rick@tmiuv0.uucp (05/24/90)
In article <2787@crash.cts.com>, hawk@pnet01.cts.com (John Anderson) writes: > I just purchased the Sharp JX 100 color scanner (incredible results) and am > now in the need for a dual serial board so my modem can simultaneously be > hooked up at the same time. I have heard of two of them, actually three. The > first two are all serial boards. One is from ASDG and lists for $300 but can > be had for less through ABel Supply, and the other is from Checkpoint > technologies and lists for $200, and can also be had for less. My question > is: has anybody used any of these before and waht are the differences besides > that the ASDG board comes with 2 AT size serial ports and the Checkpoint board > comes with one full size and one AT size? Well, I've not used the Checkpoint board. I do have the ASDG Dual Serial board and I like it a lot! As for the price differential, I have no idea. The DSB works at very high speeds, and ASDG did a nice job with their utility programs. The ASDG "serial.device" is nifty. If you have a program which opens it up, a requestor comes up and asks if you want to use the standard Amiga serial port or one of the ASDG ports. If you say you want an ASDG port, it asks you which one. Your application program never knows the difference. Their other device drivers (siosbx.device, etc.) work well, and if you mount them via a mountlist, you can specify baud rate, character size, stop bits, parity setting, etc. etc. Nice job, Perry! -- .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. / [- O] Rick Stevens (All opinions are mine. Everyone ignores them anyway.) \ | ? +--------------------------------------------------------------------| | V | uunet!zardoz!tmiuv0!rick (<-- Work (ugh!)) | |--------+ uunet!zardoz!xyclone!sysop (<-- Home Unix (better!)) | | uunet!perigrine!ccicpg!conexch!amoeba2!rps2 (<-- Home Amiga (Best!!) | \ 75006.1355@compuserve.com (CIS: 75006,1355) (<-- CI$) / `-------------------------------------------------------------------------' "Dammit, Jim! I'm a doctor, not a software hack!" 8-)
ckp@grebyn.com (Checkpoint Technologies) (05/25/90)
In article <2787@crash.cts.com> hawk@pnet01.cts.com (John Anderson) writes: > > I just purchased the Sharp JX 100 color scanner (incredible results) and am >now in the need for a dual serial board so my modem can simultaneously be >hooked up at the same time. I have heard of two of them, actually three. The >first two are all serial boards. One is from ASDG and lists for $300 but can >be had for less through ABel Supply, and the other is from Checkpoint >technologies and lists for $200, and can also be had for less. My question >is: has anybody used any of these before and waht are the differences besides >that the ASDG board comes with 2 AT size serial ports and the Checkpoint board >comes with one full size and one AT size? Are there any problems with any? ASDG has a "Serial Dispatcher" which presents a port requester when a program opens serial.device, and they have an AUX: handler. We (Checkpoint) have "NewPort", which checks an application, then makes a tiny (~500 bytes) stub loader that loads in the application and redirects it to our device name, and we have a "serial preferences" utility for the new serial ports. We hook to readily-available MIDI interfaces and offers a 100% correct 31250 baud rate. Neither offer any problems, except that neither work with programs that bang the Amiga's built-in serial port hardware directly. Both are competent and will do just what you want. Since I'm speaking for Checkpoint here, of course I'll say you should buy ours. :-) -- First comes the logo: C H E C K P O I N T T E C H N O L O G I E S / / \\ / / Then, the disclaimer: All expressed opinions are, indeed, opinions. \ / o Now for the witty part: I'm pink, therefore, I'm spam! \/
jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu (John 'Vlad' Adams) (05/27/90)
I've a question about any of the multi-serial-port boards (i.e. Checkpoint, ASDG, or Commodore's.) I know the ASDG uses a requestor. What about the others? What happens if you are running a multiline BBS and have a power-out? When the system reboots with power, would you get that requestor which would effectively make the BBS unoperable till the Sysop got home? Or is there a way to select ports in a script or mountlist? This is especially important to me as I'm considering a multiline bbs on a 2000. Thanks in advance. -- John M. Adams --**-- Professional Student on the six-year plan! /// Internet: jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu -or- vladimir@maple.circa.ufl.edu /// "Houston, we have a negative on that orbit trajectory." Calvin & Hobbes \\V// Cosysop of BBS:42; Amiga BBS FIDOnet 1:3612/42. 904-438-4803 (Florida) \X/
perry@madnix.UUCP (Perry Kivolowitz) (05/27/90)
In article <2787@crash.cts.com> hawk@pnet01.cts.com (John Anderson) writes:
#
# I just purchased the Sharp JX 100 color scanner (incredible results) and am
#now in the need for a dual serial board so my modem can simultaneously be
#hooked up at the same time. I have heard of two of them, actually three. The
#first two are all serial boards. One is from ASDG and lists for $300 but can
Just a small correction here: The ASDG board's list price is $249 not $300.
Aside from that, both are good boards whose differences are small enough to
be within the ``subjective'' domain thus making any listing of differences
more of a ``who did you hear it from'' than anything useful.
pk
--
Perry Kivolowitz, ASDG Inc. ``We look for things. Things that make us go.''
UUCP: {harvard|rutgers|ucbvax}!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!perry
CIS: 76004,1765 PLINK: pk-asdgaaron@madnix.UUCP (Aaron Avery) (05/30/90)
In article <23336@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu (John 'Vlad' Adams) writes: >I've a question about any of the multi-serial-port boards (i.e. >Checkpoint, ASDG, or Commodore's.) I know the ASDG uses a >requestor. What about the others? What happens if you are >running a multiline BBS and have a power-out? When the >system reboots with power, would you get that requestor which >would effectively make the BBS unoperable till the Sysop got >home? Or is there a way to select ports in a script or >mountlist? This is especially important to me as I'm >considering a multiline bbs on a 2000. Thanks in advance. Well, the requester is only there to allow you to use your additional ports with programs which only know about the Amiga's internal serial port (and don't go directly to the hardware!). Any multi-line BBS program will allow you to specify the alternate device drivers and unit (port) numbers to use for the BBS. Thus, you would not need to install the requester (Serial DisPatcher, in this case) at all. Other programs, such as A-Talk III, also allow you to specify which serial port you wish to use, thus no requester need come up. You can output through AmigaDOS, ala SER: and AUX: directly to your additional ports through the use of supplied handlers, with no requester needed. So the only time you need to deal with the DisPatcher is when using a program which will only talk to the amiga's built-in serial.device driver; usually older (and probably favorite) terminal programs. - Aaron -- Aaron Avery, ASDG Inc. "A mime is a terrible thing to waste." -- Robin Williams ARPA: madnix!aaron@cs.wisc.edu {uunet|ncoast}!marque! UUCP: {harvard|rutgers|ucbvax}!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!aaron
rick@tmiuv0.uucp (05/31/90)
In article <1359@madnix.UUCP>, aaron@madnix.UUCP (Aaron Avery) writes: > In article <23336@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu (John 'Vlad' Adams) writes: >>I've a question about any of the multi-serial-port boards (i.e. >>Checkpoint, ASDG, or Commodore's.) I know the ASDG uses a >>requestor. What about the others? What happens if you are >>running a multiline BBS and have a power-out? When the >>system reboots with power, would you get that requestor which >>would effectively make the BBS unoperable till the Sysop got >>home? Or is there a way to select ports in a script or >>mountlist? This is especially important to me as I'm >>considering a multiline bbs on a 2000. Thanks in advance. > > Well, the requester is only there to allow you to use your additional ports > with programs which only know about the Amiga's internal serial port (and don't > go directly to the hardware!). Any multi-line BBS program will allow you to > specify the alternate device drivers and unit (port) numbers to use for the > BBS. Thus, you would not need to install the requester (Serial DisPatcher, in > this case) at all. > > Other programs, such as A-Talk III, also allow you to specify which serial > port you wish to use, thus no requester need come up. [some stuff deleted] > Aaron Avery, ASDG Inc. "A mime is a terrible thing to waste." > -- Robin Williams > ARPA: madnix!aaron@cs.wisc.edu {uunet|ncoast}!marque! > UUCP: {harvard|rutgers|ucbvax}!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!aaron You can also (very carefully!!!) use an editor (TxED, CEDPro or another which won't barf on binary codes) to change occurances of "serial.device" to "siosbx.device", which will cause the application to use the ASDG DSB's port 0. I've done this, and it works just hunky. You've GOTTA be careful, though, and trying to use port 1 can be tough because you have to find the "0" which refers to the device number and change it to a "1". Chances are that you'll find LOTS of "0"s in there. -- .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. / [- O] Rick Stevens (All opinions are mine. Everyone ignores them anyway.) \ | ? +--------------------------------------------------------------------| | V | uunet!zardoz!tmiuv0!rick (<-- Work (ugh!)) | |--------+ uunet!zardoz!xyclone!sysop (<-- Home Unix (better!)) | | uunet!perigrine!ccicpg!conexch!amoeba2!rps2 (<-- Home Amiga (Best!!) | \ 75006.1355@compuserve.com (CIS: 75006,1355) (<-- CI$) / `-------------------------------------------------------------------------' "I was Caesarean born. When I leave the house, I use the window." - Steven Wright