Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!MTUS5.BITNET!HEINEKEN
From: HEINEKEN@MTUS5.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: BITNET mail follows
Message-ID: <8807071709.aa09272@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA>
Date: 7 Jul 88 22:04:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 58

Date: 7 July 88, 16:29:59 EST
From: Steve King                                     HEINEKEN at MTUS5
To:   INFO-APPLE at BRL.ARPA

Okay, I give up.  I'd like to write a BBS program in BASIC (yes, BASIC.  I
haven't the money for a better language...) with some assembly language
routines, but I'm getting stuck on the modem I/O.  Actually, I'm getting
stuck even before that.  I can't seem to get my serial card's firmware to
function with my modem!  I mean, even the simple "Type this in and it
works" demos from the manual aren't working.  Here's my setup:

Enhanced Apple //e
Prometheus ProModem 2400G (Hayes compatible)
Apricorn's Super Serial Imager serial card in slot 2.

The SSI is supposed to be compatible with the Apple's SSC down to the DIP
switches.  There's an additional SSI switch that controls SSC emulation;
I've made sure that's in SSC emulation mode.  (The other setting allows for
fancy graphics commands which I don't need for the modem.)  I have yet to find
a terminal program that doesn't work with this configuration.  2 flavors of
Kermit, ASCII Express, TIC, and Zlink all work fine.

I figured I'd use the SSC commands (they're the same on the SSI) to control
the card for I/O.  (I'd rather control it by twiddling bits in registers, but
I don't have anything to tell me which bits do what!)  Okay, fine.  Test run.
Get to the BASIC prompt, and (I'm putting my keystrokes in ):

]
]<^a>
APRICORN SSI:                <== The cr shows carriage return

This is supposed to throw me into terminal mode.  I get a cute little
underscore cursor on the screen.  Fine.  I type something.  Anything.
The cursor goes bye-bye.  The transmit and receive (TD and RD) lights on
the modem show that nothing is getting to it.  Normally, these lights are
active when I'm typing Hayes commands to the modem, or when I'm just feeding
it garbage.

So I try a short BASIC program to see if it works from there.  Heck, all
of the examples in the book are from BASIC, so why shouldn't it work?

10 PRINT CHR$(4);"IN#2"
20 PRINT CHR$(1);"T"
30 PRINT "Hello"

Nothing.  It hangs.  No blinky lights.  Hit RESET to continue.  I've tried
using other commands listed (including ^A3S to chain the 80-col in for I/O),
but terminal mode always hangs the system.

Since other programs work just fine, I assume that I'm not doing some crucial
initialization of the card.  But what do I need to do?  Oh, dear Apple, why
don't you include technical docs with your products?  (I've got the 1985
printing of the Super Serial Card User's Manual here.  I can't find anything
less recent.)  The Apricorn docs aren't much better.  Any ideas?  This is
the first time I've delved into the murky world of Apple telecommunications
and I've got a feeling that it shouldn't be this frustrating...

                                                --Steve King
                                                  HEINEKEN @ MTUS5.bitnet