[Coco] An X-10 usage for the Direct Connect Modem Pak

K. Pruitt pruittk at roadrunner.com
Mon Aug 17 21:38:30 EDT 2015


Unless I am inadvertently sending the signal out via another device which I 
can't really see happening. But now I'm wondering.

Let me do further testing here. Eliminate some hardware from the mix.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "George Ramsower" <georgera at gvtc.com>
To: <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2015 5:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] An X-10 usage for the Direct Connect Modem Pak


>  I'll be dipped. I knew the DC Modem Pak was dumb but I had no idea it was 
> that stupid ;-)
>  Now I need to look around for a DC Modem pak I have somewhere to see what 
> I can do with it.
> George R.
>
> On 8/17/2015 7:11 PM, K. Pruitt wrote:
>> I used the cable from a CM11A controller. It has a phone line style 
>> connector on one end and a female DB-9 connector on the other end.
>> I have it set to answer mode (though I don't think it makes a difference) 
>> and I have the connect button turned on.
>>
>> The CM17A module which it is plugged in to also has a female DB-9 
>> connector, so I stuck a male-to-male adapter in between the two female 
>> connectors.
>>
>> Seems to work fine.
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "George Ramsower" <georgera at gvtc.com>
>> To: <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Sent: Monday, August 17, 2015 4:21 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] An X-10 usage for the Direct Connect Modem Pak
>>
>>
>>>  Kevin,
>>>  The DC Modem pak does not have those connections outside the pak. It 
>>> requires opening the pak and soldering wires to the 6551 inside to 
>>> access the DTR and RTS pins on that chip. So it DOES require a small 
>>> modification. Then those wires need to be wired to an outside DB9 or a 
>>> DB25 on the correct pins of each. The DC Modem Pak only has an RJ11 
>>> female connector on the outside of the program pak.
>>>  How did you do you do this without modification to the program pak?
>>>   I'm dying to know.
>>> George R.
>>>
>>>
>>> On 8/17/2015 5:40 PM, K. Pruitt wrote:
>>>> The Direct Connect Modem Pak #26-2228, without modification, works as a 
>>>> host for the CM17A "firecracker" RF transceiver .
>>>>
>>>> I used the cable from a CM11A controller module which has a phone line 
>>>> connector on one end and a DB-9 female port on the other end to hook it 
>>>> via a male-to-male adapter to the CM17A module which also has a DB-9 
>>>> female port.
>>>>
>>>> The program I use to access the CM17A via the RS-232 Pak bit-bangs the 
>>>> DTR and RTS bits of the command register. The DC Modem Pak works the 
>>>> same way, just with a different address for the 6551, but it is still 
>>>> the DTR and RTS bit of the command register that gets hit. The same 
>>>> patterns to produce the logic codes with the RS-232 Pak apply to the DC 
>>>> Modem Pak. Baud rate is irrelevant to this application so the 300 baud 
>>>> limitation of the DC Modem Pak doesn't have any negative impact here.
>>>>
>>>> All in all not a bad use for the Direct Connect Modem Pak considering 
>>>> there is no hardware modification needed and it adds RF control of X10 
>>>> modules to the CoCo.
>>>>
>>>> I haven't done any reliability checking yet. This is just my report on 
>>>> my "what if I plug this thing here in to this thing here" experiment.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Coco mailing list
>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> -- 
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 



More information about the Coco mailing list