Date : Sun, 03 Jun 2007 17:28:20 +0100
From : BBCMailingList@... (Ian Wolstenholme)
Subject: PC/Beeb serial cable woe
Just an alternative suggestion to all this serial cable
business...
I used to use a serial cable for all my PC/BBC file transferring
a few years ago, but then when I went over to a newer version
of an operating system we won't mention on the PC side which
didn't support the file transfer software, I found it much easier
to do file transferring using floppy discs.
You have to have the same sized floppy drive in PC and BBC,
of course, and these days it's probably easier to use a 3.5"
drive with the Beeb than find a 5.25" to work in a PC, but
once that little technical detail is out of the way, there are
plenty of utilities available for reading 720K DOS discs in a
(1770) BBC and reading various Acorn formats of discs in a
PC.
So for getting files from your BBC to a PC, you can either
save them on a DFS or ADFS disc and then put the disc in
your PC and use something like Omniflop to read them back
again, or put a 720K DOS disc in your BBC and save files
onto it with Sprow's DOSFS and hopefully even the PC
operating system I didn't mention above will still be able
to read the 720K DOS disc.
I have a 3.5" 720K DOS disc which I use for most of my
PC to BBC file transferring now, just pop it into the PC and
save whatever files I need for the BBC onto it, then pop
it in a Master 128 with DOSFS and save it wherever it
is going to live permanently (usually somewhere on
the Econet). No cables, no baud rates, no parity, no
handshakes - so simple even I can do it!
Best wishes,
Ian
----- Original Message -----
From: Kris Adcock [mailto:beeb@...]
To: bbc-micro@...
Sent: Tue, 29 May 2007 16:37:04 +0100
Subject: [BBC-Micro] PC/Beeb serial cable woe
Afternoon all!
I'm trying to make a serial cable to go 'twixt Beeb and PC. I'm using the
serial-cable textfile as found in http://bbc.nvg.org/util/xfer_30.zip, but
I'm having little joy. Which annoys me, because I built one a year or two
ago, and had no trouble at all getting it to work. Then someone borrowed it.
Bah.
The first thing that confuses me is that the textfile's description of the
five-pin DIN plug (the ASCII-art of it) seems to have pins 4 and 5 swapped
around compared to the numbers inscribed on the plugs I've bought. Can anyone
confirm this?
The other thing that confuses me is that the textfile doesn't have the 0v
pins on the two plugs wired together - there just seems to be four wires that
go from one plug to the other. Is this right?
If anyone has a serial cable easily to hand that you know works, if it is
convenient could you possibly take it apart and let me know what wiring
you're using?
As far as usage goes, I'm setting the Beeb to transmit and receive at 9600
baud, and then set the input to serial port, like this:
*FX 7,7
*FX 8,7
*FX 2,1
.. which I hope should mean that if I had a working cable, then typing
anything on my PC (I'm using Hyperterminal) should transmit the keys to the
Beeb and make them appear on screen?
Lastly (honest) what is the correct flow control setting in Hyperterminal?
Cheers, and many thanks in advance,
Kris
("frustrated" of Derby)
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