Date   : Mon, 15 Nov 2010 19:16:46 -0000
From   : jumbos.bazzar@... (Mark Haysman)
Subject: Beeb Networking - Was: No wonder

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "J.G.Harston" <jgh@...>


> Phill Harvey-Smith wrote:
>> Something like one of the FTDI chips, say the vinculum on the datacentre
>
> Hmm. I have a DataCentre, and a PC with USB ports. What lead would I
> need to plug the two together?

A Standard USB A to B lead. The documentation to get it up and running is 
all in the DataCentre manual Chapter 9, and on the Datasheets on the CD that 
came with the kit.

Once the driver is installed on the PC, it can be used as either a virtual 
COM port, or a .DLL is available for including direct commands in your 
software. You can set up a simple bi-directional chat by using Hyperterminal 
(or equivalent) on the PC, and using

?&FCF9=1
*MONITOR

on the Beeb under RamFS. There is also facility built into the DataCentre to 
cause an IRQ every time a character is received on the monitor port, so a 
small routine can be written to write that character into the keyboard 
buffer, so you can use HT (or even more interestingly, BeebEm) to control 
the beeb (to a point, with software available at the moment). I had that 
demoed and working at Acorn World last year if you remember.

No reason why also you can't plug a USB-Ethernet adaptor into the host port 
of a DC. Someone would need to write a driver for it - whilst I do have a 
good grip of IP etc, the technicallity of PC networking is not my forte.

Mark.