How to load files into your NEC

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First, some basics

All NEC files available for download here are in ASCII format, regardless of what the file extension is. The basic program files (with a .BA extension) are not the tokenized versions! They still need to be downloaded as ASCII and then transferred to your NEC in ASCII (as a .DO file). So when you click on a .BA file to download and are prompted with the name to save it with, make sure .DO is typed as the file extension for the destination file. After they're loaded onto your laptop as a .DO file (see below), you can Load them into Basic which will convert them to the tokenized form. Then you may save them back to disk with the .BA file extension.

TS-DOS & NADSBox

If you've obtained the NADSBox device, you won't find a better way to store programs and documents for your laptop and transfer them easily between a Desktop PC and your NEC laptop. The NADSBox emulates a Tandy Portable Disk Drive but takes an SD card (flash memory) instead of magnetic media. Plus, it gives you additional functionality like you've not ever seen with a TPDD. If you are already familiar with TS-DOS, then imagine your NADSBox acting like a TPDD, only it has subdirectories! The very same TS-DOS that you use with the TPDD also supports the creation and navigation of subdirectories, so that files stored on the NADSBox's SD card can be organized in any way that you wish.

Transferring downloaded programs from desktop PC to the NEC, through the NADSBox:

  1. After you have downloaded any of the files here on Web8201, plug in the USB-connector on the supplied SD card into an available USB port on your Desktop.
  2. Copy any files that you have downloaded over to the SD card's drive letter.
  3. Safely disconnect the SD card with graceful deactivation from your Desktop PC.
  4. Plug in the SD card into your NADSBox and turn it on.
  5. On the NEC, launch either the TS-DOS ROM program (if you have that option rom), or the DOSNEC.CO program.
  6. Transfer the downloaded files to your NEC's RAM.
  7. After you have loaded any of the BASIC programs that you had saved in their .DO form, you can jump to BASIC save the basic file into your NEC's menu as a .BA file.
  8. That .BA file now can be saved back to your NADSBox in its fully tokenized form for later use. It takes up less space in the tokenized .BA format also!

TS-DOS & DeskLink

If you have a DOS or Windows desktop PC, and you have a null-modem cable, then you've got all the hardware it takes. If you are already familiar with TS-DOS, then imagine your desktop PC acting like a Tandy Portable Disk Drive that has subdirectories! The very same TS-DOS that you use with the TPDD also supports the creation and navigation of one level of subdirectories through the Desklink connection, so that files stored on the PC side can be organized a bit better than just having all of them appear in the ROOT.

If you're not already familiar with how to transfer files from your desktop PC to your laptop to begin with, read these transfer instructions. You'll need to load two files into your NEC using that method, but after you get the DESKLINK/TS-DOS connection working, things will get SO MUCH EASIER. Here are the steps required:

  1. Connect your desktop PC and your laptop together with a null-modem cable, or a serial cable and a null-modem adapter.
  2. Download and install DL-ARC.EXE onto your desktop PC.
  3. Download both DOSNEC.DO and CHGHEX.DO and transfer both of these to your NEC's main memory using the transfer instructions above.
  4. From BASIC, type LOAD "CHGHEX.DO", and then RUN it.
  5. You'll be prompted for which hex file to load. Type "DOSNEC.DO".
  6. After several minutes, you should then be asked if you wish to kill the hex input file. Say YES. When it's done, you'll now have DOSNEC.CO on your main menu!
  7. Now you can type "NEW" to get rid of the tokenized CHGHEX.DO that you loaded as a BASIC program.
  8. Return to the MENU and finally kill "CHGHEX.DO" from your main menu.
  9. On the desktop PC, follow the instructions in DESKLINK.TXT for setting up and running DESKLINK on the desktop PC.

With DESKLINK running on the desktop PC, all you'll ever have to do is run DOSNEC.CO on your NEC (or invoke TS-DOS if you have that option ROM installed) and you'll be able to load and save files just as simply as with a Tandy Portable Disk Drive:

  1. On the desktop, launch DESKLINK.
  2. On the NEC, launch either the TS-DOS ROM program (if you have that option rom), or the DOSNEC.CO program.
  3. Transfer the downloaded files to your NEC's RAM.
  4. After you have loaded any of the BASIC programs that you had saved in their .DO form, you can jump to BASIC save the basic file into your NEC's menu as a .BA file.
  5. That .BA file now can be saved back to your desktop in its fully tokenized form for later use. It takes up less space in the tokenized .BA format also!
If you ever try to launch DOSNEC.CO from the NEC's main menu and you get a beep, this probably means that there isn't enough free high-memory available on the NEC. From BASIC, type CLEAR 256, 56500 and then return to the main menu. You should now able to launch DOSNEC.CO without a problem.

Lo-Tech Solution: Desktop terminal program & NEC's TELCOM

Transferring downloaded BASIC programs (in their .DO form) from desktop PC to the NEC

  1. Attach your PC and your laptop together with a full NULL-modem cable or regular serial cable with NULL-modem adapter.
  2. Load a terminal program on your PC (Procomm Plus, Telix, Hyperterminal, etc.)
  3. Set the terminal to communicate at 19200 bps, No Parity, 8-data bits, 1 stop-bit, and xon/xoff flow control.
  4. On the NEC, go to BASIC. Press <F1> (Load) and type in COM:9N81XN and press <ENTER>.
  5. On the desktop PC, initiate an ASCII upload of the .BA file.
  6. After the file is done sending, issue a <ctrl>Z from your desktop PC to indicate the end-of-file.
  7. Now you can save the basic file into your NEC's menu.

Transferring ASCII text (.DO) files from desktop PC to the NEC

  1. Attach your PC and your laptop together with a full NULL-modem cable or regular serial cable with NULL-modem adapter.
  2. Load a terminal program on your PC (Procomm Plus, Telix, Hyperterminal, etc.)
  3. Set the terminal to communicate at 19200 bps, No Parity, 8-data bits, 1 stop-bit, and xon/xoff flow control.
  4. On the NEC's main menu, press <F1> and type in COM:9N81XN and press <ENTER>.
  5. On the desktop PC, initiate an ASCII upload of the .DO file.
  6. After the file is done sending, issue a <ctrl>Z from your desktop PC to indicate the end-of-file.

Transferring .DO or .BA (fully tokenized) files from NEC to a desktop PC

  1. Attach your PC and your laptop together with a full NULL-modem cable or regular serial cable with NULL-modem adapter.
  2. Load a terminal program on your PC (Procomm Plus, Telix, Hyperterminal, etc.)
  3. Set the terminal to communicate at 19200 bps, No Parity, 8-data bits, 1 stop-bit, and xon/xoff flow control.
  4. Open an ASCII capture file or initiate an ASCII "download" on the PC.
  5. On the NEC's main menu, position the cursor over the file and press <F2> (Save).
  6. Type in COM:9N81XN and press <ENTER>.

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