[Coco] rs232/bitbanger in MESS?

[Aaron Wolfe]

I found an image of the Deluxe RS232 pak, a .ccc file.  When mounted
in as a cartridge in MESS, I am able to invoke the built in ROM
routines and see the setup screen and go into terminal mode.  However,
I don't think the "output" is connected to anything, at least not that
I can tell.

Reading through the coco_232.c file, it seems to have routines for
reading and writing that call acia_6551..  and in machine/6551.c there
seems to be a very complete implementation of a 6551.. just can't
figure out what it actually writes to in the end yet.. lots of
unfamiliar code to read through.

I'm going to keep messing with this (pun intended) :)  Would be very
useful to have a serial port in an emulator.   VCC lists an RS232 pak
as coming in the next version, but the last update was a year and a
half ago and I'm not sure if it's being worked on.   I was told about
a DOS emulator that could do rs232, think it was Mr. Vavasour's, but
wasn't able to run it last time I tried.



On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 9:20 AM, Robert Gault
<robert.gault at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> Aaron Wolfe wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Looking through the MESS source, I find some interesting files in the
>> src/mess/devices directory:  coco_232.c and bitbngr.c.   The head of
>> the coco_232 file says "Code for emulating the CoCo RS-232 PAK".
>> bitbngr.c says "TRS style "bitbanger" serial port".  There is also a
>> file called orch90.c with description "Code for emulating the CoCo
>> Orch-90 (Orchestra 90) sound cartridge".
>>
>> I am having no luck figuring out how I would use these, or finding any
>> reference to them.  Anybody have any info?
>>
>> -Aaron
>>
>
> If you read the text file coco.hsi, you will find
> <hashfile>
>        <!-- This MESS HASH file was auto-generated from Cowering's GoodCoCo
> database (V3.13)  -->
>        <!-- for the exclusive use of MESS.  Keep this notice intact if
> editing this file  -->
>
>  <!--
>      Supported <pcb> types:
>
>      banked_16k    - CoCo "super" cartridges
>      coco_fdc      - CoCo FDC
>      dragon_fdc    - Dragon FDC
>      orch90        - Orch-90
>      ssc           - Speech/Sound cartridge
>  -->
>
> That means you need a ROM image for orch90 to be mounted in the MESS cart
> slot.
>  <hash crc32="15fb39af" sha1="6a20fee9c70b36a6435ac8378f31d5b626017df0"
> name="Orchestra 90-CC (26-3143)">
>    <year>1984</year>
>    <manufacturer>Tandy</manufacturer>
>    <pcb>orch90</pcb>
>  </hash>
>
> There is also an entry in the hash file for the RS232 pak
>  <hash crc32="d990e1f9" name="RS-232 Pak">
>    <pcb>rs232</pcb>
>  </hash>
>
> Toggling the RS-232 port at $FF20 does not seem to do anything for me under
> MESS. Perhaps you need to have the ROM image for the pak mounted for the
> port to work. I've not made any tests.
>
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