Tandy Professional Forum   Section: T1000/1400/3000/4K
Subject: external modem recommend   Total messages: 6
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#62449   1 Reply   09/07/96   09:54:15
From: Bill Loesch, 74407,1423
To:   Paul Hanke, 73467,403


 hi paul,

 >> I have put the uprocessor upgrade on the back burners for a
while. <<

 The idea of installing an ODP chip is a bit intimidating to me
too, I've worked with various DIP sizes before, but even bending
a lead on a $13 memory backup chip makes me nervous <G>.

 From what I discovered searching for the new video drivers, the
Tandy 4850 EP shares some commonality with our old dog 4825 SX.
Maybe those owners have some pertinent experience.

 >>  I'm wondering what is the best speed I can expect to get
from a 28800 external? <<

 As you might already know, a lot of the higher rates quoted in
ads and specs are for modems talking to one of their own _model_
specific brethern.

 I do know I consistantly connect with my internet provider who
also uses (an assortment (14.4 to V.everything) of) U S Robotics
at 3X,XXX using my USR 14.4! (I have no financial USR interest)
One way to look at the purchase is the extra money a USR costs
will be made up in the quicker transfers (USR is far and away the
industry sales leader (10 times more product than _all_the other
vendors; higher probability of getting a brethern modem),
relative ease of installation / configuration, and outstanding
product support.

 >> Since the 4825SX/25 seems to have a 8250 Uart, <<
                        ^^^^^
 Paul, have you used MSD.EXE before? It will tell you!
Reportedly, some bugs in the early versions of the program
prompted a revision; DOS 6.22 has a later version than what was
provided with Win 3.1. Maybe your newer "third party utilities"
(Norton?) have an improved independent version?

 Bill

 What are you using your other two card slots for? I've got a
game card and internal modem. The "pizza box" design has some
benefits but limited expansion space (card _and_ drive) is
certainly one of the biggest disadvantages.




#62454   Reply to #62449   1 Reply   09/08/96   14:53:02
From: Paul Hanke, 73467,403
To:   Bill Loesch, 74407,1423

The 3 expansion slots are filled with a 14400 fax/modem, scsi
cdrom card, and
a SB16 card.

MSD does report a 16550 UART at Com1, and a 8250 UART at Com2.
Since I don't
as yet use any external scsi devices, and since IDE cdrom drives
are now
available at 1/7 the price I paid for the scsi drive (2x) a few
years ago,
(and are twice as fast as well), I may pull that drive and free
up still
another port.

We're having a thunder and lightening storm now so I'd best
skidaddle.   -ph


#62460   Reply to #62454   1 Reply   09/09/96   22:51:19
From: Bill Loesch, 74407,1423
To:   Paul Hanke, 73467,403

Paul,
 I really appreciate you sharing your 4825 SX (et al)
experiences!

 >> The 3 expansion slots are filled with a 14400 fax/modem, scsi
cdrom card, and a SB16 card.

 MSD does report a 16550 UART at Com1, and a 8250 UART at Com2.
Since I
 don't as yet use any external scsi devices, and since IDE cdrom
drives are now available at 1/7 the price I paid for the scsi
drive (2x) a few years ago, (and are twice as fast as well), I
may pull that drive and free up still another port. <<

 I assume Com1 is the faxmodem and Com2 is the scsi CDROM card?
Are your comm programs set up to Com1? I have set my modem and
comm programs to Com2 yet MSD also(?) reports Com1???

 I too am quite pleased with the quality and reliability of the
Tandy computer but the three slots and three drive bays are
serious expansion limitations. The stacking principle of the scsi
would seem to overcome the drive bay limitations (for a price). A
few months ago, when I priced internal Sony 4X cd drives there
was less than $20 difference MSRP between the IDE and scsi
drives. What I don't yet understand is why the Sony drive
required its own card (and slot) in addition to the sound card
(if desired). If you get rid of the scsi capability, where will
you put your future scanner <G>?

 How does video through the 2X cd appear on your newly enhanced
1024 svga 256 color screen? In an attempt to discover if this old
dog could use a fast cd to show video I tried the "video for
windows" (.avi player). Except for the huge file size (0.5 MEG, 3
second duration) and significantly less than full screen
presentation, the motion (no sound), was reasonably smooth and
the picture quite intelligible.

 Bill





#62464   Reply to #62460   1 Reply   09/11/96   06:52:04
From: Paul Hanke, 73467,403
To:   Bill Loesch, 74407,1423

Well, I'm using Com1 for the internal modem; Com2 is still
enabled for external
use, and I can use it for such devices as the RS PCDMM and
ScopeProbe.

I bought a IDE I/O controller card plus an external modem but
have not yet
installed the former.  The setup manual sez that MSD may not
report the expected
Com port ....
   'If MSD detects that you have a port address at 02E8H and does
not detect
a port address at 03E8H(com3), MSD will list 02E8H as COM3 by
putting the
address in the next available COM port.  02E8H is still COM4 and
not COM3.'
Something similar may be happening with your setup at COM 1 and
2.

The I/O board will supply the needed 16550 chip for the external
modem. Also,
it has a hi-speed parallel port which may boost the speed of my
external Zip
drive, and possibly also boost the speed of 720x720dpi color
printing which
now takes 1/2 hour per picture. I hope to 'get to it' by this
weekend.

At a recent computer show, I saw very impressive video:  there
were computers
apparently showing live TV in a window, and perhaps several
windows at once,
altho some may have been vcr video, or avi's.  Seems tho that
this state of the
art hardware may require a very fast pentium and a MPEG card, at
the time going
for about $230.  So I'll pass on this type of upgrade (until I
can afford to
get a new computer, which may have all of this built in anyway).
 I'm not very
impressed with the video my computer does show because it doesn't
seem very
important to have in the first place, but at times it is adequate
for the
subject matter (usually a travelog dialogue from a cdrom).
later...   -ph


#62466   Reply to #62464   1 Reply   09/12/96   12:49:05
From: Bill Loesch, 74407,1423
To:   Paul Hanke, 73467,403

 >>  The setup manual sez that MSD may not report the expected
 Com port .... << I believe it!

     The setup manual sez that MSD may not report the _correct_

 Com port ....  I believe it more.

 Others have refered to MSD as May Sometimes Deceive, I now know
why.

 >> The I/O board will supply the needed 16550 chip for the
external modem. Also, it has a hi-speed parallel port which may
boost the speed of my external Zip drive, and possibly also boost
the speed of 720x720dpi color printing which now takes 1/2 hour
per picture. I hope to 'get to it' by this weekend. <<

 Thanks to you and Horace Oly on another thread for educating me
on the fix of using an i/o board to gain back full capability of
the external modem. Except for the versatility of being able to
share the modem, are you gaining any head way in the original
slot conservation goal? Is the scsi board now slated for the ax?


 Hope the printing time does improve; is the computer locked up
for the 0.5 hours?  There are programs (one is Zenographics
SuperQueue @ $30) to specifically give you back control quickly.
I have yet to try it, wanted to play with using the expanded
memory suggestion (see below) first.

 >> PRINTING TO MY LASERJET IS VERY SLOW!

 If you're printing to a LaserJet, DeskJet, PaintJet, or any
printer that
 prints ONE ROW OF DOTS AT A TIME, use EMS memory, not XMS! In
Windows,
 create a PIF with XMS=0k and EMS=1280k. In DOS, use an
EMM386.SYS statement
 in CONFIG.SYS (following HIMEM.SYS, if you have it). Note the
following
 comparison of EMS vs. XMS times (in minutes and seconds) on a
386/SX-16.

             24-pin          8-pin        LaserJet 300dpi
            1800x900        900x720         3000x2250
          (ems)  (xms)    (ems)  (xms)     (ems)  (xms)
 expand:   0:09   0:09     0:09   0:09      0:09   0:09
 dither:   2:53   2:53     1:12   1:12     11:30  11:30
 print:    0:40   0:55     0:18   0:42      5:50  55:30 <--- !!!


 So printing to a LaserJet at 300dpi takes FIFTY MINUTES LONGER
WITH XMS
 memory than with EMS memory!
 <<

 >>  I'm not very impressed with the video my computer does show
because it doesn't seem very important to have in the first place
<<

 From what I understand, if you were running the video from your
2X CD, you might see an improvement running it from your hard
disk or even better from a RAM disk (have to make use of that 20
Meg of memory <G>). You are right, the video is more a sales toy.
What got me sidetracked into it was investigating the capability
of training animation. I was amazed what is capable in this area.
Instead of a 1/4 screen 0.5 meg AVI duration of 3 seconds, one
animation was a 4K (ANIMATE.COM) com file that lasted 20 or 30
seconds, full screen!!! Moreover, it didn't need a host program
(Media Player, another ~170 K) to run it! IMHO there is
_tremendous_ application for compact training animations. -Bill


#62468   Reply to #62466   09/13/96   06:37:27
From: Paul Hanke, 73467,403
To:   Bill Loesch, 74407,1423

re: slow printing in 720x720dpi color mode
 I have a Canon BJC-610 bubble jet printer. Most of the time it
prints rather
quickly in lower res modes such as 360x360; but in the photo
quality mode, it
does take about 1/2 hour per page. I hadn't yet tried ems memory
but will look
into it. The 4825SX doesn't have a math coprocessor; I'm
wondering if having
one would improve the printing speed since there is a lot of
computational work
being done in hi-res mode.  Anyway, this weekend I should be able
to determine
if the hi-speed parallel port has any effect on printing time.
The computer is
definitely 'locked up' when doing 720dpi printing, and little
else can be done
while this is in progress.

I won't have to pull the scsi board because removing the internal
14400 modem
will make room for the new I/O board; and the board does 'double
time' by
providing another parallel port. Altho I don't anticipate using
other features,
the board also allows another serial port, game port, floppy
drive control, and
hd control. The floppy controller supports 2.88mb drives which
I've seen at
computer shows fairly cheap (but I haven't seen any 2.88mb
diskettes yet).

I'm not keen on avi type video or other low res graphics. The
only graphics I
would consider is of XGA quality since photography is another
hobby of mine.
    -ph


