Gazoo

Finally letting all this sink in... It seems prudent, then, to look around in upper VDP for the >AA, then set >8370 according to which device puts it at the found memory location. All would seem to be needed is a list of where the various devices put the >AA, or am I just talking to Rod Serling in a different place? Gazoo

Even with DM2K? If so, stop playing with the eprom. Just put it back in. I wonder if a card can be shutdown just by disabling the '245? If so you could run 2 wires from each of the memory cards and attach them to a DPDT switch like so: And just to confirm, MDM5 works ok loaded from the XB v2.7 Suite cart with the 32k card in place. You can access the SCSI drive with it? Gazoo

Can you run MDM5 from disk with the Myarc Ramdisk? You could also try installing it on the SCSI drive and see if it loads from there. Gazoo

The only check that I know of that MDM5 does regarding hard drives is for 'WDS' in the DSR. It works ok with a SCSI card and a floppy controller, as that is the way my main TI is configured (Myarc FDC 80 track). In fact, it is my disk manager of choice on that system. I had managed to copy my MFM hard drive to a SCSI drive before it died, and still use everything originally configured for WDS access on the SCSI card & drive and it works just fine, the transition was virtually seamless. Gazoo

So if I understand correctly, I can replace the entire red block of code with: LI R1,>37CF MOV R1,@>8370 save value ...and it should work correctly for both devices? Gazoo

Maybe, I don't have one of those devices to test it with. Gazoo

Well, thats the thing, "I" can't try it because I don't have a CF/Nano. That's why I posted the code so someone with one of those devices could try it. Doesn't the >AA and the next few bytes have to be in VDP where the pointer points to? Gazoo

Correct. If you find that solves the troubles, you can probably connect a switch to connect/disconnect the chip enable pin (20). Bend the pin out, solder a wire to it, solder another wire to the socket pin 20 pad on the bottom of the board, and connect the 2 wires to an spst switch. Gazoo

I can't answer any of these questions. The Playground embedding process is still a mystery to me. I generally take the image that I end up with from my code and paste it in the appropriate place in the original Basic program image that Senior Falcon created. So I'm assuming that the patch is going to have to test for both devices, determine which one is in use, and then place the correct value in >8370. Gazoo

Have you tried removing the Eprom on the card? If doing so resolves the problems, a switch could be installed to enable/disable the DSR. Gazoo

Below is listed the code that is embedded in a TI Basic program to load an EA5 program, 'DSK1.GROMLOAD'. The embedding process messes up scratchpad, so the areas that the disk controller uses need to be repaired. The repair that makes the TI Disk Controller work is the code that is in the color red. Thank you Tursi. The repair doesn't work with the Nano/CF7. The challenge is to make the repair work with both the TI Disk Controller and the Nano/CF7 devices. The winner of the challenge gets an 'Attaboy!' and a pat on the back. Have at it. Gazoo DEF START Show where program starts. AORG >3000 START B @START1 Go to actual start of program. PAB DATA >0500,>0FF0,>0000,>2000 Data for PAB BYTE >00 FILENM BYTE >0D Length byte, pathname.filename TEXT 'DSK1.GROMLOAD ' VDPWA EQU >8C02 VDP WRITE address register VDPRD EQU >8800 VDP READ DATA REGISTER BUFFER EQU >0FC0 PABADR EQU >0F80 WR BSS >20 Save space for workspace. START1 CLR @>837C LWPI >83E0 Load workspace. CLR R0 LI R1,>D237 37D2 swapped MOVB R1,*R15 SWPB R1 MOVB R1,*R15 now it's in the right order MOVB @>8800,R0 get byte CI R0,>AA00 is it AA? JEQ YAYSAV LI R1,>37D8 37D8 YAYSAV DEC R1 MOV R1,@>8370 save value LWPI WR Load workspace. LI R0,>0000 Set VDP register 0. BLWP @VWTR LI R1,>E000 MOVB R1,@>83D4 LI R0,>01E0 Set VDP register 1. BLWP @VWTR LI R0,>0200 Set VDP register 2. BLWP @VWTR LI R0,>030E Set VDP register 3. BLWP @VWTR LI R0,>0401 Set VDP register 4. BLWP @VWTR LI R0,>0717 Set VDP register 7. BLWP @VWTR LI R0,>0380 Get ready to load color table. LI R1,>1717 Set reg. 1 to color >17. TABLE BLWP @VSBW Load 1 byte. INC R0 Increment one byte. CI R0,>03A0 Done yet? JNE TABLE No, load another byte. FILE1 LI R0,PABADR LI R1,PAB LI R2,26 BLWP @VMBW LI R6,PABADR+9 MOV R6,@>8356 BLWP @DSRLNK DATA 8 NOP LI R0,>0FF6 LI R1,>A000 LI R2,>1FFA BLWP @VMBR NOP B @>A000 *********************************************************** MOVBTS MOVB *R9+,*R10+ DEC R4 JGT MOVBTS RT *********************************************************** * UTILITIES *********************************************************** SET DATA >2000 SAVE DATA 0 REGS BSS 32 EVEN VMBW DATA REGSV,V1 REGSV DATA 0,0,0,>8C02 DATA >8C00,0,>8800,0 DATA >4000,>8000,0,0 DATA 0,0,0,0 V1 MOV R13,R7 MOV *R7+,R0 MOV *R7+,R1 MOV *R7+,R2 SWPB R0 MOVB R0,*R3 SWPB R0 SOC R8,R0 MOVB R0,*R3 NOP V2 MOVB *R1+,*R4 DEC R2 JNE V2 RTWP VSBW DATA REGSV,V3 V3 MOV R13,R7 MOV *R7+,R0 SWPB R0 MOVB R0,*R3 SWPB R0 SOC R8,R0 MOVB R0,*R3 NOP MOVB *R7,*R4 RTWP VWTR DATA REGSV,V4 V4 MOV *R13,R0 SOC R9,R0 SWPB R0 MOVB R0,*R3 SWPB R0 MOVB R0,*R3 RTWP VSBR DATA REGSV,V5 V5 MOV R13,R7 MOV *R7+,R0 SWPB R0 MOVB R0,*R3 SWPB R0 MOVB R0,*R3 NOP MOVB *R6,*R7 RTWP VMBR DATA REGSV,V6 V6 MOV R13,R7 MOV *R7+,R0 MOV *R7+,R1 MOV *R7+,R2 SWPB R0 MOVB R0,*R3 SWPB R0 MOVB R0,*R3 V7 MOVB *R6,*R1+ DEC R2 JNE V7 RTWP DSRLNK DATA REGSD,D1 REGSD DATA 0,0,0,0,0 DEVA DATA 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 DCRU DATA 0 DSENT DATA 0 DLEN DATA 0 DPAB DATA 0 DVERS DATA 0 DEV DATA 0,0,0,0 PERIOD TEXT '.' HEXAA BYTE >AA DFLAG DATA 0 D1 CLR @DFLAG MOV *R14+,R5 SZCB @SET,R15 MOV @>8356,R0 MOV R0,R9 AI R9,-8 BLWP @VSBR MOVB R1,R3 SRL R3,8 SETO R4 LI R2,DEV D2 INC R0 INC R4 C R4,R3 JEQ D3 BLWP @VSBR MOVB R1,*R2+ CB R1,@PERIOD JNE D2 D3 MOV R4,R4 JEQ D88 CI R4,7 JGT D88 CLR @>83D0 MOV R4,@>8354 MOV R4,@DLEN INC R4 A R4,@>8356 MOV @>8356,@DPAB D4 LWPI >83E0 CLR R1 LI R12,>0F00 D5 MOV R12,R12 JEQ D55 SBZ 0 D55 AI R12,>0100 CLR @>83D0 CI R12,>2000 JEQ DX MOV R12,@>83D0 SBO 0 LI R2,>4000 CB *R2,@HEXAA JNE D5 A @DEVA,R2 JMP D66 D6 MOV @>83D2,R2 SBO 0 D66 MOV *R2,R2 JEQ D5 MOV R2,@>83D2 INCT R2 MOV *R2+,R9 MOVB @>8355,R5 JEQ D77 CB R5,*R2+ JNE D6 SRL R5,8 LI R6,DEV D7 CB *R6+,*R2+ JNE D6 DEC R5 JNE D7 D77 INC R1 MOV R1,@DVERS MOV R9,@DSENT MOV R12,@DCRU BL *R9 JMP D6 SBZ 0 LWPI REGSD MOV R9,R0 BLWP @VSBR SRL R1,13 JNE D9 RTWP D8 LWPI REGSD D88 CLR R1 D9 SWPB R1 MOVB R1,*R13 SOCB @SET,R15 RTWP DX MOV @DFLAG,@DFLAG JNE D8 SETO @DFLAG LI R12,>0F00 JMP D5 KSCAN DATA KSCAN,KSCAN+4 MOV *R11,R12 LWPI >83E0 BL @>000E LWPI KSCAN MOV R12,*R11 RTWP *********************************************************** END

RXB2015.dsk Eazy way to upgrade RXB cart to latest version. Rich, this will work on your cart. Load and run 'DSK1.BASICLOAD' from TI Basic, or run 'DSK1.LOAD' from RXB, or run 'GROMLOAD' from REA opt5. Filename to enter when queried, 'DSK1.RXB2015'. Gazoo

Great. Just great. There's now 2 Rodney Dangerfields in the group.

^ This ^ works ^ for ^ me, but I haven't gotten any feedback from anyone yet. Can someone that was having 'The Problem' let me know for sure this fixed it? Thanks, Gazoo

XBv27 060315.zip Update to fix problem with recovery program which was causing some people's carts to behave erratically. The update option by holding the equals key upon powerup has been disabled. No functionality has been lost, updating is still done through the normal process. Thanks to those that helped track down the issue. Gazoo

060315XB27.dsk To use the XB v2.7 Suite upgrade disk image: Make a real 40 track DSSD floppy disk from the 051315XB27.dsk image provided and put it in the DSK1 drive. Do not put this disk in an 80 track drive when used with the TI disk controller, I've taken steps to insure it will fail if you do so. (and that's just a dumb thing to do, anyway) If you have an 80 track drive as DSK1, contact me and I will provide you with an appropriate disk image. Load the GROMLOAD program with the XB v2.7 Suite cart in the cartridge port. You can do this 3 ways: 1. Select the TI Writer/Assembler cart (B), press 6, type 'DSK1.GROMLOAD', and press enter. The program will load. 2. Select Extended Basic v2.7 (A), and the program will load automatically. 3. Select TI Basic (Z), type 'OLD DSK1.BASICLOAD', type 'RUN', and the program will load automatically. The 3rd option is the most cool, as you can recover from a bricked cart with this, thanks to Tursi and Senior Falcon with their assistance on this. Now that you've got the program loaded, follow these steps to upgrade/restore your XB v2.7 Suite cartridge. You'll be asked a question, press 'Y'. Type 'DSK1.060315XB27', and press enter. Let the process complete! It will take some time. One the process has completed successfully, press the spacebar to quit, and you'll be presented with the XB v2.7 menu. At this point you can check the upgrade with the cartridge verification program. Press fctn-6 from the main menu to run it. When it has completed successfully, you will see a green screen with a success message. If you get a red screen, something is amiss, do the upgrade again being sure to follow the directions carefully. If the process didn't work correctly, do not despair. Use the TI Basic load option for GROMLOAD and repeat the process until you are successful. Press fctn-7 and you'll see the green credits screen with the dark blue edges for the updated cartridge. Gazoo 06-03-2015

The docs have been updated with the new keypresses. There's a message here somewhere explaining the update process. I'd prefer to keep them separate. I doubt there will be any more updates. I'm in the midst of making the update process easier, so you probably won't even need instructions. Gazoo

Hold down the equals key when powering up the console with the XB v2.7 Suite cart in the slot. If you get the normal menu, then it's pre-Chicago. If you get and EA5 file loader and Easy Bug it's post-Chicago. But I changed the config in the cart dump so it doesn't matter, nobody will get the restore option in the newest release. It really wasn't needed anyway. Gazoo

Hi Rich. Is the NO MENU option supposed to run 'DSK1.LOAD' or go right to the prompt? I assumed it would run LOAD but it goes right to the prompt for me. Thanks, Gazoo

I assume Rasmus is going to test my update, so we'll have to wait for his conclusions. Posting a bunch of out of context quotes that have nothing to do with the issue proves... sorry, I can't figure that out. If no one cares that you keep attacking me and I have to continue to show those attacks to be meaningless, people probably do care. I'm sure they'd rather that the nonsense stopped. But that's not my decision to make, you are the one that has to stop. I hope you decide to do it sooner than later. If you could just help with the issue at hand without bringing the smarmy snarkiness into the conversation, I think we'd all be better off. Gazoo

Actually I don't mind people improving my code. And I generally post the source so they don't have to disassemble it. A recent example is the TI Basic EA5 loader. Senior Falcon and you helped to get it working. At this point it doesn't work on a Nano/CF7, so I posted the code hoping that someone with one of those devices would take on the task of altering it to work with those devices. No one has done so yet, but I wish they would. Let's go back as far as April 5, 1999. I posted the HSGPL MENU code so people could modify it for their own use. I had hoped someone would find a way to improve the speed of the required VDP to GRAM block moves. Jeff White helped improve the speed a little, but it's inherently slow as 2 memory mapped devices are being accessed. So your theory of my social conduct is flawed, it's been consistent for quite some time. I shoot from the hip and tell it like it is, and I don't take any BS. Gazoo

Did the restore operation work correctly in the previous version(s)? I assume it did as the F6 verification utility would report bad Grom if it didn't. I never created the update files using the save option, they were created 'by hand' using the specifications you posted. Gazoo

Yup, we're still figuring it out. I didn't know that could cause an issue until it was reported. All we can do is keep trying to make this thing actually work the way we want it to...we'll get there...little bumps in the road...I think I need my rims straightened...

Thank You!!! I'll definitely check it out!!! That may actually fit 'in' a TI BASIC program, I'll have to check with that Senior-Bird-Guy. Gazoo