80-Bus News

signals are the Request To Send (RTS), the Data Set Ready (DSR) and the Data Carrier Detect (DCD) signals. These are primarily concerned with modem control where the printer is attached to a remote computer via a telephone modem. The RTS signal is similar to the DTR signal, it is a request sent to the host device to send data. The DSR signal is sent from the host device to indicate data is ready to be sent, and would the printer like to accept it. The DCD signal is a signal sent from the host device to indicate that the modem is receiving a valid signal and that data could arrive at any at any time. As the printer will not print without the DSR and DCD signals being active, these have to be forced to a valid condition. This is done by the simple expedient of connecting the RTS output pin to the DSR and DCD input pins. In other words, the printer indicates that it is ready to accept data, and sends a signal to indicate this, as it is connected back into the DCD and DSR inputs, it automatically obliges by setting itself in a condition ready to accept incoming data. The DTR signal then acts as a handshake line as before.

The connector for the RS232 is what is known as D25 connector, and has 25 pins, one row of 13 pins and 1 row of 12 pins. The female sockets usually have the pin numbers moulded in the plastic adjacent to the pins, the plugs usually have the pin numbers moulded on the connection side of the plug. Equipment is usually fitted with sockets, whilst leads usually have plugs at each end. The pin connections are as follows:

The cable is usually connected pin 1 to pin 1, 2 to 2, etc. However, it must be apparent from the above that the sense of the RTS, CTS and DTR varies dependent upon use, the DTR or RTS signals being connected to the CTS inputs depending upon which is the host and which is the receiving device. This usually taken care of by jumper links inside the terminal and the host. When connecting an unknown device to another it is helpful to discover which thinks it is the terminal and which thinks it is the host, as the handshaking will not work in the case where two terminals or two hosts are connected together. Watch out for the protective and signal grounds. On something like a Gemini and a Nascom where the 0 volt rail is usually (or should be) connected to mains earth these may be considered as the same thing, but the TI 745 they are not connected together, and the signal ground floats about 100 volts above the protective ground if the mains earth of the printer is left unconnected. If in doubt, always connect the mains earth of the printer to the mains earth of the mains plug, and connect the signal grounds only.

So to making the handshaking work. This is fully implemented on the Gemini, in fact the Gemini serial interface will not work unless the handshake is connected even if it is not required. On the Nascom the handshake is not implemented in NAS-SYS and therefore must be provided. The scheme is simple. Data to be sent to the printer is intercepted by the U command and directed to a small routine which monitors the incoming handshake signal and delays until the printer is ready to accept data. Let us consider this. The handshake signal will be at the +12 volt level when the printer is ready to accept data and at the −12 volt level when the printer is not ready to accept data. The hardware interface described above will translate this into a ‘1’ for ready and a ‘0’ for not ready. All that is required then is a program that will read the keyboard port, and go into a loop scanning the keyboard port until such time as the printer is ready. As data is to be read in the A register from the port the current contents of A register which is the character to be sent must be saved. The simplest program is as follows: