Identify serial port channels

[jeannotlt]

Hey guys,

so I have this very old D/A converter that is connected to an insdutrial food dryer. It runs over serial (using a USB-serial converter to make it run on my PC). Now using the basic read write I get an output, namely 'An=xxxx' where n is a number 1 through 16 and xxxx a four-digit number. I actually know there are 8 input channels and 8 output channels. I also keep getting certain hex strings at the beginning of my read output but no idea what they do.

The problem is, the company who made this hardawre no longer exists and I have no idea how to control this. My question is fist, is there anyway to separate the output into 16 different channels? And ist there a way to find out which commands work on this thing?

Name of the hardware is MIDAS, by DMP AG, a swiss company. Any help would be immensely appreciated.

Pic related, it's the output.

Thanks!

j

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

Do you have any previous software controlling this device?  You can oftentimes figure out how it works that way.

If not, I don't see how you are going to be able to program it without proper documentation.

[jeannotlt]

hey thanks for your answer. Yes I do BUT it only works on DOS (hardware and software are both from the mid-90s) with no source code. I can't run it on any other system because it uses a proprietary graphic driver and won't work with anything else.

tl;dr: yes but no way of extracting any infos from that, at least I wouldn't know how.

[OlegS]

Dear jeannotlt,

my last idea would be try to use the reverse engineering IDA Pro which is free. I don’t know if it would work because the software is for dos but when you have a exe it could.

I also found a Company in Switzerland called DMP AG and also a Company called DMP Ltd.

Try to call there or write mail to find out if they know something about the Industrial Food Dryer MIDAS.

So I wish you good luck with this project and I'm sorry for I can't hap you more.

Kind Regards,

SG3 | Applications Engineering | National Instruments | NIG |