CodeProject Latest postings for Hardware & Devices

gprs modem

hermionee — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:55:00 GMT

how do i interface with the gprs modem using j2me without using a pc...i want to use it to send a sms through the gprs modem in a home security system to a predefined mobile number...pls help me regarding this...

Replicating the CMOS contents from one PC to many others

edinando — Sat, 04 May 2013 20:33:00 GMT

    Hello, I need help of friends or community experts with this problem:
 
We have about 100 PCs of the same brand and model manufactured in 2010. I need to change in all these PCs, periodically and manually, the system and user passwords through the BIOS and would like to automate this procedure through a software and had the following idea:
 
The motherboard manufacturer sent me a program to read and write the CMOS. I starts with the setting up these passwords on a single PC, saving all your content to a file and after with this program, I write de CMOS to the others machines. Detail: this program is to be used with a boot disk with DOS.
 
As I would like to carry this procedure through the central server, copying the file with new CMOS data to a specific folder existent on all machines. In each PC there is a process running on Windows XP SP3 that as soon as received the file, make the reading the contents, writing the new passwords in its CMOS, deletes the file from the folder and restarts yourself. The theory should work, but not, inclusive on the same machine where I created the file. What happens is that every time I update the CMOS, the changed settings are retained, but the passwords always come back clean, i.e. without any protection to access to BIOS.
 
Now I'm basing my work on one program called CmosPwd which can be found on the site www.cgsecurity.org, but no options works properly on the motherboard that we have. Our platform apparently uses the Award BIOS 6.00 PG as base to these chinese mother boards. Tried new contact with the manufacturer, but they do not provide a map of the structure of the CMOS. I discovered that, comparing the various files, passwords are not written in ASCII mode only 5 bytes at offset 0x40, that I believe to be your CRC, as showed below:
 
    CMOS DUMPS WITH PASSWORDS:
 
    SYSTEM: 11111111
    USER  : 22222222
 
    CMOS Bank 0:
        00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
        -----------------------------------------------
     0: 59 00 55 00 14 00 05 02 05 13 26 02 40 80 08 00
     1: 40 f0 00 00 02 80 02 00 04 14 00 00 00 00 00 00
     2: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 fc
     3: 00 04 20 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
     4: 59 00 55 00 14 00 05 02 05 13 26 02 40 80 08 00
     5: 40 f0 00 00 02 80 02 00 04 14 00 00 00 00 00 00
     6: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 fc
     7: 00 04 20 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 
    CMOS Bank 1:
        00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
        -----------------------------------------------
     0: 59 00 55 00 14 00 05 02 05 13 26 02 40 80 08 00
     1: 40 f0 00 00 02 80 02 00 04 14 00 00 00 00 00 00
     2: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 fc
     3: 00 04 20 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
     4: 59 00 55 00 14 00 05 02 05 13 26 02 40 80 08 00
     5: 40 f0 00 00 02 80 02 00 04 14 00 00 00 00 00 00
     6: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 fc
     7: 00 04 20 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 

 
    SYSTEM: AAAAAAAA
    USER  : BBBBBBBB
 

     CMOS Bank 0:
        00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
        -----------------------------------------------
     0: 51 00 01 00 15 00 05 02 05 13 26 02 00 80 08 00
     1: 40 f0 00 00 02 80 02 00 04 14 00 00 00 00 00 00
     2: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 fc
     3: 00 04 20 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
     4: 51 00 01 00 15 00 05 02 05 13 26 02 40 80 08 00
     5: 40 f0 00 00 02 80 02 00 04 14 00 00 00 00 00 00
     6: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 fc
     7: 00 04 20 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 
    CMOS Bank 1:
        00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
        -----------------------------------------------
     0: 51 00 01 00 15 00 05 02 05 13 26 02 40 80 08 00
     1: 40 f0 00 00 02 80 02 00 04 14 00 00 00 00 00 00
     2: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 fc
     3: 00 04 20 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
     4: 51 00 01 00 15 00 05 02 05 13 26 02 40 80 08 00
     5: 40 f0 00 00 02 80 02 00 04 14 00 00 00 00 00 00
     6: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 fc
     7: 00 04 20 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 

 

Has anyone had a problem like this and got a simple and cheap solution, or would have any hint to solution this? I appreciate some kind of help.
 
Thanks so much,
 
Edison Fernando.
Brazil.

LPT buffer?

oldhat — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:53:00 GMT

My first post

I am building a DRO reader that will send 3, 8 bit data bytes to a LPT port, for my VB6 code I will be writing.

I know that the serial port has a good size buffer.
But do not know if and or the size of the LPT buffer is?

Did a quick search but no luck

Oldhat

How to check System Cache??

Khan Ji — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 05:53:00 GMT

HI guys,

I m using Dell E6500 Laptop and wanted to know the cache memory information.. Can u help me that where to get the required information?? I am using Windows 7 64bit...

Regards,

USB Fee, Thousands

C-P-User-3 — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:20:00 GMT

Just found this FEE PAGE[^] on the USB org site.

Does any company, no matter how small, have to pay that fee before even thinking about adding USB capability to its device ?

can i make a filter driver of raw level sector or cluster?

greenfish77 — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:37:00 GMT

i'm making a disk(volume) backup/restore system.
i would unmount volume before backup,
but the system volume can not be unmounted.
so the change or access of system volume is worry for me while that system volume is backup.

is it possible that detect which disk sector or ntfs cluster was changed realtime?
that can be filter driver, can it be possible?

CPU PDO ACPI Enumeration

Erudite_Eric — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:35:00 GMT

So I have a driver that does a child enum on the ACPI PDO. It gets back the methods, and then does an evaluate. There are two ways of doing this, evaluateex and evaluate. Oddly for exactly the same methods they return different data, not different in value, but the ex evaluation data has a 4 byte padding after each package, the eval method doesent. This is for _PSS data.

What is also odd that if the eval is called during IRP_MJ_START_DEVICE the _PCT data is also different to that obtained later on so I assume even then the device hasnt completely started. The _PCT at IRP_MJ_START_DEVICE shows IO port access, but later shows FFHW as the acces.

What is also interesting is that attaching to the PDO outside of AddDevice causes enum children to returns STATUS_NOT_SUPPORTED, which is odd, since the only interface to the PDO is the PDO pointer and the Irp, how DOES the PDO know the Irp is being sent from a DO attached outside of AddDevice? Odd stuff indeed.

Anyway it doesnt affect the functioning of the driver, it controls COU speed OK, but this variability of what the PDO is returning is odd and I cant exmplain it. Anyone have any idea why this is?

==============================

Nothing to say.

usb lon dongle

irfanulla sharieff — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:49:00 GMT

Hi everyone i want to know who are the different manufacturer of USB LON DONGLE devices and which is more efficient in terms of cost for simulation

USB, Embedded System

C-P-User-3 — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:28:00 GMT

Can I get some of the USB protocol description from the viewpoint of the software developer.

Specifically, what byte goes where, in what order; that sort of thing.

I'm implementing the module on a PIC24F embedded system.

Sample code would help a lot.

Trouble creating .inf file

fglenn — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 23:01:00 GMT

EDIT - Thanks to everyone that replied. I have found a better solution than an INF file.

My company has an existing software-only driver. The 32-bit version is being installed using InstallShield. Unfortunately for me, the company wants to get away from InstallShield as the product in question is going to be part of a customer's own installation. The build system here produces the 64-bit signed driver, and I am tasked with creating a .inf file to install this driver. I've been reading Microsoft documents about .inf files (until my eyes are bleeding) and all of this documentation seems to be centered around the Windows Driver Development Kit. I believe that this kit generates a .inx file which is really the .inf file. However, all I need to do is create a .inf file that will do the job.

When right-clicking on the .inf file and selecting Install, the install process is spectacularly silent about anything that is happening (right or wrong). So it is very difficult to determine what is happening.

Some of my problems include the following:
1. The driver is already signed, so I find it unlikely that I will need a CatalogFile. Will the .inf file work without a defined CatalogFile?
2. It seems that a software-only driver needs to have some dummy device installed, and (from the InstallShield results) I see this dummy device in HKLM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_DRIVER_NAME. This is somehow linked to service entry in HKLM\CurrentControlSet\services\driver_name which points to the actual driver executable in \Windows\System32\drivers. I'm getting lost trying to define this dummy device.
3. I am successful installing the service, and I find it in the registry, but the install process never copies my driver into the drivers directory, so it appears to die before it gets that far.
4. I keep reading about a CoInstaller, but I get the feeling that it is not exactly necessary. Is this correct?

What I need is a clue. I haven't defined the dummy driver entry which is where I need the help. I've also made the assumption that the install directory where the .inf file is executed from is the root of the SourceDisk. Here's what I have in my .inf file so far:

This was edited to include a missing quote.

[Version]
Signature = "$CHICAGO$"
Class = LegacyDriver
ClassGuid = {8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}
Privider = %US%
DriverVer = 12/16/2012, 5.1.0.126
 
[vstor2-mntapi20-sharedCopyFiles]
%DriverExeName%
 
[SourceDiskNames.amd64]
1 = %DiskDesc%,,,\AMD64
 
[SourceDiskFiles.amd64]
%DriverExeName% = 1
 
[DestinationDirs]
DefaultDestDir = 12
 
[vstor2-mntapi20-sharedInstall.NTamd64]
CopyFiles = vstor2-mntapi20-sharedCopyFiles
 
[vstor2-mntapi20-shared.NTamd64.Services]
AddService = vstor2-mntapi20-shared,, vstor2-mntapi20-sharedServiceInst
 
[DefaultInstall.NTamd64]
CopyFiles = vstor2-shared-sharedCopyFiles
 
[DefaultInstall.NTamd64.Services]
AddService = vstor2-mntapi20-shared,, vstor2-mntapi20-sharedServiceInst
 
[vstor2-mntapi20-sharedServiceInst]
ServiceType   = 1 ; SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER
StartType     = 2 ; SERVICE_AUTO_START
ErrorControl  = 1 ; SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL
DisplayName   = vstor2-mntapi20-shared
ServiceBinary = %12%\%DriverExeName%
 
[Strings]
US = "Company Name"
DiskDesc = "Install Directory"
DriverExeName = "vstor2-mntapi20-shared.sys"

Fletcher Glenn

USB to RS-232 converter with 5 Baud

Kiran Satish — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:52:00 GMT

Does anyone know a converter with this capability. I am looking for a USB to serial converter or chip (like FTDI, Prolific, Microchip) that is capable of doing 5 Baud.

thanks

PKNT

MpLab

C-P-User-3 — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:25:00 GMT

I'm building a PIC24 project.

I'm putting some C routines into an ASM project.

I'm getting seven errors.

The first six are all apparently interrput handler conflicts. Here they are (condensed and abbreviated for clarity)...

multiple definition of `_U1RXInterrupt'
multiple definition of `_U2RXInterrupt'
multiple definition of `_U3RXInterrupt'
multiple definition of `_OscillatorFail'
multiple definition of `_AddressError'
multiple definition of `_StackError'
multiple definition of `_MathError'

I'm getting one last error that is totally new to me, this one...

 
 Link Error: Could not allocate section .nbss, size = 20004 bytes, attributes = bss near 
 Link Error: Could not allocate data memory

I really need

U1RXInterrupt

and

U3RXInterrupt

for my assembly language routines.

Can someone tell me how to get the C compliler and MpASM to cooperate and let me have those two ?

I can take out the other interrupts from my assembly language with some text editing.

Your advice and guidance will be greately appreciated.

Windows Mobile

aymen amri — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:01:00 GMT

Hi

I'm working on improving a GUI on an application, I have a tabconrol with many pages, I want to put a background Image instead of the unique color which appear behind, I didn't find any property to do it .. Is there any way ??
your help is really appreciated,
thanks

USB Ports Acting Screwey

Kevin Marois — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:51:00 GMT

So lately I'm having a weird problem with my USB ports. I'll try to explain.

I keep hearing that sound like someone's putting in a flash drive & removing it. Over & over & over. Also, when I look in Windows Explorer, I see a number of "Removable Drives". They must be some kind of virtual drive because I certainly don't have that many pysical drives. They were there when I bought the PC.

At any rate, this problem isn't happening all the time. It just randomly starts. When it's happening, the list of drives in Windows Explorer disappears and reappears at a fast rate in sync with the sound I described.

This is a fairly new PC, and I use AVG and Malware Bytes and scan regularly.

I have a wireless keyboard & mouse, a wireless headset, a printer, and 2 monitors plugged into the USB ports.

I have no clue how to figure out what's wrong. Any hardware people wanna point me in the right direction.

If it's not broken, fix it until it is

Debugging Kernel Mode Driver using Windbg

msr_codeproject — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 08:55:00 GMT

Hi, I have a sample OSR USB board and I have written a sample driver for this USB board.

I have built this driver and able to install.

But I am not able to debug this driver using Windbg since it is kernel driver.

OS: Win7

#include ntddk.h
 
DRIVER_UNLOAD DriverUnload;
 
void DriverUnload(PDRIVER_OBJECT pDriverObject)
{
DbgPrint("Driver Unload\n");
}
 
NTSTATUS DriverEntry(PDRIVER_OBJECT pDriverObject, PUNICODE_STRING pRegistryPath)
{
pDriverObject->DriverUnload = DriverUnload;
DbgPrint("Driver Entry : Hello Windows Device Driver World!\n");
return STATUS_SUCCESS;
}

Can anybody help me in debugging my driver?

USB BlueTooth Buffer Size

C-P-User-3 — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 23:46:00 GMT

In Windows 7 there is a sequence of mouse clicks on various icons which will display the buffer size of a given Com Port.

I can't remember that sequence at this moment.

(It's almost always 4096, for whatever reasons may exist)

If possible, I want to change it to 1024 (as a user; not in software)

For the moment, can someone help my failing brain with the secret sequence of clicks and icons that display the port buffer size of the USB BlueTooth adapter ?

Laptop goes to sleep mode even before the screen server

CodingLover — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 06:53:00 GMT

Hi all,

I have a Win 7 64bit hp 8570w laptop. I've set the screen server to be active in 5 minutes. Other power management settings are as follows.

Dim the display - 5 minutes
Turn off the display - 10 minutes
Put the computer to sleep - 30 minutes

However, like around 2 minutes after I didn't use the laptop, it goes to sleep mode. Any idea why really happen that?

If required more information please let me know.

Thanks in advance

If you've never failed... You've never lived...

SURFACE COMPUTERS

irfanulla sharieff — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:20:00 GMT

Everyone might have watched IRON MAN series, in part 2 of the series he uses surface computers containing a transparent glass slab , when i read about the details it was like there were laser-integrated motion sensing projectors which just sensed his hand signal and projected the images but i thought whats the difficulty in implementing a surface comp and i even heard MICROSOFT tried one surface computer which did not succeed

Inline USB protection

Chona1171 — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:50:00 GMT

Hi Guy's

Here's a tough one

I need to find a device that i can use to secure access to a fingerprint reader.
Basically what I need is a device that:
1) has a female usb input and a male output with a controller device in the midle
2) once joinced to the fingerprint device it will be epoxied together
3) I want then to be able through software to send a command to the dongle to unlock the use of the fingerprint device

Can anyone point me in the direction of something like this ?
What my company wishes to do is restrict use of the device by any software other than the software that it was intended for.

Cheers

Chona1171
Web Developer (C#), Silverlight

[modified] Need your input...

Brandon T. H. — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:53:00 GMT

Hey everyone I have this exotic project called SpaceData, it's a project for creating a wormhole and black hole generator in one massive device.

A black hole crushes everything to a small particle, literally. A wormhole creates two gateways at two different points in the universe or space and sucks in an object faster than the speed of light into and forces it out of the other side of the portal.

THE GOODS OF THIS DEVICE WOULD BE: Sucking up gamma ray bursts, massive asteroids, deadly solar flares or bursts from the sun ,and if they existed, an alien invasion. Basically a planetary defense for planet Earth.

The problems I will be facing (at the top of my head) is...

I. Funding
You need money in order to build any device.

II. Resources
I need the steel, iron, power, and chemistry that will make up this device.

III. Maintenance
Like any device it will deteriorate and go bad, and like device like this left unchecked, if it opens a black hole or worm hole per say in anywhere sensitive or where it's not sup post to, serious bad things WILL happen. Lets just say hell and devastation on planet Earth.

IV. Engineers
I will need people at my "own page" developing this device together, because one mind developing such an exotic and extremely powerful device is NOT practical; it would take more than my life! to build or even think about making such a device.

V. Device Security
So much power going into the wrong hands can be "hell on earth" with a thing like this. So you need physically impassible barriers to protect this device from the wrong hands. Also trustworthy people with self-control that will protect the device instead of activating behind my back or in front of my eyes.

VI. Personal Security
More than likely, if people know I created this device and/or have it in my possession and/or can use it at my disposal, there will be killers and terrorists coming after me wanting to destroy me or torture me making me feel physical and emotional agony my entire life. Not only that if my own government and/or other governments knows about this, whether by a spy satellite, a spy agent, a word of mouth, or the news, my own county or nation and it's military will be going against me as well, because a good apple can turn rotten, can it not? and my friends will be brainwashed by my government or any kind of enemy that I will be facing and sooner or later I will have everyone against me, including anyone who reads this post and people on CodeProject(R). Just for the sake of (protecting and) having a device.

What I'm asking is, is building and maintaining a device like this worth it? Could I put this on another planet?, Or in a world like this there's too many problems could occur? (like all listed above)

Simple Thanks and Regards,
Brandon T. H.

Programming in C and C++ now, now developing applications, services and drivers (and maybe some kernel modules...psst kernel-mode drivers...psst).

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. - Thomas Edison