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=(

[DiskChris]

I had a similar problem...turned out to be the USB to serial adapter.  They are not all standards compliant.  I was able to type on one computer and see it on the other, but I could never do any kind of file transfer...even pc to pc.   The best adapters are the ones with an ftdi chipset.  They are fully standards compliant.  The one I have works very well, and it was fairly cheap ($20). Could be the cable too...here's a wiring diagram.

[AmmoJammo]

I ended up scrapping the usb to serial adapter, and found an older PC with a serial port that I could move to my Amiga :p

[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?

[desiv]

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?

That's what I do..
I start with a copy of WB, and then start deleting.
There's lots of things you don't need.
If you aren't going to be printing or other parallel port stuff, you can remove that stuff..
Things in C: you won't need.  "edit" comes to mind, I always use ed.
Stuff in utilities and tools...  prefs..  Lots of stuff you don't usually use...
(If you don't need to hear the Amiga speak, there's that stuff you can remove in L: (I think?). )
You can clear up quite a bit from the WB disk.

When you've removed what you don't need, if you need more space, you can powerpack some of the larger executables to get even more space.
I do remember once, for fun, I powerpacked virtually everything to get the most possible space.
The Amiga flashed a lot (uncompressing powerpacked executables) when running, but it worked. ;-)
No idea what I did with that disk..

desiv

[Kernel]

So old thread yes but pertinent to me at the moment...

I've been fighting with Amiga Explorer for a few house now trying to piece together why I am getting periodic errors on the COM PORT.

This is what I've got.

USB/Serial Adapter:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007T27H8/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

NULL Modem Cable:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006W0I58Q/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Now, I'm thinking  based on the pin-out on that NULL cable page, that's my problem.  But then again, it all seems to work some of the time.  For example, I'm looking at all my drives in Amiga Explorer from Windows right now.  But sometimes, clicking on something results in one of the attached error message.

Serial prefs on the A3K:

19.2K Baud, 512 Input Buffer Size, RTS/CTS, 8-N-1

Serial prefs for USB/Serial Adapter on Windows:

19.2K Baud, FIFO Buffers Maxed, COM4, Hardware Flow control, 8-N-1

Amiga Explorer packet size and Max Retries on EACH side is 512/100.

I can certainly try a different cable, but would welcome some brand/model suggestions as I am not handy enough to make it myself... though given that it works sometimes, I am hard pressed to think it's a cable issue.

As a point of reference, this is an A3K 25MHz 030 with 2MB/16MB and only basics beyond OS3.1 installed (MagicWB, MUI, BlitzBlank, ToolsDaemon, MagicMenu, LacePointer, DOSPrefs, PointerEyes, VisualPrefs, PatchWB).

Thanks!

[Kernel]

The more research I do, the more I think it's the cable... but every DB9F to DB25F  NULL MODEL cable I find on the net either has the same pin-out as the cable I currently have, or doesn't list the pin-out.

Current cable looks like this from the DB9 to DB25:

1 to 4&5 (DCD to RTS&CTS)
2 to 2 (RD to TD)
3 to 3 (TD to RD)
4 to 6 (DTR to DSR)
5 to 7 (SG to SG)
6 to 20 (DSR to DTR)
7&8 to 8 (RTS&CTS to DCD)
9 to 22 (RI to RI)
G to G

From the Amiga Explorer Documentation, it needs to look like this from DB9 to DB25:

1&6 to 20 (DCD&DSR to DTR)
2 to 2 (RD to TD)
3 to 3 (TD to RD)
4 to 6+8 (DTR to DSR&DCD)
5 to 7 (SG to SG)
7 to 5 (RTS to CTS)
8 to 4 (CTS to RTS)

Only the RD, TD, and SG pins appear to be the same between the Amiga Explorer pinout and the cable I have that's supposed to be a "standard".

I'm going to post this to Cloanto as well.  Perhaps they'll be able to shed some light on it

[Kernel]

Ok so I'll just keep documenting what I've seen thus far and if someone jumps in, all the better.

I found the Advanced Serial Debugging page of the AmigaOS Documentation wiki and have successfully brought up a PuTTY session on Windows and a NComm session on the Amiga and am able to type on the Windows screen and see it appear on the amiga and vice versa.

So now I'm even more confused why it doesn't work properly with the Amiga Explorer.

[Kernel]

I may have solved this...  Here is where I've landed after much turmoil and determination...

Special Hardware:

USB/Serial Adapter: TRENDnet USB 2.0 to RS-232 DB9 Serial Converter, TU-S9

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007T27H8/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

NULL Modem Cable: SF Cable, 10ft DB9 Female to DB25 Female Null Modem Cable

Pin Out: 1-4+5, 2-2, 3-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-20, 7+8-8, 9-22, G-G

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006W0I58Q/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

PC Side:

Windows 7 Ultimate; TU-S9 is plugged directly into a USB port ON THE MOTHERBOARD - this is important because when plugged into a USB hub (Belkin thumb hub, powered or not), I would continually receive COM errors no matter what the settings were.

The COM port used by the TU-S9 is setup as follows under Device Manager - 15200 BPS, 8-N-1, Hardware Flow control; Use FIFO buffers is enabled and both Transmit and Receive buffers are at the max.

Amiga Explorer is set to the same COM as the TU-S9 with a Speed of 38400.  Anything higher would result in COM errors.

Amiga Side:

Serial Prefs - 19200 Baud, 8-N-1, RTS/CTS, 65,536 Input Buffer Size

AExplorer: All defaults except SERBAUD tooltype is set to 38400

I've successfully been able to browse the Amiga drives w/o a COM error now (at least none popping up and stopping me) including opening some files from the Amiga (lha mostly)... MUI being one of them which took approximately 12 minutes to copy to eh PC before it opened.  Not stellar by any means however is lends credence to my setting finally being stable.

I did intentionally try to browse a folder on the Amiga from the PC - multiple times - while the MUI archive was being opened and was greeted with the popup "There has been a conflict accessing the Amiga Explorer resources" however this makes perfect sense and it did *NOT* seem to cause any problem with the MUI archive opening.  I even used lha on the Amiga side to view the MUI archive while it was copying and still no issue.

Hope it stays this way - fingers crossed!

Note - I *DO* have both DD and HD floppies in this A3K so of course can use those as a method to copy files... this Amiga Explorer battle was more of an exercise for me to ensure this aging A3K is still viable.