Modem Tips

“TS 2050 Modem links you with a new world of opportunities” as an ad for Timex once stated, and its true! The Westridge 2050 Modem does link you with up to the minute information from just about everywhere. I know I get mesmerized staring at the screen communicating with a BBS or mainframe somewhere while my long distance phone bill creeps up at an alarming rate. Who says “long distance is cheaper than you think” anyway? They obviously don’t own a computer with modem.

Fortunately most of the work I do is local anyway, and The Source and Compuserve both have local numbers in larger cities – be sure and check. If you have call waiting, you need to get rid of it or have another phone line installed.

When call waiting beeps on your line while using the modem, you can usually count on spurious characters or a crash. If you get locked up and have to turn off the computer to restart. Many times, depending on what type of system you are talking to, the host computer will not realize that you have left and go on waiting for you to send something. I have actually been cut off and dialed the mainframe back up and still be on line and in my account! I would hate to think what would have happened if someone else had dialed up in that time that I was off line.

The biggest problem that I have is seeing graphs on my 32 column display when the smallest display being sent is 64 column. Hopefully someone will come out with a modem program supporting the 64 column mode. I would even settle for 64 column printer output only.

Recently, while using a mainframe at the University of Florida, I discovered that there is no way to use caps lock, and all that the mainframe would accept is uppercase. To complicate matters, the system recognizes the ‘break’ command as a user abort command. So, while I type along on my 2068 holding the caps shift key down, I must remember to let up on the caps shift to space, otherwise I lose what I was doing. This would not occur on the 1000/1500 because they send Caps only.

The modem really is a good addition to your computer, and it does work well, and people are using it and finding ways to get around some of these quirks.

Users in the Timex Sinclair Users Group of Cincinnati have found a way to use a large printer (must have bit-mapped graphics i.e. Seikosha GP-100/Gorilla Banana, Star Gemini 10x, STX-80) with the 2050 modem and the Aerco Interface. The modem software makes a call at 54025 and 54026 to copy the screen to the Timex printer. The copy routine in the Aerco software resides at 64628. All that is needed is to change the original call for the copy routine to the one in the Aerco interface.

First, load the Aerco printer driver software and configure to your printer. When the menu comes up again, choose the load option and load the basic part of the modem software ONLY by pressing break as soon as the “Program loading” appears on the screen and stop the tape. Now enter CLEAR 54015 and LOAD “aterm”CODE and restart the tape. Now add these lines to the basic modem loader program:

  999 STOP 
 1000 POKE 54205,116 
 1010 POKE 54206,252 
 1020 POKE 64263,0
 1030 POKE 64264,0
 1040 POKE 64265,0
 1050 RAND USR 64628
 1060 SAVE "aterm" LINE 10
 1070 SAVE "aterm" CODE 54016,8000
 1080 SAVE "PRCODE"CODE 64256,1111
 1190 STOP

After you have entered everything, place a blank tape in your tape recorder, set it to record and enter GOTO 1000 and follow the instructions at the bottom of the screen (there will be three saves, so don’t wander off). You may want to rewind the tape and verify.

To try it out, TURN ON YOUR PRINTER FIRST – ALWAYS. Enter GOTO 10 to start the program and hit enter for the initialization header. Now press shift and 8 to get the lower screen menu and press P for a screen copy. If you forget to turn on your printer before you press P, the program will lock up, and you will have to turn off the computer and reload and hope that the host computer you were talking to knows you are gone.

I found that you must remove the case from around the modem connector in order to plug in the Aerco Interface (Its bigger than the opening allows). Due to the way that the modem rear connector is soldered, the Aerco Interface will go on crooked. Make sure that the connector is on as far as it will go and that nothing is shorting.

Thanks to the Timex Sinclair Users Group of Cincinati for this great tip. They can be reached at 11 Funston Lane; Cincinnati, Ohio 45218.