Subject: From: Date:

Re: [ECS] Quad serial boards Bill Freeman Thu, 17 Sep 1998 18:00:33 -0400

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Group:

Has anyone out there had any success at sharing interrupts on any multiport
serial board running ECSD (i.e. on DOS).   If so, I'd appreciate some hints as
to how ECS needs to be configured and/or which device drivers are necessary to
get this to work.

I was unsuccessful in my initial attempt at this using my Byterunner board and
the "Fossil" drivers they recommended.   No matter what I tried ECS continued
to complain whenever I defined more than one COM device to be using the same
physical interrupt.   (It seemed particularly unhappy to see my mouse and PLC
controller on the same interrupt level).   I've currently got all (used) ports
defined on separate interrupts, but have, as you might expect, I run out of
interrupts well before running out of ports.

Any tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks and Regards,

Bill Freeman
Freemanb@us.ibm.com



ddubay@umich.edu on 09/16/98 11:06:09 PM
Please respond to ecs-list@vancouver.ml.org
To: ecs-list@vancouver.ml.org
cc:
Subject: Re: [ECS] Quad serial boards


Reddy,

I didn't try the byterunner boards.  This reference was given to me
bysomeone else on the list.  I agree they look pretty good.

Dan Dubay

>>> "William Biggs" <william@qualityhunt.com> 09/16 8:53 PM >>>
Dan,

Have you tried the byterunner boards ?  They work OK ?

Their PCI board looked very attractive to me :

"The following card's serial are addressable to IRQs 3-15 and require
only 1
IRQ. The card is available with 16550 or 16750 UART chips. Settable to
COM1-COM99. Settable clock frequency to support fast data transfer
rates (up
to 921,600 bps). Card uses an octopus cable which plugs on the back and
fans
out to 4 DB25 serial connector cables (the cables are about 5 inches
long,
so you will probably need to plug a 25-pin male to 25-pin female
serial
cable on to the cables to extend the length.) 32-bit PCI-bus. Plug &
Play.
Card designed for use with DOS, Windows 95, 98 & NT 4.0. Drivers for
these
operating systems are included."

They use a PCI slot
They have up to **eight** serial ports, sharing the same IRQ, settable
to
COM1 - COM99!?!?.
Cost starts at $64 for 2 ports and $179 for 8 ports.

If three of us want to order as a group, the price for the 8 port drops
to
$129.75 each.

See http://www.byterunner.com/cgi-bin/goto.cgi?FILE=iocards.html

At this rate I could hook up a **whole ** lot more serial devices....

Reddy

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Dubay <ddubay@umich.edu>
To: ecs-list@vancouver.ml.org <ecs-list@vancouver.ml.org>
Date: Wednesday, September 16, 1998 6:53 PM
Subject: Re: [ECS] CallerID-Int-A


>Sorry this took me so long Carl.  I just purchased a board from:
> http://www.bb-elec.com/catalog/cards/cards.html
>If you follow the instructions with the poard for setting the jumpers
>and then install new com ports in WIN95 and set the same
irq/addresses
>it should work.
>
>Another source is:
>http://www.byterunner.com/cgi-bin/goto.cgi?FILE=iocards.html
>
>Good Luck!
>
>Dan Dubay
>
>>>> Carl Keyes <Ckeyes@duey.california.com> 09/12 5:53 AM >>>
>Dan,
>
>I'm still having no luck setting up com ports that work.
>I've taken it in to have it done "professionally" but that hasn't
>worked
>either. Where would I find a quad serial board? I'm going to need the
>extra ports
>in the near future. God knows who I might find to try and install it.
>
>PC hater,
>
>Carl K
>
>Daniel Dubay wrote:
>>
>> I now have two quad serial boards in my Win95 machine.  Each is
>> configured for sharing one IRQ.  The first is configured for com5-8
>and
>> has RJ45 connectors.  The second is com9-12 and has DB15 and DB25
>> connectors.  This is very versatile and leaves com1-4 for modem
etc.
>I
>> particularly like the RJ45 connectors because they eliminate many
>> adaptors.  I can get web addresses if you need them.  Other people
>on
>> this list gave them to me.
>>
>> Dan Dubay
>

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