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impulse.lzh
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IMPULSE.TXT
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1987-11-10
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3KB
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71 lines
Impulse 100 Users.
quirks and problems
how to get around some of them.
Chris O'Connor used the IMPULSE 100 with 640K of memory.
He installed 2 banks of 8 each 256K chips.
At a current price of around $225 for the board withì
no memory, a parallel port and a clock calender it is a very economicalì
way to expand the Jr.
256K chips can be bought for $2.47 from :
MICROPROCESSORS UNLTD.
24000 So. Peoria Av.
Beggs, OK 74421
(918) 267-4961
that is the good part of the IMPULSE 100.
And now for some of the problems.........
The worst problem is a lack of confidence in the continued existence ofì
the company. They are a pretty small company with freelance engineersì
and poor documentation and support. The other problems will becomeì
apparent as I list the tips for using the IMPULSE 100.
The board has an "automatic" clock/calender. When DOS boots and givesì
it's automatic "DATE" and "TIME" prompt the time is automatically readì
from the IMPULSE clock when you hit enter. This is great if you don'tì
use an autoexec.bat file... but if you don't you should!!
What's needed is some redirection of input. See DOS 2.1 p.1-5 ff.
But the way to get around it is this. Can I have and extension I'm on aì
type copy con:carriage(enter)(enter)(ctrl)z(enter).
This creates a file called "carriage" which contains of all things oneì
carriage return. Now if I use the file as input for the date and timeì
commands in DOS, I can have the computer "push" the enter key for me.
(That's good since it should do things for us ,right?)
You do it by using this autoexec.bat file (created with copy con: orì
even better a text processor):
autoexec.bat follows:
date<carriage
time<carriage
This will allow the IMPULSE board to send the time and date to theì
system clock without sending it manually.
Problem 2:(No solution as yet). The MICROCOM ERA-2 appears not to workì
with the IMPULSE installed. The only way I could get up on this systemì
was to physically disconnect the IMPULSE board. This is very bad sinceì
I can not use the printer and 640K. Any help on this problem isì
appreciated.
Problem 3 is the memory management and ramdisk.com software supplied byì
IMPULSE. They seem to have had problems from the beginning. I did aì
memory dump of the higher parts of memory with the IMPULSE and foundì
that the board has a ROM with ramdisk software. IMPULSE doesn'tì
document it's existence at all. Probably an aborted/rejected attempt atì
a ramdisk. I've found that IBM's memory management and ramdisk softwareì
(pcjrmem.com and ramdisk.com) work just find. As a matter of fact, Iì
have second info that the machines at IMPULSE it too!!