Now available is a collection of six (6) high-speed 57,600 baud to
230,400 baud GS/OS Serial Port Drivers (FileType $BB / AuxType $0002)
for use when printing from GS/OS Desktop applications.

In most cases, these port drivers can be used with either the Direct
Connect PostScript Printer Driver or any of the HP LaserJet/DeskJet
printer drivers contained on the Harmonie printer driver software
package from Vitesse.

{They may also be useful when printing to some other brands of printers
whose drivers are available in the Harmonie package}.

Since these are serial port drivers, they will probably only be selected
when printing in one of the following two situations:

1. From a 'real' Apple IIgs to a printer with a serial interface (or a
printer with a parallel interface using a serial-parallel adapter);

or,

2. From an emulated Apple IIgs (e.g. KEGS or one of its variants) to a
printer, primarily in the instance where the emulated IIgs' serial port
is redirected by the emulator over TCP/IP to a network printer attached
to the host computer. {KEGS began offering this feature at version 1.29}.

There are six (6) port drivers in this package:

1. Printer Port (Slot 1) @ 57,600 baud
2. Printer Port (Slot 1) @ 115,200 baud
3. Printer Port (Slot 1) @ 230,400 baud

4. Modem Port (Slot 2) @ 57,600 baud
5. Modem Port (Slot 2) @ 115,200 baud
6. Modem Port (Slot 2) @ 230,400 baud

Included also is the source code (Merlin format) for the drivers.

All drivers are based on Burger Becky Heineman's original freeware
'Printer57.6' port driver released back in the early 1990's, and later
included in the Harmonie printer driver software package.

Heineman's driver was disassembled using Ewen Wannop's 'BrkDown' Desktop
disassembler application, and then converted into Merlin source code.

A couple of minor items in the Printer57.6 were first corrected, and
then the code was modified to produce the six port drivers included here.

The drivers have been tested on both a 'real' Apple IIgs attached to a
serial HP LaserJet printer, and also on a KEGS emulated Apple IIgs
printing to a networked HP LaserJet PostScript printer on the host machine.

All tests went well, and all drivers offered substantially quicker
printing speed than that achieved by using Apple's own 'Printer' port
driver that is included with GS/OS.

I been particularly impressed by the results when using the 115,200 baud
and 230,400 baud port drivers with KEGS' serial-to-IP printing to a
networked PostScript laser printer. Thanks again to Kent Dickey for
recently adding that feature to KEGS.

The new port drivers are available here:

<http://www.apple2works.com/gsoshighspeedportdrivers>

Hugh Hood

> Now available is a collection of six (6) high-speed 57,600 baud to
> 230,400 baud GS/OS Serial Port Drivers (FileType $BB / AuxType $0002)
> for use when printing from GS/OS Desktop applications.

Any chance these drivers can be converted to Prodos8 to be used with Appleworks or Proterm?
I might try my hand at passing data from one IIGS to another thru the serial port.

On 12/6/23 11:49 AM, I am Rob wrote:
>
> Any chance these drivers can be converted to Prodos8 to be used with
> Appleworks or Proterm? I might try my hand at passing data from one
> IIGS to another thru the serial port. >

Rob,

Actually, I wrote (and have used) a ProTERM 3.1 macro that patches
ProTERM in memory to enable 230,400 baud on a IIgs.

It is here: <http://www.apple2works.com/protermstuff/pt230baudmacro.txt>

You can add it to your PT3.Global file and use it to enable (option-H)
and disable (option-h) the 230,400 baud speed.

But, even on my 7mhz Zipped IIgs, while I could successfully send
(primarily Zmodem) at 230,400 baud, Zmodem receives would fail at that
speed. [They work at 115,200 baud, though].

But, trying to receive anything *to the screen* at either of those
speeds was an exercise in frustration.

So, if you have something fast (not an Apple II) as the recipient,
230,400 baud sends should work well for you.

BTW, if you do mess with ProTERM macros, have the manual handy. Man,
that is a weird language! It works well, but it's different, so to
speak. And the macro table size is fairly small, too.

Hugh Hood

> BTW, if you do mess with ProTERM macros, have the manual handy. Man,
> that is a weird language! It works well, but it's different, so to
> speak. And the macro table size is fairly small, too.

Dummy Me. I shouldn't have mentioned Appleworks or ProTerm. I was looking for something a little more hands on that I could dump a range of memory from an ML program. Just the simple basics of accessing a softswitch or two and sending data on one end and receiving on the other. I think there are already some dumb terminals out there that do just that, but they just have the basic choices of up to 19200. Just looking how to set them beyond that speed with your enhancements.

On 12/6/2023 7:36 PM, I am Rob wrote:
>
> I was looking for something a little more hands on that I could dump
> a range of memory from an ML program. Just the simple basics of
> accessing a softswitch or two and sending data on one end and
> receiving on the other. I think there are already some dumb
> terminals out there that do just that, but they just have the basic
> choices of up to 19200. Just looking how to set them beyond that
> speed with your enhancements.
>

Rob,

Here's a link to some great SCC sample source code that the late Jim
Ferr (Warp Six BBS) put together many years ago. Maybe it will help you out:

<https://gswv.apple2.org.za/a2zine/Utils/Z8530_SCCsamples_info.txt>

I still refer to it and keep a copy of it with my Zilog 8530 manual.
Jim's code does max out at 57,600 baud though.

If you want to bump it up faster, just find the place where Jim is
accessing the SCC write registers and add some code to access some of
the other Write Registers to put the SCC into 115,200 and 230,400 baud
asynchronous comm. You'll notice that the pertinent hardware soft switch
locations are $C038/$C039/$C03A/$C03B.

Just reference the commented source I put in the port drivers that I
just posted to see what to add. The pertinent registers are WR4 (clock
mode multiplier), WR11 (source clock from RTxCPin instead of BRG) and
WR14 (disable BRG).

**--------------------------------------------------------------
* New Code in Port Drivers for increased baud rates
**--------------------------------------------------------------
* NOTE: 3-step process

* 1. SCC WR11 to be $80 - Slot 1 Source Clock From RTxCPin (not BRG)
* 1. SCC WR11 to be $00 - Slot 2 Source Clock From RTxCPin (not BRG)
* 2 .SCC WR14 to be $00 - Disable BRG
* 3. SCC WR4 to be $40 - Set 16X Clock Mode Multiplier (230,400)
* or
* SCC WR4 to be $80 - Set 32X Clock Mode Multiplier (115,200)
* or
* SCC WR4 to be $C0 - Set 64X Clock Mode Multiplier (57,600)
* * NOTE: add $04 to WR4 values for 1 stop bit and no parity
**--------------------------------------------------------------

You can also reference David Schmidt's ADTPro source because he's using
115,200 baud for it. And IIRC John Brooks either was testing or already
had completed a serial ProDOS drive using 230,400 baud on a IIgs for use
with his ProDOS 8 v2.5. I think in those cases, both Schmidt and Brooks
are using some type of acknowledged fixed block transfer mode combined
with the higher speeds to control an overrun condition.

Back to Heineman's original port driver -- the neat thing, I thought,
was that it wasn't entirely done by directly controlling the SCC, but
instead was a hybrid approach that still used parts of the serial port
firmware for ease. Very creative approach by 'Burger'.

Hugh Hood

> Here's a link to some great SCC sample source code that the late Jim
> Ferr (Warp Six BBS) put together many years ago. Maybe it will help you out:
>
> <https://gswv.apple2.org.za/a2zine/Utils/Z8530_SCCsamples_info.txt>

YES!!!! Exactly what I was looking for. Thankyou