17 May
2023
17 May
'23
3:56 a.m.
On Tue, May 16, 2023 at 11:42 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
That was the first thing I bought for this machine. And Kermit was one
of the first things I installed. Last time I used it was yesterday to
transfer an EPROM dump file from my HP95LX...
But I really would like to get a more direct solution.
As for the target machine having a serial port, one of the machines I
want to get stuff onto is an Osborne 1A. The serial port on that is
horrible. The baud rate generator divides down the master clock to get
19200Hz. That's fed to the serial chip which, amazingly for a Z80
machine, is a 6850. You can program that to divide by 16 (for 1200
baud) or divide by 64 (for 300 baud). That's it. OK, there's a jumper
on the mainboard to double those rates, and a cut-n-wire modification
in the technical manual for 9600 and 2400 baud, but....
On Tue, 16 May 2023, Wayne S via cctalk wrote:
> Tony in response to your original idea of wanting to download images for
> use on you existing machines ( did i get that right?), i think you have
Yes. I've got the machines running, I see software for them on
websites (including bitsavers), I want to use it.
everything you
need already. Download the images to your win 8 box then
use file transfer software (kermit or xmodem) to serially transfer to
the specific box you want to use the software on and the use the floppy
on that box to write the floppies. It seems like there is a version of
kermit made for every box imaginable. The only possible gotcha is does
the box have a serial port.
He would have to add a serial port (USB to serial dongle).
Although, . . .
many years ago, in the early days of USB, there was a cable and software
provision for transferring files USB yo USB. 'course, it's doubtful that
any of his other machines have USB.
If my other machines had USB I'd just put the files on a memory stick.
Similarly, he could buy a cheap external USB 3.5" drive. Write content to
that drive on the modern machine, and read those floppies on the older
machines. The readily avaailable one have firmware that only supports
720K, 1.4M, and [sometimes] NEC-style "mode 3".
I have one but AFAIK it only supports 1.4M. A format that few of my
other machines support.
I get the implication that he is considering USB
flux-transition devices
that could be coerced into acting as a general purpose floppy controller.
EXACTLY! I was told that was the best solution for this sort of thing.
Are there any downsides to doing it that way?
If I do go that route, what are the options? I have no knowledge of
them and thus no preference for one over another
As I said at the start I am clueless about this. I really need
somebody to talk me through it, what to get, what to build, what to
download etc.
-tony