Nanopeb Printing Problem Revisited

[Fonzie]

Does anyone with a Nanopeb V1 use the editor in TI-Writer found in the Extended Basic V.2.7 Cartridge Suite to print to Putty or another Terminal program on their PC via the serial null modem cable without getting a single random character at the beginning of each line?

Here is why I ask. I bought 2 Nanopebs, 1 in in late 2017 and the other in early 2018. It took a long time reading forum threads before I was able to successfully transfer DSKs back and forth from console to PC over a serial null modem cable to USB connection at the PC. Eventually, thanks to guidance from several forum members, I started printing volume catalogs to Putty using DM3 and printing my own catalog of volume files in Excel. Things seemed golden.

 Flash forward to a couple days ago. I fired up my Extended Basic v2.7 Suite cartridge, chose Writer/Assembler and then text editor. On a whim I decided to see if Nanopeb could print to Putty like a word processor for any text I typed. So I typed an article from a magazine I had been reading, chose PF Print File and set the serial parameters to: rs2232.ba=1200.da=8.pa=n. Then I set Putty to the same configuration and hit enter on the console. Text immediately appeared on my PC in Putty and I thought, “wow, It works.”

Well not exactly. You see at the beginning of every line an extraneous random character appeared (e.g. 2HAD…,OGIVES… etc.)  A little research in the forum turned up another Nanopeb user in 2017 that had described the same problem. Apparently, back then Jaime Malilong had left out some reference, (which I am not clear on) to SIO or the serial connection in the DSR of one or more of his Nanopeb batches. The user sent back his device.  The DSR was updated, Nanopeb returned and the user did not experience any more extraneous characters at the beginning of lines.

Here is where it really gets confusing. So, I sent an email to the contact given at www.nanopeb.com. I explained my problem, the identical or nearly identical problem in 2017 fixed by a DSR change and asked how I might get my problem resolved. I received a speedy reply from Custodio Malilong. He said, “I’d be glad to help. I don’t have TI-Writer, but can you tell me where I can get FunnelWeb? I’ll load it up and see if I can solve the issue. I have Putty. Just a follow-up. I’m using the print option on Editor/Assembler and I see a “P” at the beginning of each line. Is this what you are seeing?” He also told me he was using a CF7 to print to his parallel printer. Apples and oranges?.

No! my characters are random. And just to muddy the waters further I dug out an Editor/Assembler Cartridge loaded some text and used the print function to print to my TI serial printer. I got text with the same “P” at the beginning of each line as he had.

I emailed Custodio and emphasized to him random characters when using TI-Writer/Putty or when using TI-Writer directly to my serial printer. I told him of the consistent “P” when printing out of EA. I also said I was going to take a few days and do further research. Hence, my first line question. I am going to see what other information I can provide him to assist in my problem. I welcome any further guidance I might supply to him.

[klrw111-78]

I had this issue with my NanoPeb printing to a serial device.  I sent Jaime a copy of the original file as well as a version that was captured via terminal from the serial port.  He tracked it down and his comment was "don't understand why TI did it that way".  I mailed it to him and he made a change to my Nano.  If I remember correctly the "random character" was not so random after all.  Had something to do with the last character in the buffer before the CRLF.  I'll see if I can locate the correspondence with him.  I don't believe I posted everything here.

[Opry99er]

Are you using a stop bit in your transfer settings?

 

1200,8N1 ("1" is your stop bit)

[Fonzie]

Editor Print File Device Name: RS232.BA=1200.DA=8.PA=N  (If this setting isn’t correct for STOP BITS = 1, then   
I don’ t know how to type it in correctly to get it to print anything).

 

Putty Setting:

Speed (baud) 1200

Data Bits 8

Stop Bits 1

Parity None

Flow Control XON/OFF

[+Ksarul]

A second stop bit might help, but if that doesn't do anything useful, I can supply Jaime with an XB 2.7 cartridge to allow him to test using an UberGROM suite. . .I use one all the time to use the EA load functions Tony added to TIW to load programs for SAMS card testing.

[Fonzie]

I tried using 2 stop bits in Putty to see any changes and got the same output as 1 stop bit. But I did learn one thing. The extraneous characters are not random. I had typed a few lines of 80 columns text and then copied these until I had about 15 lines to print. Every line had an extraneous first character but the same character appeared on every line that contained the exact same text.

As I wrote earlier, Custodio Malilong made contact with me. However, most references about fixes in this and other threads mentioned Jaime. Could he be one and the same person? I guess I should ask him. Anyway, Ksarul  generously offered to supply an XB 2.7 cartridge to allow testing.

I’ll contact Custodio in the next day or two with all the information I have gathered relative to my problem and let him know of the offer of the XB 2.7 cartridge for testing.

[klrw111-78]

Jaime and Custodio are one and the same.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I discovered that the extraneous characters were not random as you have.  After the CF2K and CFHDXS1 programs were modified to recognize the NanoPEB without the "SIO" reference, I could use that software without an issue.  However the extraneous character issue continued when using TIWRITER or TI BASIC Listings when trying to print to the serial printer.  I have been unable to resurrect the correspondence with Jaime since the messages have been deleted from EBAY where I purchased the device from him in 2017.  Jaime did solve the issue for me and hopefully will remember the change he made.  

[dgrissom]

On 12/3/2019 at 9:33 PM, klrw111-78 said:

Jaime and Custodio are one and the same.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I discovered that the extraneous characters were not random as you have.  After the CF2K and CFHDXS1 programs were modified to recognize the NanoPEB without the "SIO" reference, I could use that software without an issue.  However the extraneous character issue continued when using TIWRITER or TI BASIC Listings when trying to print to the serial printer.  I have been unable to resurrect the correspondence with Jaime since the messages have been deleted from EBAY where I purchased the device from him in 2017.  Jaime did solve the issue for me and hopefully will remember the change he made.  

I had the same problem printing to a serial printer. I sent my NanoPEB to Jaime last week. He fixed the DSR and it now prints perfectly. It took him 1 day to fix and get it on its way back to me.  He told me that it is a small error that only affects printing.

 

I appreciate his time in fixing this as my device was over a year old.

 

[Fonzie]

I sent Custodio (Jaime) both of my nanoPebs to fix the printing problem, one in late December 2019 and the other in early January 2020. Both have been returned and work perfectly now. Custodio rocks.

[GDMike]

Sweeet...