On 18 Jan 2013, at 15:44, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: On 01/18/2013 02:38 AM, John Wilson wrote: I remember being thoroughly impressed with the Z8530, and I've used it in several projects since then... I'm pretty !@*^% impressed too (except for the annoying two-step register access, which I guess is fixed in other versions). That DPLL is the perfect thing for ham packet radio -- wish I'd known about that (I paid Real Money for a used DUP11 about 20 years ago hoping to use it for hamming but never got around to building the circuitry it would have taken to whip up a clock, but it seems the Z8530 already has that and was commonly available at the time -- dammit!). I hate when that happens! So yes...if you're doing sync stuff with it, that might be very handy if we do this and it goes this route. Sync is the plan but I don't yet have anything to test against (waiting for some trivial PCBs to come back that save me the trouble of piecing together a Berg-to-DB25 cable for my DUV11, and I think they'll also work for DMV11s and DUP11s, so I'll have plenty to test/debug with). So that'll change within the next week and I'm working to have code ready by then. Gotcha. I'm interested in hearing of your progress; that sounds like fun! I would imagine it'd be offended. ;) However if memory serves, HDLC frames contain a few bits' worth of sequence numbers. BTW is there any particular target in mind for this? Ask Ian. ;) If it's for HECnet, DDCMP would probably be more useful than the annoying bit-stuffing protocols. But better yet would be to support everything ... no point in having to build almost the same thing again later. I'd be up for almost anything. I like the idea of tunneling old protocols within standardized (if just as old) networking systems to enable connectivity where it wasn't possible before. If we do this, and if we can make it as flexible as possible, I'd be happy. As for config: is using the RS232 port (in async mode) too easy? I think a lot of people would be bothered by it because they think RS232 is no longer common (wrong) and that USB<->serial adapters don't work well (wrong) or that terminal programs are somehow hard to find (also wrong). Granted "those" people are probably not the target market, though. RS232 is no longer common on average consumer PeeCees. ;) Who the hell says terminal programs are hard to find? GNU Screen can be a terminal emulator, along with minty, HyperTerminal, putty the list goes on and on... -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA