Linux-Hams archive - May 1998: Baycom problem solved.
Baycom problem solved.
Alex Holden (numyq@optus.com.au)
Sat, 2 May 1998 12:11:24 +0100 (BST)
After nearly a week of aggravation (I had got to the stage of imagining
what a nice crunching noise the PC would make when it landed in the street
outside :), I finally managed to get my baycom modem working at 2 o' clock
this morning. The problem wasn't the modem, the software, or the commands
I was giving to the software. The problem turned out to be that the baycom
driver just doesn't like some modern UARTS (including, as it happens, the
ones in both my PCs). It works perfectly on an ancient multi-io card
pulled from my scrap heap of old computer parts.
Admittedly, I haven't managed to connect to anything yet, but I can see
all the packets going past, and it keys the transmitter up and generates a
signal on the audio output whenever I try to transmit a packet. I think
it's probably just something simple in the setup of the audio output
stage, possibly the volume pot set wrong. I will have to borrow a mate's
handheld on Tuesday so I can listen to what kind of a signal it is
generating.
I wonder if there is any way the baycom driver could be made to detect
these evil deformed UART chips, and inform the user of the problem, so he
won't have to go through what I did? The symptoms are that the driver
detects and initialises the UART okay, and thinks everything is fine and
dandy, but no interrupts are coming through. Perhaps the driver could time
out if it doesn't recieve any interrupts from the UART after a set amount
of time, and complain that either the interrupts are set up wrong or you
have a dodgy UART. There should at least be a brief mention of the problem
in the documentation for the driver, and probably the AX25 howto.
--------------- Linux- the choice of a GNU generation. --------------
: Alex Holden (M1CJD)- Caver, Programmer, Land Rover nut, Radio Ham :
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