Apple ii as dumb terminal

[Caterman]

Hi
I am sure somone has done this and would they like to offer there comments recommendations etc.
Thanks

[toml_12953]

You might want to check out the terminal software on

http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Services/PDA/ ... Comm.shtml

They seem to be pretty complete packages.

Tom L

[skybaron]

Hi Caterman

This is something that I do on a regular basis. It gives a very retro experience to have an Apple II green screen setup to interact with my Altair clone!

There are a few things I will share on my experience, since there was really a fair amount of trial and error iterative process involved in getting the setup that I have been reasonably happy with. The one issue I have not worked out yet (mainly due to priorities with other things) is to make a custom serial cable. My setup works good data communications, but file transfer is not communicating properly. Unfortunately, it’s not a simple as just substituting a null modem cable, because then that breaks the data link when using the Super Serial card. There are pin map diagrams available in the Altair and Apple documentation that should allow you to fabricate the perfect cable. Maybe I’ll do that soon, since this thread has prompted my interest once again.

So first, my setup:

• Apple IIe
  Super Serial card (set in modem configuration, NOT terminal)
  DB25 M/M serial cable
  Modem MGR terminal software
  Altair Clone (of course)

I played with several terminal emulator packages, and Modem MGR is hands down the easiest to configure and use, plus it’s freeware! There may be some restrictions about posting this software without the proper README files or something, but if you can’t find it doing a Google search, message me and I can send it to you. There is also a YouTube video that shows how to get this configured. It’s uses an Apple II and a Mac, but the Modem MGR config is the same. It’s a bit lengthy, but you can skip to the meat of it. The link is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHBuK0HfrJA

The one annoyance that I have with Modem MGR is that it always defaults to 19200 baud. It is just a keystroke to set it to 9600, but there doesn’t seem to be any settings to set this up as a default config, which you can with other settings.

I found the following links very informative with respect to serial cable connectors and pinouts:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Serial-HOWTO-19.html
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Text-Terminal-HOWTO-12.html
http://www3.telus.net/schmaus2/elcts/2ser.html

If you are not familiar with transferring Apple disk images to the Apple II from a PC, there is a great freeware program called ADT Pro. The link is:
http://adtpro.sourceforge.net/

I hope you find this helpful.

Scott