[Dgtnix-devel] DGT Clock handling

[Alexander W. <a.w...@ph...>]

Hi!

After quite a while I managed to get a DGT Clock at a
resonable price. Now, checking if it works well in dgtnix
and especially dgtdrv. The first thing I found is, that
there seems no possibility to send a string to the clock,
e.g. to display the last move. Did I miss something here?

Additionally, I discover that there seems to be a "bug"
(well, more an inconvenience...) in message parsing
concerning clock detection.

    dgtnixGetClockData()

returns an integer, signifying if a clock is connected.

Unfortunately, it also returns with "no clock" if the clock
is present but halted, or, the other way round, it returns
only correct info if the clock is actually running. However,
for smooth integration with a GUI (currently I'm working on
Scid, 3.6.27 will have dgt support by means of dgtdrv;
current cvs already has :) it would be better if I'd be able
to detect the presence of the clock even if it is not
running.

Unfortunately, I've to admit that I do not really understand
whats going on within _bwtimeReceived(). :(

Anyway, the relevant part of the docs would be:

byte 0: DGT_MSG_BWTIME
byte 1: LLH_SEVEN(DGT_SIZE_BWTIME) (=0 fixed)
byte 2: LLL_SEVEN(DGT_SIZE_BWTIME) (=10 fixed)
byte 3:
D4: 1 = Flag fallen for left player, and clock blocked to zero
     0 = not the above situation
D5: 1 = Time per move indicator on for left player ( i.e. Bronstein, 
Fischer)
     0 = Time per move indicator off for left player
D6: 1 = Left players flag fallen and indicated on display
     0 = not the above situation
(D7 is MSB)
D0-D3: Hours (units, 0-9 Binary coded) white player (or player at the A 
side of the board)
byte 4: Minutes (0-59, BCD coded)
byte 5: Seconds (0-59, BCD coded)

byte 6-8: the same for the other player

byte 9: Clock status byte: 7 bits
D0 (LSB): 1 = Clock running
     0 = Clock stopped by Start/Stop
D1: 1 = tumbler position high on (white) player (front view: \ , left 
side high)
     0 = tumbler position high on the other player (front view: /, right 
side high)
D2: 1 = Battery low indication on display
     0 = no battery low indication on display
D3: 1 = Black players turn
     0 = not black players turn
D4: 1 = White players turn
     0 = not white players turn
D5: 1 = No clock connected; reading invalid
     0 = clock connected, reading valid
D6: not used (read as 0)
D7:  Always 0
The function of the information bits are derived from the full information
as described in the programmers reference manual for the DGT TopMatch

-- 

Kind regards,                /                 War is Peace.
                             |            Freedom is Slavery.
Alexander Wagner            |         Ignorance is Strength.
                             |
                             | Theory     : G. Orwell, "1984"
                            /  In practice:   USA, since 2001