Internet Connectivity with Comet64+VIC-20? (IT WORKS!!!)

Ghislain · Post by **Ghislain** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 5:58 am

Basically, I'm hoping to do on my VIC-20 + Comet64 what this guy did with his C64 + Comet64:

http://comm64.blogspot.ca/2011/02/conne ... s-c64.html

There is some tinkering required to connect to a different IP address other than CommodoreServer.com's, but I think this can be also achieved via software. I might just write a menu program to change the IP address that Comet64 connects to.

I think it would be pretty cool if Mighty Term could connect to a shell account on my Linux laptop

Kananga · Post by **Kananga** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:25 am

This is another (older) thread discussing the Comet64.

Ghislain · Post by **Ghislain** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:44 am

Kananga wrote:This is another (older) thread discussing the Comet64.

I saw that thread, and I probably should have posted my question there.

Just wondering though, has anybody here on Denial successfully used Comet64 with their VIC-20?

How I plan to connect to a BBS, if I understand how the Comet64 works is:

1. I'll write a menu program (in BASIC) with a BBS and Telnet server listing that configures the Comet64 to connect to an IP address with these config commands:

http://www.commodoreserver.com/BlogEntr ... 96AD6AEDDD

I'll just store the BBS listing in the DATA statements like this:

1000 DATA MAD WORLD, MADWORLD.BOUNCEME.NET,68.84.46.76,23
1010 DATA SHELL ACCOUNT,NA,192.168.0.17,23
1999 DATA -1

(first row has the name,second is the domain name,third the IP address,fourth row is the port number)

... And whenever I want to add more entries, I just add it to the data statements and then save the program to disk (or SD2IEC).

2. Then the menu program will give the option to the user to either load VTE-40 or Mighty Term

Kananga · Post by **Kananga** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:41 pm

Ghislain wrote:I saw that thread, and I probably should have posted my question there.

Sorry, just wanted to make sure

Ghislain wrote:Just wondering though, has anybody here on Denial successfully used Comet64 with their VIC-20?

No, I have not, but I thought I saw a report (i.e. video) of a meeting (PDUXG?) where a Vic-20 was demonstrated using the Comet-64. I just can not find it anymore.

I was really tempted to buy one (or a Flyer) myself, but both solutions are basically built around a TCP-to-serial IC, which is a bit limited (just one connection in or out, 2400 baud max). I'd rather have a hardware solution with built-in TCP/IP stack like the KCNet, but did not find the time to build one yet.

RobertBe · Post by **RobertBe** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:01 pm

Kananga wrote:I was really tempted to buy one (or a Flyer) myself, but both solutions are basically built around a TCP-to-serial IC, which is a bit limited (just one connection in or out, 2400 baud max).

The Comet64 can now run at 38K maximum.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

Ghislain · Post by **Ghislain** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:44 pm

Kananga wrote:
Ghislain wrote:I saw that thread, and I probably should have posted my question there.
Sorry, just wanted to make sure
Ghislain wrote:Just wondering though, has anybody here on Denial successfully used Comet64 with their VIC-20?
No, I have not, but I thought I saw a report (i.e. video) of a meeting (PDUXG?) where a Vic-20 was demonstrated using the Comet-64. I just can not find it anymore.

I was really tempted to buy one (or a Flyer) myself, but both solutions are basically built around a TCP-to-serial IC, which is a bit limited (just one connection in or out, 2400 baud max). I'd rather have a hardware solution with built-in TCP/IP stack like the KCNet, but did not find the time to build one yet.

No problem

Well, I'm fairly confident that the Comet64 will do what I want to do, according to what I've read online. I've seen more than one online source that stated that it was able to work with traditional commodore terminal programs. And based on what you told me, then that makes me more confident.

I just didn't want a silver surfer setup with a cacophony of various cables and such connecting to a PC's printer port. It's bad enough I telnet to a laptop on my network for shell access. For whatever reason, my RR-net and kipper term from my c64 can't connect to sdf.lonestar.org

I'm just wondering... Has anybody ever been able to post here from an actual VIC 20? How well would Mighty Term work with Linux shell and w3m?

Ghislain · Post by **Ghislain** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:45 pm

RobertBe wrote:
Kananga wrote:I was really tempted to buy one (or a Flyer) myself, but both solutions are basically built around a TCP-to-serial IC, which is a bit limited (just one connection in or out, 2400 baud max).
The Comet64 can now run at 38K maximum.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

Doesn't the user port have a 2400 baud limit? Or is the Comet64 38k capable?

RobertBe · Post by **RobertBe** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 9:57 pm

Ghislain wrote:Doesn't the user port have a 2400 baud limit? Or is the Comet64 38k capable?

The 2400 baud limit is what I thought was set in stone. However, that limit was broken by Agent Friday and Goog of the Portland Commodore User Group earlier this year, when they demonstrated the Comet at meetings and at CommVEx v8 2012.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

Kananga · Post by **Kananga** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 6:15 am

RobertBe wrote:
Ghislain wrote:Doesn't the user port have a 2400 baud limit? Or is the Comet64 38k capable?
The 2400 baud limit is what I thought was set in stone. However, that limit was broken by Agent Friday and Goog of the Portland Commodore User Group earlier this year, when they demonstrated the Comet at meetings and at CommVEx v8 2012.

I suppose they just set the 6526 shift clock rate accordingly, which is possible, but wasn't done by Commodore, because the 6522 is flawed in that respect.
So bad luck for the Vic-20.

But that is just a guess. Is there a link to an explanation for the demonstration?

RobertBe · Post by **RobertBe** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:28 am

Kananga wrote:But that is just a guess. Is there a link to an explanation for the demonstration?

So that he can answer all questions, I have informed Goog of this thread, but he has not responded.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

dano · Post by **dano** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 11:24 am

I have used the Comet with a Vic but unfortunately I've only used the RS-232 portion as I didn't have a network connection handy at the time. I have never done any bbs communication, only talking to CommodoreServer. As I understand it, Comet v2 will have some modem emulation built in. Basically, the 2400 baud limitation is the kernal, 38k speed comes from software bit-banging the user port. I've seen this done on the 64 so I assume the same could be done on the Vic. The Flyer doesn't have this limitation at all, it's a standard IEC device (and works well with the VIC too I might add). V1541 won't work (at least not currently as far as I know) but I believe V2 of the Comet will make that a moot point anyway. It's only used for file I/O over the user port and has nothing to do with online chatting or gaming functionality.

Kananga · Post by **Kananga** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 12:37 pm

dano wrote:Basically, the 2400 baud limitation is the kernal, 38k speed comes from software bit-banging the user port. I've seen this done on the 64 so I assume the same could be done on the Vic.

As with the IEC-port, Commodore intended to use the shift register of the 6522 for transmission. Unfortunately, the 6522 is flawed wrt to shifting, so they had to implement serial communication in software (the kernal). AFAIK, the same holds for the user-port.
The C-64 uses 6526 (CIA) interface ICs instead of 6522 (VIA) and they do not have the shift register bug, so serial transmission can be done in hardware. I.e., the bits are shifted out through CB2 (in through CB1), controlled by a timer and independent of the CPU. I do not know, if hardware support was used to achieve 38400 baud on the C-64, but if it was, it can not be done on the Vic-20.

Ghislain · Post by **Ghislain** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 5:24 am

So I received my Comet64 modems. I tried to configure my VIC-20's Comet 64 to connect to an IP address on my local network by this using DUMBTERM from CommodoreServer.com's download section:

+++ (got an "E" response)
<WX 192.168.0.17> (got a "<" response)
<WN 23> (also got a "<" response)
<WR> (got "<" response)

Then I waited a few seconds, after which I tried using MIGHTY TERM (2400 baud), but it could not connect.

I only had time to play around a little bit on it, but hopefully I'll figure out how to use it.

Ghislain · Post by **Ghislain** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:52 pm

Success! I finally got the Comet64 modem to work with my VIC-20.

While I wasn't able to use the DUMBTERM program to successfully change the IP address it connects to--I was able to set it with a Windows program called WizNet.

The highest bps setting I was able to use was 1200. I connected to the Commodore BBS madworld.bounceme.net:23 with the VTE-40 terminal program on the Mega Cart cartridge.

Ghislain · Post by **Ghislain** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 12:41 pm

Name: Comet64 for VIC-20
Author: Ghislain (wrote menu loader and configurator)
Released: November 18, 2012
Requirements: VIC-20 and Comet64 modem. 16K RAM expansion needed to run Plus Term. 8K RAM at $A000 needed for VICTERM. 8K RAM expansion for Mighty Term.
Description: A disk with utilities that can be used with the Comet64 modem.

How does one connect online with a VIC-20 if dial-up BBSes and even telephone land lines are becoming a thing of the past? By using CommodoreServer.com's Comet64 modem, you can connect your VIC-20 to the internet and gain access to various telnet BBS services.

I wrote a menu program that lets you choose the BBS you want to connect to as well as choosing which terminal program will connect to it:

-Plus Term (for Commodore graphics in 22 column mode)
-VICTERM Cartridge (for 40 column mode, make sure that RAM expansion points to A000 for this)
-Mighty Term (by Craig Bruce for 80 column mode)
-Dumb Terminal (use as a last resort if the above options don't work or if you don't have 8K memory expansion)

And after you choose which BBS you want to connect to, the Comet64 will try to connect to the previous BBS setting. Wait until text has paused, and then press RETURN. The menu program will then change your Comet64's configuration settings so that you can connect to the BBS that you want. After the terminal program has loaded, make sure that it is set to 1200 baud in it's own configuration. Depending on which BBS you connect to, you should make sure that the character configuration is set appropriately (ASCII or Commodore).

You can change which BBSes appear in the menu by modifying lines 301-309 in the LOADER program. Each has 3 entries: name of BBS, IP address and port number. You can find out the IP address of a BBS by using a command line window on your PC and then type 'ping bbsname.com'.

I found that Comet64 worked best on the VIC-20 in 1200 baud mode. So make sure you configure your Comet64 is configured to do so--use the WizNet configuration tool on your PC from here. To use it, launch the configuration tool and press search. If it can't find it, use the DIRECT IP SEARCH and put in the IP address of your device. You can find this in the DHCP section of your router under DHCP clients. Once it finds it, change the server IP and port to the BBS you want to contact. Press SETTING and it will push the config to your device. Hit exit. Credit to Commodore Revial's Blog for instructions on how to use the configuration tool.

Download.

Discuss.

Click here for a list of Commodore-based BBSes.

Click here for a list of 80 column (non-Commodore) BBSes.