LaddieCon

Running LaddieCon

On your laptop, you must be running a TPDD client. TPDD clients include TS-DOS, TEENY, POWR-DOS, FLOPPY.CO or the WP-2 Disk mode.

For the physical connection, you need a "null modem" wired serial cable to connect to a serial port on your Windows PC. You need to know which numbered COM port you are using on the PC side.

LADDIECON.EXE runs on a Windows computer, on top of the .Net Framework. To start it,

Click Start -> Run -> cmd.exe

Assuming LADDIECON.EXE is saved at c:\tools\laddiecon.exe

c:\tools\laddiecon.exe com1 6

Here I put 'com1.' For your setup, the number may well be different.

If you are using a Tandy WP-2 word processor, make sure to change the '6' to an '8'. This is important because the WP-2 uses an 8.2 style (8 characters for the base name, 2 characters for extension) filename, while the Model 10x and 200 use a 6.2 style filename. If you don't set this properly, you will get weird behavior.

When you press ENTER, laddiecon should run until you hit CTRL-C. It won't appear to "do anything." It is completely "remote controlled" by your disk client on the Model T laptop.

LaddieCon+Vista

Problems have been reported when using LaddieCon in combination with Vista and USB->Serial converters. No known combination of Vista and USB->Serial device is known to work with LaddieCon at this time. Please put a note here if you have found otherwise.

UPDATE: Jonathan Rose has reported success with Vista, LaddieCon and a USB->Serial adapter.

The device he used is:

USBGEAR U232-P9AP

Note that "real serial ports" seem to work fine between LaddieCon and Vista.

XP, Windows2000 users have not seen this problem.

If you experience this issue please make sure you are using a "Vista Compatible" USB->Serial adapter, but it is not known if this will make any difference.

Reliable Text-Only Transfers on Vista

If you are only transferring text files, Hyperterminal is known to be a reliable way to transfer files even at 19200 using XON/XOFF protocol. Note that saving and loading text files via the TEXT application is much faster than TELCOM, because TEXT does not scroll the text to the screen as it captures.

See Text File Transfer using Hyperterminal for details instructions on getting Hyperterminal working.