Re: Got myself a Tiger Learning Computer today

[BLuRry <brendan.robert@gmail.com>]

On Sep 4, 5:39 pm, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
> On 9/3/2010 9:32 AM, schmidtd wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Sep 3, 11:47 am, Eric Rucker<bhtoo...@gmail.com>  wrote:
> >> On Sep 2, 9:56 pm, schmidtd<schmi...@my-deja.com>  wrote:
>
> >>> I'm not convinced the serial port is viable on my machine.  I get the
> >>> normal status out of the status register when nothing's attached, but
> >>> when I hook up the other side via a null modem, the status doesn't
> >>> change (at all) the way other SSC machines do.  So, lots of tweaks to
> >>> the configuration registers later, I still don't have anything coming
> >>> out the wire.
>
> >> Could it possibly be TTL levels, rather than RS-232 levels?
>
> > On a Commodore 64, sure - but this machine was made in 1996.  The
> > advertisements suggested that there was an upcoming communications
> > package that would connect to the 'net, which would (at the time) have
> > required a typical external modem at the other end of the serial port.
>
> But perhaps they intended to add a level shifter in a special "cable".
>
> It would be very helpful to look at the TX pin with a 'scope.
>
> -michael
>
> NadaNet 3.1 for Apple II parallel computing!
> Home page:  http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/
>
> "The wastebasket is our most important design
> tool--and it's seriously underused."

If you find the values are 3.3v then you can get a Nokia CA-42 cable
for cheap ($4 or less, free shipping) on ePay and get USB-to-TTL
serial for cheap.  I've had to un-brick a segate dockstar recently so
I can vouch for it.  :-D  115200 baud runs stable, too.

-Brendan