Looking for a special lot drivers for WinLV

[SparkyT]

Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

I need to resurrect my old Micromaster LV.
I have copy of WinLV, I am running in on XP, but this does not communicate with the MMLV. I think this is because it is on more modern motherboard than WinLV was written for. I saw on an old post that bigdogguru had a special lot driver that he used. I was wondering if anyone could point me to a source of this driver.

 

[betwixt]

Re: Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

Micromasters work on a parallel interface so if your board has one it should work, regardless of it's age. If you do have a parallel port, try changing the BIOS settings to see if any of the different port modes (DMA etc) will work. Use the comms test routine to see if it is communicating properly.

Brian.

 

[SparkyT]

Re: Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

Hi Brian

From various places on the web and from this thread on this board.

https://www.edaboard.com/threads/218064/

It would seem that more modern chipsets and OS's do not allow direct access to the LPT port. The WinLV software that drives the Micromaster LV requires direct access. I used to use the MMLV on both Win95 and Win98 without any problem, when I switched to XP many years ago the WinLV software would always say programmer not connected.

I always kept an old PC running Win98 to drive the programmer which has little use, but this is beginning to fail. The device that I need to program needs an adapter whicj I have for the MMLV. It would be too expensive to get an adapter for my other programmers and I don't think that they support the device any way.

I believe that I need a special LPT driver which allows direct access but I have been unable to find a suitable one any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Mark

 

[betwixt]

Re: Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

Micromasters use(d) a simple programming language which is described in the handbook so it's fairly easy to communicate with them. Electrically, I think any USB-Parallel adapter will work, the limitiation is the LPT port number which I think is limited to 1 - 4, the numbers of the ports from days when the base addresses were fixed. So the driver you are looking for is a standard parallel adapter but one that the USB system enumerates back to one of the old numbers. My MMLV works on XP without any problems, for later versions of Windoze, it might be possible to fool the OS if you can assign a new number to the port. I know it can be done with serial ports, I've never tried it with parallel ones though.

Brian.

 

[D.A.(Tony)Stewart]

Re: Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

COntact support@icetech.com for solution

 

[SparkyT]

Re: Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

Hi Brian

Prehaps you have a more recent version of WinLV, I have tried version 1.0.0219 & version 2.0.009 neither work. How old is your Micromaster.

I purchased the MMLV many years ago, it came with both DOS and Win 3.1 software. I think the problems stems from the fact that Win98 and all early windows were DOS based and XP was NT based.

I will try the usb printer adapter again but I am sure that when I tried that before nothing showed up in device manager.

Mark

 

[betwixt]

Re: Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

My version is 1.0.0241 dated 12-November-2003 and I'm sure I 've used it many times with XP. The program is compatible, it's only the communication port that causes problems. If Windows doesn't let you renumber the USB adapter, try changing the value in "winlv.ini" which is a text file in the installation folder.

SunnySkyguy, this isn't the company using the Icetech brand name these days, it was a UK based manufacturer that migrated to New Zealand then 'faded out' without trace about 12 years ago. They made some very nice programmers that worked with a multitude of micros, EPROMS, PALS, had a built in chip test and chip identifier and even had an option to plug in as an emulator for EPROMS and RAM.

Brian.

 

[BradtheRad]

Re: Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

I think the problems stems from the fact that Win98 and all early windows were DOS based and XP was NT based.

Don't know if this bears directly on your problem with your equipment, but it could indicate what's possible...

I have an old Compaq laptop running XP, with a parallel port. The parallel port was able to print to an old Canon inkjet printer from the DOS window. Evidently the printer had Epson emulation built in (dot matrix style). Windows did not need to be involved. No Canon printer driver had to be installed.

 

[betwixt]

Re: Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

Micromasters use an inteface similar to a printer. The was an 8-bit parallel port on a big FPGA inside it. It's a few years since mine was opened up but if my memory serves me well, it had no clock generator so I would guess it didn't use a micro at all. The handbooks describe a very simple comms protocol consisting of a single letter to set the operating mode, pin allocations, VPP etc. followed by a stream of data. The PC software includes a comprehensive diagnostic package which tries different ports if it can't find the hardware and if it fails, drops into a demo mode. They are excellent machines, it's a pity the manufacturer ceased production.

Brian.

 

[poulbundgaard]

Re: Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

I have spent part of the Christmas holiday reviving my old Icetech Micromaster LV and Micromaster LV48 programmers. One funny thing I encountered is that the LV will only run under WinLV 1.0.0241, while the LV48 can operate under 2.0.0009, where the LV is not detected (although the "power" LED lights up. Is that the expected behaviour?
On another note, is there anyone in this thread who has a copy of the manual and are willing to share. I seem to have lost mine, and I cannot find a copy anywhere on the web.

/Poul

 

[betwixt]

Re: Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

I've got both the books somewhere. I demolished my house last year and built a new one so they got 'stored in a safe place' (lost) but I can guess where they might be. It will take me a few days to retrieve them but I'll scan them to PDF for you. If I remember, one is the programming manual and the other is the user manual, spiral bound and A5 size pages.

Brian.

 

[poulbundgaard]

Re: Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

That would be amazing, thank you very much. Is there a "Nerd e-book library" where they could be uploaded if someone else needs them?

 

[betwixt]

Re: Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

I'm not sure they are 'public domain' even though the company doesn't seem to exist any longer. The good news is I've found them, there are three books, one covering the GLV32, one for Speedmaster and Micromaster LV and one for the EPROM emulator module. I will scan the LV manual for you, it runs to 101 pages so it will take me a while!

Brian.

 

[betwixt]

Re: Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

Here's the scan.

It's a pity it uses a parallel interface and the software directly drives the BIOS parallel ports. I'm sure there is a way to fake one using a serial method, I wish I had a lot more time to experiment.

Brian.

 

[poulbundgaard]

Re: Looking for special lot driver for WinLV

Wow, amazing - thank you very much. Very nice scan. It is some very useful devices, I have made extensive use of the abiltiy to test 74xx(x)/4xxx(x) devices as well as the stimulus system, where you can create your own test stimuli and expected feedback. I am not aware of any such device that you can buy today with a more recent interface (USB or the like), so I am very happy to have them running again (having them tucked away a couple of years while renovating an old house from 1914).