New to me Rainbow 100A and VR201

[bqt]

My Pro has RT-11 installed, not P/OS. And on trying to issue a copy the /DOS parameter gives an error of FILEX missing.
I have no idea of where I'd get that or how I would get it installed to the Pro if I did. Kind of the opposite problem as
to which I am trying to solve.

Ah. Well then, even if you did have FILEX, it wouldn't help you. /DOS under RT-11 does not mean MS-DOS like file system, but DOS-11, which was a predecessor to RT-11 (sortof). The filesystem is nothing like what you'd see on a Rainbow.

I don't know if there is any tool under RT-11 to just make a block for block copy of a diskette, but there might be. But someone else would need to answer that. I'm not that familiar with RT-11.

[tradde]

Ah. Well then, even if you did have FILEX, it wouldn't help you. /DOS under RT-11 does not mean MS-DOS like file system, but DOS-11, which was a predecessor to RT-11 (sortof). The filesystem is nothing like what you'd see on a Rainbow.

I don't know if there is any tool under RT-11 to just make a block for block copy of a diskette, but there might be. But someone else would need to answer that. I'm not that familiar with RT-11.

Kind of thought that might be the case, but was not sure. There was an "intermediary" option too although what that does I am not sure. So for now I am stuck
unless I can send this diskette to someone else to read it and send it forward.

[exidyboy]

Yes, I tried a USB to 25 pin serial connector. Had to drop down to 9 pin for the null-modem and then back
with a gender bender to be able to connect to the connector on the Rainbow. I bought this USB to serial long
ago and have never used it. I really didn't expect it to work. I wish I had an older PC with 25 or 9 pin serial.

If you do want to add RS232 to either your Mac or PC at some point this is an example of the adapter I would recommend.
https://www.adafruit.com/product/18
It seems like it might come in handy for someone with a healthy collection of older machines.
I have dumped EPROM's from Sorcerers just by displaying the contents of memory but redirected out the serial port to my Mac laptop.
A little work in a column-oriented text editor to clean up the ASCII text file and some command line magic and you have a binary file.
Of course KERMIT, zmodem etc are more sophisticated ways to do it.

[tradde]

If you do want to add RS232 to either your Mac or PC at some point this is an example of the adapter I would recommend.
https://www.adafruit.com/product/18
It seems like it might come in handy for someone with a healthy collection of older machines.
I have dumped EPROM's from Sorcerers just by displaying the contents of memory but redirected out the serial port to my Mac laptop.
A little work in a column-oriented text editor to clean up the ASCII text file and some command line magic and you have a binary file.
Of course KERMIT, zmodem etc are more sophisticated ways to do it.

Thanks for the link. I now see why my cable did not work. It is a USB printer cable. And is why I saw on my Windows laptop it
showed up as a printer device. I will most likely order this other cable. For current and future use.

[tradde]

Thanks for the link. I now see why my cable did not work. It is a USB printer cable. And is why I saw on my Windows laptop it
showed up as a printer device. I will most likely order this other cable. For current and future use.

I have ordered this cable and when it arrives I will try to transfer the file from the Rainbow to my Mac.

[tradde]

Cable suggested by exidyboy arrived today. It is seen on my Mac so that is good. I don't know enough about Rainbows to
properly set the Com1 port setting. I got into SetPort but don't know what key is the Exit key. Rainbows are pretty much
new to me being a pdp-8 and pdp-11 guy. Also for a file transfer isn't some type of software need to run on the Rainbow
for something like Kermit to work? Any help is appreciated. But I suppose this is forward progress although very slow.

[tradde]

Found the Exit key is PF10. Was able to set the Com port to 9600,8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit. And it maintained its setting.
Now how can I transfer a file?

[jafir]

According to the FAQ here, there is no disk access using the builtin terminal.

http://www.classiccmp.org/rainbow/files/rainbow.faq

[exidyboy]

Found the Exit key is PF10. Was able to set the Com port to 9600,8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit. And it maintained its setting.
Now how can I transfer a file?

Zterm supports Kermit https://www.dalverson.com/zterm/ but does MS-DOS have a way to simply dump the contents of memory to the screen which is a function supported on many older microcomputers in their Power on Monitor.

If so then you could just redirect that output to the Rainbow's serial port?

You could also consider using the CP/M side but I am not sure that would expose all the ROM's in the memory map?

[tradde]

Zterm supports Kermit https://www.dalverson.com/zterm/ but does MS-DOS have a way to simply dump the contents of memory to the screen which is a function supported on many older microcomputers in their Power on Monitor.

If so then you could just redirect that output to the Rainbow's serial port?

You could also consider using the CP/M side but I am not sure that would expose all the ROM's in the memory map?

Well, the file is binary currently. So that in itself can cause issues during a file transfer. I have no idea how to run CP/M from
this machine or if I even can. I will continue to try other options.