Re: Comms with apple //e & PC

[Frank Carney <frankc@cyberhighway.net>]

You should be able to use it, however it may not be %100 Super Serial
Compatible.  Also if you read the card and give the exact model someone
may be able to identify its capabitlities.  One secret: most if not all
serial cards can be used as modem cards.  If the pinout is fixed you can
use a null modem to hook it to the PC.  Here is some extra data to help
you figure out how to hook it up.  The PC is considered to be a DTE or
Data Terminal Equipment.  While a modem is considered to be DCE or Data
Communication Equipment.  If you want an Apple to connect to a PC it has
to either have the pinout of a DCE on it's serial port or use a cable
that swaps the pins so that is appears as a DCE to the PC.  That is what
a NULL modem cable does.  It simply swaps the pins.  It will not hurt to
hook up a DTE to DTE or DCE to DCE it just will not do anything.  One
way I like to check serial communications on the Apple is to wire
everything up and start a comm program on the PC.  Then on the Apple I
type in IN#2 ( if the card is in slot two).  Then I adjust the baud rate
on the PC until I can see letters being typed on the Apple.  You can run
commands and even send text files of basic programs and then run them.
Anyway that should allow you to tell if the card is going to work at all
for you.