ckoba

Relinquishing my citizenship does not invalidate my opinion about the sun rising in the east, nor my opinion about the competence of the officers I served under and with, nor my opinion of the direction your country is heading. I could be right, I could be wrong, but I do not apologize for my beliefs. In my estimation, sir, your understanding of the term "credibility" needs a size-nine adjustment, as is your belief that the US will not force its laws on foreign citizens (been there, done that) nor that US policy intentionally and directly affect the policies of other governments... but you are entitled to your opinion. As I am to mine. Ain't that how America was supposed to work? Even for foreigners? Or is that right reserved only for citizens when posting on US-hosted forums now? But we're very far off-topic now. Now, in general: taking your "this is an American forum, hosted on an American server, and I'm offended that you don't think America is the bestest country in the world" (and that's only slightly paraphrased) ... I'll take that as my cue to leave. Good luck with your chess program. I'll stay in touch via email with the AA members that I respect. I'll ask Albert to delete the "ckoba" account and all content that I posted. I don't know if he'll go along with it, but I will at least try.

Mix of both. Grew up there, joined the military, left, stayed out of the US after leaving the military, no longer a US citizen due to previously mentioned concerns and the strong belief that one should be a citizen of where one has put down roots (if possible). Look around the forums and you'll pick up where I went. I've earned the right to bitch about the US, and I voted with my feet. And I'm still surprised that amateur rocketry is legal.

Very cool, thank you.

Tomorrow's switch replacement might not happen: "Mine. Not yours."

(somewhat off-topic -- if the content offends those I've tangled with before, I don't apologize, just click "ignore" on me and be done with it) I'm still somewhat in shock that amateur rocketry is a thing in the US. When I was a kid (back when Centauri existed independent of Estes), the decent-sized engines (triple-D?) for things like the Mars lander required a license. With the US as wussified and paranoid as it is, I'm surprised that amateur rocketry is even possible there now. 'Cause, you know, the flash circuit in that nosecone camera can be easily repurposed to make something go *boom* ... instant RPG.

Careful, you're starting to tread into Omega's trademarked "I'm just an ideas guy" territory Schematics for nearly everything you'd want in a open-hardware nanoPEB are available. Much of the non-TI designs would need to be reworked, due to a perverse desire in the TI community to use battery-backed RAM for hardware drivers (DSRs). That would mean Thierry's IDE card (with *two* competing and equally broken DSRs), The Project That Must Not Be Named, and so forth, would need to be reworked before build. All it needs is a bored and qualified engineer to look at the TI schematics for the RS232 sidecard, reverse-engineer the Axiom (because the TI design is crap), and ask someone nicely for the TI DSDD schematics/firmware ... then turn it into VHDL, get really familiar with Eagle, and do a few hand-soldered prototypes before handing the PCB artwork off to any reasonably-priced fab. Like I said, easy

The TI cassette power port *is* a relay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opto-isolator

Make friends with someone enrolled at your local community college that's taking basic electronics courses, and ask them to freshen up *all* of the solder joints on the device (especially under the EEPROM). That will save you a lot of grief in the long run. I've got the PDF manual for the CF7/nanoPEB around here somewhere (the guy making them took down the main page, but not the subpages, so it's still available online). If you can't find it, and no one else steps up to the plate, let me know and I'll send it along. (everything in xdt99 is fantastic. Screw the Windows tools; portable python is where it's at. I've argued that point several times on these forums in various contexts, especially the Hardware Project That Must Not Be Named, but you're the first proof-of-use case that I've seen. Thanks for that.)

No pictures of the swapout, because I sealed the console before I'd thought about sharing this. I'll do the basement console tomorrow; perhaps I'll remember to take a photograph of the power board then. Attached are photos of the switches in question. The left is the replacement, the right is the original. There are no manufacturing marks on the replacement -- it's probably a generic Chinese PoC, but it's in better shape internally than the origiinal. With photos, you can see what I was talking about getting the replacement switch geometry right. The replacement can have lugs instead of pins, as long as they can be bent (with a pick, not pliers!) into the solder holes topside.

Both of my production consoles have been quasi-unreliable. Up until recently I've ascribed it to the heat expansion/contraction of the aging solder connections, along with not yet having removed the 4116s from the basement TI, when I realized something: The console glitches when it gets bumped. A bit of experimentation, and I narrowed it down to the power switch. The power switch is a dual-position dual-throw (DPDT) type mounted straight up on the power board, with a plastic actuator connecting it to the front slider. After forty years, the bottom contact terminals have developed grooves, and a minor bump will momentarily interrupt power with catastrophic results. I opened one up to prove my hypothesis -- deeply grooved, which explained a lot. I was not able to find an exact replacement with PCB mounts and the same wide footprint, but a similarly sized DPDT sliding switch will serve. The critical factors in choosing a switch are: * will the bottom connectors line up vertically with the PCB? * can I bend the bottom connectors out horizontally to make contact with the other power rail on the PCB? * will the result be as tall as the original power switch? * is the slide on the switch roughly the same size/shape? Before writing off a glitchy console or going on a snipe hunt replacing RAM, try replacing the switch. Odds are the console will be much more reliable.

It would be trivial to activate a model rocket engine igniter through the cassette port motor control, which is simply an optoisolator. You'd have to learn enough about the TI to flip that CSR bit. There is a redneck way of doing it without understanding the underlying hardware, but I won't promote redneck hardware hacks.

Use xvm99.py in https://github.com/endlos99/xdt99/on UNIX/Linux/anything that runs on the rPi. Python-based. Edit: ralphb is the developer of the xdt99 suite. He knows what he's talking about

External power is required, won't work without it. Use a +5VDC wall wart to power the board. I'm surprised that the knowledgeable users at the PNW meetup didn't tell you that. *BUT* If you have the device that Omega was selling, be aware that it's only barely functional. It has (at the very least) bad solder joints. See http://atariage.com/forums/topic/251299-rat-farts/page-2?do=findComment&comment=3488720and http://atariage.com/forums/topic/251299-rat-farts/page-2?do=findComment&comment=3488888 for details, but the executive summary is that this unit (if, indeed, it was the one we were talking about) was known bad prior to PNW and should have been flagged as such.

Close, but not quite. Three major problems: * non-existent quality control (bad solder joints, missing solder joints, etc) * Ancient CF-card driver that didn't work with any card made after the early 2000s * (on the nanoPEB) A serial port that didn't work with common comms packages like Telco. I'll leave for others to speculate as to why he didn't fix his production problems and the DSR, but those were the technical issues. I had one, I sold it because I had no faith in it whatsoever.

From what I've seen, that's correct (although, counting Changshu and Suzhou, I spent more time at more factories in the greater Shanghai travel radius)... but the bigger players (Foxconn) have been building CMs out in the middle of nowhere (Taiyuan first, but also Zhengzhou and Chengdu) because even Shenzhen wages are getting too expensive. They'll do EVT/DVT/PVT with their A players in Shenzhen, and when the product hits sustaining mode it gets shuffled off to someplace in the sticks. Last I heard, they were going to expand into India because *Chinese* wages are getting too expensive. That'll end well. Anyway, sorry about equating you with factory ops. I see "PVG" as a location, and I think "poor engineer semi-permanently stationed at a CM".

Sorry, saw "PVG" and translated it as airport shorthand for "Pudong". Lots of factories out there ... and be glad you never went to any of them

Ah. Then I apologize. Compared to the US that I left when I EAOS'ed twenty years ago, the US has (from the perspective of someone who watches from the outside) become an unpleasant place to live. I'll not say further, because it's difficult to recognize the water's boiling when you're the frog in the pot, but I personally would never consider returning (and, in fact, cannot return without about two years' worth of visa paperwork).

I'm doing fine where I am, thank you very much. Or was your point something pointedly unpleasant implied with relinquishing US citizenship in favor of citizenship where one lives? If so, sir, let us end this thread now before it takes us into unpleasant waters.

Fair enough, conversation over, with one caveat: I will vigorously defend DIP (and, for that matter, UV-eraseable EPROM) cartridge board designs when I see a post denigrating them. Failing to do so will give newcomers to the community an incorrect view of what is available and what is recommended. Again, with all due respect.

Right. My point being that a particular individual's inability to extract a DIP (not DIMM) chip from a board should not be seen as a design flaw of the board, but rather a case of the operator using the wrong tool. I used to break PLCC sockets all the time (at home) until I purchased the right tool (which matched what I had at work). A similar extractor exists for DIP. I have one, and I'll bet most people who regularly extract .400" DIP chips have one too. The point that I'm trying to make is that it's not fair/correct to slag off on a DIP-based board because one particular individual has an easier time (or a tool, I hope, to) extract(ing) PLCC than DIP. That's simply not a problem that can be extended to the audience at large. If Centralia College still has an electronics program, I highly suggest taking at least a first-semester intro to electronics course. It's cheap, will familiarize you with the right (and wrong) way to treat electronics, and perhaps you'll pick up a bit about digital electronics and how our gear was lovingly misdesigned in the process.

I know. (explanation redacted)

Well, Patton wanted to absorb what was left of the Wehrmacht and keep driving east until he hit Moscow. We wargamed that a couple of times back in the day -- the consensus was that it could be done with massive loss of life, but the Cold War wouldn't have happened and Europe would have all been NATO. Could just as well speculate what would have happened if MacArthur had given the KMT anything resembling military support, or if he'd defied Eisenhower and strip-nuked the Chinese coast. I guarantee that neither Tursi nor I would have any experience with Chinese manufacturing, that's for certain. (not a US citizen now, but used to be. Place scares me now.) Edit: Eisenhower was president during MacArthur's "I'm going to nuke China anyway" tantrum, not Truman. Truman probably would have approved the plan.

I respectfully disagree. With the proper chip extraction tool, both DIP and PLCC can be extracted without fear of pin breakage. If you're using a flathead screwdriver on a DIP EPROM, you have only yourself to blame for the results -- same with a smaller-flathead and a PLCC. Personally, I would like to see a red or yellow cart using PLCC (or in the case of the yellow, four PLCCs). That's not because DIP is more fragile; it's because higher-density memory chips aren't DIP any more. And someday, when the rain stops, I may well design that board. Until that day, DIP EPROMs rule the earth. (using an UberGROM board without a 1284 just because one is scared of breaking a DIP pin is a terrible waste of a wonderful PCB, IMO. And the 1284 is DIP

I was going to make a snarky comment about how stunts like Operation Paperclip staffed both the US technical and intelligence apparatus with "de-Nazified" Nazis, but that would be un-American and possibly mark me for special observation

All right, so it turns out that there's another modification that the Axiom should have if you're using an UberGROM. As we all know, the UberGROM uses spacebar-at-powerup to bring up the recovery code. Well, the Axiom does the same thing -- it goes into diagnostic mode when spacebar is held at powerup, and keeps outputting chr(0x01) through chr(0xff) until you release it. And the UberGROM never sees the spacebar held down, so it never invokes the recovery code. And if you're like me, you probably have your sidecar connectors wired down with something like double-sided tape to keep them from shifting and crashing the console. Thus, unplugging the Axiom is a PITA when building up UberGROMs on real hardware. Luckily, disabling the Axiom at boot-time is simple. Do this: * Disassemble the Axiom, * locate pins 20 (!CE) and 18 (!OE) on the ROM/EPROM, * disconnect them. There's a trace on the bottom of the PCB that wires them together -- take a razor knife and break that connection. * prepare a single-pole dual-throw switch (i.e., two positions, three wire lugs). Solder a 4.7k resistor and a length of wire to the leftmost lug (which we'll call 1), and regular wire to the middle and right lug (which we'll call 2 and 3). * Wrap electrical tape or heat shrink tubing around all of the switch solder joins (both sides of the resistor especially). You don't want anything shorting out inside. * Feed the three wires in through the top of the PCB. There are a bunch of viable holes: pick one that feels suitable. * Connect 1 to +5VDC. There's a nice big lug to the left of pin 24 on the ROM/EPROM; that's a safe place to hook up. * Connect 2 to 18 (!OE). * Connect 3 to 20 (!CE). * Test before reassembly. If it all works, reassemble. I'd put the switch where the power input used to go. What you're doing is forcing the EPROM output-enable signal to be logic-high all the time when the switch is engaged, essentially disabling the EPROM. When the switch is disengaged, !OE gets the same signal as !CE (the chip-select line) and the EPROM is enabled when the decode glue kicks in. This method takes advantage of the old ROMs having separate chip-enable and output-enable, and makes it easy to turn off the EPROM without messing with the chip select logic. (Also of interest: the Axiom can use either a 2716 or a 2732. Pin 21 (A11 on 2732) is grounded on the PCB, so both will work. Just put the firmware in the bottom half of the 2732 and you're good to go -- no need to fill the ROM by double-copying.)