Amiga Explorer and serial port speed

[Antiriad]

Guys

I am currently using Amiga explorer to transfer files to my Amiga 500. It is REALLY cool since you can transfer ADFs directly to the floppy drive.

The only issue is that Workbench 1.3 supports speeds up to 32Kbps (From the serial setup utility, I don't know why not 36,600bps which is the standard) but I have to settle for 19,200bps. What is the maximum serial speed supported by the Amiga 500 or WB 1.3?

Is there a hardware limitation?
I remember during the early 90s when I had my AT I had to purchase a UART 16xxx expansion cserial port card in order to operate my then "State of the Art" 28,800bps modem.

Any ideas on the serial speed limitations for the various Amiga models.

Thanks

Mike

[adolescent]

You don't need to specify the speed in Serial Prefs.  You set them in the tooltypes of the Amiga Explorer icon.  On a standard Amiga 500 you should be able to use 38400, maybe even 57600.

[Amigaz]

Don't be suprised if you don't get speeds over 19200kbps.
That's what I'm getting on my A500+ '030 @ 40mhz without any errors.

[moondynejo]

i have just been playing with this toaday.
i can get amiga explorer to connect at 57600 but when i go to transfer an adf ti falls over.
the fasted i can connect and transfer adf's is 36000.
at that speed an adf takes about 4minutes to complete
its still a lot easier than doing it on the amiga alone.

[chiark]

FWIW, I can get reliable connections at 57,600 on my 4000 with 40MHz 040 WarpEngine.  

If I push it up to 115200, I get "read errors" on the PC end :-(

[Alma96]

Hello,

I also use AExplorer to transfer data from my PC to my Amiga.

I've found that with an OCS/ECS amiga (A500 or A2000)even with and accelerator board, the max transfer speed is 19200 bauds. Above that, you get errors. Sometimes, I've even had to reduce to 14400 bauds to get a more reliable transfer. On an A1200 with fast ram (but with the stock 020 CPU), one can reach 57600 bauds and it works quite fine. However, don't expect to do some multitasking while you transfer data.

In order to improve AExplorer performance, there are some possibilities:
- get artser.device which is more reliable than the standard serial.device and serialprefs which allow to have more preference options. They are both available on Aminet.
- on a Zorro-based Amiga, add a I/O board like the Multiface3, IOBlix or IOextender for instance. They will allow a faster transfer while freeing a little bit the main processor from transfer management.
- on a A1200, add a twister board (or equivalent) on the clock port to get a faster serial port. Or you can use a LAN card on the PCMCIA port and use TCP/IP transfer with AExplorer.

AExplorer is a nice piece of software not only to transfer files from PCs to Amigas, but also to generate or extract adf files from floppies.

[adolescent]

Also, if you haven't done so, lower the color depth to 4 colors.  This frees up a lot of speed.

Sorry I posted about the 57600 speeds.  I read over on another board that people were getting those speeds out of stock Amigas.  Myself I've always used Ethernet, even on the A600, so I can't really compare.