[Coco] Telepak RS232 Pak

Gene Heskett gene.heskett at verizon.net
Sat Jan 17 14:57:21 EST 2009


On Saturday 17 January 2009, Roger Taylor wrote:
>While we're on the subject, has anyone pushed a regular 1mhz-rated
>6551 to ~1.78mhz (2mhz CoCo) with problems?
>
>>And it will continue to work, until it has to face a genuine RS-232
>> interface in a 1974 printer. :)
>
>Heheheh.  I bet that printer dims the lights when the carriage returns.

No, but since a return can be as much as 18" and the head weighs about a 
pound, it can seriously shake the stand its on to kindling in 20 minutes if 
its not had the screw in every nail hole treatment, along with some 
Tightbond-III glue.

>>I think RS-232 is a good protocol myself, and I see no reason to not
>>use it at
>>straight TTL logic levels with short runs of good shielded cabling.  Or to
>>your bluetooth module on the same board, it makes absolutely perfect sense.
>>But we shouldn't call it a legit RS-232, its not.
>
>Good enough.  Just a serial pak or bluetooth pak.
>
>>But where do you get a driver for it in a diskless scenario?  Or is the
>>teletext rom still enabled?  I had forgotten that thing even exists...
>
>My DC Modem Pak doesn't auto-start the ROM's software.  A few POKEs
>from BASIC can make the pak send test data to my PC, or I have
>cocotape.exe for loading simple comm programs from the PC as cassette audio.

I had forgotten that.  I should get that, but the pc it would have to work 
against runs linux.  The only windows around here is a 20Gb XP install on my 
lappy, kept only for testing purposes if I have to take it to CC or someplace 
for service.  It no longer autoboots XP although it is in the boot menu.
As CC has announced to close the other 500+ stores (bankrupt) my extended 
warranty is probably toast, and I will probably blow that partition away the 
next time I update the linux on it.

I wonder if wine can run your pc stuff?  OTOH, I have a 1GB drive on the coco, 
so all I really need is a working comm link to it.  Cabling is already there.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.
		-- William Butler Yeats



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