Savetz Posted April 3, 2018 Share Posted April 3, 2018 (edited) Here's the cart. As for the PCB, the case seems to be held together by a screw behind the label. I will not harm the label to open it. Edited April 3, 2018 by Savetz 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari65xenajm Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 Here's the cart. As for the PCB, the case seems to be held together by a screw behind the label. I will not harm the label to open it. IMG_0340.JPG IMG_0341.JPG This cartridge reads لبيبة والسنافر (transliterated as Labibah was-Sanafir) or translated as Labibah and the Smurfs. Our friend @Madi has captured this cartridge into an image here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/230100-could-be-the-oldest-arabic-os-najm/?p=3092131 Thanks for sharing @Savetz! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari65xenajm Posted April 8, 2018 Share Posted April 8, 2018 More pictures of cartridges from aDawliah. I found those on eBay today but the seller, based in Egypt, is asking for incredibly high prices for these two. This one here is بنك المعلومات transliterated as Bankul Ma'aloomat, which is Arabic for Bank of Knowledge. The title resembles a famous TV series in the 1990's where contestants compete in answering questions by the presenter. Similar to Jeopardy in the US. The second cartridge here is اختبر ذكائك [sic]. This cartridge is one of a kind because it has a typo in its name! It should have been printed as اختبر ذكاءك transliterated as Ikhtabir Thaka'ak which is Arabic for Test your Intellect. I will keep an eye on these two carts and if the owner reduces their price to something in the ballpark of $100 each, I can buy them and share the dumps. I am not sure if all aDawliah cartridges follow the same mapping as @Kr0tki found it, but it would be worth investigating then. Enjoy! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+tf_hh Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 Hi all, I know it´s not the right thread, but I´m sure, some owner of an arabic XE watch this I got two mails in the last 12 months from different user (one in USA, one in UK) that their arabic 65XE won´t work with my Sys-Check V2.2. Both computers have an ECI, of course. Reported issue is the same: Just a red/brown screen after Sys-Check is plugged in. Contacts were okay, one of them test the XE successfully with a KMK-IDE V2.0 IDE interface. Of course I´m interested what´s going in there, but I haven´t any arabic 65 XE in my collection. So I ask the community... does anybody own such a model, has also Sys-Check and test it? And, is there anybody who is willing to borrow me the mainboard (less shipping costs and risk of damages) for testing with Sys-Check? Thanks, Jurgen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred_M Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 Hi Jürgen, I am willing to send you my 65XE Arabic for testing. Just let me know if you want to take this offer. Kind regards, Fred 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 I think SysCheck should work OK with them Jurgen, since I'm pretty sure I used the device to diagnose RAM issues on one or more Arabic XEs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 (edited) it's the edge connectors on ECI interface sometimes "wiggling" sys-check II around can make contact. on some 65XENs the edge connectors are too thin and contact is impossible - i know I have two that refuse to play ball. Edited April 9, 2018 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+tf_hh Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 I am willing to send you my 65XE Arabic for testing. Just let me know if you want to take this offer. Hi Fred, thanks very much - But before we ship the computer, I will wait for more responses. BR Jurgen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+tf_hh Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 it's the edge connectors on ECI interface sometimes "wiggling" sys-check II around can make contact. on some 65XENs the edge connectors are too thin and contact is impossible - i know I have two that refuse to play ball. This was also my first thought. Have had this issue at some XE (and XL, too), that´s the reason why I have a "cleaning tipps" chapter in the Sys-Check manual. Did you also test Sys-Check with an arabic XE successfully like Jon? If so, I think there are more "positives" then the need to examine it by myself. And, I never heard of a different hardware setup, just an alternative operating system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 All or most of the Arabic XEs I repaired (and diagnosed with SysCheck in some cases) belonged to Brenski, BTW. I cannot be sure which SysCheck board revision was used with which, of course, since I have both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred_M Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 My Arabic XE came from Brenski too If I can test the ECI with something else than the Sys-Check, let me know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 (edited) i've got 5 XENs here and there's different responses from "identical" setups: initial results: ■ 65XEN Rev 2 - 8/8 ram - c101700-001a - RED SCREEN ■ 130XE Rev 1 - 2/4 ram - c101700-002c - SyscheckII runs ■ 65XEN Rev 2 - 8/8 ram - c101700-001a - SyscheckII runs ■ 65XEN Rev 2 - 8/8 ram - c101700-1c - SyscheckII runs ■ 130XE Rev 1 - 2/4 ram - c101700-02c - RED SCREEN the two red screeners didn't get resolved by "wiggling"...however, after a significant trial and error, i found that: if you insert the syscheck-II so that it is flush against the wall of the ECI slot (nearest to SIO) and a small gap of about 1mm at monitor port end of ECI, then the syscheck-II works perfectly. Jurgen, this leads me to conclude that there are definitely some physical differences between the Arabic models and (obviously) nothing to do with the syscheck-II. bear in mind - you experiment like i did - at your own risk. Edited April 9, 2018 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 But do the two that don't work with SysCheck work with other ECI devices? Until we know that, I don't think we can conclude anything definite at all. I couldn't get my last remaining IDE plus to work with my 600XL until I cleaned the pads with isopropyl alcohol. The more that can be eliminated at this end, the less time Jürgen has to spend investigating potential non-issues. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+tf_hh Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 i've got 5 XENs here and there's different responses from "identical" setups: after a significant trial and error, i found that: if you insert the syscheck-II so that it is flush against the wall of the ECI slot (nearest to SIO) and a small gap of about 1mm at monitor port end of ECI, then the syscheck-II works perfectly. Thank you very much for these infos. I´m astonished about the gap you mention. When I create the first Sys-Check boards and the prototype comes in, I try it in over 10 different XE mainboards, there wasn´t a gap of 1 mm possible when I´m remember right. Maybe I´m wrong, but 1 mm is too much to accept and can cause contact issues, of course. Wil check this again with my stock of XE boards and some Sys-Check PCBs. I change the PCB maker from Iteadstudio to AllPCB last year, maybe here´s a difference. All PCB orders based on the same gerber data files, never changed that since V2.2 is born. Strange... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 yep. well there is definitely some play. and i was referring to the gap either side of the edge connector (which is about 1mm total). when i slot the syscheck-II home flush against the case-edge nearest SIO it makes proper contact. it will go in dead centre, but obviously this is where it's not making correct contact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari65xenajm Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 Ok, after some thread hijacking, I will try to bring this thread back to its due course. The seller of the two aDawliah cartridges was kind enough to knock $150 off his price of the two cartridges. I dumped the cartridges into a bin/rom image, but the mapping remains a problem to be solved. Unfortunately I cannot open the cartridge to show pictures of the PCB. Any other suggestions? Bank al Malumat-1.bin Ikhtabir Thakaak.bin 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kr0tki Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 (edited) Please document your dumping method. What software/hardware you used, what banking scheme you chose? Also try dumping each cartridge using all of the following mappings: - Type 8: 64 KB Williams cartridge - Type 9: Express 64 KB cartridge - Type 24: XEGS 512 KB cartridge - Type 31: MegaCart 512 KB cartridge - Type 42: AtariMax 1 MB Flash cartridge With the lack of PCB photos, different dumping methods might help in deducing the cartridges' banking schemes. EDIT: One important thing: before performing each dump, remove and insert the cartridge from the slot, to force a reset of the cartridge hardware. Edited May 14, 2018 by Kr0tki 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madi Posted May 21, 2018 Author Share Posted May 21, 2018 Ok, after some thread hijacking, I will try to bring this thread back to its due course. The seller of the two aDawliah cartridges was kind enough to knock $150 off his price of the two cartridges. I dumped the cartridges into a bin/rom image, but the mapping remains a problem to be solved. Unfortunately I cannot open the cartridge to show pictures of the PCB. Any other suggestions? Hi atari65xenajm Unfortunately, the second file (Ikhtabir Thakaak.bin) didn't work for me under Altirra. madi 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeron Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 Bank al Malumat is a 64K image with 8 unique banks; the other 8 in each block of 16 is all $FFs. Data written to $D500 selects bank. Cart boots in Altirra with Megacart 1M (2) mode. It only activates four banks but yet seems to work, so I'm not sure what's in the other four. Ikhtabir Thakaak is most likely a bad dump as it only has 8K of unique data. It is trying to read from $D500 to switch banks when preloading a large amount of data on boot, so most likely another autoincrementing bank cart. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari65xenajm Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 Please document your dumping method. What software/hardware you used, what banking scheme you chose? Also try dumping each cartridge using all of the following mappings: - Type 8: 64 KB Williams cartridge - Type 9: Express 64 KB cartridge - Type 24: XEGS 512 KB cartridge - Type 31: MegaCart 512 KB cartridge - Type 42: AtariMax 1 MB Flash cartridge With the lack of PCB photos, different dumping methods might help in deducing the cartridges' banking schemes. EDIT: One important thing: before performing each dump, remove and insert the cartridge from the slot, to force a reset of the cartridge hardware. Hello @Kr0tki and all, I used the AtariMax software along with the MAX Flash USB Programmer. From the above 5 schemes, I chose 8, 24, 31, and 42. For some reason I was not able to find Express 64 KB cartridge. After saving each dump, I removed and inserted the cartridge from the slot, and proceeded to the next dump. I hope this works. Cart_Dumps.zip 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madi Posted May 27, 2018 Author Share Posted May 27, 2018 (edited) Hello @Kr0tki and all, I used the AtariMax software along with the MAX Flash USB Programmer. From the above 5 schemes, I chose 8, 24, 31, and 42. For some reason I was not able to find Express 64 KB cartridge. After saving each dump, I removed and inserted the cartridge from the slot, and proceeded to the next dump. I hope this works. Hi atari65xenajm I only managed to run the following file: 31_MegaCart_512_Ikhtabir_Thakaak.bin Actually it is not Ikhtabir Thakaak.bin. It is Bank_ul_Maalumat.bin which was reported as working file in an earlier post. madi Edited May 27, 2018 by Madi 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari65xenajm Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 Hi atari65xenajm I only managed to run the following file: 31_MegaCart_512_Ikhtabir_Thakaak.bin Actually it is not Ikhtabir Thakaak.bin. It is Bank_ul_Maalumat.bin which was reported as working file in an earlier post. madi You are right @Madi! Will need to do this again when I am more focused it seems! I was able to run 31_MegaCart_512_Ikhtabir_Thakaak.bin as a SIC! Cart on Altirra 3.00 and it did work and produced Bank ul Maalumat indeed! At least one cartridge is working! Can this cartridge be converted to a proper .CAR file? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madi Posted May 27, 2018 Author Share Posted May 27, 2018 I had a close look at the working image file :"Bank_ul_Maalumat.bin" My finding is that the whole cartridge banks only serve two purposes. 1. Download a basic program (the game) to ram. 2 Provide a Basic Cartridge at $A000 - BFFF for the basic program to run Funny. The basic program (game) is attached. LOAD and RUN madi BankMalu.BAS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari65xenajm Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 (edited) You are right @Madi! Will need to do this again when I am more focused it seems! I was able to run 31_MegaCart_512_Ikhtabir_Thakaak.bin as a SIC! Cart on Altirra 3.00 and it did work and produced Bank ul Maalumat indeed! At least one cartridge is working! Can this cartridge be converted to a proper .CAR file? OK, reattached. Cartridges.zip Edited May 27, 2018 by atari65xenajm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari65xenajm Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 (edited) For those interested in a .car file. You are right @Madi! Will need to do this again when I am more focused it seems! I was able to run 31_MegaCart_512_Ikhtabir_Thakaak.bin as a SIC! Cart on Altirra 3.00 and it did work and produced Bank ul Maalumat indeed! At least one cartridge is working! Can this cartridge be converted to a proper .CAR file? SIC_MegaCart_512_Bank_ul_Maalumat.car.zip Edited May 28, 2018 by atari65xenajm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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