Gilderfluke&Co Back to the Future - Manual (Page 6)

- B
TT
F2 S
ERIAL
P
ORT
H
OOKUP
-
You can use just about any computer or terminal which has a serial port on it communicate with
the BttF2 through its RS-232 serial port.
If you are using a computer as a terminal you will need to run a modem or terminal emulation
program. These will send everything you type on the keyboard out the serial port on your computer
while printing on the screen anything that comes in from the BttF2 through the serial port. A modem
program will usually have the advantage over a terminal emulation program in that it will allow you to
save data to your computer's disk drives and restore it later. The BttF2 uses no screen control codes or
ESCape sequences, so it should work on any machine with a 80 column by 24 line display. Machines
with other display formats will work, but may not look so neat on the screen.
Typical modem programs you can use are Terminal.exe (which comes with Windows 3.1) and
Hyper Terminal.exe (which comes with Windows ‘95 and ‘98). If you can, find a copy of Terminal.exe,
as it is a better program than the later Hyper Terminal.
When configuring your modem program, you should set it for 9600 baud, 8 data bits, one stop
bit, and no parity. You should set your program not to insert an extra LineFeed (LF) character after
each Carriage Return (CR) it receives, or else the menus will print ‘double spaced’.
If you have hooked up the BttF2 to your computer and it still doesn’t seem to respond to the key-
board, the first thing to check is that you are attached to the right serial port. The easiest way to do
this is to disconnect the BttF2 and short between the Tx data out and Rx data in pins on the serial port
connector on the back of your computer. On all IBMs and compatibles this means sticking a paper
clip or similar tool between pins 2 and 3 on the ‘Com.’ connector. While still running the modem pro-
gram, anything you type should appear on the screen while this paper clip is in place, while nothing
will appear when you remove it. If your computer passes this test, then you are using the right serial
port and the problem is most likely the baud rate setting or in your wiring to the BttF2. If you get char-
acters on the screen even with the paper clip removed from the serial port, it means you probably
need to set the ‘echo’ mode to ‘none’ or ‘full duplex’. Then you should repeat this test.
The serial data signals from the BttF2 are brought out on a standard nine position PC-AT serial port
connection. A nine pin male to nine pin female serial cable with ‘straight through’ wiring should be
used to connect the BttF2 to your PC. The only pins that the BttF2 actually uses are the Txd, Rxd and
ground (pins #2, #3 and #5).
The BttF2 expects to see the serial data in the following format:
ONE START BIT
EIGHT DATA BITS
ONE BIT
G ILDERFLUKE & C O . • 205 S OUTH F LOWER S TREET • B URBANK , C ALIFORNIA 91502 • 818/840-9484 • 800/776-5972 • FAX 818/840-9485
E AST C OAST /F LORIDA O FFICE • 7041 G RAND N ATIONAL D RIVE • S UITE 128d • O RLANDO , F L 32819 • 407/354-5954 • FAX 407/354-5955
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