[FADCA] Kantonics TNCs KISS/FPAC

[bud Thompson]

Deltona
Tuesday April 16 0705EDT

I've changed the subject of this thread because it is an important one.

We really need to get something straight - to keep this urban legend from
growing:

Has anyone ever been able to get a Kantronics TNC to work with DOS FPAC? If
you have not but you really know someone who has demonstrated it - let's
hear that.

I've seen the sketchy docs for three years, but I've never been able to make
it work.  One time I had the 1200b port of a KAM and the 1200b port of a
KPC9612 working on DOS FPAC, but have not been able to even duplicate that
since.

So we'll have the information in one place, here is the information John
referred to:

"I found the following in FPAC.MOD which shows some differences
from what you have.

== mode KAM : Do not forget to set KISS mode for the two ports !
        (SRY.. I forgot to put it in the doc )
        com=7 02E8    4 0003  12 0  0  0  4  3  4094 0  00      # kam
vhf
        kam=8    7    0    0   0 0  0  0  0  0  0010 0  10      # kam hf

In the example they use ports 7 and 8, you can change them to whatever
you need.

In the com line change the irg, port speed, etc as needed. The 00 in
position 13 stands for standard kiss - you probably need to set the kam
to regular kiss   INtface kiss           You might try 0B and INtface
XKISS to see if the better kiss protocol will work here.

In the kam=8     7 line - the 7 defines the port as kiss & kam. Also, I
saw the 0010 as 0094 in one example. I think this would be better as
they are using port 2 for hf while you are on vhf or uhf."

(end of John's note)

Naw, I didn't forget at all- I've still not been able to get a dual port
Kantronics to work both ports with DOS FPAC.  That said, I know more now
than I did (by default) - I might be able to get it configured.

Here is some information which may help with the confusion (one way or the
other!)

When looking at a dual port Kantronics - KAM, KPC9612 - There is a
difference in which port is on the LEFT of the front panel and wich port is
logical port 1 and 2!

FRONT
PANEL      LEFT           RIGHT

                  HF             1200b
KAM        PORT2      PORT1

                  1200b       9600b
9612        PORt1       PORT 2


I also got some info from Ken Johnson at Kantronics which might be helpful:

"Well, in TCP programs like NET, NOS, G8BPQ, and others, there is a
configuration file. In that file, there are ATTACH lines, that set up the
serial port to communicate through, and the radio port in the TNC (by kiss
address) to access through that serial port.

For dual-port (or multi-port) TNCs, a secondary attach line (or lines) is
needed to access any other radio ports in the TNC through that same serial
port. The first attach line contains serial port parameters (port address
and alias name or handle for it, IRQ, flow control, etc, and kiss port
address of the first radio port in the TNC.) The secondary attach line
specifies another kiss port address to add to the first attached port (as
in "attach this kiss address also to the handle of the first").

The 1200 baud port of the KPC-9612 Plus is kiss address 0 (zero), and the
high-speed port is kiss address 1. The kiss addresses of the TNCs radio
ports are set by the command MYDROP, and can be set to any addresses
between 0 and 15. This allows as many as 16 kiss addresses to be accessed
through one serial port.

Perhaps your program uses the same procedure to accomplish this task (I
don't know, haven't heard of your program).

Ken,
Technical Service"

I won't have time to play with this for a while - but plan on getting back
to it.  Meanwhile, anyone who can, please report.

bud N0IA