Making things more difficult than necessary (was: Tasco TNC info)
Patty Winter
>In article <439...@col.hp.com>, bd...@col.hp.com (Bdale Garbee) writes:
>> I just go through the
>> auto-baud routine, then type 'kiss on' followed by 'restart', and it's
>> in KISS mode until you cycle power on the TNC.
>I'm curious why you go through this procedure rather than making KISS mode
>the default. Not knowing this TNC I'm wondering if this is not possible.
All this talk about having to set KISS defaults, MFJ TNCs popping out of
KISS mode, and the like really has me wondering whether some hams aren't
making packet radio more difficult than necessary.
I've been running a modified (I substituted a KISS PROM for the original one)
TAPR TNC-2 with the KA9Q TCP/IP program for nearly two years now. It just
sits there and purrs along day after day. If I want to check out what's
happening on a local PBBS or the DX Packet Cluster, I just dial up another
frequency on my radio and make the necessary connection. When I'm done,
I disconnect and dial back to the TCP/IP channel.
Sure, I can't receive AMTOR or WEFAX or RTTY, but I'm happily using
both TCP/IP and AX.25 packet, which is all I wanted in the first place.
With my little ol' 1-megabyte Macintosh Plus, I'm running NET, BM, and
TeachText (a simple text editor) all at once under MultiFinder. Within
NET itself, I have one window to control the program, one for Trace,
and one for Log if I want it. (Newer versions of NET for the Mac allow
even more windows.)
So take this as a vote for a back-to-the-basics TNC-2 with a KISS PROM!
It's cheap, and as far as I'm concerned, it sure does the job.
73,
Patty
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Brian Kantor
prom humping on top of the manufacturer's prom with all the pins except
the chip select soldered together. Run the chip select from the board
out to the wiper of a SPDT switch, and two wires back to the proms, and
you have front panel control of which prom you're using.
Yeah, yeah, it voids the warrantee. Duh.
- Brian
John G. De Armond
>Or if you want to have your cake and eat it too, just solder the kiss
>prom humping on top of the manufacturer's prom with all the pins except
>the chip select soldered together. Run the chip select from the board
>out to the wiper of a SPDT switch, and two wires back to the proms, and
>you have front panel control of which prom you're using.
And, if you do the same thing to the RAM, use a DPDT switch and use the other
side to switch the CS line on the RAM, you can even save your AX25 setup
parameters.
we've been running 'em like this for years around here.
TIP: To solder the piggyback chip in place, coat the inside of each leg
with surface mount flux-solder paste, mount and sweat in place with either
hot air (prefered) or a quick swipe with a soldering iron. Be sure to
bend the CS lead up, of course.
John
--
John De Armond, WD4OQC | The Fano Factor -
Radiation Systems, Inc. Atlanta, GA | Where Theory meets Reality.
emory!rsiatl!jgd **I am the NRA** |
Bdale Garbee
>It's cheap, and as far as I'm concerned, it sure does the job.
Patty, I agree. The problem is that Heath/Tasco don't provide a KISS-only
EPROM for the "pocket packet", and it's too cute to ignore. :-) And to me,
at least, since it's one of many TNC's in the shack, it just isn't worth
writing a variant of the TNC-2 firmware to handle the CTC baud rate generation
and differing addresses in the Toshiba Z80 monster-chip...
Bdale
Barry McLarnon DGBT/DIP
> In article <10...@ucsd.Edu> br...@ucsd.edu (Brian Kantor) writes:
>>Or if you want to have your cake and eat it too, just solder the kiss
>>prom humping on top of the manufacturer's prom with all the pins except
>>the chip select soldered together. Run the chip select from the board
>>out to the wiper of a SPDT switch, and two wires back to the proms, and
>>you have front panel control of which prom you're using.
>
> And, if you do the same thing to the RAM, use a DPDT switch and use the other
> side to switch the CS line on the RAM, you can even save your AX25 setup
> parameters.
>
> we've been running 'em like this for years around here.
>
> TIP: To solder the piggyback chip in place, coat the inside of each leg
> with surface mount flux-solder paste, mount and sweat in place with either
> hot air (prefered) or a quick swipe with a soldering iron. Be sure to
> bend the CS lead up, of course.
Or, yet another possibility: To avoid messy soldering (on the EPROM, at
least), obtain a 27C512 and copy your original ROM into one half of the
64K address space, and KISS into the other half. Then use the switch as
a ROM select by changing the state of the A14 line.
But I still like Patty's solution the best! :-)
> John
Barry
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Just another hired gun (n2hkd)
>prom humping on top of the manufacturer's prom with all the pins except
>the chip select soldered together. Run the chip select from the board
>out to the wiper of a SPDT switch, and two wires back to the proms, and
>you have front panel control of which prom you're using.
Please note that there are manufacturers out there have have made piggy
back sockets for ram and rom parts. If you use those then all you have to
do is connect those (of the socket, not the prom) two chip selects to
a switch as Brian suggested. This allows for easy prom upgrade....
I don't have my data books handy or I'd leave you with a part number, sorry.
--
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Curtis Braun, N2HKD, Computronics, PO Box 1002 Fairport NY, 14450
Bdale Garbee
>least), obtain a 27C512 and copy your original ROM into one half of the
>64K address space, and KISS into the other half. Then use the switch as
>a ROM select by changing the state of the A14 line.
Le Huh?
The KISS for the u21 that I made available is a copy of all the functionality
provided in the standard firmware, plus KISS ala the TAPR 1.1.6 w/KISS EPROM.
It is *not* KISS-only, and as such, there's no need for piggybacking, or
anything!
Bdale
Robert P. Scott
I find the idea of throwing away functionality offensive. It's sort of
like throwing away compatibility to save 5 cents per component; nudge,
nudge, wink, wink...
RE: Kludging in both ROM's piggyback.
I don't mind voiding the "90-day-but-that-doesn't-include-software" paper.
And I have to admit that I didn't go look at the schematics, but.
The described method may also cause design rule violations; fan-out for one.
Yeah, yeah, it's picky but a 1->n ROM piggyback board would seem to be a better
answer. (Actually, throwing the whole thing out and starting over sounds
like more fun. All I have to do is find some company to foot the bill. heh,
heh, heh...)
--
Robert P. Scott | DTS Engineering, Inc. | {decvax,zinn}!dtseng!rps
Nothing could be finer than some green wallet liner....
Barry McLarnon DGBT/DIP
Huh yourself. In spite of the Subject line, this thread diverged some time
ago into a discussion of alternate firmwares for the generic TNC-2. The issue
is that the KISS in the combined firmware like 1.1.6 and variants sometimes
gives problems, viz: popping out of KISS mode, not responding to 'param ax0
255', etc. Hardware switching of modes adds a degree of robustness, when
there is a KISS-only implementation. Another consideration is that there are
some KISS-only variants, such as JKISS by G8BPQ, which appear to have some
improvements over the standard K3MC release, and piggybacking gives you a
way of trying them out.
> Bdale
Barry
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Barry McLarnon Communications Research Center Ottawa, ON Canada
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Bdale Garbee
>ago into a discussion of alternate firmwares for the generic TNC-2.
Ok, missed that.
>piggybacking gives you a way of trying them out.
Ok. That's valid. I'd do it differently (I swap ROM's in my TNC's routinely
to try out new bits, so it doesn't bother me), but your point is made.
Bdale