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New WiMondem user with a few questions - armitage - 07-30-2019

Hi there,

I purchased a WiModem recently for my C128 and have been trying to get it set up properly for various services but have been having a few issues. Let me apologize up front for the verbosity of this posit; I want to try and include as much info as I can.

So let me start with what works. I had no problems at all connecting to my WiFi, setting up some phonebook entries, and adding a spoof entry for QLink. I can connect to my local Linux machine via telnet at 9600 baud just fine with at*t1 enabled, attach to my screen session and check mail, IRC, etc. no problems.

What I can't do, however, is download any files. I have tried xmodem and zmodem, 300, 1200, 2400, and 9600 baud in both DesTerm128 v3 as well as CCGMSTERM in 64 mode. Whenever I try to download a file, the terminal sees the transfer start correctly and goes into download mode, but then it's just gets errors and writes no data to disk. Eventually the transfer fails and my screen begins filling up with garbage so I have to power cycle.

At this point I should mention that the C128 has JiffyDos and is using a pi1541 and an sd2iec. I have a 1571 but it is not powered on for these tests. I have not cut the trace for UP9600.

Other issues, in no particular order:

- I can connect to QLink (1200 baud, AT&C0, using a spoofed phonebook entry) but it just sits there drawing + symbols forever. I am unable to access the server.

- I can log into NeoHabitat and the game proceeds to launch but after the disk finishes loading, it sits at a black screen playing the room change music forever. This may be a pi1541 issue, however.

- I can connect to v1541 using both 2400 mode and the 38400 driver (and ZeroPage's loader). I can login from the command line, access my directory, etc. However, if I attempt to load anything from Device 2, the screen turns blue and the transfer never completes. 

I have updated to the latest firmware as of 9/29/19. I have performed an at&f and an at*reboot. I have set at*t0 and 1. I have repeated all the tests on a breadbox 64 just in case something was wrong with my 128 but had the same result. The last thing I want to mention is that if I enable flow control, the entire machine locks up instantly, both on the 64 and the 128.

So, I'm hoping I'm missing something obvious here, but I've been banging my head on trying to get any of these services to work for weeks without success. Any help would be greatly appreciated!


RE: New WiMondem user with a few questions - admin - 07-30-2019

You need to enable flow control when using a baud rate higher than 1200 baud.  Also remember that any protocol that expects an ACK within a certain time frame is not going to work.  The reason is that protocols like Zmodem need less than 50ms of response time.  If your 'ping time' to/from the server you are connecting to is >50ms then you are going to have nothing but problems with downloads.  You should use X-Modem CRC, X-Modem 1K, or Y-ModemG.  All of these have long delays.  There is nothing that can be done about using certain protocols because we are not using a hard wired connection like a phone line.

Your other issues:

1) Make sure that that Q-Link server is actually up.  It's down a LOT.

2) I have not had any reports of this.  Keep in mind that it needs to be setup just like Q-Link.

3) Anything drive related has nothing to do with the WiModem.

4) If  your flow control locks up then your terminal program is probably backwards for flow control.  I know that one of the terminals where you load the UP9600 driver externally has a bug where you need to select X-On/off instead the RTS/CTS.

You might want to unplug the Pi1541 and try this with real hardware.  I am not sure how much the SRQ support with the Pi1541 is going to be affected by the UP9600 hack in C128 mode.

It sounds like the WiModem is working, especially if you can use 38400 baud and such.  You just have to deal with the limitations of the internet.


RE: New WiMondem user with a few questions - armitage - 07-31-2019

Thank you for the helpful info. My linux server is local in the house so it should have a pretty minimal ping. I was not aware of needing flow control enabled over 1200 baud. It appears that DesTerm128 supports RTS/CTS but CCGMSTERM for the 64 does not. Can you recommend a good 64 term to use?

Tonight's update: I found that at*c1 and at*d1 were set, even after an at&f and at*reboot. I set at*c0 and at*d0 and wrote the defaults to memory. That said, any time I try to enable flow control with at&k1 the system locks up hard. I tried it in 64 mode, 128 mode, with just the sd2iec, with just the pi1541, and in 64 mode with just the 1571 drive and copy of CCGMSTERM on floppy. What's extra weird is that the terminal locks up sometimes when I type at&k but before I get to the "1" or <enter>.

If you have any terminal recommendations, I'd like to try some other software and see if that helps.

Thanks!


RE: New WiMondem user with a few questions - admin - 07-31-2019

I use CCGMS with the C64. You can run that at 2400 baud without flow control. If you use 9600 baud you will need to enable flow control. A good test would be to run CCGMS in C64 mode, change the baud rate to 9600 baud (AT*B9600) and then press F7 to go to the settings menu and then select 9600 baud with the UP9600 support. Exit out and you should be able to type. Then you can enable RTS/CTS flow control using AT&K1. The C64 terminal programs are all backwards from normal. The default values for AT*C and AT*D are correct, don't change them in C64 mode (probably C128 mode as well) or it will most definitely lock up! The only time you need to change these really is when using Commodore Server's 38400 driver because it uses the industry standard polarity for these. You can tell if flow control is enabled and working because if you type AT*HELP! you should see the help menu without any type of skipped characters. If you don't have flow control enabled it is going to look like junk!


RE: New WiMondem user with a few questions - armitage - 08-01-2019

Making real progress now! I reset to factory default and was able to connect to a telnet board at 9600 with flow control on in CCGMS and not get any corruption. at*help! works fine too. I was also able to connect to Neo Habitat all the way through and play the game today for the first time.

In 128 mode, DesTerm v3 is still locking up when I try to enable flow control. I tried both *c0/*d0 as well as *c1/*d1 when enabling &k1. In the best case, it continues to accept at commands, but nothing displays on screen (if I type at&v or connect to my telnet server). Worst case, it still locks up. I have tried setting the terminal's flow control to none, xon/xoff, and cts/dts to no effect.

One last observation. It seems some terminal programs, when running, drop keystrokes if I type too fast (at a speed that would be fine in basic). Is that just a factor of the processor being overtaxed? Keyboard-related: at one point at the basic prompt, I was unable to type the letter O (and a few other characters), even after numerous hard reboots. After reseating the WiModem, I was able to type them again. Does this signify some issue with my C128's user port or perhaps just a remnant of the hardware flow control testing I was doing?

Thanks!


RE: New WiMondem user with a few questions - admin - 08-01-2019

I have never used DesTerm, so I am not sure what options it has and what it expects for signals.  I used a simple terminal program I found on some PD disk to test the C128 mode.  I had no problems with RTS/CTS flow control with it.  I will see if I can find DesTerm.  Nobody else has reported any C128 issues, and since your WiModem is working perfect in C64 mode I would say that your hardware is likely fine (unless there is a problem with the C128 hardware).


RE: New WiMondem user with a few questions - armitage - 08-03-2019

I'm pretty sure that at everything is working perfectly fine in 64 mode at this point. I haven't had a lot of success with DesTerm v2 or v3 running at 9600 in 128 mode. at&k1 does weird things to them, if not locks them up outright. I can just run 2400 baud in 128 mode without flow control and that seems fine. There are a LOT of settings in DesTerm that I'm not really sure what they're for, such as "Threshold", "Mask High Bit", "Tune Bit In", "Tune Bit Out" so it's possible playing around with those might help. Thanks for the help and a great product!


RE: New WiMondem user with a few questions - admin - 08-03-2019

2400 baud is the max baud rate you can use with C128 mode because there is no such thing as a UP9600 hack for it. You can use flow control though with 2400 baud. It is needed for 80 column mode.