PC Link II for the Z88

Z88 Download

This application needs 16K of either EPROM or Flash space.

Note: Eazylink may be used

All Eazylink ROMs are backwards compatible with PC Link II. These may be used instead of the PC Link ROM.

 

PC Download

This is a 

 program.

 

 

PC Serial Cable

Not available for download

 

 

Read this First

Fitting & Using the ROM

PC Link II

Introducing PC-Link

PC-Link II is a program that allows you to transfer files between a Z88 and an IBM PC or compatible. PC-LINK II can also convert documents and spreadsheets between the format used by PipeDream on the Z88 and the formats of WordStar v3.3 and Lotus 1-2-3 on the IBM PC.

PC-Link II has been improved over PC Link (IMPEX88) because, once connection is established all commands are made through the PC rather than the Z88 and the PC.

PC-LINK II is supplied on a disk (5.25 or 3.5 inch) for the PC and a 32K ROM card for the Z88. The connection cable is either a

• Z88 9-pin D-type plug to an IBM 25pin D-type socket or

• Z88 9-pin D-type plug to an IBM 9pin D-type socket.

There are IBM 9-pin to 25-pin adapters available, but make sure that all 9 pins are used in the adapter that you get. Some adapters (supplied with the mouse) only connect 3 pins and will not work with PC-Link II.

Which Serial Port to Use?

PC Link will only work on a serial port called COM.1. This is not normally marked.

Most computer have at least two serial ports. The connector is either a 9 way or 25 way plug (with pins) at the back of the computer.

If you are using a serial mouse, this is connected to one of the serial ports. When using PC Link, the mouse should be connected to COM.2 serial port.

To find out which COM port is being used by your mouse, run the program MSD (Microsoft Diagnostic) from the DOS prompt and select Mouse. This screen should display which COM port the mouse is being used on.

If the mouse is using COM.1, this is the connector that is needed for PC Link. Move your mouse to your second serial port COM.2. You may need a mouse adapter which changes the 25 pin connector to a 9 pin. Windows should find it without any changes, but you may have to change your MOUSE settings for your DOS programs in the AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS files. See your mouse driver commands for help here.

Installing PC-Link on your hard disk

If you have a hard disk you may wish to install PC-Link onto it. Take the following steps (assuming your hard disk is drive C:).

Installing PC-Link on your floppy drive

The first step is to make a copy of your PC-Link disk for safety. When you have done this, put the original in a safe place.

Before you use PC-Link on a floppy disk system, you must copy the MS-DOS file COMMAND.COM onto the PC-Link disk. There is a utility on the PC-Link disk called SETUP that gives you instructions on how to do this. Take the following steps.

Using PC-Link on your floppy drive

To use PC-Link, take the following steps:

These instructions are the same for either a single or double drive system. With a single floppy system, files that are to be transferred or converted must be saved onto the PCLINK disk in drive A; with a double drive system, you can use drive B, if you wish, for the data files.

Files on different drives or directories

Note that, if you want to use PC-Link to convert files on different drives or in different directories than the initial directory (here C:\PCLINK on the hard drive or A:\PCLINK on the floppy drive) you must add the PCLINK directory to the MS-DOS search path. To do this, use the MS-DOS PATH command, for example:

PATH C:\PCLINK
for the hard drive

PATH A:\PCLINK
for the floppy drive

You should already have a PATH defined in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so you should add this directory to that line using your Word Processor. Make sure that you are using "Plain Text" "ASCII" "Non-Document" mode or whatever your wordprocessor calls it to make the change. Your path line for the hard drive will look something like this.

PATH=C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS

You will notice that all the different directories where your computer needs to search are separated with a semi-colon (;). All you need to do is to add the PCLINK directory at the end of the line (making sure that the line is no longer than 127 characters). Using the example above this would become:

PATH=C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\PCLINK

If you forget to add PCLINK to the path, PC-Link will not call the converter programs correctly and you will get zero length files on your disc instead of the converted files.

(I could never get the conversion to work in PC-Link so I used the command at the DOS prompt. See later on. Further information on the PATH command see your DOS manual. Vic)

Read.me file

On the PC-Link disk there is a file called READ.ME. This contains extra help and instructions about PC-Link. If there is any information that has changed since this manual was printed, or any extra hints that we have thought of, they will be included in this file. To read this file on the screen,

You can use Ctrl S (i.e. hold down the Ctrl key whilst you press and release the S key) to stop the listing while you read it. Press Ctrl S again to restart the listing.

Installing the PC LINK II ROM

The Eazylink ROM may be used instead as it supports the PC Link II protocol.

See Fitting & Using the ROM in the "Read me First" Section

Using PC-Link

To start PC-Link

First, you must connect the cable to the Z88 and to the PC. The 9-pin plug goes into the Z88 serial port, and the IBM PC COM.1 port.

Hard disk

To use PC-Link, take the following steps:

Floppy disks

To use PC-Link, take the following steps:

These instructions are the same for either a single or double drive system. With a single floppy system, files that are to be transferred or converted must be saved onto the PCLINK disk in drive A; with a double drive system, you can use drive B, if you wish, for the data files.

When PC-Link has started, you will see the following message:

This is your cue to

Start the Link program on the Z88.

There is no need to alter the PANEL settings since the Link program sets the communication settings it needs whilst it is in operation. Your existing PANEL settings are observed.

You are now ready to start Link. To do this you can either do the following

1. Switch on the Z88

2. Get to the INDEX page by pressing the

    key.

3. Move the cursor to the left-hand side of the screen (Applications) and move it down the list until you reach LINK

4. Press the

   key

or
You can start it quicker by using the short form n key (

L or

ZL) as shown next to the LINK or PCLink name.

The screen clears, and you see the messages PCLink II and Running in the top left-hand corner of the screen.

This tells you that all is well and you may

Continue on the PC

by pressing -ENTER-.

Stopping PC Link on the Z88

Normally the Z88 will close when the PC's Quit command is used, but if you wish to quit the Z88's application, use the

key.

Using help

At this point the PC tries to establish communication with the Z88. If it is unable to do so, then, after a short delay, a help box appears on the PC screen. You can select a help topic by moving the cursor to it with the arrow keys, and pressing -ENTER- with the cursor on the topic you want to read. The appropriate help message then appears, and you can scroll through it using the arrow keys. Press -ESC- to return to the help box, and -ESC- again to leave the help box. The help box suggests various things to check to make the connection work.

Connection problems

Here are some things to check if you have problems establishing a connection between the two computers.

• Link running on Z88 with Running message.

• Cable plugged in at both ends.

• Cable plugged into serial port 1 (COM.1) on the PC.

• Correct cable (Z88 printer cables look similar but are different).

The PC-Link screen

When connection has been established, the main PC-Link screen will appear on the PC. This has the following three boxes in which commands and information appears.

• Command / prompt box (at the top)

• PC box

• Z88 box

The PC box, or window is used when dealing with files and directories on the PC; the Z88 window when operating on files and directories in the Z88.

The Command box

There are eight options in the command box:

• Quit

• Help

• Z88 devices

• PC devices

• Z88 dirs

• PC dirs

• Z88 files

• PC files

The command box lets you choose what you want PC-Link to do. To perform an operation, use the arrow keys to move the block cursor to the option you want, then press -ENTER- with the cursor on the option. To leave an operation, press -ESC-. In general, pressing -ESC- once or twice stops an operation and returns to the previous level. Pressing -ESC- in a box, for example, moves the cursor to the Quit option. If the cursor is on the Quit option, when you press -ESC-, then PC-Link carries out the quit. In the command box, pressing -ESC- twice leaves PC-Link and returns to the DOS prompt.

General explanation

PC-Link transfers files between the two machines between a current device and directory on each machine. When you start PC-Link it sets the current device and directories to the default values. These are:

Z88

• Device = RAM.0

• Directory = \ (the root)

PC Computer

• Device = C: (Hard disk)

• Device = A: (Floppy disk)

• Directory = \PCLINK (Hard disk)

• Directory = \ (the root Floppy disk)

The current directory is always displayed in the border of the PC or Z88 box.

By using the

• Z88 devices

• PC devices

• Z88 dirs

• PC dirs

commands you can select the different devices on the Z88 - RAM.1 RAM.2, etc. and the different devices (which are normally known as disks) on the PC - A: C: D:, etc. Once the device is set then the directories can be selected accordingly.

On an un-expanded Z88, you use only RAM.0. On a single floppy PC, you only use A:; but as each computer is expanded, the options increase.

Although you started PC-Link on the PC from a particular directory (\PCLINK), you can use the PC dir and PC devices (which is really PC disk) options to make PC-Link load, save and translate its files in a different place. Please remember to set the MS-DOS search path as described above.

Once you have set the current directory on both the Z88 and the PC, you then use the PC files option to send files from the PC to the Z88 and the Z88 files option to send files from the Z88 to the PC.

The PC files option also gives you access to the converter programs.

A note on files

• PC-Link only sends files to and receives files from the Z88 filing system.

• Suspended activities are not files and cannot be sent to the PC.

• Make sure that any files that you wish to transfer to the PC have been saved first from the application. For example, in PipeDream this command is tFS.

• When you save a file, it is saved onto a device. By default, on an un-expanded Z88 this is :RAM.0, but if you have extra RAM cards installed, :RAM.1 and :RAM.2 may be available

• If you are not sure about Z88 devices, files and directories, then refer to your Z88 users guide. Similarly, for the PC, refer to your MS-DOS documentation.

• If you haven't changed your Devices or used directories on the Z88, the chances are that you can transfer files each way without using any of the dirs and devices options.

A typical session

To show how to use PC-Link, here is a typical session in which we send a new file down to the Z88 and receive a file from the Z88. The Z88 is assumed to have one RAM card in slot 1 (:RAM.1) and the PC is assumed to have a hard disk.

On the PC we will be sending and receiving files in a directory (called \PIPED). If you have installed PipeDream for the PC, the directory we will be using may already be there.

To check this, do the following

You need to have one file on your Z88 to transfer to the PC and another one on the PC to transfer to the Z88. We will call these files "Z88_FILE" (on the Z88) and "PC_FILE" (on the PC) but you can substitute that name with a filename you already have.

Start using PC-Link.

Take the following steps.

Connect the connecting lead into the Z88's serial port and the PC's serial port (COM.1).

Start the Link program

Using PC-Link

• Use the Z88 devices option to select :RAM.1, which is the device we will use to send and receive files.

• Use the PC dirs option to select \PIPED, (the directory we made earlier) where we keep all the PipeDream files.

• Use the PC files option to select option to select the file C:\PIPED\PC_FILE, which we then send to the Z88.

• Use the Z88 files option to select the file : RAM.1/Z88_FILE, which we then send then to the PC.

• Use the PC files option to select the file C:\PIPED\Z88_FILE that has arrived from the Z88.

• Once the file is selected, it can be converted to Lotus format.

• Use the Quit command to leave PC-LINK and return to MS-DOS.

The Z88 also returns to the suspended activity in action before we started the session.

The File Transfer options in the command box

PC-Link Commands