• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

DEC vt420 problem where I can't type

A

alank2

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2016
Messages
2,264
Location
USA
I've got a vt420 hooked up to the Altair 8800C I've been building and most of the time it works great. Running it at 19200 baud.

The problem is that sometimes it gets into a stuck cycle where it won't type anything and I have to go into setup and choose "CLEAR COMM" so make it able to type again. It seems to be related to certain characters sent to it because it happens at the same time. If I try to boot CP/M 3.0 for example, it will beep and then nothing until I do clear comm. Or if I load a floppy exercise tool, sometimes it displays garbage characters and the same thing. It is not in hold mode because there is a light on the screen to show that. I've tried Ctrl-S/Q to make sure it isn't receiving a character like that ,but that also doesn't recover it. Just clear comm. I tried looking through the manual, but couldn't find what it is.
 
It seems to have something with the dual sessions feature, but it doesn't make sense. I should be using the S1=Comm1 option, but it causes the freeze up. Only if I use the "Sessions on Comml" option does it not lock up. You would think the former wouldn't because it doesn't accept any dual session control codes and the latter would.
 
I've captured it - this happens when it receives a bell. Does a bell ever mean freeze up until clear comm?
 
Dumb question, but have you tried a factory reset on the VT420 and then set up the comms session from scratch (noting down what you have done).

If the VT receives an XOFF (and it is set for XON/XOFF handshaking) then typing on the VT keyboard to unclear it may not help).

I would set all handshaking (hardware and software) to OFF and set FAST SCROLL (rather than SMOOTH SCROLL) to start with.

Just thinking out aloud...

Dave
 
Thanks Dave; I did try resetting to the factory configuration and it did not help. I connected my logic analzyer to it and it seems the LA effects whether it will happen or not, or at least as often. I think the LA has 200K pullups in it, so I wonder if that making a difference. I am using the jump scroll. Maybe it is a signal issue, when I was monitoring just the rx line I got it to do it and saw the bell character happen at the time it hung, but when I am monitoring both the rx/tx, it doesn't want to do it. That makes me wonder if when it happened if something happened on the tx line that caused it to send back the bell and that is the real issue. It seems to happen when I boot the CP/M 3.0 for the Altair 8800 between the final startup line and the A> prompt. I may try my scope on those two lines at it has a larger impedance and may not effect it to see what that shows. Something is odd there!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top