Whisky to run Engine Controllers - Haltech, MoTeC, Controls.is etc. Wifi works, but need USB

[sjmarcy2]

In the motorsports world, cars get standalone engine controllers to manage their tune and changes to the engines. Sometimes an OEM car ecu or engine management is used. You connect via USB or sometimes BT or WiFi.

These are very small / primitive programs compared to modern games or mainstream modern apps.

Using Xover I can get calibrator from controls.is working. But it cannot access Wifi or USB. https://controls.is/calibrator/

So I tried Whisky and suddenly the Calibrator app can use Wifi perfectly fine, but USB still seems to not be "seen".

I realize this is not a game, but the actual connection I'd like to achieve is USB 101 if you will.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Presently I had to buy a thinkpad to run Calibrator and similar apps. But it would be nice to use just Macs. If this is achievable it could be a new market for Whisky.

Thank you.

[sjmarcy2]

Pretty easy one, basic USB. Nobody?

[jloomer]

@sjmarcy2 +1 on usb support please! Being able to virtualize tuning software only built for windows would be far less cumbersome than spinning up an entire virtual machine every time

[sjmarcy2]

@jloomer thx for stepping in and noting things.

In my case the calibrator program I am using is 5.8 mb installed. Yes 5.8 mb, not gb lol. Wifi works fine with it in Whisky.

All it needs is the most basic USB functionality and no graphics card mojo or other special magic like some games likely need.

Thanks and it could certainly get some positive attention from Engine Calibrators / Tuners. Who rn might load up gigs of virtual software and gigs of partitions etc just to run tiny programs.

Heck using the vivid app, my MBP16 can hit 1600 nits (blazing), great for a much better experience outside with the car. Not many mainstream PCs can do that.

[Gcenx]

Whisky is a downstream project that uses a highly modified version of wine.

The sources WhiskyWine is based on actually does support USB devices, the thing is macOS itself needs to support these devices in order for them to work.

wine is unable to make use of Windows device drivers as it’s not Windows.

[sjmarcy2]

Whisky is a downstream project that uses a highly modified version of wine.

The sources WhiskyWine is based on actually does support USB devices, the thing is macOS itself needs to support these devices in order for them to work.

wine is unable to make use of Windows device drivers as it’s not Windows.

Not sure if I am understanding.

From my POV no PC or Mac "supports" an engine controller. Instead you just communicate with it. Send a file to it. Take the serial data into the calibrator software and display it. ALL of the actual engine control is done by the standalone. We just connnect to it serially. Like if I send out an email, i don't need to download files and try to make it compatible with someone's device on their end. Or I load the calibration or file tsfr software onto a PC laptop, I don't have to develop and download any serial software since USB does that for connected devices.

Maybe I have this wrong?

To me it seems vastly more complex to get a PC game running well on a Mac than getting basic USB data connections working.

I think that if ONE car standalone was made connectable...just about all of the rest would then be compatible with little or no extra work as they are all so similar.