[GreenKeys] Heavy Metal - ASR35 keyboard doesn't work like I want it to...

[Don Robert House]

Jack is right about the eighth bit.  Most older models were all  
marking, but some were all spacing.
However if your M35 is a newer model it will output even parity via  
the 8th bit.

Don K9TTY

On 18 Feb 2009, at 7:45 PM, Jack wrote:

Keep in mind that the contacts in the 35's keyboard
"signal generator" are gold plated. Too much voltage
or current will mess them up.

Also, you have to be sure you know what the keyboard
is sending...just because the light is blinking doesn't
mean the keyboard's output is what the computer is
looking for. For example, some 35's have the eighth
bit always marking...others have it always spacing. The
printer might not care since it only looks at
the first seven bits, but the serial input of your
PC will.


Jack K0TTY



-----Original Message-----
From: greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Bryan Brodie
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 6:06 PM
To: gil at baudot.net
Cc: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [GreenKeys] Heavy Metal - ASR35 keyboard doesn't work like I
want it to...

Gil,

Thanks - especially for the Terminal by Bray software. I think I will
be able to do the fundamental checking with that program. When I
received this machine from George Hutchinson, it had the switchboard
type plugs, and I cut them off and connected them to the current loop
converter.

All of the wires coming out of the TTY are colored black, and there
are more of them than places to plug input on the current loop
converter. I had to play around quite a bit to get text to print, and
I have also noticed that the TTY works a lot better after an hour of
being plugged in and warmed up.

The HeavyMetal program supports ascii and baudot just fine - the later
versions have the telnet capability removed, since I imagine few
people use teletypes as TTY devices in a telnet session anymore.

The "tricky" part about telnet and COM1 is that the terminal software
wants to "dial out" (such as it is) to another computer, and what I am
trying to do is "dial in" using the TTY connected to the COM1 port
into a telnet session running on the same PC.

When terminal software is accessing the COM1 port, there is to way to
forward my text to a telnet session running on the same machine.

HeavyMetal does this in one direction (computer -> TTY printer) but
not TTY KB -> computer.

I am not using any ethernet-to-232 gizmos, but that may be my next
plan of attack if your suggestions don't work for me.

Again, the indicators on the current loop converter show data flowing
in both directions (printing and typing) but my typing does not echo
back to the TTY printer or to the terminal session.

I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks for the tips.

Bryan

On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 4:40 PM,  <gil at baudot.net> wrote:
> Hi Bryan:
>
> Well, this is a question for Buzbee I suppose, but I'll add my 2
cents.
> Since that 35 is an ascii machine, you don't need the baudot
conversion
> provided by HeavyMetal -- I didn't know it had an ascii mode, but I
> suppose it does if you can print to your 35.
>
> What happens when you just run an ascii terminal emulator?  You can
use
> the confusing and buggy HyperTerminal that comes with winblows, or
you
> can grab the nice little "Terminal by Bray" shareware app, which I
> happen to have at:
> http://www.vauxelectronics.com/misc/Terminal-by-Bray.zip
> This guy did a nice job;  it is a clean terminal, which has separate
RX
> and TX windows, and all the config stuff visible.  The only odd
thing I
> ran across was that you should check the "Auto-connect" box, so it
> connects to the com port when opened (should be the default), and I
> think you need to click in the tx window before typing.  Other than
> these minor things, it is a very nice terminal.  Win HyperTerminal,
on
> the other hand, has all sorts of legacy BBS dial-up crap still in
it,
> has been buggy since day one (set xon/xoff flow control or you tx
chars
> may come out 3 seconds apart), and does not echo typed chars until
you
> enable that in "ascii options" or someplace.
>
> But all that aside, when you run a terminal, at 110-baud, and
connect
> your com port to your 35's 232-converter gizmo, can you type in the
> terminal and have the 35 print, and type on the 35 keyboard and have
the
> terminal show your chars?  This is kinda the fundamental test.  Are
you
> running into some parity issue that allows print but not input?  Try
> none/mark/space/odd/even to see if it makes a difference.  Someone
here
> likely knows the 35 better than I do, but I seem to recall that on
the
> 33, the keyboard produced mark or even parity (IIRC), while the
printer
> didn't care -- your 35 issue might be along the same lines.
>
> The other thing you could try is to hang a separate
PC/terminal-emulator
> in place of your 232-adapter/M35 machine, and see what is being sent
and
> received using your HeavyMetal session.  Again, it could just be a
> keyboard parity issue.  If you try this, keep in mind that you
probably
> need to swap the 232 rx/tx lines -- a null-modem adapter is handy
for
> fixing this (swapping pins 2 and 3).
>
> Once you get the basic ascii communication stuff figured out, you
can
> try a telnet session instead of a direct com port test.  I'm not
quite
> sure what you want to do though.  If you have an ethernet-to-232
gizmo
> connected to your 232-adapter/M35, then you should be able to use
any
> telnet software to connect a session to the ethernet
> address/port-number, and then send and receive text just as if you
had a
> direct terminal connection.  You can use HyperTerminal in telnet
mode
> omehow, though I have never done it.  You can also do a
> Start/Run/Command (to get a dos) window and then telnet someplace.
>
> FWIW,
>
> gil
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