Marius Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 I don't have Phi2 mods on this Atari. That's why I was wondering whether I should do that or not I hope there are any other blackbox users also installing the Ultimate1MB and finding this issue. Perhaps someone can find a solution for it. It's strange! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 One more thing: there appears to be a bug in your day-of-the-week thing in the menu. It tells me it is Thr, 02-12-2011... But it is Friday today. Greetz M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 its not a bug, its feature SDX doesn't set this field (day of the week) when doing write to RTC, and bios doesn't calculate it, but just displays if all else fails, you can send me that blackbox so i could see whats going on - i don't know anyone else who would use it anyways, but still i'm willing to debug it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Ah I see about the RTC thing. Thanks for explanation. Last question: I thought that battery was also for Ramdisk Backup, but for some reason, after I switched off my Atari, and switched it back on my Ramdisk containts garbage (yes I do a re-init ramdisk without formatting). Isn't the battery backing up ramdisk content? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Ah I see about the RTC thing. Thanks for explanation. Last question: I thought that battery was also for Ramdisk Backup, but for some reason, after I switched off my Atari, and switched it back on my Ramdisk containts garbage (yes I do a re-init ramdisk without formatting). Isn't the battery backing up ramdisk content? According to the schematics on Candle`s web site the battery only connects to pin 2 of the DS1305 RTC chip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 (edited) no, it isn't i don't find it very useful while having hard drive, and it would significantly add some cost if done in proper way edit: Bill replied ealier Edited December 2, 2011 by candle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 @Candle About sending my blackbox... I have to think that over. I'm a bit afraid it might get damaged due to abusive shipping-habits of the Dutch Post (they really REALLY s*ck, and they play football and all that kind of things with our packages). I hope I can find out WHY it doesn't work. As soon as I know what is happening, I will give you a detailed description of everything I found... At this moment I have the idea that my Atari (when the blackbox is connected) is not convinced of the fact that there is actual a valid BASIC running. It looks like half of the atari knows it is there, and the other half doesn't. So I get the Ready prompt, and after that my atari freezes. Pressing reset gives funny results (like a reset loop). As soon as I insert a cartridge in the Atari with Basic on it, everything works fine. I have checked a few memory locations (like TRAMSZ ($06), BASICF ($3F8), GINTLK ($3FA), and PORTB ($D301)) but every location gives the right result. I have the feeling it has something to do with the PIA emulation of Ultimate board, but I can not find evidence about that yet. I keep you informed. Greetz M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 the symptoms you've describes suggest that memory is not initialised properly this symptom was present in early bios versions, and then it was fixed if blackbox does its own decoding in d6xx-d7xx range and it has some registers that leaves memory map in uncertain state then this might be a problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 I will burn an older Firmware of BlackBox, and check that out. I'm pretty sure the BlackBox uses that Area $d6xx-$d7xx and It's probably very possible that what you describe is happening. It is not really a very big deal (I can use my BASIC Cart when I need basic) but it would be cool if it worked 100%) Thanks again for all your support! I have been testing things out, and Ultimate 1MB works very well. It's an extremely cool project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Hello guys As you can read on my BlackBox page, the BlackBox uses addresses in the $D1xx and $D6xx range. Mathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 Thanks Mathy it seems (judging from the register description) that black box is not PBI device standard compilant - ie it won't free the PBI bus when d1ff is written 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 Hello Candle You are right, it's not compliant. But I've been told by both Guus Assman and Matthias Belitz that I can be upgraded so that it will free up the PBI bus, using parts that cost less then half a euro. Unfortunately, neither is willing to tell me how it's done. Mathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted December 3, 2011 Author Share Posted December 3, 2011 Mathy, have you any schematics for this device? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 This is what I have here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 Hmmm things aren't getting any better here. Now in my Ultimate Bios menu I see some garbage in the screen graphics. Too much bus load. Without BlackBox the Ultimate 1MB upgrade is great, but with BlackBox it is a no go. I will try a decent Ph2 fix in my 800XL, but since I have seen this issue before on a Flashbased OS upgrade, I'm afraid this is not fixable. Since my blackbox is my first choice add-on on my Atari 8bit, I think I stay with my homemade 512KB SRAM upgrade (Hiassoft version) on this Atari, and use the Ultimate 1MB in my test setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 I have nothing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w1k Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 i will take one please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted December 4, 2011 Author Share Posted December 4, 2011 Marius, best way would be shipping it over i know how expensive it had to be in the first place (atariki states insane money being paid for it), but Deutche post can't be that bad some folks from Germany used DHL for shipments, and their parcells were always delivered safe and sound i would not suspect bus overloade of any sort, even if i consider that black box is ttl parts - and lots of them ultimate1mb is 3 more chips directly on atari bus, and they are modern technology that doesn't introduce too much of capacitance nor bus load Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 Hello Candle Which device do you mean? BlackBox? Guus Assmann is the guy to ask, I'm sure he has the schematics of the BlackBox. Mathy (who almost missed your question) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted December 4, 2011 Author Share Posted December 4, 2011 Thanks Mathy I already have (not) that was posted here in the erm, morning? and now doesn't exist but that won't enable me poking my oscilloscope into it and finding out whats really going on without it, and basing soleyly on schematics, i can't get very far all i can do is to hack it so it would be pbi compatible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 Hello Candle I know it's "early", but could you please rewrite the above? I don't understand what you are saying. Mathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 Where is the list? I guess i missed it in the hundreds of replies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 HERE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted December 4, 2011 Author Share Posted December 4, 2011 Mathy, I can't but maybe Guus, or Marius or Fox-1 can Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox-1 / mnx Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 I know it's "early", but could you please rewrite the above? I don't understand what you are saying. At the meanwhile he has the schematics but one can't connect a scope to a schematic to measure some things. IOW: He needs a BlackBox. Both mine are in use and having to miss one for some time leaves me handicapped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.