[Coco] DriveWire 3

[Tim Fadden]

Roger,
I had minor problems with a USB adapter using the prolific chip set.  No 
where near the rate you are seeing.  Only 4 or 5 errors in 70MB's of 
data.  No errors were reported via the DW3 server app, only from the OS9 
prompt.  After switching to a true RS232 port, I have transferd over 
300MB with no errors whatsoever.  I am not so technically inclined to 
decode the source, or determine if the errors where caused by the 
physical usb adapter itself, or the usb-serial drivers.  I am also able 
to do dir's, etc on the hard drive, and on the DW3 drive while the 
transfer is taking place with no ill effects.  All this while logged 
into Nitros9 via the serial port from my PC.  I do this in order to log 
for errors. 7 or 8 hours sitting watching the screen is a bit much for 
me! ha ha ha

My hardware is CoCo 3 512k, Disto Super II, with 4in1, and scsisys 
drivers for the 2 hard disks.

Your wireless is a great Idea,  but not good for me.  I want all my 
floppy's, HD's ports real time clock etc. available at all times, and 
with no mulit-pak its a bit hard.  :-)   Or, I need remedial 
instruction.  :-)

Tim Fadden


Roger Taylor wrote:
> Boisy, since DW3 is not a sale product I decided to bring this to your 
> attention on the list like everyone does with my software issues.  It 
> tends to help to get a collection of opinions.
>
> First, let me mention that I sell HQ bitbanger cables.  I test them 
> not only at 115200 bps, but at twice that speed using a certain 
> person's unannounced bitbanger routines.  Not only that, but my cables 
> are tested using an IOGear USB to Serial adaptor.  With that being 
> said, I doubt that my cables are the reason I'm having trouble with DW3.
>
> What I've found is that it doesn't take much to throw some USB serial 
> adaptors out of sync or to crash them.  CoCoNet bitbanger does 
> neither, nor taps into any special tricks with such an adaptor.  I'm 
> simply opening the COM port and talking over it but with precise 
> timing of the bitstream.
>
> After looking at your DW3 source code, it appears that your order of 
> alternating cycle counts of 15 and 16 could be a problem.
>
> It appears that your order of alternating cycles to RECEIVE bits are:
> 15,15,16,15,16,15,16,16
> __ __ -- __ -- __ -- --
>
> I drew the dashes and underscores to better visualize the pattern.  
> Your transmitting routine's cycle pattern appears to be different.
>
> The best approach I've found after trying tons of different patterns 
> was to use 15,16,15,16,15,16,15,16 for both Receive and Trasmit 
> routines.  This has proven to work almost flawlessly (I say almost 
> because there's no such thing as flawless) and I've run tests for days 
> straight with no CRC errors counted, over both a motherboard COM port 
> and a USB to Serial adaptor, two latops and an old Win98 tower.
>
> You'll get even MORE stability by using the 8-N-2 protocol.  The extra 
> bit of timing is worth it.  Throughput means nothing if the connection 
> is going to barf out every 1 attempt out of 10.
>
> For me right now about 1 or 2 out of 10 attempts in DriveWire 3 
> results in an error.  For example, I can be sitting at the NitrOS-9 
> prompt and type "dir" and get an error #244, type "dir" again and get 
> error #216.  Finally, a third "dir" spits the directory out.  Almost 
> always a "dir /x1" on the first one or two tries results in an error.  
> Sometimes but rarely the .dsk image crashes during boot.
>
> Again, IMHO, since DW3 is free I saw no harm in talking about these 
> things on the list as opposed to stepping on a sale product.  My 
> biggest question is whether or not anybody else is having the 
> occasional errors with DW3 and what brand of USB adaptor they might be 
> using, etc.  But another question is why all of my bitbanger cables 
> work fine with CoCoNet but not DriveWire using the same bitbanger 
> cable wiring.
>
> If there are other coders now improving on DriveWire, I think the 
> above 2 timing suggestions should do the trick.
>
> Why am I using DW3?  I'm working on building a wirelessly bootable 
> NitrOS-9 .dsk image to add to my test cases.  Nothing major, just 
> typical lab work.
>