[TRLog] Comm ports & win95

[CPreddy@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/13/99 9:22:58 PM Eastern Standard Time, geoiii@kkn.net
writes:

<<  have a user that is running windows 95, a ts-870 and a 
 KAM.  He can not talk to his com ports.
 
 I tired booting to DOS mode - this changes nothing.
 His radio and TNC talk to other programs just fine
 in windows and (maybe DOS in one case).
 
 I am thinking it could be the PNP junk.
 
 Can he just turn off PNP in the bios and still have his computer work?
 
 What do you win95/tr users think?
 
<<

By an amazing concidence I am using exactly the same configuration here at
KU2N: Win95, TS870, and KAM. Every version of TR I have ever tried since V5.99
+ 10db (all-time best version number, imho) has worked with the serial ports.
I would not recommend messing around with Plug-and-Pray. I launch TR from the
Windows desktop without difficulty - I never had much luck rebooting into DOS
mode. I found that the following are requirements for successful operation.

1.KAM must be in terminal mode, not host mode. Only later firmware revisions
support host mode; mine is 7.something. Some TNC programs may place it in host
mode and need special close procedures to exit in terminal mode.
2.Maximum baud rate for TR is 4800. Just sending the KAM command ABAUD 4800
may not be sufficient if PERM'ed to some other setting. At one point I had to
set ABAUD 0 using my mainline packet program (KaWIN), close in terminal mode,
start a dumb terminal program like hyperterm set to 4800 baud, and cycle the
KAM power to have it start in auto-detect mode. After a couple rounds of this
I decided to leave it at 4800 baud 
3.Depending on some obscure KAM setting you may come up in RTTY mode where
keystrokes do not seem to do anything. Use TR's ctrl-b window to send the two
keystrokes ctrl-c X and you may get the cmd: prompt.
4.The TS870 Menu command channel 56 has to be set to read "48 1 COM.RATE".
There is a setting for "48 2" for two stop-bits that is a no-go. The
corresponding TR command for setting baud rate appears below
5.The relevent configuration commands for me are:

RADIO ONE TYPE = TS870
RADIO ONE CONTROL PORT = SERIAL 2
RADIO ONE BAUD RATE = 4800
PACKET PORT = SERIAL 1
EIGHT BIT PACKET PORT = TRUE
PACKET BAUD RATE = 4800

There is also the possibility of COM port control conflicts within Windows. In
any battle for dominance Windows is going to win because Windows makes the
rules. For example if your PNP setup has identified a modem on COM1 then you
are not going to be able to send anything to an external COM1, even if you are
not currently running anything that uses the modem. This has nothing to do
with IRQ conflicts, which do not bother TR. This may even apply in DOS mode -
I have not checked. The only solution to this is to move you serial ports to
unused addreses (COM 2-4 in this case) through the Device Manager. This is
supposed to happen automatically during setup and reconfiguration, but I have
seen it fail. Right-click MyComputer/Properties/DeviceManager/Ports/Resources
and look for reports of conflicts.

Hope this helps and you can straighten it out - the payoff is running the best
logging s/w there is.
73

Carl KU2N

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