Looking for a terminal program

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Rolo
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Looking for a terminal program

Post by Rolo »

:roll: Probably I'm blind, but I can not find a terminal program, something like kermit, minicom, vt52, putty ...
I'd like to hook up my Tano Dragon to a serial line and use it as a 9600 8-N-1 terminal for displaying data and typing some commands.
Anybody knows a good one?
tjewell
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Re: Looking for a terminal program

Post by tjewell »

Hi Rolo - gosh, you're right, there's nothing out there is there? That really surprises me. There's the Compusense Viewdata terminal in the archive, but I suspect that's looking for external hardware. I wonder if something for the Coco might work (or be persuaded to work). A quick scan of Cocopedia brings up 'Color Term Plus' and 'Super Color Terminal', among others, but details are sparse. I'll ask around in the Coco community, see if anything comes up.

Cheers, Tony
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Rolo
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Re: Looking for a terminal program

Post by Rolo »

Thanks Tony,
I was also looking on the Tandy side, since they had a serial interface. But even for the Dragon 64 there should be something out. Did nobody use that extra interface, back then? Is it not working right? I saw some extra hardware, too. Probably for D32.
If I find the time, I'll do some experiments with Tandy-programs. Maybe they can be adapted. Maybe I'll play around with making a crude BASIC raw terminal. Just printing out incoming characters, scanning the keyboard and transmitting those characters. I don't need any modem protocols at the moment. But of course, at least some control characters must be processed, and here we are, it's already becoming a bit more complicated. Always trapdoors anywhere ;)...
At least, that could be something, where a good old Dragon could do something useful!

Maybe there is something for the "new" operating systems. I've never dealt with OS-9 and the other competitors :?:
tjewell
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Re: Looking for a terminal program

Post by tjewell »

Hi again!

Still digging here, and found this: ftp://www.rtsi.com/RSDOS/TELECOM/GEMANUAL.TXT - I haven't actually tried downloading it yet, but I note it supports a Coco1/2. However, what's interesting is that it says that it requires the Tandy RS232 Pak to go any fast than 1200 baud. Someone on Facebook also said "The Dragon 64's serial port is closer to the Deluxe RS232 Pak hardware, but mapped at $ff04 instead of $ff68. In a pinch, the firmware from that Pak isn't completely terrible. It might even use the ROM I/O entry points (so it should be easy to hack)..."

So I might make a post later in the General board later to clarify this - is the 64's RS232 interface better/different to the Coco I/2's? I wonder if anyone knows what makes the RS232 pak 'special', and if anyone owns one.

I've also asked about OS-9 options - OS-9 is a mystery to me too, maybe this is my chance to learn more. I'm also keen to get this working, I quite like the idea of setting up my Dragon as a terminal to one of my Unix boxes, and perhaps getting it display Tweets or status updates or something!

Cheers, Tony
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tormod
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Re: Looking for a terminal program

Post by tormod »

Hi Tony, the serial port on the CoCo1/2 is not implemented with an ACIA like the Dragon 64, but is a bit-banger interface on PIA1 (the same as the DriveWire adapters for Dragon). This means more work for the CPU, and probably why the program limits the speed to 1200 baud - although DriveWire has shown us that bit-banging can run at 115200 baud for bulk transfers. So the CoCo1 program running at 1200 baud might very well work with a DriveWire adapter.

PS. If you have unix boxes I am sure FUZIX will be especially interesting for you, there will surely be some interesting communication possibilities coming up 8-)
admin
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Re: Looking for a terminal program

Post by admin »

Well - One does exist...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBv2w8V_9Ls

Also Compusense - ChatView Disk (in downloads) is a Viewdata/Preset Terminal
Simon Hardy
tjewell
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Re: Looking for a terminal program

Post by tjewell »

Ah, thanks for the clarification Tormod! Fuzix definitely looks interesting too - I'd love an update on where that's got to for the Dragon, but I suspect that's another topic.

That's a cool video Simon! What's the 'serial cart' he talks about in the first few seconds? I downloaded the Compusense software, but it just seems to freeze and there's no documentation that I can find. Does this need additional hardware?
Alastair
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Re: Looking for a terminal program

Post by Alastair »

tjewell wrote:What's the 'serial cart' he talks about in the first few seconds?
Tony, take a perusal of the thread.
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Rolo
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Re: Looking for a terminal program

Post by Rolo »

Thanks everybody for trying to solve my request!!!
Well, the guy on the video uses a D32, so they would have to "sacrifice" the printer port, if they didn't use own hardware. Unfortunately one can not really see, where the cable leads to. It could lead to the cartridge. I tried to find that thing in the internet. Not a single hit!*)
There's a CoCo project from 1998, building an ACIA-interface on cartridge port: http://sparksandflames.com/files/Color% ... %20Pak.pdf.
In my case, I would like to use my Tano Dragon's SY6551 chip for that. Just don't have enough time at the moment.

*) I just saw Alastair's link to the ebay auction. Unfortunately no picture anymore but: "PRISM Modem 1000 with cartridge (built in serial lead)"
tjewell
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Re: Looking for a terminal program

Post by tjewell »

Thanks Alastair! So I've continued to dig, and I've found this very interesting advert in Dragon User from March 1986.

http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/coc ... 201986.pdf
(Go to the second page)

Here's Compusense advertising all manner of exotic upgrades and software, including "PRESTEL pack for the DRAGON 32 and 64 - complete/ready to go cartridge. software and Prism 1000 1200/75 modem only £78.95", which is what I presume we're seeing in the video. I guess the cart is used to give a serial port to the Dragon 32. The ChatPlus software sounds exactly what Rolo and I need - if we're prepared to run Flex(!) - and if anyone has a spare Dragon Plus board (ha, as if), then we could do full 80 column terminal emulation too.

Anyone know any more about these wonderful offerings?
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