$Id: DataXfer,v 1.3 2002/01/14 23:54:48 james Exp $

Transferring data between the Beeb and Linux
============================================

There are probably many ways to do this easily.  One of the ones that
doesn't appear to work very well is trying to read Beeb disks on the
PC.  Apparently very few modern FDCs will support the format any more.
If you have ADFS disks, you may have some success with some programs
under DOS which attempt to read such disks.  Sadly, I don't have a
source for the software.  One of the ones that should work is getting
a copy of Kermit for both systems.

I didn't have two compatible terminal emulators, so I had to be a little
more brutal in my approach. What I did when transferring files from my
Beeb to my Linux PC was to make up a cable to connect the Beeb's RS423
port to a 25-pin connector that could be used with one of my PC's serial
ports. See pages 406/7 of the Beeb User Guide for details on connector
pin-outs. Before I do the next release of Xbeeb, I'll try to find my cable,
test it and list the exact pin connections I used.

Once the two machines are connected together, it's really just a case of
setting the baud rate correctly at either end (I used kermit for the PC
end, *FX7 & *FX8 calls for the Beeb end, 9600 baud, I think).  If you
have kermit for both systems then you're well away by this point.

What I did was to set the PC end to capture any data sent down the serial
line and then used *FX3 to direct output to the serial line on the Beeb.
To avoid problems with the handling of non-ASCII characters in the files,
I used *DUMP to display everything in hex and then wrote a small program
to convert this output back to binary on the PC.

As I said -- it's a little brutal, but it did allow me to transfer something
like 6Mb of programs and data to my PC without any real problem.


Revision History
================

$Log: DataXfer,v $
Revision 1.3  2002/01/14 23:54:48  james
Updates for v0.4

Revision 1.2  1996/10/13 17:14:39  james
Typo correction.

Revision 1.1  1996/09/21 19:14:31  james
Added new documenation files : doc/Configuration doc/DataXfer
doc/DiskEmulation doc/Keyboard doc/KnownBugs doc/MailingLists doc/Options
doc/RomPatches doc/WorkingSoftware

