Port Setup Example
(From a posting on the WriteLog mailing list on 06/21/99.)
Having trouble using all your peripherals in Writelog at the same
time? Don't have enough ports for it?
One of the biggest problems is resolving up the IRQ assignments and
addresses, an old PC limitation. Well, it can be done! After some
experimenting, here's my setup, with port assignments, IRQ's and base
addresses for all ports. I hope this may be useful for other Writelog
users. It works really well on my PC, a home-made Pentium 133.
| Port |
IRQ |
Base Address |
Purpose |
| COM1 |
4 |
3F8 |
Mouse |
| COM2 |
3 |
2F8 |
Packet |
| COM3 |
11 |
(PCI) |
56k internal modem on PCI bus |
| COM4 |
9 |
2E8 |
Rig control (IC-756) |
| COM5 |
12 |
2F0 |
FSK (RTTY) out |
| COM6 |
5 |
3E0 |
PTT line for PSK31 |
| LPT1 |
7 |
378 |
Printer, ZIP drive |
| LPT2 |
* |
278 |
CW keyer, PTT line for DVK, antenna switching |
| Sound |
10 |
|
Soundblaster 64AWE |
*Note: LPT2 does not use its normally assigned IRQ5, making the
interrupt available for COM6. Since LPT2 only processes outgoing signals,
it does not need an interrupt.
Note that most software does not recognize COM ports higher than 4.
Luckily, Rttyrite does (Writelog itself does not for rig control or
packet).
COM1, COM2 and LPT1 are on the motherboard.
COM3 is assigned to the internal Winmodem on the PCI bus (Winmodems
cannot be assigned ports higher than COM4, oddly enough).
COM4 and LPT2 are on an 8-bit card (Everex EV-170).
COM5 and COM6 are on a 16-bit card (SIIG Model IO1813).
I think the Everex EV-170 board is no longer available. I guess any
2S/1P card will do as long as it allows you to set up only one COM port
(disable the other) and a non-interrupt parallel port. Shop around. The
SIIG card is currently available at CompUSA for $39.95. It uses true 16550
chips. Other boards may do, but make sure they can use high IRQ's AND high
port addresses - some only give you the high IRQ's.
If you have a PS/2 mouse, it typically uses IRQ12. Since using a mouse
port frees up COM1, that is actually desirable. Just assign COM5 to IRQ5
and sacrifice COM6, as you won't be needing it. You'll still need the
second serial port card because the standard one most likely won't let you
assign the proper base address for anything other than COM 1 through 4.
Of course there is some additional hardware involved:
