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-
- Serial Port Information
- =======================
- Owners of the very earliest models, (A305/310/440), may experience 'dropped'
- (missing) characters on the serial port if Acorn FCO (Field Change Order)
- Nº 2003 (replacement of C65SC51 serial chip) has not been done. It used to
- be a free modification from Acorn component-level service agents, but now
- you will probably have to pay. The later models do not suffer from this
- problem, but do pay attention to the serial port wiring.
-
- In order to utilise the RS232 port of the A3000, a couple of serial
- chips need to be installed, at a cost of around £20. They must be
- obtained from Acorn dealers, as a number of variants are unsuitable. Using
- the wrong variants will still cause dropped characters etc..
-
-
- Serial Port Connections
- =======================
- The connections for a packet radio TNC, or other data controller, are given
- below. In order to avoid 'dropped' characters, the serial port in the
- earlier models must be wired in a way which is slightly non-standard
- compared to an IBM-compatible machine, (reversal of CTS and DSR lines).
- Some intermediate machines like the A400/1 series may work either way round,
- but the earliest A300 series & A440 definitely will not. Here are the
- connections for TNCs with 25-way or 9-way serial connectors...
-
- * Wiring for A305 - A310 - A440 - A410/1 - A420/1 - A440/1 - A540 - A3000 *
-
- ARC 9-WAY D CONNECTOR TNC 25-WAY D CONNECTOR TNC 9-WAY CONN.
- --------------------- ---------------------- ---------------
- No connection 1 Cable screen (optional) No connection
- 3 TXD 2 TX data 3 TX data
- 2 RXD 3 RX data 2 RX data
- 7 RTS } {* 4 RTS 7 RTS
- } { 20 DTR
- 6 DSR 5 CTS 8 CTS
- 5 Signal gnd 7 Signal gnd 5 Signal gnd
- 1 DCD}
- 4 DTR} All linked together No connection No connection
- 8 CTS}
- 9 Ring indicator # 8 Connect status (optional) No connection
-
- * Most commercial TNCs use pin 4 (RTS) for the handshake input, whereas
- some like the BSX2 use pin 20 (DTR) instead. So, if you make up a cable
- with RTS from the Micro connected to both 4 and 20 on the TNC, then it
- should be suitable for any TNC you are likely to use.
-
- # This connection is not necessarily required by all programs, but it's a good
- idea to wire it up anyway.
-
-
- * Wiring for A5000 - A4 - A3010 - A3020 - A4000 - Risc PC * (standard IBM)
-
- ARC 9-WAY D CONNECTOR TNC 25-WAY D CONNECTOR TNC 9-WAY CONN.
- --------------------- ---------------------- ---------------
- No connection 1 Cable screen (optional) No connection
- 3 TXD 2 TX data 3 TX data
- 2 RXD 3 RX data 2 RX data
- 7 RTS } {* 4 RTS 7 RTS
- } { 20 DTR
- 8 CTS 5 CTS 8 CTS
- 5 Signal gnd 7 Signal gnd 5 Signal gnd
- 1 DCD}
- 4 DTR} All linked together No connection No connection
- 6 DSR}
- 9 Ring indicator # 8 Connect status (optional) No connection
-
- 73 from Rick G4BLT @ GB7WRG.#19.GBR.EU - July 1994
-