New Indus GT firmware

[MrMartian]

I decided to tackle the Indus GT, and add US Doubler style Ultraspeed to it. Here's version 0.1! Program it into a 2732, and pop it in. Let me know if you see any issues with it. It works fine in the one I have, but that's not a great sample!

 

I've removed Syncromesh, since very little seems to support it, and added US at $0A (52Kbps). I haven't put in the custom format routine, so it only formats at the original skew. I may try adding that in, but for now I just want to make sure this seems to work for the majority of the people out there.

 

Enjoy

Edited October 28, 2007 by MrMartian

[carmel_andrews]

what would be interesting is an indus gt type emulation on a chip or any of those obscure US 3rd party compatible disk drive (or euro 3rd party a8 comptible disk drive) that you can use with a 1050 or 810/551

[MrMartian]

what would be interesting is an indus gt type emulation on a chip or any of those obscure US 3rd party compatible disk drive (or euro 3rd party a8 comptible disk drive) that you can use with a 1050 or 810/551

 

I'm not sure what you're asking here. Are you saying you'd like to add Syncromesh to the 810/1050/XF?

[sup8pdct]

I decided to tackle the Indus GT, and add US Doubler style Ultraspeed to it. Here's version 0.1! Program it into a 2732, and pop it in. Let me know if you see any issues with it. It works fine in the one I have, but that's not a great sample!

 

I've removed Syncromesh, since very little seems to support it, and added US at $0A (52Kbps). I haven't put in the custom format routine, so it only formats at the original skew. I may try adding that in, but for now I just want to make sure this seems to work for the majority of the people out there.

 

Enjoy

 

Is it true that the indus inverts the data from the atari on the sio buss? I am not 100% on this. also is the FDC used in the indus the inverting data type?

 

well done. I have the USD rom disassembled here. want a copy of it?

James.

[MrMartian]

Is it true that the indus inverts the data from the atari on the sio buss? I am not 100% on this. also is the FDC used in the indus the inverting data type?

 

well done. I have the USD rom disassembled here. want a copy of it?

James.

 

Nothing is inverted in this drive. AFAIK, the only drive I've seen with the inverted FDC was the 810..

 

Sure, I'd like a copy of your USD disassembly. I've done it a bit myself, but if someone else has already cleaned it all up and commented it, that saves me some time I can put towards other projects.

[Bryan]

I used to have the factory source code for the Indus and the XF551. In the source, they called the Indus the WART (Wonderful Atari Rotating Thing) before they had a name for it. Got rid of a bunch of A8 stuff a long time ago and didn't keep a copy.

Edited October 25, 2007 by Bryan

[sup8pdct]

Is it true that the indus inverts the data from the atari on the sio buss? I am not 100% on this. also is the FDC used in the indus the inverting data type?

 

well done. I have the USD rom disassembled here. want a copy of it?

James.

 

Nothing is inverted in this drive. AFAIK, the only drive I've seen with the inverted FDC was the 810..

 

Sure, I'd like a copy of your USD disassembly. I've done it a bit myself, but if someone else has already cleaned it all up and commented it, that saves me some time I can put towards other projects.

 

It isn't commented very well at all. only what I could figure out. It assembles with no errors and have done a brief check to make sure it assembles correctly.

I had it once till a problem occurred and lost half of it. lucky i still had the original dissembly output and have redone it.

 

James

usd_source.txt

[MrMartian]

I think I've discovered a bug in my Indus ROM - it looks like it won't accept sector numbers >720, even though it seems to support enhanced density.

 

If anyone has a dump of the Indus ROM, can you please post it so I can compare? I might as well get the best version before I do any more changes to it..

[JR>]

Here are the 3 versions that I have.

 

INDUS.zip

[sup8pdct]

I think I've discovered a bug in my Indus ROM - it looks like it won't accept sector numbers >720, even though it seems to support enhanced density.

 

If anyone has a dump of the Indus ROM, can you please post it so I can compare? I might as well get the best version before I do any more changes to it..

 

If you went off the indus 1.1 rom, it did have a problem with enhanced density. Not sure about 1.2 tho it may or may not have a problem with enhanced density. one or both versions had a problem with the mapping of the letters or numbers sent to the led display.

1.4 had all problems fixed.

James

[MrMartian]

If you went off the indus 1.1 rom, it did have a problem with enhanced density. Not sure about 1.2 tho it may or may not have a problem with enhanced density. one or both versions had a problem with the mapping of the letters or numbers sent to the led display.

1.4 had all problems fixed.

James

 

Actually, I went off the 1.4 ROM it seems.. (By comparing my ROM to the ones from JR's archive) And, if definitely NAKs on sectors >$2D0 (720).. Very odd!

[MrMartian]

If you went off the indus 1.1 rom, it did have a problem with enhanced density. Not sure about 1.2 tho it may or may not have a problem with enhanced density. one or both versions had a problem with the mapping of the letters or numbers sent to the led display.

1.4 had all problems fixed.

James

 

Okay, after disassembling the various versions, I've come to a bit of a conclusion..

 

The file that is labelled 1.2, seems to be 1.2. The file labelled 1.4 is 1.1, and the one labelled unk (unknown?) also claims 1.2, but is different than the other 1.2..

 

The two that call themselves 1.2 handle enhanced density properly, so please ignore the first firmware I posted! I will try and determine the difference between the two 1.2s that I have. Also, if someone has ANY other dumps of an Indus GT rom, I'd love to see them!

 

The version number seems to be the two bytes, four from the end of the file. The last two bytes are the checksum of the ROM.

 

The investigation continues!

[sup8pdct]

If you went off the indus 1.1 rom, it did have a problem with enhanced density. Not sure about 1.2 tho it may or may not have a problem with enhanced density. one or both versions had a problem with the mapping of the letters or numbers sent to the led display.

1.4 had all problems fixed.

James

 

Okay, after disassembling the various versions, I've come to a bit of a conclusion..

 

The file that is labelled 1.2, seems to be 1.2. The file labelled 1.4 is 1.1, and the one labelled unk (unknown?) also claims 1.2, but is different than the other 1.2..

 

The two that call themselves 1.2 handle enhanced density properly, so please ignore the first firmware I posted! I will try and determine the difference between the two 1.2s that I have. Also, if someone has ANY other dumps of an Indus GT rom, I'd love to see them!

 

The version number seems to be the two bytes, four from the end of the file. The last two bytes are the checksum of the ROM.

 

The investigation continues!

It could be that I am wrong. I thought I had the latest version, but I have 1.2. maybe the rom versions were 1, 1.1 and 1.2 someone with a field service manual will be able to tell. I have one but cannot find it at all at the moment. I do know the early one did have trouble with enhanced density and a latter one had a mapping problem with the numbers/letters sent to the led display, the rom tables were adjusted to fix this problem. also a go was had at fixing the syncromesh but it didn't work.

here is my 1.2 version

James

indus.bin

[sup8pdct]

Is it true that the indus inverts the data from the atari on the sio buss? I am not 100% on this. also is the FDC used in the indus the inverting data type?

 

well done. I have the USD rom disassembled here. want a copy of it?

James.

 

Nothing is inverted in this drive. AFAIK, the only drive I've seen with the inverted FDC was the 810..

 

Sure, I'd like a copy of your USD disassembly. I've done it a bit myself, but if someone else has already cleaned it all up and commented it, that saves me some time I can put towards other projects.

after looking on other disks, I found another usd source file that I worked on that is better then the first one i posted.

 

James

usd.txt

[+Larry]

I decided to tackle the Indus GT, and add US Doubler style Ultraspeed to it. Here's version 0.1! Program it into a 2732, and pop it in. Let me know if you see any issues with it. It works fine in the one I have, but that's not a great sample!

 

I've removed Syncromesh, since very little seems to support it, and added US at $0A (52Kbps). I haven't put in the custom format routine, so it only formats at the original skew. I may try adding that in, but for now I just want to make sure this seems to work for the majority of the people out there.

 

Enjoy

 

Congratulations! A very nice hack! I've put testing this on my "must-do" list for next week. (It was that -or- paint the kitchen.)

 

Could you tell us a little about how involved/difficult this was? I presume that even with the issue with ED (>$2D0), that it currently works with DD?

 

-Larry

[MrMartian]

Congratulations! A very nice hack! I've put testing this on my "must-do" list for next week. (It was that -or- paint the kitchen.)

 

Could you tell us a little about how involved/difficult this was? I presume that even with the issue with ED (>$2D0), that it currently works with DD?

 

-Larry

 

Yes, it seems to work great in single and double density.. I'm not sure what other bugs there might have been in 1.1, though.. I will work on adding US to the 1.2 version that I have now, unless someone posts an even newer version!

[MrMartian]

It could be that I am wrong. I thought I had the latest version, but I have 1.2. maybe the rom versions were 1, 1.1 and 1.2 someone with a field service manual will be able to tell. I have one but cannot find it at all at the moment. I do know the early one did have trouble with enhanced density and a latter one had a mapping problem with the numbers/letters sent to the led display, the rom tables were adjusted to fix this problem. also a go was had at fixing the syncromesh but it didn't work.

 

So far, the newest version anyone has seems to be this 1.2, so I'm going to re-do my routines based on this firmware. I can tell it supports ED properly, and if haven't seen any issues with your display, I'm going to expect this version doesn't have a bug there either!

 

I'm not sure how they expected Syncromesh to ever work.. 52Kbps is not too hard to get out of the Z80, and I could possibly get a little higher, but I can't see 78K!!

[MrMartian]

Hey, I must be getting good at this, or something! Here's version 0.03, based off 1.2. Test it and let me know!

Indus_gt_12.bin

[JR>]

Okay, after disassembling the various versions, I've come to a bit of a conclusion..

 

The file that is labelled 1.2, seems to be 1.2. The file labelled 1.4 is 1.1, and the one labelled unk (unknown?) also claims 1.2, but is different than the other 1.2..

 

The two that call themselves 1.2 handle enhanced density properly, so please ignore the first firmware I posted! I will try and determine the difference between the two 1.2s that I have. Also, if someone has ANY other dumps of an Indus GT rom, I'd love to see them!

 

The version number seems to be the two bytes, four from the end of the file. The last two bytes are the checksum of the ROM.

 

The investigation continues!

 

 

That's very interesting. I have several different archives that contain INDUS Rom dumps and every one of them identifies that as 1.4. It must have been misidentified originally and then propogated over the years. I'm glad I never "upgraded" all mine to 1.4 as I had once planned.

 

I believe the 'unk' version is a dump of an upgrade ROM I bought from Best Electronics back in the day. It was supposed to have some sort of improvements, but I don't recall exactly what. I have the documentation for it here somewhere, but I can't seem to locate it right now.

[sup8pdct]

It could be that I am wrong. I thought I had the latest version, but I have 1.2. maybe the rom versions were 1, 1.1 and 1.2 someone with a field service manual will be able to tell. I have one but cannot find it at all at the moment. I do know the early one did have trouble with enhanced density and a latter one had a mapping problem with the numbers/letters sent to the led display, the rom tables were adjusted to fix this problem. also a go was had at fixing the syncromesh but it didn't work.

 

So far, the newest version anyone has seems to be this 1.2, so I'm going to re-do my routines based on this firmware. I can tell it supports ED properly, and if haven't seen any issues with your display, I'm going to expect this version doesn't have a bug there either!

 

I'm not sure how they expected Syncromesh to ever work.. 52Kbps is not too hard to get out of the Z80, and I could possibly get a little higher, but I can't see 78K!!

If you read through the forums, you will find that the syncromesh code is actually uploaded to the drive. any SDX user will be able to get the indus.com file from the cart and send it to ya. A version of dosXL? also has the code tho it may or maynot be the same as the one in SDX.

The code works very well too as I have tried it many times.

 

James

[JR>]

I believe the 'unk' version is a dump of an upgrade ROM I bought from Best Electronics back in the day. It was supposed to have some sort of improvements, but I don't recall exactly what. I have the documentation for it here somewhere, but I can't seem to locate it right now.

 

I found the documentation for this ROM and transcribed it. I never have actually used this ROM as I fried my original INDUS before I got around to installing it and never got around to it after obtaining more drives. Sounds like some good improvements if they actually work. Should give you some things to play around with MrMartian.

 

INDUS12X.txt

[MrMartian]

If you read through the forums, you will find that the syncromesh code is actually uploaded to the drive. any SDX user will be able to get the indus.com file from the cart and send it to ya. A version of dosXL? also has the code tho it may or maynot be the same as the one in SDX.

The code works very well too as I have tried it many times.

 

James

 

Actually, there is already code in the firmware for syncromesh, it just doesn't work right. But, they wrote it so that most functions go through a vector call, and they could upload new code to the drive's ram. Once they got it right, it was just released as an uploadable chunk of code.. The Indus does bit bang serial, so pretty much any baud rate can be created, as long as you have enough clock cycles to sample the bit, and shift it in. The big problem comes after the 8th bit, you have to put the byte in ram, increment the counter, decrement the byte counter and do it again if you need. And, that all needs to happen in less than a bit's worth of time, so you can be ready to catch the start of the next start bit.

 

Either way, ultraspeed is overall more compatible, so if I can achieve the speed, and it's usuable in more places, I think that's better.

[carmel_andrews]

Aren't 3rd party A8 drives like Indus, Rana etc supposed to conform to the Atari/percom standards/protocols

 

 

If that's so, it should be a doddle to reprogram the hi-speed sio code w/i the indus GT...if it's anything like USD, it will use the DCB locations (0300h to 0311/12h) and jmp/jsr to the s/ciov location in the o/s

 

Anyway USD is only slightly better then synchromesh...

 

Were there any mod's for the 3rd party A8 drives like there were for the 810/1050 etc

 

I still say you can't beat a 1050 fitted with speedy 1050 (fastest sio speed on any 1050/810 upgrade, the only thing that came close is the 'elusive' isplate 1050 upgrade)

[cas]

With additional RAM (the RAMCHARGER) a new ROM in the INDUS should be able to reach Speedy Speed. The Speedy ROM Source is available.

 

Carsten

[MrMartian]

With additional RAM (the RAMCHARGER) a new ROM in the INDUS should be able to reach Speedy Speed. The Speedy ROM Source is available.

 

Carsten

 

Additional ram won't make much of a difference, processor speed is the key. Also, from experience, not all Ultraspeed patches support <$0A, so that speed is kind of a best of all worlds compromise.

 

Where might this Speedy source be available?