RespeQt Mac 4.3 Flow Control and Writing to ATR

[spookt]

HI Folks

I recently grabbed an FTDI board and wired up an interface as described here, though I haven't used a diode as suggested there on the data in line. I grabbed RespeQt, installed it and have it somewhat working but have a couple of questions:

1) I was unable to get the Atari to recognise the connection to the Mac with any flow control setting other than 'None'. I have the CTS line hooked up to the SIO command line but no dice. With flow control set to none I can do reads fine and successfully booted some ATRs and COM files.

2) I can't write back to ATRs. I created a blank image, booted Sparta and tried to initialise it and get error writing directory at The Atari and a lot of noise in the RespeQt log. Here's a sample:

[Disk 1] Get status: $ff
[Disk 1] Speed poll
[Disk 1] Get PERCOM block (65535 sector, 512 bytes/sector hard disk (32768k)).
[Disk 1] Read Sector 1 ($001) #1 in track 0 ($00)
[Disk 1] Read Sector 18 ($012) #18 in track 0 ($00)
[Disk 1] Get status: $ff
[Disk 1] Get PERCOM block (65535 sector, 512 bytes/sector hard disk (32768k)).
[Disk 1] Read Sector 1 ($001) #1 in track 0 ($00)
[Disk 1] Write Sector 1 ($001) #1 in track 0 ($00)
Data frame checksum error, expected: 252, got: 126. (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)
[Disk 1] Write sector data frame failed.
[Disk 1] Sending [DATA NAK] to Atari
[Disk 1] Write Sector 1 ($001) #1 in track 0 ($00)
[Disk 1] Write Sector 2 ($002) #2 in track 0 ($00)
Data frame checksum error, expected: 31, got: 120. (00000ffffffffffffbfeffffffffffffffffffffff7fdfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffbfefffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffbfefffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffbfefffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffbfeffffffffffffffffffffffffff7fdffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffbfeffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffbfeffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffbfefff1f)
[Disk 1] Write sector data frame failed.
[Disk 1] Sending [DATA NAK] to Atari
[Disk 1] Write Sector 2 ($002) #2 in track 0 ($00)
Data frame checksum error, expected: 31, got: 5.

This then repeats as the requests are retried.

 

From what I've read here, flow control should be supported. Is this an issue caused by the lack of the diode? If not any other suggestions about what to try?

 

Cheers!

[JoSch]

My observation with Macs is similar.

I have Lothareks SIO2PC. I cant always get a reliable high speed connection.

The Sparkfun board used for the 1088XEL seems to be more stable.

I suspect, that the Macos specific serial code needs more tweaking.

[spookt]

My observation with Macs is similar.

I have Lothareks SIO2PC. I cant always get a reliable high speed connection.

The Sparkfun board used for the 1088XEL seems to be more stable.

I suspect, that the Macos specific serial code needs more tweaking.

 

 

Thanks for the info. Time to fire up Parallels and see if the Windows version behaves differently.

[spookt]

Hmm - initial testing in Windows 10 via Parallels shows exactly the same behaviour. Interesting. The only real windows box I have access to is a WinXP laptop so I may try there. Wondering if this is an issue either the FTDI board I bought or my implementation.

[+DrVenkman]

Might not be limited to OS X. I'm running a recent (last month or two?) build of ebiguy's and JoSch's development branches, adding in Happy/Archiver and better printer support. My platform is Raspbian Linux on a Raspberry Pi 3. Loading files is generally not a problem. However, I've had some weird errors writing to ATR files. Currently I'm set at POKEY divisor 0 which has never been a problem on this hardware (FTDI-based interface device and RPi). However, I have been getting occasional write errors using my device's usual DSR flow control setting. I haven't explored it in great detail, nor have I tried reducing communication speed to see if that affects anything.

[spookt]

So I rolled back to the r4 release from r4.3 and tested on both MacOS and a Win XP laptop. The results are that on the WIn XP machine I can read and write to ATR files reliably using CTS handshaking. On the Mac the Atari can't even see a drive with handshaking set to CTS. It will read OK using NONE but cannot write to ATRs.

 

Tests were carried out using the same DOS 2.5 image whilst trying to format a new standard density ATR image in drive slot 2.

 

Guess I'll be sticking with the Win XP laptop for now.

[Kyle22]

RespeQt works beautifully on my XP32 hp ProBook 6550b. I use FTDI with CTS.