Amiga Explorer with null modem cable

[mrknight]

I connected my laptop to my A500 using a USB-RS232 adaptor and a null model cable and tried to transfer Amiga Explorer to the A500. Everyting was connected, I configured the settings for the serial interface, transferred the file, waiting for a 'break' printout in the console and... nothing! I was so dissapointed!

Time for error investigation. Two obvious components are the USB-RS232 adapter. Are they reliable? Second is the null model cable. I made it myself. Maybe I connected a wire wrong?

What I would like to do is to turn off all kind of flow control and just output any data onto the console as well as sending whatever you type just to make sure that at least RX and TX are ok. How can I open a simple 'straight through' terminal like this? And also, are there any way I could get more manual control of the flow control signals (CTS/RTS)?

I can use Terminal 1.9b on the PC side. So I just want to type on the PC and see if it shows up on the Workbench console. And what I type on the Amiga I'd like to see on the PC. I hope someone could help me with the serial terminal program. I was so dissapointed when it didn't work=(

[mrknight]

The chipset in the USB to serial adapter I got is PL2303. I had a quick browse on eBay and I found a couple of adapters based on the FTDI chipset. I'll keep that in mind.

I don't have a stationary computer. If I did, I would get a serial port card so I wouldn't have to rely on a adaper that might or might not work. The real deal is better.

So is there a way of monitoring the serial control signals in the Amiga? I can do that on the PC using a program calling Terminal 1.9b. Excellent program!

If I type 'type SER:' on the console, would this print all the incoming data (RX) on the screen?

[mrknight]

Good news! I checked the cable and it does work an so does the USB-Rs232  converter. I got the correct signals returned to the PC when I short  wired the end of the cable (RX to TX, RTS to CTS and so on). All good!

After  checking the cable I decided to try the remote installation of Amiga  Explorer again. But this time I decided to use a smaller buffer size. I  used 512 byte instead of 4096 byte which is recommended at the  installation. And it does work!

I tried to copy the Amiga  Explorer executable to the Workbench disk (a copy) but it said not  enough space. I checked and apparently, the disk was 96% utilised. I was  hoping I could add some basic utilities, such as Lha and maybe Xcopy,  to a Workbench disk. Apparantly I have to strip a lots of applications  from the disk or create a new disk with good to have utils. What  approach should I do?