开云体育

开云体育

开云体育

开云体育

Rich,

On Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 11:45:46AM +0000, Richard Cini wrote:

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Richard Cini
<rich.cini@...>

Just a quick update on this. I have a BBS (Synchronet) running enough
that I can dial-in from another PC and connect properly. I started with
the Hayesmodem 300, which was painful, and then changed to the Hayes
Optima 144 which was respectable for dial-up.

I had a number of Optima 144 modems, and they all had severe PCB damage
from leaked surface mount caps--more damage than I had the patience to
try to fix.

I was able to rescue/preserve a Hayes Ultra-96 and Optima-288 by replacing
the surface mount caps. I used conventional electrolytics from my spare
parts box, with strategically bent leads, as I trust these more not to leak
over time. You might consider doing similarly, if you care about your modem.

Mark

--
Mark G. Thomas <Mark@...>, KC3DRE

开云体育

开云体育

开云体育

The classic CP/M approach was two serial port CON: and AUX:.
They were typically the same type of devices I used 8251As.
THe bis had both and also supported IObyte which was the
IO vector map.

To a program that used that structure was fairly simple:
It was also more portable.

The problem was early CP/M system often had only one serial port
or more often the second port was not supported by the BIOS and
it was required the modem progrram to support it directly (unportable).
Reason for that was IObyte and support fo it was built into the BDOS
and CCP but the BIOS it was often an unsupported as "optional".

The BIOS was an important part of the system most often early ones
were very minimal.? The Yabut it was possible to include into the bios
improved serial? and parallel support and even add system features
there like buffered? background printing.

By the early 80s that was often improved upon and dual serial ports were
common on systems like Kaypro, NS*, AmproLB+, SB180 and many more.
Single board system were usually two serial ports and one parallel
(centronics printer).

Allison

开云体育

Lee,

There is Lynx of course. This is a linux text based browser that renders webpages into text like your vcfmw.org page.

Maybe something like that could be ported to z80 code, if there arent already some z80 based browsers already?

Paul Bigwood

While on the topic of modems...



They are used in credit card terminals. 2400 baud. Only thing they need besides the normal stuff is a reset signal. Battery...Bluetooth console...dial-up modem. Just imagine the portable BBSing possibilities! I ordered a set for experimentation.

Rich

--
Rich Cini




?On 8/17/20, 12:36 PM, "Lee Hart" <[email protected] on behalf of leeahart@...> wrote:

Richard Cini wrote:
> Just a fun thing to do with the Z80MC and SIO card.
> With some great detective work from Josh and a little bit of tinkering,
> I was able to get the SIO connected to a Hayesmodem 300 and to get an
> old CP/M program called “MODM221A” running. MODM221A is a derivative of
> the original MODEM program from Ward Christensen.

What a cool idea! I still have my Hayes Smartmodem, and fondly remember
using it to log onto various BBS's on my CP/M computer back in the 80's.

> Using this combination, there are a few things to note.
> First, you have to boot to the monitor and make sure that console input
> is the bit-banger only, and then load CP/M manually. There’s probably a
> way to permanently do this, but it would require modifying the system ROM.

If anyone figures it out, I can make a new ROM. There are a number of
upgrades like this that I've been meaning to get into. (Where does the
time go...)

> Second, since DTR and RTS are used as address bits, the ACE
> initialization in MODM221 has to disable DTR and RTS (or, if those are
> needed, then the RAM needs to be reduced to 32K and 5V re-routed to put
> it in the right place for the 32K RAM).

The 8250 has four output bits; DTR, RTS, OUT1, and OUT2. I supply a 128K
RAM for U1; it only needs two extra address bits. I happened to use DTR
and RTS (leaving OUT1 and OUT2 unused).

In hindsight, I could have used OUT1 and OUT2 for the extra address
bits; that would leave DTR and RTS free to use normally for serial
communications. Maybe I can do that on the next "spin" of the board.

> I don’t have a BBS setup, but I do have all the parts
> for it – a computer with a Digi 8-port serial board and an analog
> telephone switch. So, that will be my next project.

I wish I knew more about the modern internet. It seems like it should be
possible to setup a "modern" BBS that old CP/M computers can log into.
The old modem would be replaced with a "black box" that connects to the
internet instead of a phone line.

I've seen this done; but the "black box" is a PC, complete with keyboard
and screen. In fact, you do everything on the PC itself. The CP/M
computer is redundant.

Then there is the question of what the web pages on the internet look
like that such a "BBS" accesses. They can't be the usual HTML, color,
graphics, javascript, etc. if you expect a CP/M computer to deal with
it. Examples I've seen may *look* like an old time terminal (like
<> ) but in fact it's a page full of the usual HTML,
javascript, CSS, etc.

Lee Hart

--
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is
nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
-- Antoine de Saint Exupery
--
Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com

开云体育

Richard Cini wrote:

Just a fun thing to do with the Z80MC and SIO card.
With some great detective work from Josh and a little bit of tinkering,
I was able to get the SIO connected to a Hayesmodem 300 and to get an
old CP/M program called “MODM221A” running. MODM221A is a derivative of
the original MODEM program from Ward Christensen.

What a cool idea! I still have my Hayes Smartmodem, and fondly remember using it to log onto various BBS's on my CP/M computer back in the 80's.

Using this combination, there are a few things to note.
First, you have to boot to the monitor and make sure that console input
is the bit-banger only, and then load CP/M manually. There’s probably a
way to permanently do this, but it would require modifying the system ROM.

If anyone figures it out, I can make a new ROM. There are a number of upgrades like this that I've been meaning to get into. (Where does the time go...)

Second, since DTR and RTS are used as address bits, the ACE
initialization in MODM221 has to disable DTR and RTS (or, if those are
needed, then the RAM needs to be reduced to 32K and 5V re-routed to put
it in the right place for the 32K RAM).

The 8250 has four output bits; DTR, RTS, OUT1, and OUT2. I supply a 128K RAM for U1; it only needs two extra address bits. I happened to use DTR and RTS (leaving OUT1 and OUT2 unused).

In hindsight, I could have used OUT1 and OUT2 for the extra address bits; that would leave DTR and RTS free to use normally for serial communications. Maybe I can do that on the next "spin" of the board.

I don’t have a BBS setup, but I do have all the parts
for it – a computer with a Digi 8-port serial board and an analog
telephone switch. So, that will be my next project.

I wish I knew more about the modern internet. It seems like it should be possible to setup a "modern" BBS that old CP/M computers can log into. The old modem would be replaced with a "black box" that connects to the internet instead of a phone line.

I've seen this done; but the "black box" is a PC, complete with keyboard and screen. In fact, you do everything on the PC itself. The CP/M computer is redundant.

Then there is the question of what the web pages on the internet look like that such a "BBS" accesses. They can't be the usual HTML, color, graphics, javascript, etc. if you expect a CP/M computer to deal with it. Examples I've seen may *look* like an old time terminal (like <> ) but in fact it's a page full of the usual HTML, javascript, CSS, etc.

Lee Hart

--
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is
nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
-- Antoine de Saint Exupery
--
Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com

开云体育