Is there a linux Driver module for Elitech data logger RC5 ?

Tue Sep 11 16:27:32 UTC 2018

At Tue, 11 Sep 2018 17:44:42 +0200 "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> 
> I HAD TO INITIATE A NEW ACCOUNT AT A NEW MAIL ADDRESS SINCE MY FORMER 
> PROVIDER HAS UNEXPECTEDLY CLOSED UP. Sorry if you already got the 
> following questions a few hours ago, any reply you may have sent won't 
> reach me, please resend it to the list so it gets forwarded to me, or 
> send it to my new private mail: bdebreil at free.fr
> 
> Thanks for your help.
> I haven't yet succeeded in getting this device working.
> There were two things to be tested.
> The first one was proposed by Eero, who suggested a device setup by 'CIVIC'
>      civic/elitech-datareader
> This software implies that a serial driver get installed first. At this 
> stage, I fail to undersand. A serial driver ??  Why on Earth ?  The RC5 
> Elitech device is not 'serial', it is a usb device with a usb plug... To 
> my knowledge, serial modules are somewhat outdated, and I don't know of 
> any recent one, years have elapsed since every computer had RS232 serial 
> ports... However, supposing that such system may operate with a device 
> that is connected to a usb port, I ought to give it a try. 
> Unfortunately, when the matter came to download the serial driver module 
> for linux on a software site in China, I found that it was all written 
> in Chinese, with barely 5 or 6 English words on each page, which was not 
> enough for me to understand... I tested a few zip files which  I 
> couldn't unzip, the zip module saying that it couldn't find needed parts 
> of the files...
> 
> A comment was made by Robert :
> 
> 'It might show up as a serial port (eg /dev/ttyACM? or /dev/ttyUSB?).  You
> would then need to write a program that reads and decodes the messages 
> sent.'
> 
> In my /dev directory, i found this :
>      drwxr-xr-x  4 root       root          80 sept. 11 12:36 serial
>      crw-rw----  1 root       dialout 188,   0 sept. 10 19:44 ttyUSB0
> 
> those 2 lines appear and disappear when plugging/unplugging the RC5, 
> which confirms,
> but I don't know what to do next.

There are several "USB<->MCU" chips available (some built into MCUs).  Almost 
all show up "emulating" a RS232 port.  "MCU" == MicroController Unit, 
basically a microprocessor with a pile of GPIO pins, with on-chip RAM and 
"flash"/EEPROM -- these are commonly used for all sorts of gadgets, including 
various USB-connected sensor devices, like your datareader.

The USB<->MCU can be used to download firmware to the MCU, using a "protocol" 
of sorts over the "psuedo-serial port" that shows up.  This is in fact 
*exactly* what the Arduino and all of its family and friends and relatives do. 
One can also use gdb over this "psuedo-serial port".

*Some* "USB<->MCU" chips can be set to disable the "psuedo-serial port" 
emulation and implement some sort of "generic" USB endpoint interface.  But I 
suspect that many of the gadget makers don't bother and just put their I/O 
over the "psuedo-serial port" and this is probably true of the older gadget 
makers who were making RS232 / RS485 interfaced gadgets back in the "old 
days". 

In your case the "Elitech data logger RC5" is much like an Arduino and the USB 
interface chip is doing its "default" thing and showing up as a "psuedo-serial 
port".  You don't actually need a "driver" -- Linux already has a kernel 
driver for this USB-based "psuedo-seria port" (since /dev/ttyUSB0 is already 
showing up).  At this point you just need software that reads from this serial 
port (/dev/ttyUSB0) and "decodes" the messages from the data logger.  There 
are two possiblities, either the data logger is sending ASCII text [lines] or 
it is sending some sort of binary message (eg SOT data chksum EOT or something 
like that).

> 
> Then Oliver did propose the second thing :
> 
> 'first hit when googling "Elitech data logger RC5 linux" points to:
> 
>      https://pypi.org/project/elitech-datareader/'
> 
> the third line of the description:
> 
>      "Enables to use RC-4/RC-5 on Mac, Linux, Windows."
> 
> ... kind of indicates it works'.
> 
> On this site, Brian R Mooga states that in 2015 he succeeded to get RC5 
> Elitech data collector to operate on his linux system Ubuntu 14.04. His 
> lsusb test said :
> 
>      Bus 002 Device 011 id 0c45:7401 Microdia
> 
> My system (Debian Stretch) says, when the device is connected to an usb 
> port :
> 
>      lsusb
>      Bus 001 Device 004 id 1a86:7523 Qin Heng Electronics HL-320 
> USB-Serial adapter

Yes, this maps to the ch341.ko driver, which has been around since at least 
Kernel version 2.6.32 (I have it on my CentOS 6 machine and it is also on my 
Ubuntu 14.04 VM as well).

> 
> I tested the url above
> Below are the details :
> 
> I am on Debian Stretch, so I don't use 'sudo', but I log as superuser.
> 
> lsusb shows this :
>      Bus 001 Device 004:ID 1a86:7523 QinHeng Electronics HL-340 
> USB-Serial adapter
> 
> while Brian got in 2015 :
>      Bus 002 Device 011:ID 0c45:7401 Microdia)
> 
> 
> However I did install Python software as suggested. It went up to the 
> point :
> 
>      .......................
>      ......................
>      # cd /home/bd/tmp
>      # git clone git://....................................
>      # cd temper-python/
>      # python setup.py install
> 
> there, I got an error message, about the instruction ', encoding' that 
> was said not to be available. I then edited the setup.py file and 
> removed this parameter, and tried again :

There is probably something missing or you have a python version mismatch.  
Use the original setup.py file and post the complete error message here.

> 
>      # python setup.py install
> 
> This time, I had no errors. But, if I launch :
> 
>      # temper-poll
> 
> it says :
>      Found 0 devices
> 
> I tried the same thing on my laptop running ubuntu 14.04 and got the 
> same results
> 
> Thanks in advance for more help
> 
> Bernard
> 
> On 05/09/2018 20:13, Eero Volotinen wrote:
> > this device ? 
> https://github.com/civic/elitech-datareader/blob/master/README.md
> >
> > Eero
> >
> > ke 5. syysk. 2018 klo 19.27 Bernard <bdebreil at teaser.fr 
> <mailto:bdebreil at teaser.fr>> kirjoitti:
> >
> >     Hi to Everyone,
> >
> >     This 'Elitech data logger RC5' is a temperature recorder 
> available from
> >     amazon. From the online notice, it is supposed to be a "windows only"
> >     system. However, quite a few such apparatus can operate at least
> >     basically on linux, either directly (the system appears as a usb 
> device
> >     once connected to the computer), or through a debian or ubuntu module
> >     available.
> >
> >     Could anyone tell me if this may apply to the 'Elitech data logger
> >     RC5',
> >     and what would be the name of such module ?  If this is not the
> >     case, is
> >     there another temperature data logger that would work under Ubuntu ?
> >
> >     Thanks in advance for your help.
> >
> >     Bernard
> >
> >     --     ubuntu-users mailing list
> >     ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com <mailto:ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
> >     Modify settings or unsubscribe at:
> >     https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
> >
> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
heller at deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services