Hi Daniel
I posted this to you directly rather than to psychtoolbox because I’m not sure how many
people are interested...
Minolta advertise an RS232 cable (about a £100) but sometimes tell people they aren’t available.
When they do accept orders they get them from Japan and they take an age. I have one but
I’m not sure that it works. A colleague has taken it to the US to test in an existing system.
The alternative is to build your own but parts (the Hirose connector specifically) are tricky to get
(the Hirose format that plugs into the handle is a US defence format I think). The Hirose is fiddly to wire also.
And wiring diagrams differ wildly. The best starting point is part of the VideoToolbox package
'VideoToolbox:(Utilities):ReadLuminanceMeter:Read me'. FYI, the text follows this message
if my cable proves to be viable, I’ll post the news to the psychtoolbox forum
good luck
--
Steven Dakin
Institute of Ophthalmology
University College London
11-43 Bath Street
London EC1V 9EL
T 020 7608 6988
F 020 7608 6850
W http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~smgxscd
************************************************************************
ReadLuminanceMeter package
************************************************************************
The Minolta LS-110 luminance meter has a serial (RS-232) output which can be read by any computer that you can connect a modem to. This file contains routines to do this using a macintosh (or a pc). Note that these routines are not provided by Minolta so don't contact them about it. You'll need to make a connector cable that can be plugged into the Minolta on one side and on the other side a Macintosh or PC serial connector. The basic operations to achieve this are simple and explained in the luminance.c file.
This package should include:
Read me file
ReadLuminanceMeter.c C routines for macintosh computer
ReadLuminanceMeter.h include file for mac
ReadLuminanceMeter.µ small example project (CW Pro 4) for a program
main.c c source code for readLuminanceMeter example program
In PC folder
Minolta_PC.C routines that should work on a pc
*************************************************************************
Mac version:
Made by Frans W. Cornelissen, with suggestions from Lars Jansen, Eli Brenner and Hiro Akutsu. Please send suggestions, bugs, improvements, comments to f.w.cornelissen@med.rug.nl.
PC version:
The PC version was made by Erik van Wijk, based on the first mac version. Contact him at wijk@fys1.fgg.eur.nl. I don't know much about pc's and prefer to keep it that way.
Mac version Copyright ©1997 Frans W. Cornelissen. PC version Copyright ©1995 Erik van Wijk. These routines are not provided by Minolta so don't contact them about it. The accompanying software is free; you may use it in your research and give it away to others, with the following restrictions. Any copy you give away must include this paragraph, unmodified,
and any file that you have changed must include a note, giving your name, the date, and a description of the changes. May be distributed for non-commercial purposes. This software may not be sold, whether in source or compiled form, without my permission. I would appreciate reports of bugs and improvements.
DISCLAIMER:
The software is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. I make no claims concerning the accuracy or correctness of the computer code contained in, or the results of the use of this software. The entire risk as to the results and performance of it is assumed by you.
Please send suggestions, bugs, improvements, comments to:
Frans W. Cornelissen
Laboratory for Experimental Ophthalmology (LEO)
University of Groningen
P.O. Box 30.001, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands
Tel: + 31 50 614173 (work)
Fax: + 31 50 696743 (work)
E-mail: f.w.cornelissen@med.rug.nl
*************************************************************************
Making a cable:
The basic idea is that you connect the data out to the receive data pin of the computer, and use the DTR (data terminal ready) line of the serial port to send measurement requests. We'll keep the busy line high all the time (so the meter immediately outputs the data), by connecting the busy line (black) to the +5v (yellow). The last thing to do is to GND the meter to one of the GND's of the computer.
You'll have to get a RP17-13P-12PC connector to connect your computer to the MInolta. Minolta offers this connector only as part of a special cable (about $40), perhaps a good electronics store might carry it too). The colours refer to this special cable.
Minolta pin lay out (Hirose RP17-13RA-12SD connector).
Pin# Function Wire Colour
1 GND brown
2 GND
3 Busy black
4 n.c.
5 External power
6 Null offset
7 n.c.
8 Data out red
9 n.c.
10 Clock out
11 Measurement request
12 +5v yellow
Here's how to create a minolta to mac connector (thanks to Hiro Akutsu for figuring this out):
Mac
1 RTS & DTR
2 CTS
3 TD (transmit)
4 GND
5 RD (receive)
6 ??
7 CD
8 GND
Minolta #1 or Minolta#2 to Mac Modem port #4 (GND).
Minolta #8 (Data out) to Mac 's #5 (receive).
Minolta #11 (measurement request) to Mac #1 (DTR)
Minolta #3 to #12 (busy to +5V) (keep's busy signal high)
In my own setup I use a Minolta to RS232 9 PIN D-Connector, and connect that to the mac via a 9 pin to a DB25 pin converter, and then to the mac via a standard modem cable. In this way, we can use the cable also to connect the meter to pc's.
RS232 9 PIN connections:
pin
1 (DCD)
2 (RD)
3 (TD)
4 (DTR)
5 (GND)
6 (DSR)
7 (RTS)
8 (CTS)
9 (??)
Here's how to create a minolta to a standard 9 PIN D-Connector:
Minolta #1 (brown) or Minolta#2 to pin 5 (GND)
Minolta #8 (red) (Data out) to to pin 2 (receive).
Minolta #11 (white) (measurement request) to pin 4 (DTR)
Minolta #3 (yellow) to #12 (black) (busy to +5V) (keep's busy signal high)
According to Eric van Wijk you also need to do this:
On RS232 plug:
7 to 8 (RTS to CTS)
1 to 6 and also to 4 (DCD to DSR to DTR)
I haven't checked this, but he got it working, so I guess it's okay.
************************************************************************