Look what was at my doorstep today...

[doctor_x]

Well this came for me today.. No power supplies but thats okay (another post for that in a moment)...

 

Beautifully grey and keys relatively white as well.. I may give it a retrobrite just to get shipping dust off of it or whatever....

 

But this will be the basis of my modding system.. I will aquire either a Indus GT or simply get another XF551 and convert one of them to 3.5 using bob puff's instructions.....

 

Then Ult-1

Then VBXE

Then SIO2SD

 

Maybe the stereo upgrade.. Dunno..... Then aquire a 130XE and finally a modded 1200xl too just because I think I will like one..... Once the XE setup gets online i will send a picture of it all neat on a desk.

 

One question though - what is that 25 pin to 2 DB9's all about? Anyone know??

[BillC]

It's probably for use with Krishna Software's MPDOS, cable #4 on the list the following location:

http://www.krishnasoft.com/sps.htm

[doctor_x]

maybe... my cables have nothing hanging out of them though nor did they ever (they are perfectly "straight" with no imperfections in the cable shield) and one is grey and one is black... Though you're right - it looks very possible it could be related...

 

Never seen a cable like this before... Freaking weird..

 

I'm going to ask the seller...

[Wrathchild]

That could be the cable that permits you to download binaries from the ST within the MadMac environment which worked by sending bytes via the printer port.

A bootstrap loader on the A8 would poll the joystick ports and read and combine the two nibbles from the data lines.

It used the standard headers within the binary file to know where to load to and how big the blocks were and once loaded would then run it.

[Wrathchild]

I was even able to locate the source code for the A8 bootstrapper

0100 BOOT =  $09
0102 DOSINI = $0C
0104 COLDST = $0244
0106 DOSVEC = $02E0
0108 CODE =  $0600
0110 START = $2000
0112 TRIG1 = $D011
0114 COLBAK = $D01A
0116 CONSOL = $D01F
0118 PORTA = $D300
0120 PORTB = $D301
0122 DMACTL = $D400
0124 NMIEN = $D40E
0126 ;
0128     *=  CODE
0130 ;
0132 INIT
0134     LDA DOSINI
0136     STA DOSPTR+1
0138     LDA DOSINI+1
0140     STA DOSPTR+2
0142     JMP INSTALL
0144 ;
0146 DOSPTR
0148     JSR EXIT
0150     JSR INSTALL
0152     JMP RECEIVE
0154 ;
0156 INSTALL
0158     LDA # <DOSPTR
0160     STA DOSINI
0162     LDA # >DOSPTR
0164     STA DOSINI+1
0166     LDA # <START
0168     STA PAGE+1
0170     STA VECTOR+1
0172     LDA # >START
0174     STA PAGE+2
0176     STA VECTOR+2
0178 EXIT
0180     RTS 
0182 ;
0184 RECEIVE
0186     SEI 
0188     LDY #$00
0190     STY NMIEN
0192     STY DMACTL
0194     LDA #$FE
0196     STA PORTB
0198 GET_BLOCK
0200     JSR GET_BYTE
0202     CMP #$00
0204     BNE NOT_HEADER
0206     JSR GET_BYTE
0208     STA VECTOR+1
0210     JSR GET_BYTE
0212     STA VECTOR+2
0214     LDY #$02
0216     LDA #$FF
0218     JMP SET_PAGE
0220 NOT_HEADER
0222     CMP #$01
0224     BEQ DONE
0226     LDY #$00
0228 SET_PAGE
0230     STA PAGE+2
0232 LOOP
0234     JSR GET_BYTE
0236 PAGE
0238     STA START,Y
0240     STA COLBAK
0242     INY 
0244     BNE LOOP
0246     BEQ GET_BLOCK
0248 DONE
0250     LDA #$FF
0252     STA PORTB
0254     LDA #$40
0256     STA NMIEN
0258     LDA #$22
0260     STA DMACTL
0262     CLI 
0264 VECTOR
0266     JMP START
0268 GET_BYTE
0270     LDA TRIG1
0272     BNE GET_BYTE
0274     LDA PORTA
0276 NOT_READY
0278     LDX TRIG1
0280     BEQ NOT_READY
0282     RTS 
0284 ;
0286     *=  DOSVEC
0288     .WORD CODE

[Wrathchild]

For anyone interested in the cross-building capability, try the STE disk image on this post.

The PORT.TTP application in the ramdisk's D:\UTILS directory was used to send the file to the A8.

The A:\SOURCES folder contains a fair few code examples I made (from the early 90's by the looks of it!)

Edited May 6, 2016 by Wrathchild

[doctor_x]

IF anyone is interested in this cable lemme know... Doesn't sound like anything I'm going to be needing.

[Bikerbob]

Doctor X.. the xf551.. you mentioned converting it to 3.5? or can you get replacement drive units for it? I just did a buy on a lot tonight.. and got burned on everything!!!

 

Not one hardware item worked.. sucky luck on this one.

 

I will ask in the ST forum, but I picked up a couple ST items.. and dont even get power to either.

 

James

[Clint Thompson]

Lovely lot pickup =D I'm sure you'll dive right in one you get some power supplies. I want to do a Stereo upgrade as well but have yet to make the time.