[WL-USERS] COM Ports

[Roger P]

Hi All

I thought I would post this as it may help others. Please excuse the length:

A little while ago I bought a Digi Acceleport 8R intelligent multiport card. 
(From 2Days Technology - at $100 it was cheaper than getting a smaller 
number of ports new even though I can't conceive of using all 8.)

I followed the set up instructions and Windows 98 appeared to recognise the 
board fine, showing all the new COM ports. Digi have an option where the 
board is polled rather than using an interupt so this seemed a good idea. I 
then did my standard test for new ports and tried to connect a mouse. 
Windows couldn't find it. Also Writelog couldn't see a TNC or a radio. 
Despair! Writelog could however operate a serial cw keyer. Next step was to 
phone Digi technical support who were very helpful despite the board not 
being new. They suggested downloading a test programme, TTY which exercised 
all the ports on a loop back test. They all worked, which meant that the 
Digi board worked. Apparently a mouse cannot be used on a Digi port as a 
mouse must have its own interupt.

I then read 'A Word About Windows Drivers' in Writelog help, and I quote:

"If you want Writelog to communicate with your radio or packet TNC or a COM 
port, then verify that HyperTerminal can successfully talk to your TNC. If 
those applications can't neither can Writelog."

So, I tried Hyperterminal and of course it wouldn't talk to any of the COM 
ports. Digi have a FAQ section on their web site and one of the questions 
is:

"Ports appear to be available in Hyperterminal, but when attempting to 
access the ports there is no response"
"There is a problem with selecting Direct Connect within Hyperterminal. The 
Direct to COM options are only for ports using standard I/O and IRQ. In 
order to use Digi ports with Hyper Terminal you must use the TAPI. To do 
this go into Control Panel, Modems and choose Add. Windows 95 will auto 
detect your modem on your Digi port. Keep in mind that the Digi driver for 
W95 must first be installed."

Of course W95/98 can't autodetect a modem if there isn't one there. However, 
I found that if I manually selected a standard 2400 bps modem for my TNC and 
a standard 9600 bps modem (with flow control disabled) for my IC765, W98 was 
quite happy, saying everything worked OK.

AND so is Writelog happy. It talks merrily, rapidly and accurately to the 
TNC and the radio on the Digi ports.

AND so I'm really happy.

See you all in the contests.

73
Roger VE3ZI

ps I do not have the faintest idea what 'The TAPI' is!



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