[Lf] long haul QSO's]

[Andre Kesteloot]

Talbot Andrew wrote:

> But for every annoyance Gates and Co. introduce to operating systems, some
> other hardware manufacturer comes along with a new device to help.   A new
> PIC device, the 16F628, has come along as a replacement for that old PIC
> workhorse, the 16F84.   It is pin and functionaly compatible with the 16F84,
> has more memory and its greatest advantage, a built in UART.  So now even
> simpler serial comms becomes possible in a PIC without tying up the code
> just polling or sending RS232 characters.  The 16F628 is also cheaper than
> the 16F84 !
>
> So let Windoze just drive the serial port as it seems to still be able to do
> (how long will that last ?) and use a PIC to turn the 8 bit words into
> useful functions.
>
> There is another PIC device, the 16C745 which has a USB core included, ready
> for when even the serial port becomes obsolete on PCs.  The data sheet for
> this device is available from the Microchip website, but when I enquired of
> it about a year ago, the devices themselves did not seem to be available
> yet.
>
> Andy  G4JNT
>
> >From Alberto .......
>    I don't have handy in this moment the API Reference, but I am afraid that
> the old trick used with the good, old DOS of using the status lines of the
> serial
> port as parallel output lines is not available when working with Windows.
> With Bill's baby, the only possible use of the serial port is that of, well,
> a
> "serial port"  :-) , unless I stand corrected after having perused the APIs.
> If you need parallel output lines, then the printer port seems to be the
> only choice,
> unless you put an UART or a shift register connected to the serial port.
> I don't have enough info on the USB port to be able to comment on this
> latter.
> But, if you don't need to transmit more than one frequency at the same time,
> the 8 data bits of the parallel port allow for 256 tones, which should
> suffice.
>
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