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Getting a SuperPET online

That looks good to me.

Both sides are driving different pins (for example, the Wimodem232 is driving RXD and the SuperPET is driving TXD).

I would now connect both sides up and turn all of the DIP switches to ON and see what you get then.

Dave
 
Hi, here's a picture of the rs232 tester plugged into both the super pad and the Wimodem.

It's hard to tell, but DCd, rxd, and txd are red, all other LEDs are green.

20240912_120538.jpg
 
That looks good.

At 300 Baud and you enter some characters into the terminal emulator on the SuperPET, do you see any activity on the TXD pin (pin 2)?

Dave
 
daver2 said:
That looks good.

At 300 Baud and you enter some characters into the terminal emulator on the SuperPET, do you see any activity on the TXD pin (pin 2)?

Dave
Click to expand...

Yes! The TXD led flashes green for a fraction of a second, followed by the RXD led. This all happens very quickly.

I tried blindly typing the ATI command, and while the TXD/RXD LEDs flash while entering the command, there is no followup RXD led activity after hitting <RETURN>. I would take This to mean the Wimodem232 did not receive the command and is not replying with a status report.
 
I would as well.

So now we need to look at what the Wimodem232 'thinks' it needs to either receive a message OR transmit a message.

That is tomorrow's job now...

You say that you get the RXD flashing whilst entering the ATI command? Is this correct? If this is the case, then the Wimodem232 is echoing the characters it receives.

I assume the command you are entering (e.g. ATI) is being echoed back to you?

I am also just thinking aloud here. I wonder what the wimodem232 'thinks' is the 'end of line'? CR, or LF or CR followed by LF?

Dave
 
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I would hazard a guess that your problem is the DCD (Data Carrier Detect) pin on the SuperPET side of the RS232 monitor.

It was this pin that caused the USR modem not to work. However, on this occasion, you were able to issue an 'invisible' command from the SuperPET to the USR modem to change the state of the DCD pin. Unfortunately, you haven't got that luxury with your version of the Wimodem232.

However, some of what I read in your latest post is not consistent with what I would be expecting under this situation.

I would try the following:

Switch OFF switch 7 on the RS232 monitor, thus isolating the SuperPET DCD signal from the Wimodem232. I would expect the DCD LED to extinguish at this point.

Use a short piece of wire (on the SuperPET side of the RS232 monitor) and jumper pin 20 of the SuperPET (DTR LED) to pin 8 of the SuperPET (DCD LED).

I am now expecting the DCD LED to illuminate GREEN.

Post a photograph of your new set-up.

How does this now work?

Dave
 
daver2 said:
You say that you get the RXD flashing whilst entering the ATI command? Is this correct? If this is the case, then the Wimodem232 is echoing the characters it receives.

I assume the command you are entering (e.g. ATI) is being echoed back to you?
Click to expand...

Correct. For every keypress on the SuperPET, regardless of the key, the TXD then RXD light flashes on the RS232 analyzer in very quick succession.
I should also note that when the WiModem is disconnected, there is no LED activity on the analyzer when keys are pressed on the SuperPET.

I do see the characters I type being echoed back, but I suspect that is a local echo, as the characters show on the screen regardless of whether the WiModem is attached or not.
 
That makes sense.

With the Wimodem232 disconnected, the SuperPET is not seeing a Clear To Send (CTS) as this signal is produced by the Wimodem232. As a result, the SuperPET should not transmit anything.

Yes, there is a local echo. If you remember, when we got the USR modem running, you got a 'double echo' (one echo locally from the SuperPET, and a further echo remotely from the USR modem). You then used an AT command to disable the USR modem echo.

Now, what I think is happening, is that the SuperPET is transmitting a character to the Wimodem232 - which is echoing it back to the SuperPET. However, the SuperPET is ignoring characters from the Wimodem232 because of the incorrect state of the DCD signal.

Try the switch and link modification I suggested and see what happens.

Dave
 
daver2 said:
Try the switch and link modification I suggested and see what happens.

Dave
Click to expand...
First, I can confirm that with switch 7 OFF the DCD led does indeed go out.

With the jumper wire inserted between lines 8 and 20 on the SuperPET side, the DCD led does become green. As well, I do get a "double echo" when typing.

Issuing an ATI command (appears as AATTII) does not result in a status report from the Wimodem.

picture requested:

20240915_145532.jpg
 
So, that is excellent news. We are now getting communication in both directions between the SuperPET and the Wimodem232!

Don't worry about the double echo for now.

Can I now suggest entering the ATI command. But, don't use the <RETURN> key on the keyboard.

Instead, use CONTROL-M followed by CONTROL-J.

These two control codes should generate a <carriage return> followed by a <line feed>.

Let's see if the Wimodem232 is looking for a specific line ending...

Perhaps we need @JimDrew to jump in here?

Dave
 
Darn it...

Are there any configurable options in the SuperPET terminal emulator (microEditor) or RS232 communications to set <carriage return> or <carriage return> followed by <line feed> I wonder?

Dave
 
The SuperPET has a built-in (ROM) serial port settings utility. The following settings are listed, along with their default settings (NOTE: I always set "Baud" to 0300):

Code: 
Baud         2400
Parity       EVEN
Stopbits     1
Prompt       11
Lineend      0D
Response     13

Both the SuperPET's "monitor" and it's microEDITOR offer simple terminals.

I have SuperPET disk images for a couple of more feature-rich terminal programs, however, I haven't gotten to the stage of knowing how to mount disk images from within the 6809 CPU side.
 
You might like to try <RETURN> followed by <CURSOR DOWN>?

The default <line end> is a hexadecimal 0D = <carriage return>. You seem to be able to change it to any single ASCII character, but not more than one character.

From what I remember, you don't need to mount a disk. You just use it...

What disk drive have you got? Is it set to ID #8?

Dave
 
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daver2 said:
You might like to try <RETURN> followed by <CURSOR DOWN>?

From what I remember, you don't need to mount a disk. You just use it...

What disk drive have you got? Is it set to ID #8?

Dave
Click to expand...

Unfortunately entering ATI followed by <RETURN> and <CURSOR DOWN> didn't work.

And regarding what disk drive I use - my apologies, I should have been more clear about that. I'm using a TYNEMOUTH SOFTWARE PET SD card drive. It is set to device ID #8.
So I have the SuperPET software disk images on a microSD card on that device.
blog.tynemouthsoftware.co.uk

pet microSD - Commodore Pet SD card disk drive

This is an old post, preserved for reference. The products and services mentioned within are no longer available. This post has been left f...
blog.tynemouthsoftware.co.uk blog.tynemouthsoftware.co.uk

From the 6502 side of the SuperPET, I use a DOS wedge to mount disk images. From the Waterloo/6809 side, I'm not sure how to do that yet. I suppose as a work around for now, I could mount the SuperPET terminal software disk image from the 6502 side, then switch over to the 6809 side without powering down. The disk image should stay mounted.
 
Well, this is interesting....

I was able to load a SuperPET 6809 terminal emulator, called TARDIS. It seems very capable, and allows the RVS/OFF key to be used as a CTRL key. So I can send those Control codes....
Catch is that the terminal emulator starts up set to 1200 baud, and I cannot find a way to change this setting (I've tried every key combination I can think of). I need to set it to 300 baud because that's what the WiModem232 is set to currently. I'll have to keep trying to figure this out.

So then I found another terminal program, which was written for the SuperPET, but runs in 6502 mode, and merely uses the serial port on the 6809 board. It starts up set to 300 baud. It worked! I as able to issue an ATI command and get a report from the WiModem232. Also, I was able to connect to a BBS.

This was accomplished with the RS-232 analyzer in between the WiModem and the SuperPET, with pins 8 & 20 jumpered as shown above (in message #69).

Next, I'll use the 6502 terminal program to set the WiModem232 to 1200 baud, then load the TARDIS terminal emulator (which is set to 1200 baud) and see if I get any positive results solely doing everything from the 6809 side.
 
She keeps fighting us, but we are getting there!

We now (at least) have the cable configured correctly!

Do you have any documentation for TARDIS you can post? It would be strange to not have the facility for changing the communication parameters.

 Dave
 
I have searched high and low for any documentation on the terminal program TARDIS, but have not come up with anything. However, I have found another disk image with another terminal program by the same author, and this one includes documentation, so there may be some overlap.

The only catch is that now I have to learn how to mount disk images from within the SuperPet's 6809 mode to read this documentation.
 
Try typing ATI with the SHIFT key held down (so, SHIFTED-A, SHIFTED-T, and SHIFTED-I), and then just RETURN.

Since you are getting the double-echo the WiModem232 is getting and echoing data back.
 
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