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No-Slot Clock info
David speculated back at Edhel:
> >I've been using NoSlot Clocks from Alltech Electronics. Only $23.
> Sounds cool...I know it goes under one of the motherboard's chips
Yep, I have one in my //e. A few people have put down using a NSC
because there is no way to tweak the timing (ex: a ThunderClock has a
potentiometer to turn if the thing runs a little fast or slow) and the
reserve power is an imbedded lithium cell (so when the thing dies, it
dies for good). Others flat out criticize the volitility; a system
crash during a clock-read will change the time data in a manner that the
time setting software or driver can't understand the time data.
And Alltech does indeed sell NSC's but they don't hype the fact much. I
got one through them ages ago, but found one for half the price locally
and *with* SMT's docs on it. Jameco also sells the thing, it's technic-
ally a Dallas Semiconductors DS1216E (SmartWatch/ROM 64k/256k), their
part number being 11608, for about $20. Hey, does anyone know if the
two new DS1216's they list (C and D, both listed as RAM) would work?
> but how does ProDOS recognise it? Do you need some painful driver
DGN(| You need a driver, because the standard ones in ProDOS only
| support the ThunderClock (or clones) and the IIgs clock.
It's a driver, but not a painful one. As David said in (a), just put
the driver program NSCLOCK.SYSTEM first in the boot directory. ProTerm
and maybe some other programs recognise the NSC without the driver.
DGN(| (b) The driver is patched into a copy of the PRODOS file.
| Booting this copy of ProDOS will then give you access ...
DGN(| This method may be dependent on the ProDOS version, since
True on both counts, but here's the thing... I have never seen the
info on where to patch on ProDOS versions higher than 1.7, and most of
us are using 1.8 or 1.9 (for old 6502) or 2.0.3 (for 65C02), thus the
driver program is what gets used instead of a patch. Plus there are
those folks with other patches, like Tom Larson's MSDOS patches (NameFix
or QuickFix), that also need to be worked around.
Now some info gathered from my own meanderings: The driver program and
the time setter program distributed by SMT (the people who sell the
DS1216E as a "No-Slot Clock") were not written to deal with bad data in
the chipset's memory, a shortcoming on their part. If say the power
goes out while you're in Selector.System (a launcher program which does
constant time-reads), you might be told on restarting that the driver
can't find the NSC. Shortly after you run ProTerm 3.1 and in the upper
right corner it says the date is "01-11-:I" (note the year is :I and not
a number -- this happened to me). That's why it can't work with it.
The time setter program has no provision to change the unnumeric. BUT:
Available around (I got my copy from Cleveland Freenet) is a replacement
timesetter called SmartWatch, which isn't limited that way -- if it
encounters bad data in the memory, it says <no date> or <no time> and
asks you to enter new info. You still have to use SMT's driver but you
are no longer trapped for a day, month, or remainder-of-year before you
regain access to the NSC. And that's another thing: it is implied that
if the NSC loses its time, you now have a bad, unfixable chip. NOT SO!
I can't tell you how many times something's happened to my clock data
("Clock not found!") then I ran SmartWatch and all was well again. I
think I swapped NSC's with Alltech 2-3 times before I found this out!
FWIW: I really like my NSC; it keeps time very well, it's not taking up
a slot, and when it needs to be replaced I can get a new one because
they are still being made (I'm told they're used in payphones, and the
phone service people carry around a bag of them on their rounds).
<< mushroom >>
* 2qwk! 2.03 * You find out who your friends are after that first breakdown.
-- --
yet another annoying post by brian.hammack@rook.wa.com -- deal with it.