Need advice on JR-Comm / Ncomm

h4tt3n · 15 January 2016, 15:37

Hello folks,

I'm trying to transfer data between pc and A500 1.3 with a null modem cable. So far I have succeeded in burning adf files with ADF Sender and Transwarp, but I'd like to set up a terminal program so I can transfer software directly to my hard drive. On the amiga side I've got WB 1.3 + the JR-Comm terminal program installed on the HDD.

Besides Amiga Explorer, what's a good terminal program for the pc side?

Also, what settings do I use? Baudrate, echo, flow control... there is a lot of stuff to mess with, and despite many attempts, all the files I have tried to transfer (with ADF Sender) have been completely garbled when arriving on the amiga side of the cable.

Cheers, Mike

idrougge · 15 January 2016, 15:46

19200 bps, 8N1.

thomas · 15 January 2016, 17:57

Flow control should be RTS/CTS a.k.a. hardware handshaking. But your cable needs the RTS/CTS lines connected for this to work.

For proper file transfer you should use a protocol with error detection/correction, for example zmodem. To use this with NComm you need http://aminet.net/comm/term/xprzmodem.lha

On the PC I always used HyperTerm which comes with Windows XP. It still runs on Win7 although it behaves a bit weird regarding its config files.

(I only used it to transfer AExplorer anyway

)

h4tt3n · 15 January 2016, 17:57

Thanks idrougge, these settings seem to be pretty standard. But what about handshake and echo? x, y, or zmodem?

I have installed RealTerm on the pc side, and it talks with JR-Comm. I'm able to send chat messages both ways, and when sending ascii text files they show up nicely on screen, also both ways.

Now, what I can't do is catch and save a file (hdd or floppy) on the amiga side. The data is transferred, but it's interpreted as errors or garbage, and there are sync and timeout errors. In JR-Comm, what do I click exactly to f.inst. save and .adf file to disk or hdd?

Cheers, Mike

h4tt3n · 16 January 2016, 08:25

Thanks thomas, I'll try the zmodem lib out with RTS/CTS on. This is exactly the kind of thing I probably wouldn't have figured out by myself. Hyperterm doesn't seem to be on win10, but Realterm should do the job.

Cheers, Mike

modrobert · 16 January 2016, 09:43

If you save the files to RAM: on the A500 then try 38400 Baud, should work fine, at least with JR-Comm. You can always copy the files from RAM: to hard drive as a second step. Perhaps the hard drive is fast enough for 38400 Baud also, give it a try.

h4tt3n · 16 January 2016, 12:19

Thanks for the tip modrobert. In JR-Comm there seems to be a number og "download" options. In the buffer menu you can choose open capture or append capture, both w/wout save. In the transfers menu there is also a download file option. All attempts at making this work - and I've been messing with this for days by now - has resulted in "carbage cound exceeded" and transfer errors. What am I supposed to do? Cheers, Mike

modrobert · 16 January 2016, 14:12

If you got the null modem cable fully wired with RTS/CTS handshaking pins connected there shouldn't be any transfer errors. There is no need to change much in the terminal programs except making sure you set the same speed, data bits, parity and stop bit (eg. 19200 8/N/1) and enable hardware handshake (CTS/RTS) on both sides. Then use ZMODEM protocol for the file transfer.

http://www.nullmodem.com/NullModem.htm

Are you using some kind of "USB to serial" interface on the PC side? Those can be tricky with the RTS/CTS support.

h4tt3n · 16 January 2016, 18:31

Well, I'm using a blue cable that came with an amiga 500, so I'm assuming it should work. It has both a 9 pin and 25 pin female socket in each end. I've got the 9 pin plugged into the pc's serial port and the 25 pin into the amiga's serial port. I've tried it with three different machines so far.

I've been very careful about setting up those specific parameters as you describe. The RealTerm pc software has loads of options, I'll check if there is a way to check wether CTS/RTS is available, since this seems to be the issue at hand.

Cheers, Mike

nogginthenog · 17 January 2016, 12:14

CTS/RTS is sometimes called hardware handshaking btw.

modrobert · 18 January 2016, 00:17

Perhaps the serial problem is due to a bad CIA chip in the A500. You could try and swap the circuits and see if it makes any difference, there are two identical CIA circuits in sockets labelled 'ODD CIA' and 'EVEN CIA' on the PCB (motherboard).

If swapping the CIA chips makes the serial port work OK you know what the problem is, and then you can get a replacement eventually. Sometimes, if lucky, the damaged functionality is not used when swapping. I can explain more about that if anyone is interested.

h4tt3n · 18 January 2016, 11:45

Thanks both of you. I've tried with three different amiga 500's, one of which has new cia's because they were burnt out, like you mention.

If I disable cts/rts on the pc side, I get an error message on the amiga side saying cts is not available, so I'm assuming the cable and hardware is ok. Should be pure software, ie. me not beeing able to figure out the program.

modrobert · 19 January 2016, 00:39

Check if the cable connectors looks crusty, use contact spray (eg. WD-40) on the pins.

Tell me more about the PC side, are you using real serial port or USB?

Here is other software you can try:
http://syncterm.bbsdev.net/

h4tt3n · 19 January 2016, 09:57

Cable + rest of hardware is really nice and well taken care of, no rust or dirt anywhere. I'm using a real, physical 9 pin serial port on the pc side.

Transferring adf files using realterm (pc side) and transwarp (amiga side) works well too.

The only thing I can't figure out is how to catch / save a received adf file on the amiga side. I simply can't figure out what to click for the program to understand that it's supposed to save whatever it receives to disk/hdd/ram.

jbenam · 19 January 2016, 10:56

My memory is foggy since I did this two years ago, but I seem to remember that in NComm you need to go on the Menus, then ZModem > Receive. Before doing this, you need to be sure to have started ZModem send on the PC Side. I used Tera Term for the PC Side - I ended up using NComm as I ended with a dodgy serial-to-USB adapter (one of those fake Chinese thingies) which would cause a load of errors while transferring. Luckily enough that's exactly what ZModem is for

h4tt3n · 23 January 2016, 22:33

Thanks. I've tried everything without sucess, and I won't try any further unless I can get in contact with someone who knows how to use JR-Comm. Thanks everyone for trying to help. Cheers, Mike

idrougge · 24 January 2016, 02:15

Use NComm instead.

15 January 2016, 15:37	#1
h4tt3n Registered User Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Denmark Posts: 38	Null modem cable file transfer with JR-Comm, what settings to use? Hello folks, I'm trying to transfer data between pc and A500 1.3 with a null modem cable. So far I have succeeded in burning adf files with ADF Sender and Transwarp, but I'd like to set up a terminal program so I can transfer software directly to my hard drive. On the amiga side I've got WB 1.3 + the JR-Comm terminal program installed on the HDD. Besides Amiga Explorer, what's a good terminal program for the pc side? Also, what settings do I use? Baudrate, echo, flow control... there is a lot of stuff to mess with, and despite many attempts, all the files I have tried to transfer (with ADF Sender) have been completely garbled when arriving on the amiga side of the cable. Cheers, Mike Last edited by h4tt3n; 16 January 2016 at 12:23.

16 January 2016, 14:12	#8
modrobert old bearded fool Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Bangkok Age: 56 Posts: 775	If you got the null modem cable fully wired with RTS/CTS handshaking pins connected there shouldn't be any transfer errors. There is no need to change much in the terminal programs except making sure you set the same speed, data bits, parity and stop bit (eg. 19200 8/N/1) and enable hardware handshake (CTS/RTS) on both sides. Then use ZMODEM protocol for the file transfer. http://www.nullmodem.com/NullModem.htm Are you using some kind of "USB to serial" interface on the PC side? Those can be tricky with the RTS/CTS support. Last edited by modrobert; 16 January 2016 at 14:20.

19 January 2016, 00:39	#13
modrobert old bearded fool Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Bangkok Age: 56 Posts: 775	Check if the cable connectors looks crusty, use contact spray (eg. WD-40) on the pins. Tell me more about the PC side, are you using real serial port or USB? Here is other software you can try: http://syncterm.bbsdev.net/ Last edited by modrobert; 19 January 2016 at 00:54.

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15 January 2016, 15:46	#2
idrougge Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Stockholm Posts: 4,332	19200 bps, 8N1.

15 January 2016, 17:57	#3
thomas Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 6,985	Flow control should be RTS/CTS a.k.a. hardware handshaking. But your cable needs the RTS/CTS lines connected for this to work. For proper file transfer you should use a protocol with error detection/correction, for example zmodem. To use this with NComm you need http://aminet.net/comm/term/xprzmodem.lha On the PC I always used HyperTerm which comes with Windows XP. It still runs on Win7 although it behaves a bit weird regarding its config files. (I only used it to transfer AExplorer anyway )

16 January 2016, 08:25	#5
h4tt3n Registered User Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Denmark Posts: 38	Thanks thomas, I'll try the zmodem lib out with RTS/CTS on. This is exactly the kind of thing I probably wouldn't have figured out by myself. Hyperterm doesn't seem to be on win10, but Realterm should do the job. Cheers, Mike

16 January 2016, 09:43	#6
modrobert old bearded fool Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Bangkok Age: 56 Posts: 775	If you save the files to RAM: on the A500 then try 38400 Baud, should work fine, at least with JR-Comm. You can always copy the files from RAM: to hard drive as a second step. Perhaps the hard drive is fast enough for 38400 Baud also, give it a try.

16 January 2016, 12:19	#7
h4tt3n Registered User Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Denmark Posts: 38	Thanks for the tip modrobert. In JR-Comm there seems to be a number og "download" options. In the buffer menu you can choose open capture or append capture, both w/wout save. In the transfers menu there is also a download file option. All attempts at making this work - and I've been messing with this for days by now - has resulted in "carbage cound exceeded" and transfer errors. What am I supposed to do? Cheers, Mike

16 January 2016, 18:31	#9
h4tt3n Registered User Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Denmark Posts: 38	Well, I'm using a blue cable that came with an amiga 500, so I'm assuming it should work. It has both a 9 pin and 25 pin female socket in each end. I've got the 9 pin plugged into the pc's serial port and the 25 pin into the amiga's serial port. I've tried it with three different machines so far. I've been very careful about setting up those specific parameters as you describe. The RealTerm pc software has loads of options, I'll check if there is a way to check wether CTS/RTS is available, since this seems to be the issue at hand. Cheers, Mike

17 January 2016, 12:14	#10
nogginthenog Amigan Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: London Posts: 1,309	CTS/RTS is sometimes called hardware handshaking btw.

18 January 2016, 00:17	#11
modrobert old bearded fool Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Bangkok Age: 56 Posts: 775	Perhaps the serial problem is due to a bad CIA chip in the A500. You could try and swap the circuits and see if it makes any difference, there are two identical CIA circuits in sockets labelled 'ODD CIA' and 'EVEN CIA' on the PCB (motherboard). If swapping the CIA chips makes the serial port work OK you know what the problem is, and then you can get a replacement eventually. Sometimes, if lucky, the damaged functionality is not used when swapping. I can explain more about that if anyone is interested.

18 January 2016, 11:45	#12
h4tt3n Registered User Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Denmark Posts: 38	Thanks both of you. I've tried with three different amiga 500's, one of which has new cia's because they were burnt out, like you mention. If I disable cts/rts on the pc side, I get an error message on the amiga side saying cts is not available, so I'm assuming the cable and hardware is ok. Should be pure software, ie. me not beeing able to figure out the program.

19 January 2016, 09:57	#14
h4tt3n Registered User Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Denmark Posts: 38	Cable + rest of hardware is really nice and well taken care of, no rust or dirt anywhere. I'm using a real, physical 9 pin serial port on the pc side. Transferring adf files using realterm (pc side) and transwarp (amiga side) works well too. The only thing I can't figure out is how to catch / save a received adf file on the amiga side. I simply can't figure out what to click for the program to understand that it's supposed to save whatever it receives to disk/hdd/ram.

19 January 2016, 10:56	#15
jbenam Italian Amiga Zealot Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Italy Age: 36 Posts: 1,910	My memory is foggy since I did this two years ago, but I seem to remember that in NComm you need to go on the Menus, then ZModem > Receive. Before doing this, you need to be sure to have started ZModem send on the PC Side. I used Tera Term for the PC Side - I ended up using NComm as I ended with a dodgy serial-to-USB adapter (one of those fake Chinese thingies) which would cause a load of errors while transferring. Luckily enough that's exactly what ZModem is for

23 January 2016, 22:33	#16
h4tt3n Registered User Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Denmark Posts: 38	Thanks. I've tried everything without sucess, and I won't try any further unless I can get in contact with someone who knows how to use JR-Comm. Thanks everyone for trying to help. Cheers, Mike

24 January 2016, 02:15	#17
idrougge Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Stockholm Posts: 4,332	Use NComm instead.

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