Documentation suggestion (drivers for OSX) and format question

[Jef Driesen]

On 2013-02-03 20:58, Dirk Hohndel wrote:
> Amit Chaudhuri <amit.k.chaudhuri at gmail.com> writes:
>> Working out which driver to use for a Mac requires for a particular 
>> dive
>> computer may require some experimentation. The libdivecomputer 
>> website
>> provides
>> a useful point from which to start:
>> http://www.divesoftware.org/libdc/drivers.html. It lists a number of 
>> sites
>> for
>> manufacturers of the serial to usb chips which provide the necessary
>> conversions.  Typically, one then needs to navigate to the relevant 
>> sub
>> page for
>> "drivers" and then for "VCP drivers."  VCP stands for Virtual Com 
>> Port. You
>> want
>> VCP rather than D2XX drivers. Make sure to download the correct 
>> version for
>> your
>> particular version of OS X.
>
> Can you list links to the sites for some of the more common dive
> computers? Clearly Suuntos are very popular, as are Mares, Aeris and
> Uwatec. If you could pick a couple and list direct links, I think 
> that
> would be very helpful.
>
> With enough volunteers I'm sure we could provide a full list of links
> and keep them updated :-)

To figure out which driver you need, you first need to know the USB 
VID/PID of the interface. On Linux you can run "lsusb", and on Mac OS X 
"system_profiler SPUSBDataType", with the interface connected. See the 
libdivecomputer website [1] for some more info. Once you know the USB 
VID/PID, you can lookup the usb-serial chipset from the libdivecomputer 
table [2], and download the corresponding driver.

The macdive website [3] also has a very intuitive list, aimed at 
end-users.

[1] http://www.divesoftware.org/libdc/usb.html
[2] http://www.divesoftware.org/libdc/drivers.html
[3] http://www.mac-dive.com/devices.php

Jef