My Hero 1 seems to be in pretty good shape and now I would like to link up
the RS232 interface card to my PC and write basic programs. But I don't
have any documentation for the cable requirements or the Hero basic
syntax.

Q1: What is the pin outs of the RS232 or what kind of a cable to I need
to connect to a PC running a dumb terminal emulator? Will a null cable
work? Or should the cable be straight through?

Q2: What baud rates does Hero support?

Q3: Once connected, what command, if any, starts the basic interpreter?

Q4: Does anyone have any documentation for the Hero basic?


I am very interested in purchasing your Hero 1 Serial Interface board
(assembled and tested). I will, however, need more detailed information
about the board. Where is it mounted on the Hero 1? Or is it connected
up only temporarily during program loading? How is it connected
electrically? Is there software that is needed to get a PC talking to
the board via cable? Is the interface RS232? Is the baud rate fixed?

It is my understanding that the serial interface board's function is to
help load and edit programs in the 4K of memory RAM on the Hero 1? What
are the different configurations of the Hero 1 RAM and ROM that you are
aware of??

What is the current price for the assembled Hero 1 Serial Interface
board?

Thank you,

Ernie Chwalisz in LA



The Serial Interface board plugs into the Experimental Breadboard Area
on top of the robot (Just like the Original Heathkit version) I usually leave
it plugged into the robot and just connect the Serial cable when I need to
transfer a file from my PC. All you need is a Standard modem cable. To
talk to the Robot I use Procomm Plus or Windows terminal. You can use
any standard terminal package for this. The baud rate is adjustable by
DIP switches on the Interface board but I use 9600 baud by default.

The Serial Interface is required for use with the Optional BASIC ROM and
can aid in transferring programs back and forth between the PC and the
robot.

The Robot originally came with 4k but Heathkit had a memory upgrade
that could hold all three option ROMs and 24k of additional RAM. The
Robot must have either Main ROM 1.3 or 1.U to use the Interface.

An assembled Serial Interface board & Docs would cost $40. The Kit
version is $30.

Hope this helps,

Robert

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