Cat Box question

[+Mitch]

Well, I got my Cat Box and am enjoying it but I had a couple questions that I was hoping some of the more experienced Jag players could help me out on.

 

First, my Cat Box is missing the terminator for the RJ11 port. Does anyone know what the terminator specs are (what pins are terminated, etc.) and do you really need it?

 

Also, can you connect the Cat Box to one of the JagLink Interfaces? Or do you have to connect it Cat Box to Cat Box and JagLink to JagLink? I assume the latter but if someone can confirm the former that would be great.

 

Thanks,

Mitch

http://atari7800.atari.org

[Gunstar]

If I know what your talking about, RJ11 rings a bell, this is the thing INSIDE the catbox that is supposed to have a little plug that you switch between several positions? You've lost the little plug (or it didn't come with one? if this is the case, I'm pretty sure you don't have to worry about it unless your planning on hooking up an RGB monitor, I believe it has something to do with that if I remember correctly (I sold my catbox and hadn't read the instructions for years). I'm pretty sure you've nothing to worry about though, unless you have to have RGB, then it needs to be set a certain way, I believe, to enable or disable the sound output to rgb so the sterso outputs will work with it or something like that.

 

So, where did you get a catbox? off E-bay?

How much did you pay?

[Gunstar]

As far as the Jaglink&catbox goes, there is a three-way switch next to the headphone volume knob that has three positions; the middle position is for pass-through to use stuff like the jaglink, the other two positions are for using either the phone jack catnet option or the DB9 rs232 port for external modem. My experience with using the jaglink and a catbox together (a catbox on one machine, with the jaglink connected and only a jaglink on the other jag), I found that DOOM crashes about ten times as much while in linked play than if you unplug the catbox and just use the jaglink (the extra electronics it has to pass through seem to cause the problem that already exists with DOOM networking to be magnified). I never had a chance to try out Aircars or Battlesphere this way to know if they work right, but two catboxes is better all around for any of these games (although I've heard conflicting opinions on wether DOOM can be used with two catboxes or if it can only be used with ajaglink or custom jagdoom cables).

[+Mitch]

quote

If I know what your talking about, RJ11 rings a bell, this is the thing INSIDE the catbox that is supposed to have a little plug that you switch between several positions?

 

No, you're thinking of the internal jumpers. The RJ11 jacks are the networking jacks that look like telephone jacks on the back of the Cat Box.

 

I don't have one but I found a copy of the Cat Box instructions on the net and it says that there is supposed to be a terminator on the unused RJ11 jack when playing a network game.

 

quote:

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So, where did you get a catbox? off E-bay?

How much did you pay?

---

 

Yeah, ebay. $100.

 

quote

I found that DOOM crashes about ten times as much while in linked play than if you unplug the catbox and just use the jaglink

 

Thanks for the info. I guess I wasn't very clear in how I put it, but I actually was more interested in finding out if you could link up a Cat Box and JagLink directly. Either from the Cat Boxes phone jack to the JagLink, or a DB9 (Cat Box) to RJ11 (JagLink phone jack) convertor.

 

 

Mitch

http://atari7800.atari.org

[Gunstar]

No, you can't, they connect jaguars together differently-a different set of proticals.

But I don't remember ever having any jumper or whatever-anything-plugged in there...maybe it means at the end of a line of networked jaguars there has to be one? So the program doesn't keep trying to find another Jag on the line?

[Gunstar]

In any case, I got mine new (when I had it-I sold it;( ) and it never came with anything like that, so I imagine you'd have to stop by a RadioShack or something and pick one up.

[+Mitch]

quote:

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No, you can't, they connect jaguars together differently-a different set of proticals.

---

 

I kind of figured that.

 

quote

I don't remember ever having any jumper or whatever-anything-plugged in there...maybe it means at the end of a line of networked jaguars there has to be one?  

 

Yes, I believe that's correct. At least that's the normal use of a terminator on a network. Making one would be trivial if I knew the correct pins to terminate and the correct resistance. But, if you never had to use one maybe it's not really needed.

 

Thanks,

Mitch

http://atari7800.atari.org

[Ze_ro]

When I bought my Catbox new, it came with one terminator (which I eventually lost, unfortunately). All it was was a male RJ11 jack with a resistor connected to two of the leads. Unfortunately, I can't remember what the rating on the resistor was, or what pins it was connecting.

 

However, even in the manual it states that it's not terribly necessary, and you should be fine without it.

 

--Zero