for x = 1 to
 50:next goto start

 This is half of an EFI program if you want to fire all four injectors
 at the same time. Very little hard ware required. Just FET amps to
 fire the injectors.

 The micro XT mother boards continue to get smaller,faster and
 cheaper. I have seen them for as little as $50. A Lava dual printer
 port PCI card is available to take in data from the air temp and MAP
 for less than $50.

 The MAP table can be stored, emailed and shared.

 This is a EFI computer system a child can program.


 Paul Lamar

 -

 Paul,

 I just want to print out the the precision of timer in your code
 depends on:
 1. It is running in pure DOS mode, no windows stuff.
 2. Since it uses software loop to time, the actual delay depends
 on the CPU
 clock speed. So delay will vary from motherboard to motherboard.
 3. No TSR program is in place.
 4. And the delay can still be affected by system interrupts such
 as timer
 updates, etc.

 Therefore, it is best to have a simple uP such as 8051, running
 at a fixed
 CPU clock say 10MHz clock, dedicated to do this task. Your basic
 program
 then only have to send out variables to the 8051 to change the
 PWM. The
 resulting system will always have precise timing.

 Henry


 I am not going to use that QB PWM program directly.  I just did
 it to illustrate the power, simplicity and ease of programming of
 this approach to EFI.

 I am using this PWM hardware scheme in the attached schematic.
 The mother board processor can set this PWM hardware up and go
 off and do something else.

 It was originally developed for use with a 8051 but I don't need
 it now.
 PWM is done with a hardware D to A and  CMOS 555.

 I will now use it with a couple of bi directional Centronics
 printer ports running under DOS
 on a micro ATX mother board and programed with a PC. With a VGA
 LCD on the panel everything is there  necessary for an EFIS as
 well. One card can be expanded to 16 eight bit ports for data
 ack. The other printer port will be dedicated to 4 PWM 555
 injector drivers. MAP ASCII tables in comma delimited  form can
 be saved on HD or USB thumb drives and emailed if required.
 Everybody underestimates the real time power of DOS and Quick
 BASIC. The "ON" hardware interrupts are a boon for hardware control.

 Brilliant idea on my part if I do say so myself :)

 I think you are the only guy so far smart enough  to appreciate
 this Henry :)

 As usual I am probably ten years ahead of my time again. I will
 probably be
 dead before this brilliant idea will be recognized :)

 ==============================**================
 2 printer ports Lava board instructions.

 Installing the Parallel PCI card under DOS for use with Windows
 3.x or DOS

 PURPOSE OF UTILITY

      The purpose of the program is to enable our board from DOS
 level.  It configures DOS to accept our board and it may set the
 PCI bus address to what you have set as a parameter.  You can
 leave that parameter out and DOS will be configured to what the
 PCI bus on your system has configured our card to.
      DOS can have a maximum of three parallel ports enabled.  So
 you can have up to 3 Parallel PCI cards in a system as long as
 there are no other parallel ports in the system.  The three
 standard addresses are 3bc 378 278.  The lava card cannot install
 on 3bc because it may cause problems with video cards.  You may
 assign the card any address you wish other than 3bc.  You must
 omit parameter 2 and three if there is only one parallel Pci card
 in your system.

 INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS


 1) Insert the Lava Parallel PCI into a free PCI slot.

 2) Boot into DOS.

 3) With the Lava Parallel PCI floppy diskette in the floppy
 drive, copy the setaddr.sys file to root directory of the hard
 drive.
 Use the following command:
 copy a:\DOS\setaddr.sys c:\

 4) Add the following line to your config.sys above (following)
 all devices to be loaded such as HIMEM and EMM386, or if you are
 running DOS under Windows 95 add this line also to your Config.dos.

 device=c:\setaddr.sys [1] [2] [3]


      where [1] [2] [3] (leave the [] out) are the I/O addresses
 that you wish to assign to the Lava Parallel PCI cards started
 with Lava Parallel PCI with the lowest PCI slot number.  Consult
 your motherboard manual to verify which slot is the lowest slot
 number. You can use other addresses for the Parallel PCI card
 such as 378 or non standard addresses such as 288,238,2b8,338.

 NOTE!!
 DO NOT USE THE STANDARD ADDRESS 3BC!  This address could cause
 problems with your video.

 here are some examples:

 2 Lava Parallel PCI cards installed on address 278 and 378 first
 card 378 second card 278.
 device=c:\setaddr.sys 378 278

      You can also leave out these parameters and the Parallel PCI
 card will be assigned the PCI bus assigned address like
 6000,5000....

 5) Reboot into DOS and our setaddr.sys utility will report the
 IRQ and address assigned to our card.

 ==============================**============

 Paul Lamar

 Henry,

 I messed around  all morning  interfacing the TI.... TLC7226 DAC to the
 printer port. I could not think of why
 it was not working for the life of me. Then I noticed I did not ground the
 PC to the prototype board.

 Shessss!

 Getting old is hell on the mind :)

 These are some of the programs I tried thinking it was the program.

 I got this out of the DOS machine on a 3.5" floppy and read it into Linux
 on a USB 3.5" floppy :)

 I need to celebrate and have a banana split for lunch :)


 Paul Lamar

I have been looking for an RX-8 with stick shift but without success.
Finally I settle on a 2003 automatic as it seems to be in quite good
condition. I got it last night. I will go get a banana split for breakfast
so we can celebrate together. :)

I do have a question for you. The used car inspector claims that there is a
bit of excessive smoke (white). I did not see it so may be it is only when
it is cold. Is it normal? If not, what can be wrong. Also, it seems that
the previous owner had taken out the catalytic converter, could that be the
source of the white smoke?

Speed limits are low in Hong Kong, So I end up keeping the car in 2nd and
3rd gear so I can keep the rev up above 3500. It sounded really good above
5,000. It is surprisingly quiet at high rev., I am now say that I am
officially converted to rotary power. The onlly

By the way, I checked retail price here on the printer cards. Looks like
for PCIe based printer port adapter, price on eBay is about the same as
price here. After consideration for shipping, (free on eBay) I think it is
better to get them on line.

Cheers on the banana split! Good health to you and Robin.

Henry

Congratulations. I love they way they sound 6000 to 9000 RPM full chat.
You found  an RX8 in Shenzing or Hong Kong ??

The smoke is unusual. It usually means the o-rings on the sides of the rotor
are damaged from overheating. I have not seen that for about 20 years. I guess it could be a water leak too. If it starts OK it is probably not a water leak. Is the white smoke just when you start it up. If so it is rotor O-rings. Not to worry I drove
my Cosmo for 15 years with shot rotor o-rings.

BTW I set up the CMOS 555 hardware PWM and it is working fantastically.

This is a major breakthrough for all single chip and full blown
computers doing PWM. It is working way beyond my fondest expectations.
The scoop pictures tell the story. Totally unloads PWM from the program
and the computer hardware. Perfect for DC motor control and EFI.
Send it an 8 bit value and it puts out a corresponding pulse width.


Paul Lamar

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