[Coco] NitrOS9 with Deluxe RS232 Pak

Thu Jun 18 14:51:35 EDT 2015

Hi Gene,

I hope I'm as active with things as you seem to be when I'm 80.  :)

Cnc and wood carving machines?  Heck, you could make your own rifle parts.
I'm jealous!

I am a big gear head, too, so my interest in cnc machines is the incredible
things they do on high performance cylinder heads.  Amazing technology for
sure.

Thanks

-Ron

On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 11:05 PM, Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Wednesday 17 June 2015 23:35:52 Ron wrote:
> > Hi Gene,
> >
> > I started reading through the OS9 Level 2 documentation and it helped
> > me quite a bit.
> >
> > The ramdisk sounds very interesting!  I only have 512K of RAM (like
> > most folks).  Wish there was a 2MB upgrade readily available to use
> > for your ramdisk.  Perhaps someday.
>
> It can be used with 512k, just not as big.  I have a 2 meg kit, and at
> one time played with a 1.7 meg ramdisk, but it wasn't being anywhere
> used while building rzsz, so I dropped it back to about  1/2 a meg,
> still worked for big C compiles.
>
> Ram problems in Nitros9/OS9 aren't generally main ram, but system ram,
> the ram the OS uses to keep track of things, so those with more than
> 128k don't often see main ram failures.
>
> We've made a few attempts to setup a 3rd ram allocation by separating the
> scf and rbf modules into their own space, but haven't been successful
> with the level3 effort, particularly with drivewire living in both scf
> space and in rbf space.  I have an idea of how we might separate sysram
> from main ram in order to be able to allocate another 8k block of memory
> for use only when it is in system mode, but its not at all well fleshed
> out, and unless a younger mind jumps on it (I'm 80, and TBT my interests
> are more directed to cnc metal/wood carving machines these days, and I
> am probably about a month from first chips on a new Grizzly GO704
> milling machine, being told by a flea powered computer where to cut &
> how fast, at an accuracy in the <.001" range) I suspect that will not
> happen either.  Furniture carved to that level of accuarcy is a treat,
> as are parts or stocks for one of my BP rifles.
>
> > I have been using Drivewire, though it's been limited to DECB.
> > Impressive way to replace the antiquated floppy drives.  Frees up more
> > desk space (which is a good thing).  I'm amazed at the speed at which
> > that bit-banger port operates!
> >
> It works just as well under Nitros9, once you figure out which modules
> need to be swapped out for the drivewire equivalents.  That can be
> tedious for the new bee though.
>
> > Thank you, sir!
> >
> > -Ron
> >
> > On 6/17/2015 8:27 PM, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > > On Wednesday 17 June 2015 20:32:57 Ron wrote:
> > >> Hi Gene,
> > >>
> > >> I appreciate you taking the time to reply to my numerous questions
> > >> and comments.  What you've said makes sense.  It looks like I have
> > >> a lot more to learn (i.e. tboot command, /t2 parameter changing and
> > >> saving, creating new bootfiles, etc.).
> > >>
> > >> I'm still looking for a good sources of documentation (beyond the
> > >> nitros9.org website).  Is OS9 documentation still relevant when
> > >> using NitrOS9?
> > >
> > > Quite a bit of it is.  Occasionally we'll figure out a better way.
> > > The dsave is one command that has had a syntax change, and
> > > tmode/xmode are all built from the same src file, so the operative
> > > syntax diffs have disappeared.  XMode/DMode have been dressed up a
> > > bit, and both can now work on disk files by prefacing the pathname
> > > with a leading - sign.
> > >
> > > Some of us have written replacements for existing utilities but with
> > > more bell & whistles.  I wrote a ramdisk quite a few years back that
> > > can be made operational for a compile, and then return every byte
> > > back to the system when its no longer needed.  Doesn't need an
> > > initial format before use as it actually does it in the few
> > > milliseconds delay you see if you do a dir /r0, as it detects the
> > > command, and holds it until it can show you the empty directory.
> > > Access speed is essentially the same as a good scsi circuit,
> > > essentially the speed the cpu can move the data, 11 seconds for a
> > > megaread on a 63x09 equipt machine, 13 or so for a 68x09.
> > >
> > > Other folks are encouraged to blow their own horns when the
> > > opportunity presents itself.
> > >
> > > You will want to get acquainted with drivewire at some point, so get
> > > ready for the loss of the use of /t1, drivewire uses it, at speeds
> > > up to 110 kilobaud to access files on your pc that are disk storage
> > > to the coco.  Faster than a real floppy!
> > >
> > > The future is bright, so you may want to wear shades. :)
> > >
> > >> Thanks again!
> > >>
> > >> -Ron
> > >>
> > >> On 6/17/2015 5:20 PM, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > >>> On Wednesday 17 June 2015 17:04:34 Ron wrote:
> > >>>> Hello everyone,
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I'm just just getting started with NitrOS9, but being familiar
> > >>>> with Linux has help considerably to navigate around the OS.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I have a Coco 3 with a MultiPak.  Slot 4 has an SDC controller
> > >>>> and I've mounted the NitrOS9 SDC version
> > >>>> (nos96809l2v030300coco3_cocosdc.dsk
> > >>>> <http://www.nitros9.org/latest/nos96809l2v030300coco3_cocosdc.dsk
> > >>>>>) . Slot 1 has a Deluxe RS232 Pak.  I've connected this pak to my
> > >>>> PC with a NULL modem cable.  RS232 pak seems to work fine with my
> > >>>> PC (tested it at 9600 baud) using the RS built-in term program
> > >>>> from DECB.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I am, however, unable to connect to the Coco (running NitrOS9)
> > >>>> from my PC.  Information is a bit spotty online, so I apologize
> > >>>> in advance if this is well documented and I just missed it.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I run the following command to initiate a shell:
> > >>>>
> > >>>> shell i=/t2&
> > >>>
> > >>> This is correct.
> > >>>
> > >>>> I believe this telling NitrOS9 to use the Deluxe RS232 Pak and
> > >>>> not the bit-banger port.  I'm unfamiliar with how to verify the
> > >>>> proper driver is being loaded for /t2 and unable to get the
> > >>>> correct syntax for the xmode command to verify what the default
> > >>>> term settings are. I'm also thinking there may be a way to
> > >>>> communicate faster than 9600 baud using the Deluxe RS232 Pak
> > >>>> (from within NitrOS9) as well.
> > >>>
> > >>> There is, but in the long run when the coco is on the receiving
> > >>> end of that data, it cannot go faster than about 5500 baud if
> > >>> overruns are to be avoided.  Particularly if using an error
> > >>> correcting transfer protocol such as rzsz.
> > >>>
> > >>>> I must say, I'm thoroughly impressed by the power of the Coco
> > >>>> running NitrOS9.  It was so far ahead of it's time.
> > >>>
> > >>> There is also a time limit that I have not discovered the cause
> > >>> of, that says if I don't start, or have already running, a copy of
> > >>> minicom, there comes a time when the /t2 port is no longer
> > >>> responsive to the incoming login from minicom.  10 minutes late,
> > >>> and the coco will need rebooted.
> > >>>
> > >>> As for the xmode command bear in mind it only works on an unopened
> > >>> path, so for playing with /t2's params live, you use tmode .0 or
> > >>> .1, or even .2, where 0 is stdin, 1 is stdout, and 2 is stderr.
> > >>> Permanent changes to /t2.dd need to be done using xmode, and then
> > >>> generating a new bootfile useing the modified /t2.dd.  Or you can
> > >>> transfer the changes to the in memory copy, and then save it for
> > >>> use in a new bootfile. We actually have several methods of
> > >>> skinning that cat. ;-)
> > >>>
> > >>>> Thank you!
> > >>>>
> > >>>> -Ron
> > >>>
> > >>> Cheers, Gene Heskett
> > >
> > > Cheers, Gene Heskett
>
> Cheers, Gene Heskett
> --
> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
>  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
>
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