I don't know if anyone has mentioned this already, but mcomm is also a
very handy method of transferring files off your M100.
mcomm is a bit of software that runs on Android phones and emulates a
Tandy Disk drive. How I used it was I bought a rs232 to USB adapter, an
OTG cable and a null modem cable. Link them together, one end going to
the phone, the other going to the M100. Before I had an NADSbox, this
was the most simple, cheap way of getting files on and off my M100. Oh
before I forget, I'm also running a REX in my M100, which is a serious
must have for anyone wishing to use an M100 computer for any length of time.
On 29/01/2022 4:31 pm, Joshua O'Keefe wrote:
On Jan 28, 2022, at 11:43 PM, Carlos M. Nunez, M.D.
<cnune...@gmail.com> wrote:
1. Are there any recommended sources for a null modem cable? I would
prefer the PC end to terminate in a USB plug, so I believe it will
require a serial to usb converter somewhere.
You may receive a torrent of responses, as for one reason or another
this is an area where quite a few people hold very strong opinions.
Personally, I grabbed the first USB/serial null cable I could find
that had an FTDI chip:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B008634VJY/
<https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B008634VJY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
It's unfortunately 9-pin so I had to pick up a 9-to-25 to make use of
it, and of course a gender adapter to use with the Tandy.
Since I'm pretty much forever going to only have DTE on the serial end
of this cable, I went with something null wired. I use it frequently
with several different vintage systems on the other end -- in fact I
originally bought this to bootstrap an Amiga -- and it works
flawlessly. I plug it in and it magically shows up as /dev/ttyUSB0
and I can do whatever I want with it.
Also, any good online information and/or tutorials that walk through
the null modem cable file transfer stuff?
TPDD emulation is the main way by which folks get files in and out of
the machine. Personally, I just keep a TPDD emulator (LaddieAlpha, as
it offers directory support) running in a Docker container and plug in
whenever I need to get files in and out, but I have the advantage of
having TS-DOS in ROM on the Tandy -- REX makes it possible!
Before I got set up with a REX, I bootstrapped TEENY.CO to the system
using dlplus and fumbled my way around getting that working. After
finding TEENY kind of inconvenient, I bit the bullet and brought
TS-DOS over to sit in RAM. It's a satisfactory solution but doesn't
leave a ton of working room on the computer.
The easiest solution by far is a REX: plug in the board, go through
the brief, documented steps to get the REX up, plug into your favorite
TPDD emulator, fire up TS-DOS from the REX, and files come and go as
you please.
I've got a Backpack I want to try for when I start traveling again,
but while I'm mostly in the house I prefer to write directly to the
ZFS pool over a serial cable.
As far as I've seen, nobody's written a step-by-step guide to getting
up and running. There are a lot of choices depending on what you're
doing, where you're going, what hardware you have and plan to carry
with you, and how Windows-y or Android-y a person you are. The basics
of how all this works are pretty straightforward once you get your
head around the fundamentals but there are tool choices to make for
which a one-size-fits-most guide appears somewhat hard to write
beyond: "Get REX, set up TPDD emulation to your taste."
