cioni@xenlink.cuc.ab.ca (Terry Cioni) (06/23/91)
Greetings, I finally managed to purchase the 95LX - I am impressed so far. I don't think I will be rushing off to sell my other computer(s) - but it no doubt very useful. I purchased the connectivity pack - I had hoped to connect the 95LX to a regular modem - so far no luck. Is this possible or am I missing something? Thanks for any help. t.
jimomura@lsuc.on.ca (Jim Omura) (06/26/91)
In article <CIONI.91Jun22212402@xenlink.xenlink.cuc.ab.ca> cioni@xenlink.cuc.ab.ca (Terry Cioni) writes: >Greetings, > >I finally managed to purchase the 95LX - I am impressed so far. I don't think I >will be rushing off to sell my other computer(s) - but it no doubt very useful. > >I purchased the connectivity pack - I had hoped to connect the 95LX to a regular >modem - so far no luck. Is this possible or am I missing something? Well, the flippant answer is "about 6 signal lines". :-) Seriously, the serial output for the HP-95LX has only 3 lines and I don't have the definitions, but there have to be 1 Data Transmit and 1 Data Receive so I'd guess that the 3rd one is probably ground. You'll have to check your manual for that though. But the bottom line is that you're going to have to do some fancy wiring to get your modem to do much. Hopefully the documentation of the connectivity pack will cover everything you need, but some of the areas that might cause you problems are: 1. No DTR to the modem -- you may need to set a DIP switch 2. No carrier detect -- actually maybe to summarize, you'll have to rely on "text" replies from a Hayes modem or status lights to figure out what's happening. That's not going to affect you much unless you want an automated transfer. 3. Flow control will have to be Xon-Xoff if you're doing data stream tranfers without protocols. 4. You won't generally want to try to run a BBS or anything with auto-answer enabled on the modem. If you try it, you'll find occasionally that you get bothered by "twits". A "twit" could keep your modem occupied in many cases because you can't disconnect them by forcing DTR low. So in general you're looking at using it as an "outbound" data station -- probably that's all you'll every want to use it for anyway. 5. No "syncronous" usage. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Mostly, it shouldn't affect most people much. I don't expect anybody is going to buy an HP-95LX to run a BBS on. :-) -- Jim Omura, 2A King George's Drive, Toronto, (416) 652-3880 lsuc!jimomura Byte Information eXchange: jimomura
rc2o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Richard Lee Chung) (06/26/91)
There is a simple solution. The cable on the connectivity pack SHOULD work fine but the way that we have been doing things is with the 48SX's cable. We just bought it and it has a DB9 and DB25 converter so that takes care of most of the modems out today. We called BBS's with it and had not a single problem. The reason why we did it was because we had to transfer a program via xmodem and could not find it on any of our 386's so, since the 95LX has it built in, we decided to give it a shot. Call us sick. But hey! it Worked!!! Rich Chung
everett@hpcvra.cv.hp.com. (Everett Kaser) (06/26/91)
I'm a little weak on this area, but, how's it not working? No response? If you're using the 9-pin to 25-pin converter, you may need to also use a null-modem (swapper) in order to talk to the modem. The cable is set up for talking to a PC (which is the same as talking to a modem, sort of), but I think that the 9 to 25 converter swaps xmit and rcv so that it can be used for connecting to a printer. So then you need another 25 pin to 25 pin "swapper" to put xmit and rcv back in the right place for a modem. On the other hand, I could be all wet. Everett Kaser Hewlett-Packard Company ...hplabs!hp-pcd!everett work: (503) 750-3569 Corvallis, Oregon everett%hpcvra@hplabs.hp.com home: (503) 928-5259 Albany, Oregon
thbaca@nmsu.edu (BACA) (06/27/91)
In article <25590176@hpcvra.cv.hp.com.> everett@hpcvra.cv.hp.com. (Everett Kaser) writes: >I'm a little weak on this area, but, how's it not working? No response? >If you're using the 9-pin to 25-pin converter, you may need to also use >a null-modem (swapper) in order to talk to the modem. The cable is set >up for talking to a PC (which is the same as talking to a modem, sort of), >but I think that the 9 to 25 converter swaps xmit and rcv so that it can >be used for connecting to a printer. So then you need another 25 pin to >25 pin "swapper" to put xmit and rcv back in the right place for a modem. > >On the other hand, I could be all wet. I think you had the right idea, but the details were just a bit off. The HP cable is a null-modem cable for "talking" to a PC, but the 9-pin to 25-pin converter is wired straight through. This allows the user to connect to either a 9-pin AT or 25-pin XT serial port. A modem, on the other hand, requires a "straight through" connection. This means that you need ANOTHER null-modem connector to "undo" the null-modem connection of the HP cable. A visual aid: NULL-MODEM HP Cable CONNECTOR xmit --------\ /-------- --------\ /-------- xmit \ / \ / HP95LX X X MODEM / \ / \ rcv _______ / \________ _______ / \________ rcv I hope this makes some kind of sense. On the other hand, I may be the one who's all wet. >Everett Kaser Hewlett-Packard Company >...hplabs!hp-pcd!everett work: (503) 750-3569 Corvallis, Oregon >everett%hpcvra@hplabs.hp.com home: (503) 928-5259 Albany, Oregon Thomas L. Baca NMSU