This page provides copies of a number of items of software and documents, useful for operating Deltronics interface boxes. If you have any additional software or information, please contact me as I could do with some more. I have tried finding what I can from the Internet Archives Wayback Machine, but sadly there was more available on the Deltronics website that I’m just not able to get as it was not backed up originally. Historically, Deltronics appear to have used http://www.deltronics.demon.co.uk/, http://deltronics.co.uk and http://deltronics1.co.uk.
Items of particular note are :
- ControlItSpec – Includes details regarding the serial protocol for most Deltronics (and Commotion) serial boxes.
- controlit_python – A stand-alone library and example for python on Linux (specifically the Raspberry Pi, but it runs fine on other machines) to use USB Deltronic boxes with your own Python programs. Also works with some Commotion boxes if you change the product id in the code and make a couple of tweaks… link.
From Historic Versions of the Deltronic Website
The more recent downloads page contained a number of free Windows programs for Windows 95 to Windows 7, while the older (2003?) variant contained some details regarding the specifications of boxes and programming resources.
The following image shows a snapshot from ~2003. I have not been able to download the DLL, the “Control It Plus Specification Issue 1”, or the Pin Configurations. If you have them, please share them.
Modified Versions for Convenience
The pinout in the ControlItSpec pdf has become garbled as Libre Office rendered it incorrectly (possibly due to fonts if I am kind).
Archived Website
I have downloaded a copy of some of the Deltronics Site from ~2003 and republished here. It has some brief description of each of their products at that time including useful information such as current ratings (in some cases only).
- Control
- Control It Plus
- Junior Serial Interface
- Digital Serial Adapter
- Control Accessories
- Stepper Motor
- Control It PC
- Virtual Models
- Junior Control
- Flowcharts
- Downloads
Links will be broken unless I manually fix them in the future.
ROM Versions
The software version of a connected box can be tested by sending the command 0x02 (i.e. hex “2”) over serial. For example, my Junior Serial Interface responds with JS12 in ASCII, meaning Junior Serial V 1.2. Note successful commands values are echoed before the response, so in this case, the ASCII version number would be preceded by a 2.
Both my Deltronics Serial Interface and Commotion Serial Control Box appear to have the same firmware version. The Deltronics box has a ROM chip labelled “Serial 1.5” while the label on the Commotion box says “S/Int V1.5”. I have downloaded the contents of the chip in the Deltronics box, and it is provided here. The Philips chip it runs on speaks 8051 if anyone feels like disassembling it.
I haven’t downloaded the Junior Serial Interface ROM yet, but note it is labelled Jnr S/I V1.2.
Sample Code
The following plots the data from a light sensor connected to analogue input 0 in a window, using Python. It requires Pandas and matplotlib.
This archive also includes a modified version of the Deltronics Python library with the error in the analogue input function corrected (someone typed a “*” instead of a “+”.
This code also works on the Commotion CoCo Control Box 2, and with the metal CoCo Control Box with some small changes (primarily the product id).