Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

I was thinking of other uses for Zeddynet. Has anyone developed a way to have it communicate to a wireless network printer? Neat concept. I'm not really a programmer but trained as an Electrical Engineer I can figure many things out. Comments?

Tim

Hi Tim
I have written a printer driver to "print" via ZeddyNet into a file, which is held on a TNFS fileserver (e. g. a windows or unix system). There it can be printed out to any real printer there or be used as text file for other purposes. So the Zeddy does not need to know the graphic language of a network printer, because the printer driver of the server will do that.

The printer driver runs above 32K, so your Zeddy must be able to run machine code programs there.
It "prints" the character (held in register A when called) to the TNFS file.

I also patched the ROM of my Zeddy not to "print" to the Sinclair printer, but to call my network-printer (if it has been loaded before). So I can use the LLIST, COPY and LPRINT commands in BASIC to print into the file at the server.

The source of the printer driver is (like other ZeddyNet programs) there:
http://forum.tlienhard.com/phpBB3/viewt ... 616#p18803

But if you want to write your own ZeddyNet applications: I can provide the ZeddyNet libs and include-files for Z88DK ...

Siggi

Siggi,

I think I found the file "pr2file.zip" you are referring to (as I don't understand German): http://forum.tlienhard.com/phpBB3/viewt ... f=2&t=1740 . It looks like it uses $A000 (37000) which is above the 32K ram. I use ZXPand at 8k-40k range so it should work for that. However, ZXPand also patches the ROM for LLIST, COPY, LPRINT for a couple of their new commands like CAT and CONFIG I believe but can be disabled also.

I don't know if I'll be able to write any ZeddyNet applications but I would like to look at the ZeddyNet libs and include-files for Z88DK and see what can be done. (tdg8934@gmail.com)

Thanks,

Tim

Hi Tim
yes, "pr2file.zip" is the printer driver. But if you cannot use the BASIC LLIST or LPRINT routines, you have to write your own routines to do that (e. g. read the program line by line and sent the formatted file listing byte per byte to the printer driver).

But if you want to run machine code programs above 32K, you have to modify your Zeddy (keyword "M1 NOT modification"), because otherwise the ULA will not allow to run the machine code above 32K properly. Here is that modification:
I hope, that ZXPAND will allow that (and does not mirror the 32-40K area sometimes to the 8-16K area).

Then you will be able to run the printer driver, or NCLI (the network command line interface to load/store files on the TNFS-server) or other programs above 32K.

I will publish the latest version of the Z88DK ZeddyNet libs and an Englisch version of NFM (Network File Manager) and NCLI soon.

Siggi

EDIT: PS: ZeddyNet applications are written in C (Z88DK: http://www.z88dk.org/forum/) and assembler (Z88DK) ....

Hi Tim,
the libraries and include-files to write ZeddyNet-programs in C using Z88DK can be downloaded from in Tom's forum:
http://forum.tlienhard.com/phpBB3/viewt ... 892#p21892

Siggi

I have been looking over Z88DK for the ZX81 and the zeddnet programs on the German link site and it's a bit overwhelming for a guy that's not really a C programmer by trade. I'll need a lot more training and exposure to Z88DK before I'll even attempt any Zeddynet program. I only hope I don't get frustrated to early and walk away.

I'll keep at it but very slowly to figure out C programming for the ZX81 first.

Thanks - Tim

Hi Tim
there is the documentation for Z88DK:
http://www.z88dk.org/wiki/doku.php

And in Tom's forum you can learn programming in C with Z88DK and a Zeddy. But it is in German:
http://forum.tlienhard.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=8

Maybe Google translator can help. But then the NSA will also know, what is going on in the Zeddy-world

Siggi

Thanks Siggi. The tutorial on Toms forum is already available in English that someone already used Google to translate into an rtf document.

I have also done a lot of digging around on z88dk and seen the wiki site.

I'll keep studying it and try and see how it all works.

Thanks,

Tim

tdg8934 wrote:Thanks Siggi. The tutorial on Toms forum is already available in English that someone already used Google to translate into an rtf document.

Hi Tim

Do you have a link to the English version? I keep meaning to explore Z88DK and learn C, but have not got around to it yet. A tutorial would help

Mark

viewtopic.php?t=1043

Attached is the document.

Tim