Image 1.2a & BBS Server help

[Riktronics]

Due to problems I have been having with large uploads, I decided to get with the 1990's and upgrade to Image 1.2a. (It seems as though I am running the regular 1.2 and not the a). I had a lot of problems getting the modem to work with 1.2 two and a half years ago, and now trying to upgrade I am having problems again.

I upgraded to BBS Server 1.3 from .8 (Nice!!!! Cool Leif!!!) and it initializes the modem just fine. Image sends out it modem strings, and BBS Server happily repsonds "OK". When I connect, the BBS says ANSWERED pauses for 15 seconds, and resets to the waiting screen. It doesn't drop the connection to BBS Server however.\

I am using a MAX233 rs-232.

Any ideas or experience? Pinacolda? Anyone?

[cube]

This is exactly the same behaviour I am encountering with Image 1.2a running out of Vice on linux (Fedora Core 7) and tcpser. It "Connects", but then seems to time out and resets to the System Idle screen - although modem output is still being transmitted through tcpser to the telnet client. It's interesting to note that this happens both with a hardware C64 and an emulated one, so I would have to speculate that this is now an issue with Image and not the hardware / software used to support it.

I was suspect of the DCD line in the rs232 connection not going high when the connection was enabled. I pulled out a LED box and monitored the connection - sure enough, DTR would go high when a telnet client connected but even though tcpser reported setting the dcd control line high, that particular LED never illuminated. "Ah-HAH!" I thought as I connected the DCD pin to DTR in the hopes that I'd found (and potentially solved) this connection-dropping problem. No change. Even with the carrier detect line high, Image failed to acknowledge the connection.

I did some reading on the Hayes protocol standard and it seems that while Data Carrier Detect *could* be used to determine the presence of a connection on the modem, it was not the favored approach. Everything I read suggests that the modem [controller] software should wait for that magical 'CONNECT 1200' or 'CONNECT 2400' string and then assume the connection is established until there is a pause in the stream of at least 100ms and the message 'NO CARRIER'. I'm guessing Image BBS does not quite follow this standard, although if it's not monitoring the DCD line OR watching for CONNECT 2400, I don't know how it is trying to monitor the connection. I've even tried Image with the ACIA interface (emulated in Vice) and the 19.2k modifications for high speed modems - with the exact same result! I'm running out of ideas at this point...

John

[Pinacolada]

Heya folks.

Even with the carrier detect line high, Image failed to acknowledge the connection.

Might you need to invert the carrier detect with Shift-T at the idle screen? Seems like in the bad old days when I was first starting out with telnetting and Image BBS, I'd have to do that, hit Shift-T twice, and that untangled something. I should do more reading on the RS232 standard, I suppose. Jim Brain helped me with figuring out things back then, and we pioneered the "ripping pin 6" out to get a smooth online experience instead of fits and starts. (Pin 6 on a 9 pin connector was floating high, if I remember right, what's that anyway, DTR? CTS? I don't remember.)

Man, I'd love to have one of those LED diagnostic things. Closest thing I have is my Aprotek Minimodem C24!

[cube]

Thanks for the Invert CD tip - I've stared at that menu screen probably a thousand times over the years and never noticed it. After pressing it (Shift-T) once, that little check mark in the top right-hand corner of the screen came on and for the first time in this whole adventure, my CGterm client connected to the BBS. Interestingly enough, when it did so the connect message I got was at 300 baud but the actual speed was more like 9600! It went ripping through. Now the next challenge is that once connects and disconnects, the modem seems to disappear. Could be that pin 6 thing you were talking about... Pin 6 is DSR if I'm not mistaken, and would connect to pin 4 (DTR) on the other end of a null modem cable. As far as I can tell though, it doesn't seem [hung], it just disappears - as though from Image's perspective, the modem does not exist. It appears to be sending out the commands but I've got TCPser in debug mode and it's not receiving a single byte. On my real '64, whenever that would happen I'd just unplug the 1670 and plug it in on a bit of an angle. It would re-initialize the modem and carry on from where it left off, but unfortunately Vice does not have that "feature". (Disabling and re-enabling Userport Emulation does not do the trick. I have to reboot Image.)

John