Recreating the RSVE mod…

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Another shot in the dark here. :D When running SETTER.PRG (GEM version) on HSMODEM07 MFP.PRG the internal settings are these:

HSMODEM07.png

When running SETTER on HSMODEM06 MFP.PRG there are these setting internally (notice the addtional setting for HISP).

HSMODEM06.png

In the other sysop's description of his settings he does mention the setting "HISP: Yes". So I don't think he was using HSMODEM07 but an earlier version.

Code: Select all

RSVE works great at 38400 on 8 Mghz machines, if you select higher speeds
then you will tend to loose characters on slower machines, I have mine
set at 38400 on a 16 Mghz Mega STe, I do loose the odd character at
57600, but 38400 works flawlessly.

HSMODEM software is very easy to install and can be used without the RSVE
board (The software fix for the Atari's RTS CTS problem). There are
several different programs that are included in the HSMODEM package, you
do not have to use them all, It depends on what modem port you are using.
If you are an Express sysop like myself you must be using modem 1. The
neccessary programs to use for modem 1 would be DRVIN.PRG, this is the
main driver for HSMODEM and must always load before any of the other
HSMODEM programs. MFP.PRG, this controls modem port 1. I suggest that
you load DRVIN.PRG and MFP.PRG boot from your AUTO folder. Although they
can be run from the desktop, make sure that they are the last programs
to run, this way any of the other programs that Auto load will not
interfere with the changes they make to TOS. I use the To configure
these two programs you must run the program SETTER.TTP, and on the
command line put the path and filename to either DRVIN.PRG or MFP.PRG.
The configurations are built into both these programs and by running
SETTER.TTP you are altering the actual program, which is a nice feature,
this saves having those configuration files located all over the place.
You will be prompted to enter some information when SETTER.TTP is
executed this can be a little confusing seeing as most of the text is in
German and very little in English.

These are my settings for DRVING.PRG and MFP.PRG:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

DRVING.PRG
----------
FASTINIT: Yes
EXOPEN: No


MFP.PRG
-------
RSVE: Yes

I have the RSVE board installed. Answer no if you do not.

HISP: Yes
REPL: place 1: 19200
place 2: 38400

The above replaces bps rates, for example because of the limit in TOS
most older programs will only support rates as high as 19200. Now the
Software will notice the change and adapt 19200 to 38400. This will not
work if the RSVE board is not installed, so if this is so answer place 1
and 2 with a U.

Place 3: U
Place 4: U
Place 5: U
Place 6: U
U meaning Invalid or no entry.

DTR: Yes
Enables switching of the DTR lines answering yes keeps it like in TOS.

RBL: 32768
Size in bytes of the recieve buffer.

TBL: 256
Size in bytes of the transmit buffer.
The Size of the above receive and transmit buffers may vary from system
to system. For best results play around with these numbers until it works
best for you.

English docs are included in HSMODEM, so if you want to experiment with
different settings you can, but I found the above best for my system."

Here is version 6 if you want to try it.

HSMODA06.zip

[Darklord]

On my way out the door right now but I grabbed that and will try it later on today.

What is "hist", btw? My German isn't so good... :)

Under v7 (which is what I've been using) I followed his settings:

RSVE - yes

REPL

1 - 19200
2 - 38400
3 - u
4 - u
5 - u
6 - u

DTR - yes

RBL - 32768
TBL - 256

Save - yes

Thanks.

[Darklord]

O M G ! ! ! ! Houston, we have lift off! :yay2: :girldance: :yay2:

DarkForce At 38400.JPG

Thank you TheNameOfTheGame for the suggestion to drop back one version of HSModem.

Apparently that setting (HIST) is the key about informing older software that doesn't
recognize.

I stayed online with Darkforce! for over half an hour, navigating around the board and
downloading about half a dozen files of varying sizes. No errors, no dropped characters,
no glitches of any kind that I could see.

A functional high speed serial port for my BBS has always been one of those "holy grail"
kind of projects. I want to thank everyone involved in this thread - all of you rock hard!

Sporniket, for having the skills and the willingness to use them for sad, old retro orphans
like me, Exxos for establishing and maintaining a place where so many talented people
congregate and share ideas and information, TheNameOfTheGame for all the (super!)
helpful advice, derkom (STacy owners R GO!), Frank Lucas and icky for all around general
knowledge and expertise... Hmm, have I left anyone out? Apologies if I have!


:thanksyellow: :thanksblue: :thanksyellow:

[Darklord]

@ Sporniket

Okay, I've had some SysOps and a few others ask me to inform them if/when this
project actually worked.

The real question is, would you be willing to fill orders for others that are interested
in your remake of the RSVE mod?

It's entirely your call, good sir. Thanks! :)

[sporniket]

O M G ! ! ! ! Houston, we have lift off! :yay2: :girldance: :yay2:

Thank you TheNameOfTheGame for the suggestion to drop back one version of HSModem.

Apparently that setting (HIST) is the key about informing older software that doesn't
recognize.

I stayed online with Darkforce! for over half an hour, navigating around the board and
downloading about half a dozen files of varying sizes. No errors, no dropped characters,
no glitches of any kind that I could see.

A functional high speed serial port for my BBS has always been one of those "holy grail"
kind of projects. I want to thank everyone involved in this thread - all of you rock hard!

Sporniket, for having the skills and the willingness to use them for sad, old retro orphans
like me, Exxos for establishing and maintaining a place where so many talented people
congregate and share ideas and information, TheNameOfTheGame for all the (super!)
helpful advice, derkom (STacy owners R GO!), Frank Lucas and icky for all around general
knowledge and expertise... Hmm, have I left anyone out? Apologies if I have!


:thanksyellow: :thanksblue: :thanksyellow:

Great ! "I like it when a plan comes together !" I feel a great satisfaction that it works !

@ Sporniket

Okay, I've had some SysOps and a few others ask me to inform them if/when this
project actually worked.

The real question is, would you be willing to fill orders for others that are interested
in your remake of the RSVE mod?

It's entirely your call, good sir. Thanks! :)

I will say no to that, though, I cannot allocate more time on this project. I will just update the github repository with supplemental documentation and a link to this thread, as the gerbers for the pcb is already published.

[Darklord]

I will say no to that, though, I cannot allocate more time on this project. I will just update the github repository with supplemental documentation and a link to this thread, as the gerbers for the pcb is already published.

Fair enough, thanks again for all your help on this. :)

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Glad to hear it is working. Congratulations on acheiving it!

Now that you've proven it in :D I was going to order a small batch to make one for myself so would be willing to make a few boards.

How many sysops/others do you know of that are looking to get one?

[nokturnal]

@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." ?

In general I would be interested in getting three (RSVE mod) for my Atari's.
It's certainly not only for SysOps. I use serial interface for debugging purposes for instance and use PC as external terminal to output various stuff.

Is this thing switchable, so I could revert it to the old behaviour when needed?

[Darklord]

How many sysops/others do you know of that are looking to get one?

Just a few of the "regulars". We have a Zoom meeting once a month for
Atari SysOps and a couple of them there expressed interest if we could
get it working.

Thanks.

[Darklord]

Is this thing switchable, so I could revert it to the old behaviour when needed?

Yes, you can simply revert to the settings used as if the RSVE mod were not
installed and the ST will continue working in its standard 19.2k top end
serial port configuration. You just run SETTER.TTP on MFP.PRG again and
use the non-RSVE settings.

That's what I've been doing for my BBS when I didn't have the mod working.

To make it handier, I made 2 folders inside of my HSMODEM folder, called
19200 and 38400. I have SETTER.TTP, DRVIN.PRG, and MFP.PRG inside of
each folder. Each is set according to the name of the folder. When I need
to switch, I just copy MFP.PRG from whatever speed/settings I need to my
AUTO folder (you can run it from the desktop for testing/temporary changes).

Easier than running SETTER.TTP each time.

HTH's.