[GreenKeys] Heavy Metal

Fri, 4 Jan 2002 13:54:31 -0500

Gil et al,

First off...Gil, I am interested in that PIC! Let me know.
I might have to dig up some parts...

I just put Heavymetal 1.06 into this clunker IBM Aptiva
and it works fine. The AP Newswire is back.
However...just as Gil modestly claims that he isn't up
to speed with the alphabet soup of software, I'm still
trying to figure out how to program the VCR's clock.
If there is any way the non-MS-based systems can be
put onto a disk or downloaded, I'd quickly sacrifice
a PC for that (goodbye MS). I have a good old Packard-Bell
486 that seems to be in the early stages of Alzheimers.
It "lost" it's CD drive and won't even reconfigure with
it's own config disk. I'm presently use it for my
Davis Weather Station which runs DOS. The clunker even
"lost" its modem. This was the first PC my good wife
decided to play with and I think she somehow drove it
crazy (I can sympathize). I am sure it can be used
as a basis for a TTY-server system. What do I need to do?

I can fix any Teletype that's out there, so maybe we can
trade expertise (before mine is totally useless).

Happy New Year to all and I am sure we're all hoping
2002 will be a better year.

Jack WA2HWJ

NNNN

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of gil smith
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2002 12:45 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Heavy Metal

>You're thinking ten years behind the times.  :-)  There are
>standards out there for the exchange of news and headlines
>between web sites - some for clipping, some for handhelds, etc.
>Avantgo or WAP interfaces would fit well on teletype.
>Tools like 'wget' can fetch web pages directly, too, if
>you want to try translating the HTML to text with other tools.
>- John

Hi John, et al:

Yeah, I don't mind being a bit behind the times, as a teletype interest
would indicate.  I just don't have the time to keep up with all the latest
stuff.  I design analog and microcontroller circuits, and program in C and
assembler for embedded processors.  I have written some simple html, used
unix years ago, am dabbling in linux, and have read a bit on java and perl.
 But when you mentioned Avantgo, WAP, and wget, and when Henry mentioned
tcl, regexps, and sredird, well, just picture Homer Simpson's blank stare.

Which is why HeavyMetal has gotten the closest to being a simple end-user
app for hooking up a tty to the internet (well, the perl installation is
pretty messy, but the win standalone is easy).  Bytheway's RTTYArt is also
a nicely-polished app for file dumps 'n stuff.  Henry's stuff sounds quite
cool too, but may have a learning curve that I just don't have time for at
the moment.

Steve pointed out the rich tools in linux (cron, awk, sed), though I have
not used any of those either.  Actually, the linux version of HeavyMetal
would be the best setup, since cron could fire it up on a nice schedule
(eg: first thing in the morning for news/weather, check frequently for
breaking news as it happens, nothing at night...) -- the win version of HM
cannot be run with as much flexibility.  Plus, the linux version does not
use windows (always a plus).  I had to add quite a few perl modules to
redhat, but this could be scripted for an easy installation.  HM on linux
ran great, but that is as far as I got.  I have not had time to figure out
cron...

So, yeah, us behind-the-times guys would sure appreciate it if you
leading-edge guys just handed us something that just needs a bit of
configration.  Sadly there is no market for all your hard work, and likely
only a couple of dozen folks that would even care to hook a tty to a
computer.  Ahh well.

If any of you built my TTY232 interface board, I finally programmed a pic
micro for it to do ascii/baudot and baud-rate conversions.  The chip is NOT
needed with Heavymetal or RTTYArt (since they talk baudot directly to the
port), but it lets me connect a 19200-baud port using ascii, to the TTY232
box.  It buffers the data and implements XON/OFF flow control, so anything
application that prints an ascii text file to a serial port (at 19.2 w/
xon/xoff) can just dump and the tty will slowly catch up with nothing lost.
 It's mostly xon/xoff that does it, since the buffer is just 80 bytes of
pic ram.  It sends the data to the tty at 60/66/75/100-wpm baudot, or
110-baud ascii, converting as needed.  It also constantly watches for chars
from the tty, converts them to ascii, and sends them to the serial port at
19.2.  Pretty clean actually, and kinda fun to write.  It still needs some
finishing (like changing baud rate from a command embedded in the text
stream), but it uses a flash pic uC, and program changes can be downloaded
from a pc.  If anyone cares, let me know.

I am thinking about adding auto-motor control by triggering a relay when a
char is received, buffering the chars for a few seconds while the motor
winds up, and then sending it out.  After a minute or two of inactivity,
power the unit down.

Other thoughts were to add selective calling headers to select a specific
tty (could be like HeavyMetal escape stuff (.,.):  .,.01 up to .,.99 for
example).  Then put a simplified interface pcb into a small box, with a
lower-voltage loop supply (cheaper, cooler, safer), a motor relay, a little
pic, and a 232 interface that can be paralleled (tri-state on the return
line).  One small, not-too-pricey interface at each machine, that powers it
up when addressed, prints, and shuts it down.  The 232 lines could just
daisy to as many units as desired.  Even better, it could use cheap RF
modules -- a wireless teletype local network.  But again, there's not many
folks who might even care, so it's tough to get too deep into it.

Dooohh, there's too much stuff to do, and not enough hours in the day.

gil

;-----------------------------------------------------------
;  vaux electronics, inc.             480-354-5556
;  http://www.vauxelectronics.com     (fax: 480-354-5558)
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