Recreating the RSVE mod…

[Darklord]

Okay, after some extensive testing during the wee hours of the
night, I have to report one remaining issue that I didn't notice
at first.

Let me point out from the start that this issue, as far as I can
tell, has nothing to do with the RSVE mod or its installation,
directly.

Everything I logged into my BBS with, with the RSVE mod
running, speed 38400 baud set, worked fine. Downloads were
nice, averaging over 3700+ CPS.

However, the issue came when I logged into the BBS at 19.2k.

Connection, menu's, scrolling, navigating around the board, all
work just fine. However, when I attempted to download a file,
I got multiple CRC errors and timeouts. Any attempted download
over just a few K in size resulted in the BBS cancelling the attempt.

It looks like my setup is attempting to send everything to the 19.2k
caller as if they were connected at 38.4k.

There are 2 settings in HSModem for receiving and transmitting. I
have receiving set at 32768 and transmitting set at 256. This works
great for the 38.4 call-ins. They can be adjusted and it's mentioned
in the article from the Express SysOp. I've been trying his advice,
adjusting transmitting in increments of 256, from 32 to 384 but it
has not made a difference yet.

I'll keep experimenting it with it today and report back any success.

That's a real bummer though, if I can't get downloads working for
anyone but the people calling in at 38.4k. I mean honestly, most
Atari people running on original hardware would be excluded. I
don't know if I could justify that.

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Hmmm, well couldn't you just use SETTER.PRG to replace another less-used baud rate entry for MFP.PRG to map to 38400?

[Darklord]

Hmmm, well couldn't you just use SETTER.PRG to replace another less-used baud rate entry for MFP.PRG to map to 38400?

That's a thought but I didn't really think that the caller logging in at 19.2k would trigger the HSModem remapping? I just
assumed that it was any *software* that attempted to use 19.2k that would do that...

Hmm, I mean, that's what it's supposed to do but that seems a little strange to me.

Huh, by that measurement, if someone logged in at 300 it would also trigger 38.4 since the RSVE mod does
that out of the box?

Sheesh. I'll have to think this over - it's starting to make my head hurt.

[sporniket]

@sporniket Great work! What does it mean "Do not use The RSVE serial port mod for the Atari ST if this project is not suitable for your project." ?

Hello @nokturnal, this mention is more targeted at using the project in a company, that may have rules that forbid open source licences, some toolchain, uncertified hardware etc... For hobbyist like us, it is rather meaningless, but for me there are occurrence of some projects that I decided to not use because it required me to install a huge bunch of things or was written in a language that I don't want to use, so to me they were "not suitable for my project".

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Hmmm, well couldn't you just use SETTER.PRG to replace another less-used baud rate entry for MFP.PRG to map to 38400?

That's a thought but I didn't really think that the caller logging in at 19.2k would trigger the HSModem remapping? I just
assumed that it was any *software* that attempted to use 19.2k that would do that...

Hmm, I mean, that's what it's supposed to do but that seems a little strange to me.

Huh, by that measurement, if someone logged in at 300 it would also trigger 38.4 since the RSVE mod does
that out of the box?

Sheesh. I'll have to think this over - it's starting to make my head hurt.

Well, I'm not sure either . But I am thinking when you remap 19200 to 38400 that the system can no longer "use" actual 19200 speed since the system has been modified.

So, I was thinking that if you mapped a less-used baud rate, then that wouldn't interfere with users that connect at 19200.

For instance, the RS-232 port can be configured for these speeds according to TOS.HYP

Code: Select all

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​0:     19200 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​1:	​​9600 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​2:	​​4800 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​3:	​​3600 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​4:	​​2400 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​5:	​​2000 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​6:	​​1800 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​7:	​​1200 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​8:	​​​600 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​9:	​​​300 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​10:	​​​200 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​11:	​​​150 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​12:	​​​134 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​13:	​​​110 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​14:	​​​​75 Baud
	​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​15:	​​​​50 Baud

So, you said the BBS won't go lower than 300 baud for a selection. But would it accept 600 or 2000 baud? Those are not as common but could be remapped to 38400 also.

Just an idea.

[Darklord]

Nope, good idea but unfortunately, BBS Express! ST only supports
certain speeds in the section in the SYSEDIT program where you
set it:

300
1200
2400
9600
19200

It uses 3 settings: Minimum, Startup and Maximum. The
author says to use higher speed modems (this is actually referring
to 19.2k stuff), all 3 have to be set to 19200.

So, just for the fun of it (and because I've not had enough chaos
in my day) I set everything to 1200 in Express. I then used the
SETTER program and remapped MFP.PRG to 1200 --> 38400. I
also set it to 1200 in the SERIAL.CPX and rebooted. Started up
the BBS. Called in from a Win10 box using SyncTerm. I tried
calling in at 1200, 19.2 and 38.4.

I couldn't at any of those speeds. I got nothing but a garbled
mess in SyncTerm's screen. <shrugs>

Oh BTW, it's not just 19.2k call-ins. After I reset everything back
to 19.2 on the BBS, I set my login speed to 9600 and tried logging
in like that. It still seems to show the BBS throwing data at the
caller as if they were logging in at 38.4. Dunno man.

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Well, sounds like the BBS software is being obstinate and needs a slight attitude adjustment.

But hmm, if you have 3 settings: Minimum, Startup and Maximum, have you tried setting those individually (disregarding the author's advice)?

Logically, it makes little sense to have 3 settings, but then having to set them all the same?? Weird, but who knows.

It might be worth a try to set min and max to 300/19200 respectively and then remap 300 to 38400 and see what happens.

Or prior to that, even just disable RSVE for a minute and set min and max to 300/19200 and see if the BBS allow connections at various speed in-between. That could help understand its behavior with the settings better.

I mean, before you installed RSVE and with min/startup/max all at 19200, was it working with other bauds such as 9600 when connecting or did everything have to be 19200?

*edit* Does the winmodem negotiate speed? If it is set to 38400, does it want to talk to all connnections at that speed?

[atari030]

Is BBS express GEM based? I do recall having issues with Coms software that didn't use GEM with the one chip mod. It just ignored hsmodem.

[Darklord]

Well, sounds like the BBS software is being obstinate and needs a slight attitude adjustment.

Brother, you said a mouthful.

But hmm, if you have 3 settings: Minimum, Startup and Maximum, have you tried setting those individually (disregarding the author's advice)?

Logically, it makes little sense to have 3 settings, but then having to set them all the same?? Weird, but who knows.

It might be worth a try to set min and max to 300/19200 respectively and then remap 300 to 38400 and see what happens.

Or prior to that, even just disable RSVE for a minute and set min and max to 300/19200 and see if the BBS allow connections at various speed in-between. That could help understand its behavior with the settings better.

I can try playing around with that. We'll see what happens.

I mean, before you installed RSVE and with min/startup/max all at 19200, was it working with other bauds such as 9600 when connecting or did everything have to be 19200?

AFAIK, it was fine - it would negotiate with slower speeds and allow their calls without issue.

*edit* Does the winmodem negotiate speed? If it is set to 38400, does it want to talk to all connections at that speed?

Yes, the WiModem232 will adjust itself for lower speeds, regardless of what top speed it is set for. The WiModem232 is
one of the best things to come along for BBS's in a very long time.

[Darklord]

Is BBS express GEM based? I do recall having issues with Coms software that didn't use GEM with the one chip mod. It just ignored hsmodem.

Not completely 100% sure but I'm pretty sure it's a GEM program.