5.1.4 Rockwell-based modems, e.g. Supra

As far as I know, sending or receiving are no problem (although you have to use 19200 baud when in class 2 faxmode - set speed to 19200 in sendfax.config, and set switchbd to 19200 in mgetty.config. Remember to change the modem initialization strings to the proper values for your modem, that is, ATQ0V1E0 OK AT&K3S0=0 OK.

Especially for the ‘SupraFax’ modem, I’ve been told that you have to set modem-handshake to AT&K3 and initialize the modem with AT&S0&D2&K3. Since the modem does not like being reset with DTR->low (do not use &D3!), an ATZ in the first initizalization string in mgetty.c, to reset the modem into a known state, is a good idea, too.

(Thanks to Christof Junge, chris@cj.in-berlin.de, for trying out several weeks until everything worked!)

Some other SupraFAX Rom releases seem to forget that they are set to use RTS/CTS handshake if a +FCLASS=0 is sent to them. I think it should help to store the AT&K3 into NVRAM, but maybe you have to patch mgetty.c. See contrib/readme.supra for details.

Fax polling does not work because the Rockwell chipset does not support it.

NEWS: Most recent Rockwell 33.600 modems do not support any decent fax operation anymore – they added “simultaneous Voice over Data” (SVD) to their modem firmware, and because the Eproms are not large enough, they threw out their class 2 firmware. Don’t buy such a modem, it won’t work properly with mgetty+sendfax.

If you buy a Rockwell-based modem (they are usually quite cheap), make sure that you get one that can do class 2 or (better) class 2.0. Even if it’s written on the box, some recent models just can’t do it!

Together with vgetty, many Rockwell modems can distinguish between different types of incoming “RING” tones (usually called “distinguished RING” by the local Telco). Use the command AT#SDR=n (n between 0 and 7) to enable this feature. If in doubt, check with your modem manual whether your modem can do this at all.