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XM301 Modem to x86 PC for file transfer?


bongomeno

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Hello

 

Is it possible to connect my x86 pc modem (the one in my old laptop for example) directly to the xm301 modem and use the XE TERM (I have XE TERM and Telelink 1) software to transfer files between the computers. If so, what x86 software should I use? I would prefer DOS sofware.

 

Are there any decent adapters/cables available to connect the 800xl parallel bus to a pc parallel port or serial port?

 

How hard would it be to connect a serial port between a x86 pc and an atari 800xl controller port for data transfer? I imagine I could use DOS TCP/IP stack libraries with QBASIC to create slave software that could use a serial port to allow the Atari to make queries to the internet through the x86 pc.This way, i can use a x86 compatable thin client (AMD GEODE) as a medium between the Atari and an Ethernet modem. The advantage to this is that the thin client only consumes 12v and is very small. This could also be used as an external hard drive. My thin client (WYSE terminal) has about 32mb rom and 128mb ram with AMG GEODE processor. It has a parllel port, two serial ports, and 4 usb. I successfully installed msdos and freedos on the thing.

 

I am considering just buying a sd card/cartridge setup for my 8 bits, but I would still like to employ my xm301 and sx212 for SOMETHING.

 

Thanks for any info or tips.

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Have the xm301 on the Atari call the sx212 on the thin client....

or cut a modular phone wire in half... grab a 9volt battery put a 680ohm resistor in series on one side run red to neg side of battery a then run second cords green wire to resistor on positive side then connect red and green from both cord halves together on the other side. plug in to both modems and type ata on sx212 and ato or originate on the xe term xm301.... if you can't find the option then use xm302 to ata or call and use sx212 to ato (originate)

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Have the xm301 on the Atari call the sx212 on the thin client....

or cut a modular phone wire in half... grab a 9volt battery put a 680ohm resistor in series on one side run red to neg side of battery a then run second cords green wire to resistor on positive side then connect red and green from both cord halves together on the other side. plug in to both modems and type ata on sx212 and ato or originate on the xe term xm301.... if you can't find the option then use xm302 to ata or call and use sx212 to ato (originate)

I don't think the battery is necessary, I did similar without it back in the mid 80's, this may depend on the modems though.

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Hello

 

Is it possible to connect my x86 pc modem (the one in my old laptop for example) directly to the xm301 modem and use the XE TERM (I have XE TERM and Telelink 1) software to transfer files between the computers. If so, what x86 software should I use? I would prefer DOS sofware.

 

Are there any decent adapters/cables available to connect the 800xl parallel bus to a pc parallel port or serial port?

 

How hard would it be to connect a serial port between a x86 pc and an atari 800xl controller port for data transfer? I imagine I could use DOS TCP/IP stack libraries with QBASIC to create slave software that could use a serial port to allow the Atari to make queries to the internet through the x86 pc.This way, i can use a x86 compatable thin client (AMD GEODE) as a medium between the Atari and an Ethernet modem. The advantage to this is that the thin client only consumes 12v and is very small. This could also be used as an external hard drive. My thin client (WYSE terminal) has about 32mb rom and 128mb ram with AMG GEODE processor. It has a parllel port, two serial ports, and 4 usb. I successfully installed msdos and freedos on the thing.

 

I am considering just buying a sd card/cartridge setup for my 8 bits, but I would still like to employ my xm301 and sx212 for SOMETHING.

 

Thanks for any info or tips.

Use BobTerm on the A8, and Procomm on the x86. Connect via two live phone lines, or via a null modem and two serial ports, (PRC, 850, MIO, BB on A8/RS232 on PC).

You have to connect the TRNSMT to RCV on the two ends and

the GRND straight thru (without modems). For the PC 25 pin D RS232, that would be pins 3 and 2, I forget which is SND and RCV. You can find the SND RCV in other posts here lately.

The only way to use the modems is thru a phone line. Maybe you can do the connect thru crossed modular phone wire and battery like someone says, and no live phone lines via AT&T.

 

The easy way is with a SIO2PC adapter, either USB or RS232 on PC side. Then you don't need terminal software, just copy from one to the other with DOS and extract

files from the ATRs with MAKEATR or APE software. (But you want to use your XM301, which will be very slow.)

Edited by russg
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With a little digging, I also found this sio to serial cable: http://www.ebay.com/itm/221383887073

 

Perhaps I could use Qbasic and Atari BASIC to achive my goal of having data I/O between Atari8bix and x86 pc without having to use any old modems and related software?

Edited by bongomeno
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Here's what I did:

 

Neoware C50 (CA15) thin client. VIA Samuel 2 @ 400 Mhz, 256MB RAM, 256MB SSD running Windows XPe.

USB external 80G hard disk.

SIO2PC interface.

APE Software.

 

I have patched Windows to be a Terminal Server, so I can RDP into it from my desktop computer and change APE settings, etc. There is no monitor, keyboard or mouse connected.

Windows and APE boot up from the SSD which has EWF (Enhanced Write Filter) enabled. This prevents any changes to C:.

Atari ATRs and PC-Mirror are stored on F: (The 80G drive, Network Shared).

 

On my main desktop computer, I simply right-click on a file, select "save as", point to the Thin Client's shared Network drive, and then switch to my RDP window, and mount the file I just downloaded in APE, it's that easy. I can download a file, and in a matter of seconds, it's running on the Atari.

 

All the above hardware is contained in an old Corvus OmniDrive box. I mounted the SIO2PC on the back, so the SIO cable plugs into the box and looks nice. The Thin Client motherboard fits very nicely on the original Corvus metal frame inside. I had to bend one tab to make it fit. The only original Corvus parts still in use are the Power Supply and Fan (which could use some oil).

 

I built it from stuff I had on hand. Not that difficult, really. Just make sure the Thin Client has at LEAST 256MB RAM, and 256MB SSD (also called Disk on Module).

 

If anyone needs a Neoware image to flash their Thin Client with, let me know. HP has bought them out, and their software is really bad. I use a Linux USB bootable ThumbDrive to push (and pull) images.

 

Hope this helps.

 

-K

Edited by Kyle22
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IMO: $46.49 is a little pricey.

 

Since you seem to be willing to do some level of hacking, you should consider just building a cable yourself. Less then $5 in parts and you can mount it internally so you don't need to cut an Atari SIO cable in half. Been a while since I timed it but should only be ~40 minute project.

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Thank you for your replies! They are very helpful.

 

Will I have to enter special modem commands for them to communicate directly without a phone #?

I'm a little fuzzy here. You connect the XM301 to your PC modem using the crossed phone wire (cross TXMT and RCV) Or for sure connect using two phone lines. You have to use term software on both ends.

You set your Procomm PC to 300 baud N,8,1. Now you use the Bobterm software to send a file and the PC Procomm software to receive the file. Maybe that will work.

You can issue a modem command on either side, 'AT' in term mode should give an 'OK'. (on both screens?)

You can test your XM301 with Bobterm and a single phone line to connect to a BBS. 214-987-2135 should be 'Eclectic BBS. 337-984-4794 Positronium Repository BBS. But probably

neither one will allow 300 baud.

Oh, I just realized. Procomm won't work on modern Windows. Use 'Teraterm' instead...l.. WAIT! Procomm will work if you use DOSBOX in windows to run MSDOS programs.....maybe.

AND of course..... ICET is a better A8 term program. BUT? ICET may not do X or Y modem or one of the other modern transfer protocols. (I said I am fuzzy on this)

Ymodem G is a good one. Xmodem is probably available on both ICET and Teraterm.

Edited by russg
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the x-modem in hardware on the xm301 appears the quickest way to transfer on that modem when saving to a ramdisk or fast drive.... at least in it seems so... I used to get asked what modem I was using for a modem by x86 sysops all the time back in the day because of the thru-put... yes sysops were a meticulous breed. on the other hand batch modem file transfers became so darn convenient it was often forgotten.... I like xe term.... bobterm rocks... Express is nice... but ICE T rules with color ansi....

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Maybe a bit strange, but in the 80s, i and my friends made a box, that used 4 joystick cables to connect the Atari with the MSx. 2 joystick cables went into joystick port 1 + 2 of the Atari, and the other 2 cables went into the MSx ports. a friend of me simple wired the cables.

 

We used this cable for file-transfer between msx and Atari. All software was made in Atari Basic and MSX basic.

 

A bit slow, but it worked.

Edited by Stormtrooper of Death
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Maybe a bit strange, but in the 80s, i and my friends made a box, that used 4 joystick cables to connect the Atari with the MSx. 2 joystick cables went into joystick port 1 + 2 of the Atari, and the other 2 cables went into the MSx ports. a friend of me simple wired the cables.

 

We used this cable for file-transfer between msx and Atari. All software was made in Atari Basic and MSX basic.

 

A bit slow, but it worked.

Using the joystick ports for DATA transfer on the Atari computers is fairly common, MPP/Supra had 300 BAUD modems that used a joystick port, and Corvus had a HDD system that used ports 3&4 on the 800 computer.

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In the mid 90's I built a null modem cable. Connected it between my 850 and the serial port on the PC. I wrote a script in ProCom+ that accepted commands. The script parsed the input and responded. Inputs were simple like dir, cd, put, get - think ftp like stuff, and a size cmd which calculated how big the file would be on the atari drive in single and double density. I used Amodem on the A8 to connect. Worked like a charm. Kind a poor mans SIO2PC, albeit a lot less functinal. I think it worked fine up to 19.2 as well, o maybe it was 9600 I used.

 

I still have the cable but would have to dig it out and take it apart to see how I built it.

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With a little digging, I also found this sio to serial cable: http://www.ebay.com/itm/221383887073

 

Perhaps I could use Qbasic and Atari BASIC to achive my goal of having data I/O between Atari8bix and x86 pc without having to use any old modems and related software?

You don't need QBASIC and Atari BASIC to have data I/O A8 to/from PC. What you need is a SIO2PC cable and APE or ASPEQT software. The SIO2PC adapter makes the PC

act as a disk drive to the A8. Rick Cortese is the author of a self-made SIO2PC adapter, like he says, about $5 parts and 40 minutes to make. APE interface is another commonly

purchased device for about $50 + ship, and you have the ebay one from Poland. I can dig up Rick's instructions if you want.

Aspeqt is presently free. APE software is slightly disabled tryware, costs $50 to register if I remember, but you can do one way (I forget which way) communications.

APE site is http://www.atarimax.com. I'm not sure where is the best place for ASPEQT, here's one place.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/aspeqt/

Here's instructions for SIO2PC, home made. Make a folder to put the zip files in to unzip.

 

Shoot, the first two zip files are for MAX232 only.

I wanted to do the 14C82 single chip one by R. Cortese. That is the sio2pchow2.zip

 

 

 

The Original 2-Chip SIO2PC interface.zip

The Original 2-Chip SIO2PC interface_files.zip

sio2pchowtoz25dir.zip

Edited by russg
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Isn't that suppose to be Nick Kennedy as author of SIO2PC....

"SIO2PC adapter" Just the hardware.

 

Side note, Nick was one of the many that disparaged the 1489 version of SIO2PC. :) Things didn't work out as well as they might have for him in the Atari arena. I got the impression not a lot of people sent in shareware fees. I know one seller, j131 on eBay, had ~2,700 positive feedbacks. Must of been tough to see numbers like that and not get a taste. It would have been better if some of the people making the cables would have given him a taste, buck a cable or something. Time has passed the DOS version by.

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I don't think the battery is necessary, I did similar without it back in the mid 80's, this may depend on the modems though.

I believe you are right. the issue is that you need to disable dialtone detection on newer modem and that kind of thing. since it wont ring either, you need to manually answer the call too, the A command on a hayes compatible modem.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was looking for something completely different on my archive NAS, and stumbled across the ProComm + directory. Out of curiosity I looked to see if the Atari files I wrote for it were there. Sure enough. If anyone is interested, here it is (ATARI.ASP). I ran this on the PC, and used AModem or BobTerm (can't remember which) on the Atari, directly connected from 850 interface to PC RS232. The PC ran in a server mode, if you will. It supports these commands: UP/DOWN/SIZE/DIR/DEL/TIME/WORK/?/BYE

 

I used it for transferring files to/from the PC for archive storage, not daily use. Looks like I initially wrote it in 1993, with updates in 97+.

 

If anyone wants to use, yeah right, feel free. This was my poor mans SIO2PC.

; Script......: ATARI.ASP
; Programmer..: S. Wade Ripkowski
; Version.....: 1.82
; Date........: 01/21/93
; Description.: Places Procomm Plus in a "SERVER" state for link up remotely.
; Revised.....: 03/06/96-Added Zmodem, Kermit, handshaking.
;             : 03/07/96-Added Working Directory.
;             : 11/29/97-Changed to PC, and corrected several options.
;             : 12/23/97-Added DD sectors to SIZE, descreased DIR time.
;             : 01/06/98-Added file size to DIR
;             : 01/07/98-Added DEL command

define ATARI_NUMBER "10"
define WAIT_TIME     240


proc main
    clear
    locate 0 0

    string cmmd
    string flname
    string outstr
    string sppick
    string stemp
    string swork
    string ssendfl
    string ssizefl
    long size
    integer sect
    integer anoth
    integer ngetfile

    set BAUD 9600
    set BAUDRATE 9600
    set DATABITS 8
    set PARITY NONE
    set STOPBITS 1
    set DUPLEX HALF
    set PORT COM1
    set RELAXED ON
    set CR CR_LF
    set SOFTFLOW ON
    set HARDFLOW OFF
    set ZMODEM AUTODLOAD OFF
    set KERMIT FILETYPE BINARY
    set TXPACE 5
    set BREAK 350
    set ALARM OFF
    set SOUND OFF
    set EXPLODE OFF
    set HOST CONNECTION DIRECT
    set CDINXFER NO
    EMULATE TTY

    message "Waiting 3 seconds...^M"
    pause 3

    transmit "Atari<->PC Host, Version 1.82^M"
    pause 1
    transmit "Copyright (C) 1993,1996,1997,1998^M"
    pause 1
    transmit "S. Wade Ripkowski  All Rights Reserved.^M"
    pause 1

    transmit "^MPC signed on!^M"
    pause 1

    swork="C:\TEMP\"
    transmit "Working PC directory:^M"
    transmit swork
    transmit "^M"

    MAINLOOP:

    transmit "^MCommand? "
    rget cmmd 5 WAIT_TIME

    if failure
        message "Timed OUT!^M"
        goto MAINLOOP
    endif

    switch cmmd
        case "UP"
            transmit "Upload Protocol?^M"
            transmit "Kermit Xmodem Ymodem Zmodem Quit: "
            rget sppick 1 WAIT_TIME

            if failure
                message "Timed OUT!^M"
                goto MAINLOOP
            endif

            ngetfile=1

            switch sppick
                case "X"
                    transmit "^MFilename? "
                    rget flname 80 WAIT_TIME

                    if failure
                        message "Timed OUT!^M"
                        goto MAINLOOP
                    endif

                    strcpy ssendfl swork
                    strcat ssendfl flname
                endcase

                case "Q"
                    transmit "^M"
                    ngetfile=0
                endcase
            endswitch

            if EQ ngetfile 1
                transmit "PC ready to receive: "
            endif

            switch sppick
                case "K"
                    transmit "Kermit...^M"
                    getfile kermit
                endcase

                case "X"
                    transmit "1K-XModem...^M"
                    getfile 1kxmodem ssendfl
                endcase

                case "Y"
                    transmit "YModem...^M"
                    getfile ymodem
                endcase

                case "Z"
                    transmit "ZModem...^M"
                    getfile zmodem
                endcase

                case "Q"
                    goto MAINLOOP
                endcase
            endswitch
        endcase

        case "DOWN"
            transmit "Download Protocol?^M"
            transmit "Kermit Xmodem Ymodem Zmodem Quit: "
            rget sppick 1 WAIT_TIME

            if failure
                message "Timed OUT!^M"
                goto MAINLOOP
            endif

            ngetfile=1

            switch sppick
                case "Q"
                    transmit "^M"
                    ngetfile=0
                endcase
            endswitch

            if EQ ngetfile 1
                transmit "^MFilename? "
                rget flname 80 WAIT_TIME

                if failure
                    message "Timed OUT!^M"
                    goto MAINLOOP
                endif

                strcpy ssendfl swork
                strcat ssendfl flname

                transmit "PC ready to send: "
            endif

            switch sppick
                case "K"
                    transmit "Kermit...^M"
                    sendfile kermit ssendfl
                endcase

                case "X"
                    transmit "1K-XModem...^M"
                    sendfile 1kxmodem ssendfl
                endcase

                case "Y"
                    transmit "YModem...^M"
                    sendfile ymodem ssendfl
                endcase

                case "Z"
                    transmit "ZModem...^M"
                    sendfile zmodem ssendfl
                endcase

                case "Q"
                    goto MAINLOOP
                endcase
            endswitch
        endcase

        case "SIZE"
            transmit "Filename? "
            rget flname 80 WAIT_TIME

            if failure
                message "Timed OUT!^M"
                goto MAINLOOP
            endif

            strcpy ssendfl swork
            strcat ssendfl flname

            getfsize ssendfl size

            strfmt outstr "%ld byte(s)^M" size
            transmit outstr

            div size 128 sect
            strfmt outstr "%d SD sector(s)^M" sect
            transmit outstr

            div size 256 sect
            strfmt outstr "%d DD sector(s)^M" sect
            transmit outstr
        endcase

        case "DIR"
            transmit "Filespec? "
            rget flname 80 WAIT_TIME

            if failure
                message "Timed OUT!^M"
                goto MAINLOOP
            endif

            strcpy ssendfl swork
            strcat ssendfl flname

            anoth=0

            findfirst ssendfl

            if found
                strcpy ssizefl swork
                strcat ssizefl $FNAME
                strcat ssizefl "."
                strcat ssizefl $FEXT
                getfsize ssizefl size
                anoth=1
                transmit $FNAME
                transmit "."
                transmit $FEXT
                transmit " - "
                strfmt outstr "%ld^M" size
                transmit outstr
            endif

            while anoth
;                pause 1
                findnext

                if found
                    strcpy ssizefl swork
                    strcat ssizefl $FNAME
                    strcat ssizefl "."
                    strcat ssizefl $FEXT
                    getfsize ssizefl size
                    transmit $FNAME
                    transmit "."
                    transmit $FEXT
                    transmit " - "
                    strfmt outstr "%ld^M" size
                    transmit outstr
                else
                    anoth=0
                endif
            endwhile
        endcase

        case "TIME"
            strcpy outstr $DATE
            strcat outstr ", "
            strcat outstr $TIME0
            strcat outstr "^M"
            transmit outstr
        endcase

        case "WORK"
            transmit "Directory? "
            rget stemp 80 WAIT_TIME

            if failure
                message "Timed OUT!^M"
                goto MAINLOOP
            else
                strcpy swork stemp
                transmit "Working PC directory:^M"
                transmit swork
                transmit "^M"
            endif
        endcase

        case "DEL"
            transmit "Filename? "
            rget flname 80 WAIT_TIME

            if failure
                message "Timed OUT!^M"
                goto MAINLOOP
            endif

            strcpy ssendfl swork
            strcat ssendfl flname

            isfile ssendfl
            if success
                delete ssendfl

                isfile ssendfl
                if success
                    transmit "NOT Deleted!^M"
                else
                    transmit "Deleted!^M"
                endif
            else
                transmit "No Such File!^M"
            endif
        endcase

        case "?"
            transmit "Commands: ^M"
            transmit "UP/DOWN/SIZE/DIR/DEL/TIME/WORK/?/BYE^M"
        endcase

        case "BYE"
            goto DONE
        endcase
    endswitch

    goto MAINLOOP

DONE:

transmit "^MPC signed off!^M"

endproc


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