Bad Super Serial Card?

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Bad Super Serial Card?

I acquired a "non-working" Apple IIe some months ago and in the 10 minutes a week I get to work on it I have been getting it going. In reality it was just dirty and required a new power supply. It now seems to (mostly) work and boots ProDos from the Duodisk I have.

When it came to me it had a Super Serial II card loose in the shipping box, not installed. I took the micromodem installed in slot #2 out and installed the SSII card. I then typed IN#2 and got nothing but gibberish on the screen, random beeps and the machine locks up. When I boot the ProDos users disk and look at the slot assignments it does show as "I/O Card". Is it bad or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks!

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Re: Bad Super Serial Card?

Hello daveculp,

what did you expect to happen ?

there are no pullup resistors at the connector lines....
if you type IN#2 what did you expect to happen
- if no peripherial is connected ???
of course without anything connected
the input will flicker and input only garbage...... !!!

there are 3 ways to test the card correctly.....

first test:


plug in loopback plug and startup Apple Dealers Disk choosing test of SSC...
then typing alphabet the card should echo back that alphabet....

second test:


connect SSC to serial printer - define printer and slot within an application - and
starting printout from that application....
( it should be able to handle printout if
the printer is able to handle Stylewriter II emulation mode
or
imagewriter II emulation mode
and if
SSC
and
printer
and
application
have been set all to similar correct parameters : databits, stopbits, paritybit, baudrate )
not to forget the configuration block at the SSC( again see manual )!

third test:


connecting the SSC with correct cable to PC and if plug is set - to correct operation mode ( see manual ),
setting up at PC either ADT or Modemprogram ( again in both cases you must set at both devices at both ends of the correct cable the correct parameters as explained at test 2 )and same kind of program at the other end at the Apple - and then you should be able to send data from PC to Apple and vice versa....

expectataion depend to previous actions and results depend to former preparations....
doing wrong thing and expecting correct results will allways fail....
knowledge and wisdom may be found by reading some kind of manuals.....

i remember from former days
a t-shirt with logo from intel and text above:


intel inside...
continuing text below the logo:
....

LOL

i still must have that shirt somewhere in my wardrobe...

sincerely speedyG

besides
hello Keatah,
anything else required becond this explenations ?
still waiting for some pics from MECB scopes....
just a reminder...
sincerely speedyG

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Re: Bad Super Serial Card?

I took the micromodem installed in slot #2 out and installed the SSII card. I then typed IN#2 and got nothing but gibberish on the screen, random beeps and the machine locks up.

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Last seen: 8 years 1 month ago
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Re: Bad Super Serial Card?

I was looking for a way to determine if the card was working or not but I have no software other than a couple of DOS disks or external peripherals to attach to the SSC. I was reading the instructions for ADT as I thought I could use that to get some software on it bfore my CFFA3000 cards arrived in 3-4 weeks, I wanted to make sure the SSC card was working before I spent money on byuing a transfer cable. The instructions for ADT pro said to type in "IN#2" and then press "CTRL-A" and the card should respond with "SSC:" when I do this as soon as I type "IN#2" the machine goes crazy and locks up.

speedyG's picture
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Re: Bad Super Serial Card?

This assumes 3 things:

1. you have booted DOS from Disk and ended at Basic prompt...
2. a cable connected
3. the SSC set up correctly....
then you may enter the command to get the SSC prompt....

advice:
hunt for the manual of the SSC at asimov and download it and read it.....
it contains description how tp setup the card:
DIP-switches
and configuration block

unless you have a cable you can use a "loopback plug" ( research for instruction at internet... there are plenty of them )

sincerely speedyG

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Last seen: 1 year 6 months ago
Joined: May 27 2013 - 13:01
Posts: 849
Re: Bad Super Serial Card?

The ADT website describes how to setup the dipswitches on the card and the block (terminal or modem) for the bootstrapping process:

http://adtpro.sourceforge.net/connectionsserial.html

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