XEP80 and antic

[danwinslow]

Isn't there an XEP80 driver that will leave the antic 40 columns screen on? Or do you have to/can you turn it back on manually with a control register write?

I know that official 80 column support for E: will be vectored to the XEP, but I think if the antic screen is on then you could manually write to it. Is this right?

[+Stephen]

Isn't there an XEP80 driver that will leave the antic 40 columns screen on? Or do you have to/can you turn it back on manually with a control register write?

I know that official 80 column support for E: will be vectored to the XEP, but I think if the antic screen is on then you could manually write to it. Is this right?

 

The XEP80 driver that came with the 80 column version of BobTerm allows both screens to be on at the same time. Problem is, the driver is so slow I cannot use it with my SIO2PC and APE sice it drops so much data. Cusom driver would probably be your best bet - I have some old articles on speeding up Atari's driver. The source code for the driver is on the XEP80 disk.

 

Stephen Anderson

Edited February 25, 2007 by Stephen

[jaybird3rd]

In case it would be helpful, attached are the files from Atari's original XEP80 utility disk, including the handler source.

 

I would also love to see a custom handler that would allow the use of both screens.

 

xep80.zip

[danwinslow]

Hmm, well I wonder if its just a matter of setting the antic bit in DMACTL or wherever, I don't remember exactly. The speed problems, if I recall, were due to a bunch of wait sync's that didnt need to be there. Thanks for the info, I will take a good look at it.

[danwinslow]

Jay, how is the file reloc.src used? Is it seperately assembled and then appended onto the handler object file to produce the auotorun.sys? Is it a general purpose relocater or is it specific to the handler?

[Mathy]

Howdy folks

 

I've looked at my site and found out that part of the text on one of the texts about the XEP80 was missing. And my old URL was still in there. So I fixed that.

 

You can read a lot of stuff about the XEP80 (including the "wait sync" stuff) and find the improved driver (with will do 9600 baud) on my site.

 

Greetings

 

Mathy

[danwinslow]

Good stuff, thanks Mathy.

[drac030]

I don't have XEP80 myself, but AFAIK, the XEP80.SYS driver included with the SpartaDOS X doesn't disable Antic.

[+Philsan]

Can someone attach the .atr image of the disk included with XEP80? I have bought it but I don't have a disk drive! Thanks

[+Guitarman]

If someone else doesn't, I will when I get home this evening.

[jaybird3rd]

I've got an ATR image somewhere at home, too (it's the one from which I extracted the individual files that I posted earlier). I'll try to find it this evening.

[Curt Vendel]

There are actually some errors in Atari's original XEP80 handler, either the SLCC and the Michigan Atari UG had at one time pointed it out and someone wrote a corrected driver for it.

 

Something lacking in the XEP80 was a composite in/out line, the XEP80 should have the composite from the console run through it and then bypassed it with the XEP80 was enabled so only 1 monitor line would've been needed, I hated having to switch back and forth all of the time. Eventually I used an Amdek 300 which had a switch to go from 2 separate composite feeds, I think the Commodore 1701/2 monitors had that as well.

 

 

Curt

 

I've got an ATR image somewhere at home, too (it's the one from which I extracted the individual files that I posted earlier). I'll try to find it this evening.

[jaybird3rd]

Here's an XEP80 disk image that I made from one of my originals:

 

xep80.zip

[jaybird3rd]

There are actually some errors in Atari's original XEP80 handler, either the SLCC and the Michigan Atari UG had at one time pointed it out and someone wrote a corrected driver for it.

Interesting. I'll have to track it down.

 

Something lacking in the XEP80 was a composite in/out line, the XEP80 should have the composite from the console run through it and then bypassed it with the XEP80 was enabled so only 1 monitor line would've been needed, I hated having to switch back and forth all of the time. Eventually I used an Amdek 300 which had a switch to go from 2 separate composite feeds, I think the Commodore 1701/2 monitors had that as well.

That certainly would have been nice. One thing I've found with the XEP80, though, is that having a dedicated (monochrome) monitor seems to work better for me than trying to use one color monitor for both. On the color monitors that I've tried, including my Commodore 1702, the XEP80 output is too artifacted and stretched for my liking. I actually still use an Amdek monitor myself (a 300A amber monochrome monitor, to be exact), and it does work wonderfully with the XEP80; that amber-on-black display is a real pleasure to look at (at least as far as 13-inch composite monochrome goes). Edited April 17, 2007 by jaybird3rd

[puppetmark]

There are actually some errors in Atari's original XEP80 handler, either the SLCC and the Michigan Atari UG had at one time pointed it out and someone wrote a corrected driver for it.

Interesting. I'll have to track it down.

 

Something lacking in the XEP80 was a composite in/out line, the XEP80 should have the composite from the console run through it and then bypassed it with the XEP80 was enabled so only 1 monitor line would've been needed, I hated having to switch back and forth all of the time. Eventually I used an Amdek 300 which had a switch to go from 2 separate composite feeds, I think the Commodore 1701/2 monitors had that as well.

That certainly would have been nice. One thing I've found with the XEP80, though, is that having a dedicated (monochrome) monitor seems to work better for me than trying to use one color monitor for both. On the color monitors that I've tried, including my Commodore 1702, the XEP80 output is too artifacted and stretched for my liking. I actually still use an Amdek monitor myself (a 300A amber monochrome monitor, to be exact), and it does work wonderfully with the XEP80; that amber-on-black display is a real pleasure to look at (at least as far as 13-inch composite monochrome goes).

 

I found the best monitor for the XEP80 is a Monochrome TTL monitor. Using a buffer, you can connect it to the Vido Chip outputs inside the XEP80. Another nice hack is to modify the XEP80 to get its power from the Joystick Port. However, if you do that, You need at least a 1.5 amp PS for the computer in order to be able to supply enough current for both.

Edited April 17, 2007 by puppetmark