Automatic Boot and Load (almost) - One caution: Operate the PC in "true" DOS, not the DOS window that is available in Windows 95 and later operating systems. If your PC comes up running Windows you will need to Shut Down WINDOWS AND REBOOT DIRECTLY TO DOS. You may make a BOOT disk while running WINDOWS and use this to BOOT from a Floppy drive to the DOS prompt or alternately use F-8 while the COMPUTER is booting to interupt the normal BOOT sequence and select the BOOT to DOS Prompt. If this is not done Windows will indicate great amounts of distress over the direct interaction with the serial-port hardware interrupts, and will not allow communication on the serial port.
A boot disk is made by writing information into the MBR (master boot record) which is a particular track and sector of the disk. This is a common convention for "Microsoft" products, and is where the system looks to see what instructions will be carried out, and where they are located. If you are using a laptop that came with some version of "Microsoft" product pre-installed, it is likely that the MBR points to another unique section which has special instructions on how the rest of the HARDWARE will be handled. Be very cautious when doing such things as formatting the hard drive, or editing files in this partition. It is easy to blow away the partition, then you will have to get the utility disk to re-install the partition and files. Later versions of "Microsoft" products have become so integrated with the laptop world that the newer laptops are almost useless for anything else. How can we get around this? The easiest is to not read the MBR from the hard drive. This is done by making a floppy boot disk with its own MBR. It's very likely that there are a few items in the BIOS of the laptop which need changing to make this more useful. Such things as APM, and COM ports that are usually handled by the "special partition" are available in the BIOS. If you still have "Windows" or "ME", or the like, installed, they will re-write the BIOS to install a mouse etc, every time you let the machine boot from the hard drive, and you will have to change the BIOS back to the configuration you want.
You may find your system varies from this a bit. I learned all this the hard way with a Quantex P266 with WIN95 installed. It has a really nice TFT screen !! I had to get the utility disk from their website to reinstall the partition after I blew it away. I finally reinstalled the disk without WIN95 and everything has been great since.
It's less frustrating to use an older machine which pre-dates these newer conventions.
Some familiarity with editing files is assumed in the following. If you are running DOS, then use the DOS editor rather than "Notepad".
These files must be present on the boot drive. They are created by making a "bootable floppy". or in the case of the C: drive, they are already present, if you boot to DOS from the C: drive.
Command.com
Io.sys
Msdos.sys
IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS are "hidden" system files, and may not show in a directory listing. If the system boots, then they are there !
These files are most easily used from the same drive that boots the computer, but can be separated to another drive, as in: boot from A:, but run from C: through Z:
Dsp.bat
R.bat
Ezfast.com
Ezld.com
Uhf3.exe
Uhfa.exe
Egavga.bgi
Uhelp_1.txt
Uhfa.cfg
Uhfa_43a.rnd
GNU_GPL.TXT
First and very simple is to create a boot disk for the A: drive which will allow one disk opearation from the floppy drive. If you have some version of Microsoft "Windows" already running, use the "format disk" option to create a bootable floppy disk. If you are already running in DOS, then make a bootable floppy by typing: format a: /s, which copies the files, Command.com, Io.sys and Msdos.sys to the new boot disk. Extract the zipped files, from uhf2.zip, or copy the linked files above, to the new boot floppy.
Now the automatic (easier method of booting the DSP)
From "Windows" open notepad and create a file:
A:
EZFAST 1 UHF3.EXE G
UHFA 1
Or, for COM port 2
A:
EZFAST 2 UHF3.EXE G
UHFA 2
Save the file as DSP.BAT or ( AUTOEXEC.BAT ) to the same bootable floppy just created. Optionally, from "Windows," open Notepad and create a file with a single line::
UHFA 1
Save this file as R.BAT to the same bootable floppy just created.
ALL FILES ON A: DRIVE (a bootable Floppy) - First, view the directory by typing A:\ dir
Command.com
Io.sys
Msdos.sys
Dsp.bat
R.bat
Ezfast.com
Ezld.com
Uhelp_1.txt
Uhf3.exe
Uhfa.exe
Egavga.bgi
Uhfa.cfg
Uhfa_43a.rnd
GNU_GPL.TXT
Type dsp at the dos prompt ( A:\dsp )
If you shut down the DSP program with CTRL
ALT F4, the
DSP-10 (UHF3.EXE) program is still running and you can restart
the computer
program by using the batch file named R.bat by typing at the dos
prompt r (a:\r). This is useful for creating or updating the
UHFA.CFG file and also screen saves, when you want to move a
saved file from the C: drive.
If you name the file autoexec.bat rather than
dsp.bat, then
the computer will boot and execute the file automatically without
intervention.
RUNNING FROM C: AFTER BOOT FROM A: DRIVE - The only requirement for the hard drive is that it must be set up correctly with the computers BIOS and be properly formatted for use. Then, the following files should be copied to the hard drive. They can be in the root directory, C:\, but it makes better "housekeeping" if you put them in their own director, such as C:\dsp.
R.bat
Ezfast.com
Ezld.com
Uhelp_1.txt
Uhf3.exe
Uhfa.exe
Egavga.bgi
Uhfa.cfg
Uhfa_43a.rnd
GNU_GPL.TXT
The file DSP.BAT needs to be on the A: drive, and for COM port 1, the file should look like this:
C:
CD C:\DSP
EZFAST 1 UHF3.EXE G
UHFA 1
Or, for com port 2:
C:The batch file R.BAT uses relative addressing so no changes are required, but it must be in the same directory with the DSP-10 files ( C:\DSP\R.BAT) .