Gunstar

January 26

2 minutes ago, bandit said:

Correct, a Disk drive working with Fujinet to use like the SIO2PC, was going to buy Fujinet or another old laptop if you can not make ATR from REAL drive to Fuji.

Then, if I am understanding correctly, and I think I am, you can buy Fujinet and not worry about another old laptop or SIO2PC at all, Fujinet sort of Obsoletes them.

January 26

3 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

What are you actually trying to accomplish? Connecting an Atari disk drive directly to your computer? Creating a sector copy of a physical disk to an ATR? It would help if you were more clear with what you want to do.

I think yes. @bandit wants to copy a real disk from a real floppy and make in an ATR image on Fujinet. And from watching the video above, it looks to me, if I'm understanding correctly. like he can follow all the steps there, but instead of setting up slot 3 for an ATR image off of a TNSF server, he could set up his physical drive as drive 3, plugged into the SIO port on the Fujinet and copy to drive 2 on Fujinet. Leaving slot 3 empty on Fujinet. And if he wants to make a real floppy disk from an image off of a TNFS server, then the real drive could be set as drive 2 with a real, formatted floppy disk in it, and copy the image from slot 3 to the floppy disk. And of course, besides slot 1 that has the DOS on it to load up, the real drives and slots could be in any drive number order, he just has to tell DOS what drive to copy to and from. Assuming there is only one physical drive to work with, otherwise the D1: could be DOS in a real drive too and copy an ATR from any other Fujinet slot to any other real drive that is set as D2:-D4: as long as the TNFS ATR and physical drive aren't set as the same drive number. Since to the Atari, they are all just real disk drives.

Am I understanding correctly? If I am correct, it is a lot simpler than using SIO2PC with APE/ASPQT/RESPQT to copy disks and images or even using APE's Prosystem and SIOto1050 with real drives since a PC doesn't need to be involved at all.

January 26

1 hour ago, tschak909 said:

(ok, I really need to stop answering posts soon, am definitely getting frustrated)

...If you copy e.g. to TNFS or to the SD card slot, you ARE indeed making an ATR image that you can pick up, either by grabbing it off the SD card, OR by picking it up in your TNFS folder. I do not understand why this is not clicking with you.

-Thom

As there is no manual or guide with a basic 101 for noobs that lays out, in plain English detail of everything about Fujinet, your frustrations would stop if a sticky thread at the top of this sub-forum was created with links to all documents and videos about Fujinet. Maybe a good old FAQ sheet too. I don't understand why this hasn't been done already. It is more difficult that you realize trying to learn all about it with information spread across different sites and videos or us lowly ignorant users continually asking questions that frustrate you . I've never owned a piece of Atari hardware that information on how to use it is spread out in so many places. I've been frustrated just like you, over this fact.

Apparently you've ignored my long explanations previously as to why I haven't understood stuff that you seem is simple and we should just "get" and my previous suggestions for a Sticky thread. Or a more detailed FAQ with exact step-by-step directions and links to documentation and videos that we are just supposed to know exist. Otherwise you will continue to get more "stupid" questions as more people get Fujinet with details about it and links and videos spread around like it was all just thrown in the air and it landed wherever.

Now me personally, I'm finally getting a grasp on most things about it with your and others help and direction here, so you won't be bothered by me over this stuff anymore. And I very much appreciate you're help and suffering your frustrations. :thumbsup:

January 26

24 minutes ago, foft said:

As it stands covox is at D280.

There is some spare IO with which I'm considering implementing the following:

i) D600 covox (from 74138)

ii) SPDIF out

iii) PS2 keyboard (2 pins)

The latter two will probably require a few resistors in addition the connector fitting.

That said the pre-order is on the basis of the existing features.

That's OK, I like my current Pokeymax Quad + Covox, I was actually hoping for both addresses, to choose D280 or D600 in software that supports Covox and 1 or both addresses, I don't suppose that would be possible in the future implementation?

January 26

I'll be pre-ordering 1 soon! Waiting on funds coming in tomorrow. Is the Covox address range the same as version 2, which is different from other Covox designs?

January 26

All extended memory upgrades beyond 128K were designed by third parties, which is why you probably haven't found anything on it. Look for 800 Axlon and XL/XE Rambo or CompyShop.

Only the Atari 600XL had a 1064 PBI module to upgrade it to 64K, but there are several new PBI devices that offer extended memory either as the main point, or added as a bonus with other devices used on the XL PBI or XE ECI.

January 26

10 hours ago, Faicuai said:

.... In a pretty good way, though!

Here's the setup, with clean PBI extraction through the top, modular shield-cover, wit absolutely no physical changes to the plastic case, internally or externally (for those who are more concerned about this):

Now, it CRASHES while activated within Incognito-BIOS (because it expects OS-footprint facilities that are just not there), and it blows-up your profile comfigs. right after... BUT !!!... if you skip that stage and boot your target profile, and enable TurboFreezer later, it seems to work pretty well!

I actually froze instances of SDX Commander, The Last Word and SDX fresh-boot prompt, and it is the closest thing to VM (virtual memory) that I have been on the A8, but with physical one! ;-0

One striking difference is that TurboFreezer's cart emulation (another feature) DOES correctly emulate Cartridge Interlock Register values (GINTLK, TRIG3), showing as "1" or "0" when loading a cart image, versus Incognito's (bogus) floating bus-data on $D013, which I found to be interesting.

Incognito's PBI physical connection seems to comply well with 800XL + added bonus of providing 5v included on actual 50 pin-header. Have not yet compared vis-a-vis behavior with my 800XL's PBI + Freezer, but have not seen anything suspicious, yet.

Overall, a VERY nice PBI-based swiss-knife that could mature even more with actual productivity in mind, supporting multi-programming / multi-applications, real time, on a single SDX session. for instance... while keeping all content alive with its existing on-board battery.

Chhers!

LOL! I didn't know the +5v was included with Incognito PBI, I tried finding out, but couldn't find info on it, so I just connected pins 47/48 of my PBI directly to mobo +5v, but it works!

I never even thought of attempting to activate the Freezer within the Incognito BIOS! Good thing too, apparently. :thumbsup:

January 26

As per what @_The Doctor__ said above :

And I've mentioned elsewhere I'm doing a dual PIA upgrade and some things about it, though redesigned modern boards are being made for it. Posted this too because this second image uses the 65C02, The first for a RTC and Centronics port that I'm not implementing:

And here are some images of a redesigned dual PIA board implementation designed by a co-conspirator of mine. I'll have two of the controller port boards installed in my 800, designed as they are because I'm fitting them on the back of the 800, not out the side. This isn't necessarily the final implementation, we've gone through over half a dozen redesigns already for best fit on the mobo and under the shielding.

65C02.zip

January 26

3 hours ago, TheMontezuma said:

Incognito supports SIO2BT in XL/XE mode -> Enable PBI and change SIO Driver settings to SIO2BT.

There are no special plugins required.

I must be missing the setting for SIO2BT then, unless the PClink enabled includes SIO2BT? I see no option for "SIO2BT." Unless this has been implemented within the last 6 months or so and I need to update my Incognito firmware. I'm in XL/XE mode 99.9% of the time unless I want to use software only compatible with OS B. I have 3 profiles setup for different options in XL/XE mode and 1 for 800 mode with Axlon compatibility for when I'm using Syn-series apps that take advantage of Axlon memory.

Thanks for the heads up and links! :thumbsup:

January 26

8 hours ago, tschak909 said:

If what can be done?

-Thom

I think he's referring to @_The Doctor__'s comment above in post 36 about having disk swaps set up in batch files within SDX. Though I understand SDX and batch files, as I use them all the time to get things set up the way I like in SDX for programming, I don't understand Fujinet really yet, so I've no idea how it would be donw.

January 26

19 minutes ago, tschak909 said:

The swap happens without the need of resetting the fujinet, that was the point, to be able to support multi-disk games.

-Thom

Duh, sorry I lost my place in the button guide and got functions mixed up... :dunce: That's why I'm a noob to this! So it does work the way I was thinking anyway, just swapping one thing instead of another...don't worry I will eventually learn my way around this device and stop asking stupid questions and giving ideas that aren't useful. Thanks for your patience with me.

January 26

@tschak909 Thinking on all of this a bit more, because that's where my mind is still, I think a better way, if it's possible, would be to mount all the ATR images needed in the virtual drives, but instead of swapping and rotating ATR's to drive one and going through the Fujinet reset procedure, would be to make the swap button swap drive numbers and not have to reset the Fujinet at all. Just a Fujinet noob who doesn't know the hardware, looking at it the other way around. just a thought...because I've installed front drive number switches on my real disk drives and that's how I do it (on my XL with my 1050's, my 800's Indus drives I have not yet modified like this) with real disks instead of swapping disks.

January 26

31 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

I can see this progressing to where a batch files sets the whole game up into the proper slots, whether it be 2 disks, 3 disks, 4,5, or 8... just select the game name bat and it's automatic.

Now that is a thought and I would use ATR functionality at that point.

January 26

46 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

maybe a sticky with individual links to the guides, the quick start, the manual, the ... .... ...

Exactly.

I've been testing this all out and it's simple enough now that I know, and @tschak909 probably made it as easy as can be for Fujinet. But honestly, in the long run, it's just easier for me to pull out the real floppies I need for any given game, lay them in front of my real disk drive, and swap out when needed instead of having to go into a directory, pick disks to mount and use a button and reset the Fujinet like this.

So again, in the end, as long as my real drives work and floppies work, it's easier to stick to the old school way. Even at slower real drives speeds, most games load fast enough for me. Even my Incognito side loader or MyIDE II and SDrive Max on my 1200XL only get used for productivity like programming and loading .xex's and to get ATR's off the net and burned to real floppies. Otherwise I still use the old floppy disk and drive for general gaming and I will continue to do it old school like that, because I enjoy using the hardware too.

I got the Fujinet for what it can do with Wi-Fi and online gaming and BBS's and that's what I'll use it for, and enjoy it for that. It's the exact same reason that when I installed my Incognito I didn't bother with the ATR swap button on it either. By the same token I got the Incognito to make my 800 XL/XE compatible and the extra memory and that's the main reason I like it, that and the PBI. The ATR functionality is just extra bells and whistles I don't personally need. Of course the Fujinet will take the place of SIO2PC and APE or AspQT too.

January 26

8 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

again, just click around the web page there are guides with videos that show you dang near everything...

https://fujinet.online/swapping-with-sam/

Thanks, if this had been the first reply to my question I could have gone and read and watched what I had missed and I would have learned. :thumbsup:

A sticky thread for the ignorant noob at the top of this sub-forum would have avoided all of this, instead of me having to jump around to different sites trying to rake in all the information myself and ask these stupid questions for you guys to have to point me too the answers I missed jumping around trying to find it all myself and missing a bunch. But I most certainly do appreciate it and thanks @_The Doctor__ and thanks @tschak909 for all the trouble I put you through here.

January 26

25 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

dunno... directly from https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-platformio/wiki/FujiNet-Quickstart-Guide

Buttons

Left-to-right, the buttons are:

Button A

Tap: Disk swap

Hold: Toggle "SIO2BT" mode

Button B

Tap: Print debug info to serial console

Hold: "Safe reset" (unmounts SD card before reboot)

Hold on powerup: Reset #FujiNet config

Reset

Upon rebooting Atari, with #FujiNet responding as "drive #1", return to #FujiNet CONFIG (rather than disk mounted in drive slot #1)

and one heck of a manual is there as well... it's in great detail not to mention anything else you want right down to the individual lines of code that make everything happen...

It doesn't say, mount second disk in D2: or all disks in a different drive for each disk, but then later it will be swapped or rotated to the next Drive up or to D1:. It's obviously assuming the user should know all about disk swapping with virtual drives mounted into another virtual drive that won't actually be used. I'm not used to mounting a disk in a second or third drive to not use the second or third drive, but to have it there only to be swapped into D1:. All it says is Tap: Disk swap. So I figured you would "tag" other ATR's to be mounted into D1: when you tap the button, not mount into D2:, but don't use D2:, it's just a holding spot until it's swapped into disk one. If it said that in the guide, I would have read it and understood.

But as I said above, I'm just too old school and still think of using drives, even virtual ones the same way I always used physical drives. I'm not used to using virtual drives other than the same way I always used real drives. So I was completely IGNORANT of using them any other way, and expect more detailed explanation if I'm not to use them in the traditional way. But now I know. If a game or program is programmed to use only one drive, I have always just made real floppies out of ATR's and used real disk drives, I'm still old-school like that. I don't own real floppy drives to just ignore them and do everything virtually by swapping mounts. SORRY to be such an ignorant burden and require Virtual disk swapping 101 for noobs: mount disks that are suppose to go into D1: into D2: and beyond and then swap when it's time. I just didn't think that way, until now. :dunce:

Unmounting an SD card before rebooting or resetting is a totally new thing to me with Fujinet as well, so I didn't understand and the guide isn't detailed enough to help me understand. And, if "one heck of a manual is there as well" I missed it, which is EXACTLY why I asked if there was more documentation I missed in my first post about all of this, but I was not told there was more that I missed, I was just given a video that I also didn't know existed that I needed to watch! Like I said in the post above, a sticky topic is needed for the complete virtual drive noob, like me, so you guys don't have to put up with Fujinet/virtual drive ignorant people like me.

January 26

Nobody told me there was a video! It's hard if you have no idea because you don't know about a video! What ever happened to instruction manuals or guides that tell you EVERYTHING?!? :rolling:

Thanks, finally, I'll watch the video! :thumbsup:

Ok, I watched the video, and now I know and it's easy. But before I knew, I thought that disks were suppose to swap in and out of D1: somehow, because I'm used to using D2: only when games or apps are programmed for TWO drives! So I was looking for commands or something that would do disk swaps in and out of disk 1, and not using more than one drive and "rotating" them. Why? because in the 35+ years of using the 8-bit I never put disks in both drives and have them suddenly swap with each other or have the drives swap numbers.

I guess I'm just too old-school and I still use multiple floppy drives and physically swap disks and still do to this day, as I prefer real floppy disks, and only ever used virtual drives as either disk one or two, and a physical disk as either drive one or two, and let the program search drives for disk B, C, etc. . I have floppy drives, six of them as a matter of fact, and I like to use hardware that I own. So it it my fault for not keeping up with the virtual Jones', maybe so, but I'm still use to stuff like this being plainly stated in manuals and guides and don't expect to have to go to some site or youtube to watch a video on it to find out how new hardware works. Especially when no on tells me or it's not referenced in a manual or guide I'm reading! So I happen to be behind the virtual tech "curve" and am a complete noob to thinking about using virtual drives in this way. I have just never used more than one virtual drive at a time, except for games like Alternate Reality: The Dungeon where the program automatically searches for more than one drive and instead of swapping or rotating disks to disk one, it loads the disk in the next drive for me, without having to push a swap button.

The truth is, I still plan to use a real floppies and virtual disks together, so I won't have to bother with virtual swapping for multi-disk games, but since I couldn't find out how in documentation, I was curious, and asked. Have you thought about a pinned topic at the top of the Fujinet sub-forum explaining all of this so you don't have to for "idiot" noobs like me, since there isn't any text documentation covering it?

January 25

32 minutes ago, kheller2 said:

Just shut up already. 😃 I don't need to hear any of this. ugh... I get enough from the wife.

Sorry. |:) ...or not... :evil: I never did say what weight and build I was and am you know...I could be 300 pounds and look like the the Stay-Puff marsh-mellow man you know... Not really, but it's all left to your imagination, so what did you imagine me to basically look like?🤔 Does that make you feel better?

January 25

On the disk rotate, and also the disk swap button how do they actually work? I see people referring to disk swap and rotate, but nothing on how to set up disks that will be swapped with the A button tap and I can find no mention of disk rotate in the quick start guide or config manual, or any listed key press on any screen that will rotated disks. Are people using "rotate" and "swap" to refer to the same A button on the Fujinet device? Is there further documentation beside the Quick Start Guide and the Config User's Guide that I am missing?

I was thinking, without knowing how to do either or find out how either works, that it would be nice to mount an image in D1: and in D2: and when pressing the button on Fujinet it would swap whatever is mounted in those positions automatically. But maybe that is how it works? But I also thought it would be nice to be able to mount images in all 8 virtual drives and be able to rotate images from any of D2:-D8: into the D1: position right on the mount screen, is this how disk rotate works? And if so, how do I actually do a disk rotation?

January 25

2 hours ago, 8bitguy1 said:

Agreed on the word processor piece, nothing on CP/M is going to touch TLW. The A8 lacks a good 80 column spreadsheet though. There is "Budget" on S.A.M. but it's clunky, I'm not aware of any others.

I really love using Synapse's Syn-series, at least SynCalc and Synfile, but yes, I do wish they had 80 column support, even if it was in software 80 column. Unfortunately at this point they won't work with 80-column software drivers, but I think only because they have areas at the top and bottom of the screen that aren't in high-res so it screws up using them like you can with languages and other programs that use the standard E: device. It would be great if someone could hack them to get those non-high-res screen menu areas so they would work with E: device. But I do know that there is more than just the S.A.M budget program for 80-column spreadsheets, There were productivity software including spreadsheets and word processors and filers that were available for OS's like Omniview. I've no idea how good they are compared to the great Synapse series though.

But speaking of 80 columns and CP/M emulated through Fujinet, isn't that going to have to be emulated software 80-columns since it's emulated CP/M? Whereas with the Indus GT's CP/M you get true 80-column support from the real Z80 processor, from what I'm told. Not that I mind software 80-column, I use it all the time with TLW processor and with SpartaDOS X and it looks good to me on my systems with upgraded video. But of course hardware 80-column is better.

January 25

2 hours ago, tschak909 said:

I created, edited, and printed a 31 page document in WordStar 4, and wrote, edited, and printed drafts of large books in WordStar, under CP/M (and later MS-DOS), this is an area where the current Atari word processors fall short (They tend to want to do everything in memory).

-Thom

Have you looked into The Last word? I'm pretty sure it has such features for large documents not all having to be in memory, though I haven't written anything long enough yet to use such features myself, but I'm sure I read about such features while browsing the manual. I wouldn't make that claim about Atari word processors if you haven't and until you do look into TLW. But also, TLW can use up to 320K of Atari memory (can CP/M WordStar take advantage of more than 64K?) , so it's not like other Atari word processors, even those that took advantage of 128K 130XE's. TLF is very sophisticated way beyond anything from any 8-bit machines, including CP/M's WordStar I've been told. I've only scratched the surface of it's possibilities myself. I've only written reviews for Excel magazine with 1000 words or less, so far on TLW.

January 25

12 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

I would like for us all to live and be vigorous like some of those historical books mention, any where from centennial to bicentennial ranges. The life span and quality of life really diminishes based on our food, stressors, and finally conditions of where we live.

Tis' true, and unfortunately we don't know what life holds for each one of us and we have already lost too many in the community far too soon. But baring illness and accidents, there is longevity in my family genes, and I stay in shape. I'm actually still the exact same weight and build as I was at 25. I've also done my best to live a low stress life in the career and life choices I have made.

January 25

5 hours ago, Faicuai said:

These 800s make my 800XLs look like children toys... I must admit...

Exactly why I've always preferred and now own 1200XL and 800. They look like real computers and not game consoles with keyboards. No offense to other XL/XE owners, I know it's what's on the inside that counts, but I still prefer looks and build quality on the outside as well. I started out with an XE, until I got my first 1200 and 800, then I never looked back. Even if I had to upgrade both to later XL/XE standards and beyond.

January 25

12 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

You're going to see tons more like this as many of us our reaching the end stages of life, the places that contain all our goodies are getting cleaned out.

Well, I hope many of us still have many more years to come. I myself am in my early 50's and hope for another 2-4 decades and plan my life accordingly, including holding onto my Atari's and other vintage treasures until someone takes them out of my cold dead hands.

January 25

3 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

Oh I get it, he wants to keep both at the same time, sort of like the dual monitor method xep 80 folks do.

Is someone remaking Bit-3 cards? I could go for that...

Otherwise aren't Bit-3's ultra rare and hard to find? I don't see much sense in leaving slot 3 open if most people won't ever use it, except for something like a VBXE or Rapidus. It's too bad something can't be done with slots 1 and 2 as well, but there's no need for more memory with Incognito in slot 0. But I wouldn't mind adding a few extra wires going to the mobo or other cards if that can make the slots usable for something else. After all, I already had to do that with the Incognito and Pokeymax installs.

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Posts posted by Gunstar

dunno... directly from https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-platformio/wiki/FujiNet-Quickstart-Guide

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