[DSP-10] Upddate on Mac/Virtual PC Serial Port problem

[Courtney Duncan]

   Thanks,  Jiro,  for the hints.  I had not used EZFAST before, but went
   and  got  it  and  it works fine from my PC.  I have now simplified my
   life by loading uhf3 and running uhfa both from DOS only, but still on
   the PC
   My  travails  trying to do anything like this from Virtual PC on a Mac
   laptop continue.
   I tried various serial port settings in the Mac configuration, the VPC
   PC  settings,  and  in  the  Windows  (98)  System control panel under
   "ports."   By  changing flow control from XON/XOFF to "Hardware" I was
   able  to  get the EZKIT to load the DTMF demo consistently but nothing
   else.
   I  then cobbled in an RS-232 monitor (green and red lights for all the
   serial  lines)  from  various  adapters and gender changers so I could
   watch  the  lights  flash  while doing stuff.  (Unfortunately, I don't
   have a breakout box or I could have done more.)
   Two  things  were  worth noting.  All those programs I mentioned in my
   last  posting  that use serial ports successfully through VPC turn all
   of  the handshaking lights green.  (They are default red when the port
   is  unused.)   This  includes  RTS,  CTS,  DSR,  DTR, and CD.  Neither
   EZKITAPP.EXE (which is what I've been loading with from the beginning)
   nor UHFA does this.  It could be that they are strobing these lines as
   needed,  but  9600  baud  is too fast to tell about that on this LED -
   based monitor.
   While  loading  DTMF  demo  successfully,  I noticed the computer side
   doing  lots of sending and the DSP-10 side (EZKIT) responding a little
   once  in a while.  Loading DTMF.EXE as an application rather than as a
   demo worked fine  under VPC too.
   I  then moved the cobbled - monitored serial line over to the PC where
   all this works fine and saw exactly the same behavior on the lights --
   all  handshaking  red  and  some  interchange going on during loading.
   Behavior  attempting  to  load  UHF3.EXE also looked the same too, but
   under  VPC, it still fails every time about five seconds in apparently
   waiting on EZKIT to respond.
   Back on the DOS PC, the surprise was when I started up UHFA, I got the
   diagonstic message:
   "Push-to-talk  indicates  TRANSMIT and the .CFG variable 'hardware_ptt
   is  non-zero, meaning PTT using Ring Detect is being used.  This often
   means  the wrong serial port was specified in the command line, or the
   DSP-10 hardware serial plug is not connected."
   I  then switched back to just a simple, direct cable, and UHFA started
   up just fine.
   This  all  looks  like timing problems, data getting corrupted or just
   not  getting there fast enough or something.  VPC probably adds little
   delays, being Virtual, after all.
   Since  I'm  neither  equipped nor inclined to debug this further, I'll
   just  have to keep this very old, tired, slow, big, power hungry PC in
   the shack for now, solely dedicated to DSP-10 while I think about what
   to do.
   Jiro,  I  am  using  a  Keyspan  USA-19HS.  Wonder what the difference
   between  that and your USA-28XB is?  I'm very pleased with mine except
   for  this one application.  Unlike you, I am not able to run even UHFA
   from VPC on the Mac.  (PowerBook G4 1.67 Ghz, OSX 10.4.3, VPC 7.0)
   It  appears  that  I cannot use KK7P's DSPx FLASH since my DSP-10 uses
   the original EZKIT Lite board.  (Somebody please correct me if this is
   wrong.)   I  do  own  a DSPx, but it is destined for the second DSP-10
   here, which I have yet to start building.
   As I see it, my options are:
   Live  with  DOS indefinitely.  Maybe buy an ultra cheap Windows laptop
   for this.
   Write  my  own  Mac  native  loader.   (Keyspan  has a whole developer
   support page, so this should be possible, if labor intensive.)
   PROM.
   Are there other possibilities I'm overlooking?
   Courtney, n5bf/6