#14.4 on the A2000?
17 messages in this thread
The salesman at the local compu-supermarket gave me to understand that
my new Practical Peripherals 14.4k S/R fax-modem might be wasted on
my vanilla A-2000 because of a sluggish serial device. I got it
anyway because the price made it so easy, but is any improvement
required? On some of the local 14.4-capable boards, Terminus has
shown Z Modem transfer rates >1600 c.p.s. There doesn't seem to be a
phone number for northern VA giving C.I.S. access >9600 bps, but
Autopilot yields rates of
Port 946
Date 909
Should I consider some upgrade? If so, what are the likely candidates?
If text files that you transfer are complete (no missing characters)
and the binary files that you transfer function properly then I would
say that your serial port is working just fine. The 68000 CPU
clocked at 7.15909 MHz has proven to be too slow to process the
incoming data from the serial port fast enough to prevent lost
characters during downloads on an A2000. If you have an accelerator
or an add-on serial port card then you probably will experience no
problem with this. Of course, all of this is only of concern at
rates above 9600 bps.
Hi Ron,
well down here in fredericksburg i have no problem at all downloading
at 14.4K on any of the boards i use.. i have a stock A500 with 2.1 OS
using a supra modem.. however i CAN NOT go above 9600 under 1.3 OS..
-mark-
it wont take long to get used to the new speed…
Is that Fredericksburg, ->Virginia<- ?
I moved here from just outside Fredericksburg; we lived in a house on
Hull's Chapel Rd…well, actually, it was in Stafford with a mailing
address of Fredericksburg.
Yes indeed it is.. fredburg VA. actually at LOW in locust grove way down
on rt3 by rt20…
moved here from jersey about four years ago, and i love it. but RT3 is
getting a little dull at rush hour….
catch ya,
-mark-
I have been forced into using BackTalk because suddenly Access 1.42 (with which
I was very happy) stopped responding to my keyboard. BackTalk is okay, but I
can't get the terminal emulation working properly: I have to reset Compuserver
to "Other" each time (it tells me I am using "VIDEX/PC" emulation, whatever
that is), and on the WELL (the other BBS I visit often, I keep getting command
symbols sprinkled through my text. They suggest I switch ty emulation, but I
can't figure out how to change my Back Talk settings. My setup is very normal:
a Supra 2400 external running on a standard A500 with 1 meg memory. What can I
do?
Hi Jennifer,
well to be honest im rather new to this whole thing.. is just that ive
had so many problems ive had to learn some..
i find that for CIS vt102 works best. but im still experementing with
diffrent emulations on other boards..
i dont understand how access stopped responding to your keyboard, did
you upgrade to 1.42 or just one day it decided not to listen anymore???
two suggestions i can make are:
1. upgrade to 2.1 OS and get AP if you are going to do any serious time on
CIS. just in messages it saves me a lot-o-bucks…i still pop on with
my other term program to cruise around basic services though..
2. Get a copy of TERMINUS. its what i use, the support offered by the
author is OUTSTANDING (jack radigan).
what is the WELL. i think ive heard of it before somewhere????
well hope thats a start, i think we are all kinda learning
this together..
-mark-
Hi Mark. Access just stopped working one day. I went back to the orig disk
and everything, but that didn 't work either. I booted a different Workbench
disk, but that didn't work either. I will get 2.1 eventually, when I can, but
hear it is backordered with no particular hope of delivery anytime soon. Not
enough memory at this point to run AutoPilot anyway — some day all things will
come I guess. Back Talk was recommended here in AmigaUsers, so I hope someone
can help me. I can't figure out how to set any terminal parameters, i.e. where
do I set to VT102 — I can't find it! Anyway, I love telecommunicating
regardless.
The WELL, for question two, is the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link and runs out of
Sausalito. I reach it through a CIS node (with ocnnect-time charges, of
course). Lots of good philosophy and fine people on that board/in that
community.
Jennifer,
BackTalk doesn't do terminal emulation…so that's why it doesn't work
<grin>.
Set CIS for TTY and you won't get command characters sprinkled thru
your text..
BTW, if you don't want to make the change permanent, you can append the
terminal type to your ppn as you log in like this:
71702,170*TTY
(note the '*'…it's needed)
Then you'll be set right from the login.
Don
Backtalk supports no terminal emulations at all. It is strictly glass
tty (what you see is what you get).
Mark, what modem would you suggest for a 2000 with just a 68000?
Ron
Well,
im far from the expert here, but i use the supra 14.4k V.32bis. i have
a stock A500 using OS2.1. i have no problem with UL's or DL's at up to
14.4K.. i guess the serial port of the 2000 is the same as the 500.
you may want to ask around a bit and see what everyone else is using as
the supra is kinda expensive!!! however it has come down another $10 in
the last month…
what ya using now btw???
have fun,
-mark-
What Daniel Stripes said. I'd add: If you don't have AmigaDOS 2.1, get it.
The serial.device is improved and you'll probably see a bit of an
improvement. The serial prefs also allow you to set up a large serial port
buffer, which can improve throughput. Or, try doing your downloads and
uploads via a RAM disk, which should help the serial port keep up. On my
accelerated A2000 with 2.1 and a 14.4K modem, I'm seeing somewhat faster
CPS rates than you list.
If you don't upgrade to 2.1, there are a couple of alternative
serial.device drivers for the Amiga that may improve throughput with older
OS versions. One is baudbandit.device. Another is called ser.device or
serial.device (just like the native device driver). You install these in
place of the default driver and rename them, or specify them in your
terminal software if it'll accept an alternate device driver.
— Ron Legro from Milwaukee via AUTOPILOT
(The only way to fly)
Thanks to responders. I'm using AmigaDOS 2.1; I simply can't leave
well enough alone. I can easily go back to D/L'ing to RAM: but I'll
have to read up on serial buffers via prefs. What of the alternative
I/O hardware from, say, G.V.P. which, for about $100 promises ultra
high speed serial ports? Are the serial port hardware items I see at
CompUSA for maybe $25 usable in an Amiga? Will I EVER quit fiddling
with this thing?
Ron (us guys gotta stick together!):
You should get a recoverable RAM disk to protect your downloads in the
event of system crashes. You can warm reboot and still recover what's in
the disk, most of the time. I recommend STAT-RAM, an upgrade to the old
ASDG-RAM. Works great on 2.1.
I have a GVP I/O Extender and it does promise higher throughput so you may
want to investigate it. Unfortunately, I can't vouch for its claim re
serial ports, as my SupraFaxModem apparently can't use the 9 pin GVP
serial input. I need the full 25-pin cable so I can make use of all the
Supra's features (I bought the Extender mainly for its parallel port, and
that's performed admirably). I don't believe you can use a
non-Amiga-specific serial card on the Amiga. There was a system at one
time that promised to support this: AX-S. But I think it's defunct.
— Ron Legro from Milwaukee via AUTOPILOT
(The only way to fly)
Ronald,
if you don't already have it, and I suspect you do, upgrade to AmigaDOS
2.1 as this will double the speed that the 2000 can handle. The only
other suggestion is to keep the multitasking down. To go beyond that
would require a hefty accelerator, of limited usefulness since the bus
size remains the same, or replacing your machine with one that has a 32
bit bus.