Re: another newbie ADT question (sorry)

[pausch@saafNOSPAM.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <8kra9s$74n$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,  <cjyo@my-deja.com> wrote:
 
> I've just started trying to get ADT to work from a Windows98 PC to an
> Apple ][+.  I'm using the Apple Super Serial Card in terminal mode with
> a straight-through cable.
> 
> My (Windows) question is: can I hook the straight-through cable from
> the Apple SSC to the 25-pin Parallel printer port on my PC?
 
   P O S I T I V E L Y   N O   ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
 
Serial ports (like your COM port, or the Super Serial Card connector)
sends data, one bit at a time, through one single wire (actually one
in each direction).  The Parallell Port (on the PC as well as on the
Apple II Printer Card) sends data, 8 bits at a time, through 8 parallel
wires.  As you probably easily understand, one cannot connect the two
directly to one another.
 
> So far it doesn't seem to be working, because I can't select the
> Parallel port in any of my terminal programs on the PC.  The only
> available choices are my PC Modem or Com Ports.
 
Yep!  You must therefore connect your Apple II Super Serial Card to
one of your PC COM ports.  And you cannot use a straight-through cable,
you must use a null modem cable.
 
One possible alternative would be parallell port communication
though, by connecting the PC parallell port to the Apple II Parallell
Printer Card, which also has a Centronics parallell port connection.
Although these ports are made to transmit 8 bits in parallell, one
can only make it receive 4 bits in parallell through the status
inputs (except for newer PC parallell ports, which has a
"bidirectional mode" -- the Apple II Parallell Printer Card lacks
that feature though).  But 4 bits in parallell is still much faster
than only one bit at a time, so such a parallell port link would indeed
be faster  ---  it would require modification of ADT though.  Which
means today this is not an option.
 
> I'm guessing from the ADT readme, that I actually need to connect the
> Apple SSC, through the straight-through (or null modem cable) to one of
> the 9-pin COM ports with a DB-25 to DB-9 cable, instead of the 25 pin
> Parallel port.  So I bought the wrong cable...Is this correct?
 
Yes, that's correct.  And you also need a null modem cable.
 
> I have installed the Windows Direct Cable Connection system - does this
> have anything to do with getting ADT to connect to the Apple?
 
No idea -- what does the Windows Direct Cable Connection system do?
 
> Finally, what is the best Windows terminal program to use?  (I'm just
> using HyperTerm as mentioned in the ADT readme).
 
None -- you should use ADT on both the PC and the Apple II side of the
connection.  And since the PC end of the ADT program is a DOS program,
it might perform better if you run it in a DOS box in "MS-DOS mode",
or if you set "BOOTGUI=0" in MSDOS.SYS and then reboot and don't start
up Windows.
 
But for testing the serial connection PC <==> Apple II, any PC
terminal program will do, including HyperTerm.  You must then have a
terminal program on the Apple II too though -- the Super Serial Card
ROM's may have a rudimentary terminal program (at least the older
Apple Communications Card did have a "dumb terminal program" right
in the on-board ROM of only 256 bytes!).
 
-- 
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Paul Schlyter,  Swedish Amateur Astronomer's Society (SAAF)
Grev Turegatan 40,  S-114 38 Stockholm,  SWEDEN
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