How to run Kong Power Charger with i Mac - It works.

[PilotSmith]

For those that want to use the Kong Power monitoring software on an iMac which does not have serial ports, here is how you can do it very cheap.

1) Naturally, you will need to have Windows installed on your Mac, as the Kong Power KP-100W6 Charger Monitor software is for PC only.

2) You will also need a USB to RS232 serial 9 pin adapter. I purchased my adapted from eBay at a total cost of $4.97 with free shipping. There are many of these adapters for sale. I got mine from seller digi-accessary as he ships his items from USA and for under $5 you can't complain about price. It arrived in a couple days. The item description on eBay for the adapter was "USB to RS232 9 Pin DB9 high speed cable adapter." If reading this post in not the so distant future, see eBay item # 260262190201. Otherwise search by the description.

3) The drivers CD that came with the adapter was a mini CD. You will need to copy the data on the mini CD to a standard size CD if you have an iMac as the side slot loading CD drive in the iMac does not support mini CD's.

4) Plug the adapter into any available USB port on your iMac and Windows will find the necessary drivers and istall them with no fuss.

That is all there is too it. Just plug the Kong Power charger's serial cable into the USB adapter and marvel at the graphs and tables telling you more than you probably need to know about your batteries. :thumbup:

Can't guarantee it will work for you but works perfect for me. Here is my setup:

24" iMac running Leopard
Kong Power KP-100W6 charger with V2.27 firmware
Kong Power Charger Monitor software V3.02
Windows XP Pro V 5.1 w/ SP2
Boot Camp V2.0
Generic made in Taiwan USB to Serial adapter from eBay seller http://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/s.gifdigi-accessary (http://myworld.ebay.com/digi-accessary/)

http://helifreak.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=55246&stc=1&d=1216315194

Is your internal resistance rising or are you just getting excited to go flying?

http://helifreak.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=55247&stc=1&d=1216315194

The adapter.

[TheBum]

I need to make some more progress on my Mac native monitoring software. I got sidetracked trying to get a firmware downloader working. The operative word there is "trying". The communication package I wrote should work well for monitoring, so the biggest hurdle will be working with the only decent Mac-compatible charting package I found. Unfortunately, my propensity for crashing and the subsequent repair time eats up a lot of the time I could be spending working on it.

[PilotSmith]

Are you writing code for charger monitoring software for the Kong charger for OS X?

I run very little in Windows. About the only time I ever boot into windows is to run my RC simulator software.

[TheBum]

Essentially yes. I'm actually writing it for my Maxpro X6, which is the same charger internally as the Kong Power.

[PilotSmith]

Very cool! Hopefully you will share it with your fellow Mac Helifreaks once you complete the job.

[HFG]

Okey now get to work on the eagletree for the mac :)

[PilotSmith]

Other than for my heli hobby stuff I no longer need Windows. So get going on the projects TheBum so I can delete Windows from my iMac. :)

[TheBum]

Hopefully you will share it with your fellow Mac Helifreaks once you complete the job.
That is my intent.

[TheBum]

It may have to wait, however, because I don't have a working Maxpro X6. It won't recognize cell 2 of any pack I connect to it. It was a replacement for another Maxpro X6 whose discharge circuit died. Maxpro won't warrant it even though I've had it less than a year, but RC-TEK (where I bought it) is taking good care of me at their expense. I just hope Maxpro doesn't pull the same crap with Kong Power.

[HELINHAWAII]

+1 for all the Mac compatible stuff you can share!

[TheBum]

+1 for all the Mac compatible stuff you can share!
I just bought a Hyperion EOS0610i Duo, so I may have to see what I can do with regard to Mac monitoring for it too.

[HELINHAWAII]

Yeah, that's what I run as well. It's a great charger!