[FADCA] More radios with less ports

[John H. Green]

Hi All
    There are versions of the bpqkiss2 eprom that are multi, I think I 
have some that are a, b and c .  I tried these a long time ago and then 
stored them away.  If someone wants to try them I can provide the eproms 
when we get home in a month or so..
    I didn't pursue using these due to the loading on the serial port 
and special cables that would be required. We also had a good source of 
4 port serial cards which made the need less urgent.
73  John

Chuck Hast wrote:

>Folks,
>One of the things I have been running back and forth in my mind is how to
>get more ports without adding cards. One solution which the guys out in
>TX were using was multidrop KISS, this is KISS that along with the CRC uses
>a two byte address to talk to the TNC's over a single serial port. If you run
>the serial port fast this could be a way around the issue of how to get more
>radios on a computer without adding computer hardware.
>
>I do recall having made it work back years ago when we first started working
>with FPAC. But never continued on with it. I think the original notes are on a
>old OS/2 machine which has been put away for posterity. I will see if I can
>get it on line and dig up the data. In truth I think that the CRC mode
>we presently
>use just assumes that the KISS TNC has a address of 00 or 01 (which is what
>the default EPROM image has) and takes it from there. But if you look at the
>FPAC configuration files there is a third mode beyond CRC KISS and that is for
>multi-drop and it allows you to give the addresses of the devices on the
>serial port.
>
>Of course if we can get USB drivers for DOS, and indeed yes they are out
>there, we could use a multi-port USB hub and just hang serial port converters
>on the hub.
>
>Now if I can only get Linda to add USB to the TNC's.
>
>  
>