[net.micro] The Dimension 68K/Hayes Smartmodem Connection

schoenli@ittral.UUCP (Dick Schoenling) (05/25/85)

Greetings, Dimension Owners and Fans!

In a previous posting I requested help with getting
my Dimension 68000 to talk with a Hayes Smartmodem.
Having built my cable according to the documented
requirements of the modem and Dimension I was somewhat
perplexed with the fact that the modem wouldn't accept
any commands although it appeared that characters were
arriving at the modem.

Most of the suggestions I recieved didn't work, so I
came home from work heavily armed with a 'scope and
ye olde break-out box.  It soon became apparent what
the problem was.  The documentation was wrong!!!!!

The Dimension System Reference Manual cleary states
(clearly states) that Pin 5 (CTS) is not uused.  
False, False, False! Besides that, it ain't true!
In order to make the Dimension 68000 serial port
talk to the Hayes Smartmodem do the following:

Make a straight through cable using only pins 1-8, and 20.
(1 and 6 aren't really necessary, but they're usually
present on most pre-wired cables) Pin 4(RTS) is definitely
high(true,"1"), but pin 5(CTS) isn't but ought to be, as well
as pin 20(DTR) which the Hayes manual claims it is set to
the forced true state at the factory(also not necessarily
true).  Therefore, 1-8, and 20 with 4,5,20 shorted together
fixes its problems.
Now, if I can just figure out the termcap I can see if my
corrections in this 'vi' session are there or not. If not,
blame it on my admitted ignorance of open mode vi.