NETPOLL

Syntax

NETPOLL address, bytes

Location

FLEXYNET (DIY Toolkit - Vol Y)

This command allows you to sample electrical signals sent over the QL’s Network, which can be used to decode any digital data stream, such as information sent by cassettes tapes (this method has been used by some Spectrum emulators for the QL to allow you to load Spectrum games direct from tape).

You need to pass two parameters - the address of a place in memory where the data which is read is to be stored, followed by the number of bytes which can be stored at the address.

For each byte to be stored at the specified address, NETPOLL ‘listens’ to the QL’s Network ports and whenever an electrical pulse is received by the port (for example as sent by NETBEEP), then NETPOLL counts the length of this pulse and sets the data byte to the relevant value, moving onto the next available byte (or returning to BASIC if it has reached the end of the storage area).

The value of the data byte will be between 0 and 254, with the delay being the difference between the value and 255 (hence a value of 127 shows a delay of approximately twice a value of 254). If a value is 255, this indicates that the timer ran out before a pulse arrived.

NOTE

An odd number of bytes at the storage area will be rounded up, so that an even number of pulses will always be read.

CROSS-REFERENCE

The amount of time that NETPOLL will wait for a pulse is affected by NETRATE0,0,x. See NETBEEP which sends signal tones along the network ports. Also see NETRATE,NETREAD andNETSEND.