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Extended Basic v2.7 Suite Cartridge


Gazoo

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I managed to build an XB2.7 cartridge last night using an UberGROM (thanks, Jim!) and Gazoo's latest image ("XB27 Suite 050915.zip").

 

My TL866 refused to deal with the 1284P (although it claimed it supported it), but programming with an Atmel SPI programmer via avrdude using the UberGROM's 1284P header block worked fine. Thanks again, Jim, for routing the SPI interface to a header block.

 

The invocation that worked for me (under Linux) was: "avrdude -p m1284p -c avrisp2 -U eeprom:w:XB27\ Suite\ EEprom\ 050915.bin -U flash:w:XB27\ Suite\ 128k\ Flash\ 050915.bin -U lfuse:w:0xC2:m -U hfuse:w:0xD8:m -U efuse:w:0xFC"

 

The 49xxx EEPROM was burned the usual way using "XB27 Suite 512k Rom 050915.bin"

 

Just posting because I didn't see any explicit instructions on how to build this little guy in the 17+ pages on this subject, and I figured posting might save someone else time and pain later on ...

That's odd. I've used a TL866 to program my UberGROM a number of times. Gazoo has posted detailed instructions elsewhere on these forums. IIRC, it was in the 632K cartridge thread.
Could you provide a link to the file "XB27 Suite 050915.zip"? Is this the most up-to-date version of the XB27 cart?
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http://atariage.com/forums/topic/229718-extended-basic-v27-suite-cartridge/page-17?do=findComment&comment=3234537

 

 

That's odd. I've used a TL866 to program my UberGROM a number of times. Gazoo has posted detailed instructions elsewhere on these forums. IIRC, it was in the 632K cartridge thread.
Could you provide a link to the file "XB27 Suite 050915.zip"? Is this the most up-to-date version of the XB27 cart?

 

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I managed to build an XB2.7 cartridge last night using an UberGROM (thanks, Jim!) and Gazoo's latest image ("XB27 Suite 050915.zip").

 

My TL866 refused to deal with the 1284P (although it claimed it supported it), but programming with an Atmel SPI programmer via avrdude using the UberGROM's 1284P header block worked fine. Thanks again, Jim, for routing the SPI interface to a header block.

 

The invocation that worked for me (under Linux) was: "avrdude -p m1284p -c avrisp2 -U eeprom:w:XB27\ Suite\ EEprom\ 050915.bin -U flash:w:XB27\ Suite\ 128k\ Flash\ 050915.bin -U lfuse:w:0xC2:m -U hfuse:w:0xD8:m -U efuse:w:0xFC"

 

The 49xxx EEPROM was burned the usual way using "XB27 Suite 512k Rom 050915.bin"

 

Just posting because I didn't see any explicit instructions on how to build this little guy in the 17+ pages on this subject, and I figured posting might save someone else time and pain later on ...

 

All I use for this anymore is the MiniPro, since it does both chips.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/193163-512k-cartridge-status/page-21?do=findComment&comment=3080813

 

Gazoo

Edited by Gazoo
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Yes, I followed those instructions to the letter, including the bit about clearing the fuses and writing *only* the fuses before writing code/data.

 

The programmer just plain wouldn't write the data, period. Verification for both data and code would fail -- the chip would have 0xFF at each location (hence unprogrammed). Reading was fine, the chip ID verified, but writing wouldn't happen. This was under both version 6.00 and 6.10 of the TL software, sourced from the Chinese manufacturer's website.

 

My programmer may be slightly broken. When programming certain EPROMS (TMS2764 IIRC) I sometimes need to increase the write delay before writes will succeed. There's no such knob for the 1284P.

 

It also may be relevant that the Windows 7 instance hosting the TL866 is a VMware guest, which may be screwing with the programming timing. I doubt this is the case, but it's possible.

 

Anyway, the AVR programmer/avrdude combo did the trick, and I'm happy with XB2.7 icon_smile.gif

Edited by ckoba
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I'm glad we were able to work through the upgrade problems. But I'm not sure why some people had to manually turn off the option to write-to-flash.

 

Is there any special hardware attached to the systems of the people that had that issue - F18A, Nano or CF7, floppy drive emulator?

 

It would be nice to be able to isolate the problem.

 

Gazoo

Yesterday I got my XB 2.7 Cartridge! Thank you for this great luxury to Tursi, Ksarul, acediel and Gazoo. Sorry if I forgot someone.

 

Immediately I flashed the 5/9 update, and had the same issue as Rasmus_M and globeron. ROM verified, GROM compromised.

 

post-41771-0-83439000-1431625416_thumb.jpg

 

I also got it solved as they did.

Here is my hardware configuration:

  • Regular Black Silver console
  • Speech Synthesizer
  • nanoPEB F18 V1
  • F18A
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It looks like the nanoPEB and/or the F18A is causing the problems for re-flashing XB 1.7 Suite,

 

Both my machines (with f18a and with 9918) nanopeb both are unreliable for reflashing

 

Also my stock 4/a with pbox does not flash either, won't get past groma without locking up.. foundation 128k, personality card, sid99, corcomp fdc in the box.

 

Greg

Edited by arcadeshopper
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It looks like the nanoPEB and/or the F18A is causing the problems for re-flashing XB 1.7 Suite,

 

My best guess is that the nano/CF7 are not allowing GROMCFG to turn off the flashing ability, so it must be done manually when you are using one of those devices.

 

Gazoo

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My best guess is that the nano/CF7 are not allowing GROMCFG to turn off the flashing ability, so it must be done manually when you are using one of those devices.

 

Gazoo

 

But I am not using a nano/CF7 and I still have the same problems.

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But I am not using a nano/CF7 and I still have the same problems.

 

Ok, then I'll completely agree with Atrax and include the F18A, I'm pretty sure you have one of those. What I do know is that with a completely stock system, no additional steps to turn off the flashing ability are needed.

 

Gazoo

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Can someone who has had the flashing problem and overcome it please describe EXACTLY the process you used to succeed? I want to release a final package as I have no more plans to upgrade this particular cartridge. The docs will be upgraded to include the added features and the method to upgrade the cartridge in-console.

 

Thanks,

 

Gazoo

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Both my machines (with f18a and with 9918) nanopeb both are unreliable for reflashing

 

Also my stock 4/a with pbox does not flash either, won't get past groma without locking up.. foundation 128k, personality card, sid99, corcomp fdc in the box.

 

Greg

 

I'm betting on the Foundation card being the problem there. As with the Myarc memory cards, the timing on the memory expansion is a little different. I'll bet if you replace it with a TI 32k, it would work just peachy keen. :)

 

Gazoo

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I'm betting on the Foundation card being the problem there. As with the Myarc memory cards, the timing on the memory expansion is a little different. I'll bet if you replace it with a TI 32k, it would work just peachy keen. :)

 

Gazoo

 

Tony, you never commented on my post (#446). Do you think those extra 8 bytes (with the nanoPEB/CF7+ present) are getting stepped on?

 

...lee

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Tony, you never commented on my post (#446). Do you think those extra 8 bytes (with the nanoPEB/CF7+ present) are getting stepped on?

 

...lee

 

Sorry, Buddy. :(

 

When Senior Falcon was trying to help me getting an EA5 loader working from Playground, we got a little stumped and Tursi jumped in with a patch that got it working. I just made that patch a part of the code since it worked for me (stock TI system), but an additional bit of code may be needed to get BASICLOAD to work with the nanoPEB/CF7+. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the 3 devices causing the flashing problems (and I'm really not interested in owning any of them at this point).

So, as the working code has been posted for a standard TI system (all that I feel I'm responsible for) , it seems that a knowledgeable person that owns one or all of the offending devices would and could provide a solution(s) for the problem(s).

 

Wanna help those folks? ;)

 

Gazoo

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Hi Gazoo,

 

the only thing I could offer is to send you my nano F18 v1 for a while, doesn´t matter how long.....

Maybe a good playground for that problem. But I think, from Germany it could take 1 week (?) or 2.

 

I have XB27, just for some days, but so I am not experienced enough to find out wether this problem exists on my config....

or you give me a very short walk-through for the update, and if XB27 is locked, I´ll just send it, too :)

I am not in hurry, as I have many other small "projects" :)

 

schmitzi

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Hi Gazoo,

 

the only thing I could offer is to send you my nano F18 v1 for a while, doesn´t matter how long.....

Maybe a good playground for that problem. But I think, from Germany it could take 1 week (?) or 2.

 

I have XB27, just for some days, but so I am not experienced enough to find out wether this problem exists on my config....

or you give me a very short walk-through for the update, and if XB27 is locked, I´ll just send it, too :)

I am not in hurry, as I have many other small "projects" :)

 

schmitzi

 

 

Thank you very much for you offer, Schmitzi.

 

Please don't ship anything unnecessarily, the internet is a good thing, the problem will be resolved.

 

There's much greater minds than mine working on it, someone will come up with the solution, I'm sure of it. :)

 

Gazoo

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...

Wanna help those folks? ;)

 

Gazoo

 

Sure, but I really don't know whether those extra bytes are the problem. It certainly can be if BASICLOAD sets FILES=1 and assumes >8370 contains >3BE3 instead of the >3BDB that is actually there. The reason I did not have a problem the first time I flashed the cartridge was that I could load it with the EA5 loader in the XB2.7 cartridge. When something I did with the later versions actually trashed the cartridge, I tried something that probably should not have worked—I put both the E/A and XB2.7 carts in my Navarone Widgit; loaded GROMCFG with EA/option 5; carefully selected the XB2.7 cart and ran it. Most folks in that position will actually need BASICLOAD to work; so, if I am to help, I will need to look at the Playground code and Tursi's patch. I sincerely hope that won't be the blind leading the blind, but I will certainly try. I'm rambling—somebody slap me!

 

...lee

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Sure, but I really don't know whether those extra bytes are the problem. It certainly can be if BASICLOAD sets FILES=1 and assumes >8370 contains >3BE3 instead of the >3BDB that is actually there. The reason I did not have a problem the first time I flashed the cartridge was that I could load it with the EA5 loader in the XB2.7 cartridge. When something I did with the later versions actually trashed the cartridge, I tried something that probably should not have worked—I put both the E/A and XB2.7 carts in my Navarone Widgit; loaded GROMCFG with EA/option 5; carefully selected the XB2.7 cart and ran it. Most folks in that position will actually need BASICLOAD to work; so, if I am to help, I will need to look at the Playground code and Tursi's patch. I sincerely hope that won't be the blind leading the blind, but I will certainly try. I'm rambling—somebody slap me!

 

...lee

 

Have a look at this. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/218904-playground/page-3?do=findComment&comment=3205579

 

You are the fartherest (is that a word?) person from the blind leading the blind that I know of, so knock it off before I do slap you!

 

Fix it and receive praises from us unworthy individuals!

 

:)

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I wish I had some hardware to try some of this and see why it might be failing, but... there's no magic at all in the GROMCFG tool - all it's doing is writes to GROM space. All the timing happens on the AVR itself.

 

Now, here is what happens that /is/ different from an older system with a GROM simulator (as a for instance):

 

1) the GROM !READY line is active for much longer than usual (for as long as it takes for the flash block to erase/program - two separate steps).

2) The GROM lines are running at TTL levels (but this should be the same as with a simulator)

 

I can't think of any external way that the write itself could be compromised -- unless something is dancing on the bus during GROM writes and corrupting the actual byte written. (That could be timing, or could be external interference). The AVR code assumes the hardware layout documented in the Bunyard manual (ie: that there are pullups/pulldowns in the console active per direction), and reads the bus raw with no internal pull-ups active. If this concept were flawed, however, the console would crash frequently, as the same system is needed for reading a GROM Set Address command.

 

Even with the longer !READY, however, the AVR has already pulled the data off the bus and is working with it (and in fact, the /written/ data is received on normal-length write cycles, the long cycle happens on the second command byte which triggers the erase or the write).

 

We do know the CF device occasionally interacts weirdly, but I've not heard of it messing with GRAM. Is anyone using the CF device with a GRAMKracker or similar device? Does it work there?

 

I can see even less how the F18A would interfere.. it would need to think a VDP READ cycle was happening during a GROM write, that seems like a pretty major (and thus unlikely) failing...

 

When it doesn't make sense, it means we don't have enough information yet to draw conclusions.

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XBv27Suite 05-13-15.zip

 

Complete package official release of XB v2.7 Suite. Includes everything needed to upgrade your cartridge to the latest version. The docs also have been updated.

 

This upgrade will allow everyone except 1 person to upgrade their carts to the current version. That individual has a beta version of the Rom and will get an error on the Rom verification, but his cart will still work properly.

 

Have fun!

Gazoo

 

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Hi Gazoo,

FYI -

Just a quick note, that both the XB27 suites are working okay so far (the CALL functions, etc).

Only once I had to do the ^F ON, OFF, ON, OFF, but after that no issues anymore. Also have

been pulling out nano-PEB, speech, CF-cards, etc. for other purposes, but the XB 27 works

okay with all the power off/ons as well.

 

* 1 module cannot verify the GROM (red screen), the other can (green screen).

I am using the red screen one all the time without having an issue.

 

* Except - Basicload does not work (on both modules).

(I have not tested/read all items here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/218904-playground/page-3?do=findComment&comment=3205579)

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