78 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
78 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
MiniSport Laptop Hacker - Vol 3 19 Nov 1992
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Thanks for all the feedback! I heard from W4NQB, N2BQF, W6QJM, NI9X,
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N2PBU, N9LNO and KB1UM. Several comments indicated that the discussion of
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COMPSEC, boot drives, etc was too complicated or too confusing. I'll give
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a clearer, more concise rendition in the next volume.
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In this issue, two topics are covered:
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1. Building your own null modem FWL (FastWire Link) cable.
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2. Discussion of "extra" DOS files Zenith put on your disk C:
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1)
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If you have a MiniSport, you *need* a null modem cable to make the computer
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useful. You can purchase a null cable for about $10, but if you're a ham,
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you probably have parts to make your own. A cable with *three* terminating
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plugs adds tremendously to the convenience of hooking up to unknown "host"
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computers you may run across. The following diagram shows the way I wired
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one that has worked for me:
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9-pin fem --------- 4' ---------- 9-pin fem --- 4" --- 25-pin male
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2 3 2
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3 2 3
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5 5 7
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Hook the lone 9-pin into your MiniSport serial port and then use either a
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9-pin or the 25-pin connector on the other with the host MSDOS serial port.
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Of course, the host could just be another MiniSport.
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FWL will work successfully with this three-wire cable. The on-line help
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indicates that a full 9-wire null modem will allow faster transfer due to
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hardware handshaking. FWL checks and brings up the transfer speed to the
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maximum possible. This 3-wire cable is sufficient, however.
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2)
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I believe the following to be a complete list of extra "Zenith special"
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programs that are resident on your ROM drive C:. If you've never looked at
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this list before, you're probably missing some fun! I have no manuals for
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any of this. The comments I'm making are from experimentation only. If
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you have manuals, copy this list, make corrections to my comments and send
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it back to me!
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APPLY.COM - Repetitive DOS commands by typing on the changing part.
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BOOTF.COM - Lets you reboot the system from floppy.
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EMM.SYS - Expanded Memory Manager (I use all mine as a drive, however)
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FWL.EXE & FWL.HLP - FastWire Link to transfer to and from another
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computer. * C a u t i o n * Don't port FWL over to a computer that
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has a disk partition beyond the original 32 MByte MSDOS limit. I did
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this and succeeded in scrambling the directory when that computer
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received files. The only safe way to transfer to a 32 MByte+ formatted
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machine is to use only floppies for the transfer, and then do a local
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copy from floppy to hard drive.
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GDU.EXE & GDUTSR.COM - General Disk Utilities. They work on other ma-
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chines, but I have not figured out how to use the TSR version.
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MACHINE.COM - This lets you make "post bootup" changes that otherwise
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would have to be made with the SETUP utility prior to boot.
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NOSTACK.COM - I'm not sure what this does. Any comments?
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SEARCH.COM - A global (all directory) search for a filename.
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ZCACHE.SYS - A disk cache program. Has anybody ported this to other ma-
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chines?
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ZDIR.SYS - A complete, but compact directory (dual columns). Port works.
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ZSPOOL.COM - A printer spooler. So how is this so much better than the
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old fashioned MSDOS PRINT utility?
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And these are the MSDOS 3.3 files you *don't* have:
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EGA.CPI
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FASTOPEN.EXE
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FDISK.COM
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GWBASIC.EXE
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RAMDRIVE.SYS
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SHARE.EXE
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-----
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I recently succeeded in unsoldering the 1 Mbyte SIPP from one computer and
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grafting it into a second. More info on that, squeezing a lot into a 2 MB
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ramdrive, and a clearer description of minimum boot files -- in Volume 4.
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73, Brian, ka9snf@wb7nnf.#spokn.wa or Internet ka9snf@jupiter.spk.wa.us
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