So, unlike Mr. Spooner who was downing his first pint before midday I’ve made it to after 3pm before the first of a couple of cheeky glasses of port. Before starting on my RC fun I had setup the slow cooker for pulled pork, baked two lots of scones and cooked off some chicken and sausages. After the late night we’d had on New Year’s eve there was no stirring apart from myself in the household before 11.30!

I’ve not had any retrochallenge successes today. I have learnt some things however.

I started the day attempting to make a replacement direct-connection modem cable for the Tandy Model 102. Previously I’d bought some 8-pin DIN connectors. What I hadn’t realised is that the PHONE socket on the 102/200 is slightly different to the CASSETTE socket. They are both 8-pin DIN, but the PHONE socket pins are spaced closer to the casing. Obviously I found this out after spending an hour making a new cable. It makes perfect sense that you should be prevented from plugging cables in incorrectly given their proximity on the back of the computer, however it takes some close inspection to tell the difference!

I also found that the pin numbering of the PHONE connector in the Tandy 102 Users Guide is different to the numbering on the DIN connector. A lesson learnt (I made the classis mistake initially of forgetting to put the housing on the cable for the connector before soldering otherwise I might not have noticed this difference)!

I did get a modem cable with the 102 but it’s not in good condition. Having initially thought it was wired up wrong (due to the different numbering conventions) I then double checked and found it was wired up correctly. So I tried that cable but couldn’t get anywhere dialing up @retrocosm Nostromo BBS. I suspect it has something to do with the way in which I have the phone and modem connected to the phone line. I couldn’t get a connection established.

Having spoken to folks on the club100 mailing list I’ve also found that UK Model 100/102/200’s have different ROMS with the dialing facility removed. The PROHIBITED sticker on the bottom also indicates a difference.

The Model 100 I recently acquired (which has suffered from battery leakage corrosion) doesn’t even have a PHONE connector – there is a blanking plate and no DIN-8 socket on the motherboard.

I then resorted to the acoustic coupler that I had bought NOS from the USA a couple of months ago (in a whim, on my phone, waiting for the Windermere ferry whilst out on my bike).

In anticipation I had also bought one of these ‘retro’ bluetooth handset for use with a mobile phone with the correct profile for insertion in the coupler’s cups.

I tried this setup with various communication settings (7/8 bit, even/odd/none parity, 1/2 stop bits) and did at times get an occassional intelligible response but nothing remotely reliable.
The mobile phone signal here is very poor and I won’t write off this approach without having tried a connection near the local mobile phone mast (which is next to Booth’s supermarket – Model 200 in their Cafe I anticipate).

I am still to find a convenient method of attaching images to these posts. This time round I’m including a link to a google photo album. You’d think they would make it easy to embed an album on the page, but an internet search suggests otherwise. Like Star Trek the search continues…

Modem Photos

Since I entered RC2016/01 I’ve had a few more ideas about what I might get up to this time around.

The primary objective is to make blogging from a Tandy Model 100/102/200 as easy as possible. I intend to write all my blog posts on a Model M. To start with the process is as follows:

* Write a blog article on the Model 200.
* Connect the Model M to a Linux PC via a null modem DB25->DB9->Serial USB cable.
* Linux PC is running a console on the said serial port.
* I run the Terminal software on the Model M, and log in to the Linux box. * I use a $ cat >blogpost.txt command and use the upload facility of the terminal software on the Model M to upload the content of the blog post to a file on the Linux box.
* I run a custom bash function that takes the resulting text file and uses the email to wordpress facility on my blog site to upload the blog to my wordpress site.

There are a number of issues with this process which I will attempt to address. The first is images. I’m attempting to get my Android phone to upload photos automatically to my wickensonline.co.uk site in a specified folder. Doing this will allow me to reference the pictures as I write the blog post. This all needs sorting out. I am using Photo Resizer HD to resize the images before upload and using the Auto Uploader application to push the file via SFTP. However, this isn’t working – I’ve emailed the developer.

Another goal is to convert Model M specific characters (other than straight ASCII) into their Unicode equivalent. I’ve done the ground work for this so it should be fairly straightforward to include as an additional step before upload.

Then I want to try and make this process as easy as possible. One goal is to remove the need for a hardwire. I would like to attempt a WIFI link up via a ESP8266 module. I then want to see how I could make blogging remotely with an upload possible.

Before Christmas I bought an acoustic coupler. It would be great to provide the ability to post blogs via a modem dial-up connection.

Happy New Year to all my fellow Retrochallengers – let the games commence!

I’m not setting any fixed goals this time round as that appears to be the kiss of death. I’m hoping to use the Tandy 102 or 200 as one of my blogging devices. I hope to blog a little, frequently. I may attempt to acoustically couple. Maybe blog from random places. That kind of thing. Entertaining with no focus…

The Thinking Man – Tandy Style!

You talking to me?

Phreaking amazing!