IUnknown

While I am still waiting for some ebay purchases to arrive, I wanted
to hook up the IIgs (ROM3) to an old TV and figuring out any quirks
before I start throwing more parts in it.

So, after the suggestion to use ADTPro, I found an old mini-din8 to
DB25 cable. I figured that this would be a piece of cake. Famous last
words...

So, I took a look at every computer in the house..... and I have a
few Not a single serial port to be found ANYWHERE. Argh. Well,
actually there was this old home-built gaming PC with a flaky video
card laying there - and I figured that I would just need to put a new
hard drive in it, install XP ...... never mind.

I figured I would just buy a USB->Serial adapter. Turns out that my
local staples stocks a belkin rebranded adapter for $39.95 - ouch.
Instant gratification is much better than waiting for amazon, so I
take the drive and buy the dongle.... On the back it says "Windows,
Mac OS 8.6 or later...". Done.

So, I drive home, plug in the adapter to my macbook pro... it shows up
in the USB device list, but it doesn't map a new device for serial
access. A quick search for drivers tells me that mac os/x isn't
supported..... and specifically, Lion isn't supported because it is 64
bit. Drats. No time for this.

So, I plug the adapter into my Win7 machine (where I make a living as
a programmer), and it fails to install the driver. Blech. No 64 bit
driver available from Belkin. So I dig around on google, find that
someone else located a compatible driver from another manufacturer -
turns out these adapters are rebranded like crazy. Driver works. I am
in business.

Nope.

DB25 vs. DB9

Better yet, I am unsure of whether the mini-din8 cable is a null-modem
cable. A simple DB25->DB9 adapter may not cut it. And sometime tells
me that a DB25->DB9 adapter with a null modem option isn't something I
am going to source locally (radio shack is useless).....Time to break
out the soldering iron.

Fortunately, I am a packrat and have a 'cable ball' that contains a
couple decades of old cables, wall warts, etc. I found a suitable DB9
connector. Snip. I have an extra mini-din8 cable there as well.
Snip.

So, using the instructions on the ADTPro website, I wire up the cable
with a mini-din8 at one end and a DB9 on the other. Fire up ADTPro -
and start bootstrapping prodos. Bingo. I am in business.

I get as far as getting the ADTPro serial client to bootstrap..... and
when I try to [R]eceive the disk image so I can write it to a floppy,
it gets as far as 'waiting for host reply....' ... It appears as if
the IIgs isn't sending the data - or the PC isn't receiving it.

So, I dig a little more and find that the ADTPro mini-din8 wiring
indicates that pin7 was supposed to route to pin1 on the DB9. However,
a different source indicates that a null-modem cable should route pin7
to pin4. As soon as I fixed that, everything was in business, and
within 30 minutes, I had GS/OS running (single floppy) .

In Summary:

- ADTPro is an amazing chunk of software.
- The IIgs has an elegant simplicity that is seriously lacking in
modern computers.
- I can't believe that simple forms of communication (ala serial) are
so complicated on modern computers, mostly because of driver issues.
- Yes, one wire really does make a difference
- GS/OS doesn't look good on a composite monitor - but we all knew
that.
- Soldering irons are hot. Cats don't know this.

Egan Ford

On Oct 17, 7:58*am, IUnknown <stevement...@gmail.com> wrote:
> While I am still waiting for some ebay purchases to arrive, I wanted
> to hook up the IIgs (ROM3) to an old TV and figuring out any quirks
> before I start throwing more parts in it.
>
> So, after the suggestion to use ADTPro, I found an old mini-din8 to
> DB25 cable. I figured that this would be a piece of cake. Famous last
> words...
>
> So, I took a look at every computer in the house..... and I have a
> few *Not a single serial port to be found ANYWHERE. Argh. Well,
> actually there was this old home-built gaming PC with a flaky video
> card laying there - and I figured that I would just need to put a new
> hard drive in it, install XP ...... never mind.
>
> I figured I would just buy a USB->Serial adapter. Turns out that my
> local staples stocks a belkin rebranded adapter for $39.95 - ouch.
> Instant gratification is much better than waiting for amazon, so I
> take the drive and buy the dongle.... On the back it says "Windows,
> Mac OS 8.6 or later...". Done.
>
> So, I drive home, plug in the adapter to my macbook pro... it shows up
> in the USB device list, but it doesn't map a new device for serial
> access. A quick search for drivers tells me that mac os/x isn't
> supported..... and specifically, Lion isn't supported because it is 64
> bit. Drats. No time for this.
>
> So, I plug the adapter into my Win7 machine (where I make a living as
> a programmer), and it fails to install the driver. Blech. No 64 bit
> driver available from Belkin. *So I dig around on google, find that
> someone else located a compatible driver from another manufacturer -
> turns out these adapters are rebranded like crazy. Driver works. I am
> in business.
>
> Nope.
>
> DB25 vs. DB9
>
> Better yet, I am unsure of whether the mini-din8 cable is a null-modem
> cable. A simple DB25->DB9 adapter may not cut it. And sometime tells
> me that a DB25->DB9 adapter with a null modem option isn't something I
> am going to source locally (radio shack is useless).....Time to break
> out the soldering iron.
>
> Fortunately, I am a packrat and have a 'cable ball' that contains a
> couple decades of old cables, wall warts, etc. I found a suitable DB9
> connector. Snip. * I have an extra mini-din8 cable there as well.
> Snip.
>
> So, using the instructions on the ADTPro website, I wire up the cable
> with a mini-din8 at one end and a DB9 on the other. Fire up ADTPro -
> and start bootstrapping prodos. Bingo. I am in business.
>
> I get as far as getting the ADTPro serial client to bootstrap..... and
> when I try to [R]eceive the disk image so I can write it to a floppy,
> it gets as far as 'waiting for host reply....' ... It appears as if
> the IIgs isn't sending the data - or the PC isn't receiving it.
>
> So, I dig a little more and find that the ADTPro mini-din8 wiring
> indicates that pin7 was supposed to route to pin1 on the DB9. However,
> a different source indicates that a null-modem cable should route pin7
> to pin4. As soon as I fixed that, everything was in business, and
> within 30 minutes, I had GS/OS running (single floppy) .
>
> In Summary:
>
> - ADTPro is an amazing chunk of software.
> - The IIgs has an elegant simplicity that is seriously lacking in
> modern computers.
> - I can't believe that simple forms of communication (ala serial) are
> so complicated on modern computers, mostly because of driver issues.
> - Yes, one wire really does make a difference
> - GS/OS doesn't look good on a composite monitor - but we all knew
> that.
> - Soldering irons are hot. Cats don't know this.

If you decide to get a different USB to Serial with less issues, then
I'd suggest: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ETE9GO. It is FTDI
based. Costs $13.44 US. I have had no issues with OS/X, Windows 7,
or XP. Since I use other FTDI devices I probably already had the
drivers installed in OS/X and XP, so it just worked. Serial ports are
required for flashing many embedded systems and this one has worked
great, even in a VM or with Wine.

BTW, FTDI support is awesome. I wanted a custom setup in OS/X to
reduce the latency (it's a settable parameter in Windows and Linux)
and within 24 hours they sent me a custom driver for OS/X with the
latency setting I wanted.

RS-232 ports had a good solid rein from the mid 70's to the mid 90's.
I've managed to build quite the collection of cables, adapters (DB25,
DB9, and obscure), gender benders, null modems adapters, and breakout
boxes. I probably have 30 or so legacy devices with serial ports
around my home, and one new device. My Sharp 60" LCD TV has a DB9
serial port on the back. One of my retro projects is to build a
remote for it using an old computer or calculator from the '70s.

zerodb

such a simple protocol, but every rs232 connect is a triumph. i think we
feel more at home on the lower layers, as close to physical as we can.
serial is fun