Antonia 4MB Operational Questions

[+Larry]

I thought that that instead of getting questions lost in the earlier thread, I'd start a new one just for getting things working.

 

Installed in a jiffy in my 800XL. Took the place of an Internal MyIDE, now that the MyIDE-II works with the Ultimate 1 MB. My delay line is soldered in, so no issues with clearance.

 

I found the config and flash info at Drac030's web pages. Probably has been previously listed here, but just in case, here is a link:

 

http://drac030.krap.pl/en-acc-pliki.php

 

Now, a few questions. I apologize for the questions, but I have not found the answers, and what I have found is sometimes confusing. I suspect some of this is just a language issue, but I think worth clearing up since I don't think I'm the only one that will ask.

 

1) As shipped, do the 8 slots all contain the same "default" label files -- perhaps the XL/OS stock OS + Rev C Basic same in every slot?

 

2) When I flashed a new OS (I selected slot #1), I LOAD the new OS, then FLASH ALL. The new rom file is loaded into the system buffer, then flashed, showing the new rom name in slot #1, and then reboots. But if I reload the flasher menu, it again shows DEFAULT in the slot that was previously flashed with a new rom. The cursor is also located again at #0. How does one know what OS has been selected? Aren't the slot names saved? The answer to Rdea6 was that "the flasher asks for the slot number." I see that you can select the slot to operate on using the cursor controls -- is that what you mean by "asks for the slot number?"

 

3) On the pcb there are slots marked ROM and EXS. There is a jumper set on ROM and nothing on EXS(el). Does the jumper have to be moved to flash the slots, or is it a write protect mechanism and if removed prevents flashing?

 

4) I don't understand the behavior of the Linear Ram settings. (I've attached a screen shot that shows the rom page.

If I boot the flasher, the flasher correctly shows the previously selected Expanded Ram configuration (in my case, the Rambo 320k). But if I use TAB to move to the Linear selections, there seems no way to select Linear Ram and save that selection. Can you or someone else (Drac030?) add a further explanation as to how this works. (I did read the README file.)

 

Thanks,

Larry

[+Larry]

A few observations so far on my 800XL. Black Box seems to work perfectly. Haven't tried the MIO yet, but since BB works, I'm optimistic.

 

MyIDE-II will do nothing -- screen stays black and the boot menu will not come up. As soon as I figure out how to install the MyIDE-II R2 rom, I'll make another try. Right now, looks like the cart never gets turned on.

 

-Larry

[Roydea6]

Run Ant.com for the configurator v.1.0

in order to load OS slots press 'F' select slot #1 through #7

arrow up arrow down/ 0-7 set slot..... Pretty self explanatory

after set slot #0 press 'L' to Load an OS press O for OS or B for Basic

continue doing slots until you have no further OS's or Basic's to load. -----------------I have 4 slots filled 1--rev2 and Atari basic 'C' 2-- rev3 and Atari basic 3-- Altirra OS and Altirra 1.51 basic 4--MyBios16 OS and Atari basic

 

After loading my 4 slots then Flash all

I did have a 5th OS but it crashed my Atari so I had to open it up and take the jumper off of the ROM and leave it off while I when through the process to load and flash the roms I fixed OS slot 5 by putting Rev2 OS in it and Atari basic.

 

My advice is keep it simple only load a couple of OS slots.

 

So use MakeAtr to make an ATR large enough for the Ant Configurator file 3 OS & 3 Basics Plus the normal booting DOS and DUP sys files.

 

If Linear has ------- dashes ----on==== the Linear ram is on

the dashes '-' identify the OS in use and Memory in use and linear -on-

IF the highlight is on linear on and you want Linear OFF tab to the linear on and arrow key up to make Linear OFF with dashes.

[+Larry]

Hi Roy-

 

You described exactly what I did trying to flash an OS, and my results were as I explained. But you mention ANT.COM. I presume you mean ANT.EXE which is what I downloaded. Maybe it is a MyDos issue. I'll try SDX from an Atarimax flash cart. Right now, my SIDE2 cart (which is my SDX cart) suffers as you described, so I'll have to fix the config.sys file. Made a 720K ATR as you describe only I just put one OS on it as a test.

 

I presume that from your description, my setting (from the Linear pic) is Linear ON and the Expanded is set for Rambo 320K so they both share memory.

 

I'll try flashing with SDX and update. I don't really understand what you mean with the 5th OS relative to the jumper. I'll look back at Simius' post about that.

 

-Larry

[Roydea6]

Hi Roy-

 

You described exactly what I did trying to flash an OS, and my results were as I explained. But you mention ANT.COM. I presume you mean ANT.EXE which is what I downloaded. Maybe it is a MyDos issue. I'll try SDX from an Atarimax flash cart. Right now, my SIDE2 cart (which is my SDX cart) suffers as you described, so I'll have to fix the config.sys file. Made a 720K ATR as you describe only I just put one OS on it as a test.

 

I presume that from your description, my setting (from the Linear pic) is Linear ON and the Expanded is set for Rambo 1M so they both share memory.

 

I'll try flashing with SDX and update. I don't really understand what you mean with the 5th OS relative to the jumper. I'll look back at Simius' post about that.

 

-Larry

I can not get my Side2 to work, but my Side1 works okay after modifying the config.sys

 

in your first post you said

"3) On the pcb there are slots marked ROM and EXS. There is a jumper set on ROM and nothing on EXS(el). Does the jumper have to be moved to flash the slots, or is it a write protect mechanism and if removed prevents flashing?" ..

And my answer should have been I had to remove the jumper from the pins on the 65C816 board I bought from Simius so I could reboot and change my selected OS to a different slot. Rebooted powered down the Atari and put the jumper back on the pins. Put Atari back together again Rebooted loaded Ant.EXE and re flashed slot #5 with a good OS.

Edited June 25, 2016 by rdea6

[+Larry]

OK, I just used SDX, and the results are better, and I now understand now a couple of key points (I think).

 

1) On the flasher menu, column 1 and column 2 are totally separate entities. And as you indicate, the "dashes" indicate the active rom pair. In my attached pic, it it rom pair #1 and the setting is for 320K Rambo. FWIW, IMO a couple of column headings for the flasher page would be useful when the flasher software is updated.

 

2) As near as I can tell, the rom titles that are flashed are not currently saved, so you have to keep track of the rom slots yourself. Again, would be nice to keep the titles when V1.0 is updated.

 

3) Since I reflashed with SDX, the rom pair currently in use IS saved and it is indicated by the "dashes." (I'm not sure at this point if it is a MyDos issue or an error in what I did originally.)

 

4) Some versions of MyBios do work. The original MyIDE flash works fine. But so far, none of the recent versions of MyIDE-II work at all ...more for me to check.

 

-Larry

[Roydea6]

I also use a MyIDE version 31 PCB made be Mr Atari and sold to me and I put it into a Cart shell as described in his version 3.1 documentation about the year of 2004.. I put it on top of a SpartaDos X Super Cart made my "Dropcheck , SantosP, tf_hh" ..with a modified config.sys to boot MyIDE.sys..

[+Larry]

Thanks for the clarification on the jumper!

-Larry

[ndary]

Yes Larry you are correct, here are the answers to your questions...

 

1. The XL/OS stock OS + Rev C Basic as default comes in every slot

 

2. currently the app does not store the slot name, it just loads a valid rom to the selected slot, and you have to write down and remember of which ROM you have stored at each slot. once you select the Slot you want to run the OS from the Atari will reboot with the selected slot in place.

 

3. you don't need to remove the Jumper from the PCB to flash the slots, if you accidentally flashed a wrong image and cant boo the Ant.EXE app to switch Roms, then you need to remove the jumper so the Atari will boot to the default OS

 

4. i also not familiar with the "Linear Ram settings" and what it meant to do..

 

 

Nir

[Simius]

One of two pins marked EXS is the EXSEL input, which can be connected direct to the appriopriate position of PBI or ECI connector, when it is necessary for external device. The second pin is ground.

Edited June 25, 2016 by Simius

[drac030]

The flasher does not remember the slot names because there is no place available on the device where it could save the names to. Or at least I do not know about such a place.

 

Saving them in a file is troublesome, because there is no warranty that such a file and the ROM contents would always match. Of course, I can add hashes to verify if the ROMs match the names, but this would only provide information what it is not, and not what it is.

 

I could however append the names when the entire ROM is saved to a file (Save -> All in the flasher). Reloading the ROM contents (Load -> All from such a file would then also restore the names.

 

As for saving the ROM/RAM/Linear settings, they are kept in the Antonia's configuration register, so it should not matter what DOS is used to load the setup program.

 

However, the config register is only written to when one exits the selection menu using the Return key (one Return hit moves the cursor to the "Accept" menu, another one "accepts" the selection).

 

When one exits the menu using Esc, this means "Cancel" for the program and the preselected configuration gets discarded.

 

The linear setting is about the so called "linear" RAM. When enabled, it is 2 or 3 MB RAM accessible in a flat (not banked) manner using the additional addressing modes offered by the CPU used there.

 

The linear RAM is not shared with the banked one, it is a separate area.

Edited June 25, 2016 by drac030

[+Larry]

Thanks, guys -- I appreciate all the help! I certainly have more questions, but since I have the basics (I think!), probably best to wait until I've used it some more. But it is a really nice device, and so very easy to install in an XL. I really like it!

 

@Nir. Activate the linear ram, then flash one of the slots with Konrad's 65816 OS from his web pages and select it. Then run his Multi-Basic. His Multi-Basic is very much like TBXL with some added features such as "Long POKE/PEEK" into linear memory. I used it several times with the XL14.

 

-Larry

[Roydea6]

 

An example of Rom and Basic Slots..

 

My weird names only for personal use 'H' Hias 130 hisio 'N' No attract mode 'K" is swapped " quote key and \ back slash 'R' is Reverse Basic. 'F' is a different Font..

Edited June 25, 2016 by rdea6

[Roydea6]

 

4) Some versions of MyBios do work. The original MyIDE flash works fine. But so far, none of the recent versions of MyIDE-II work at all ...more for me to check.

 

-Larry

I am now able to use the MyIDE ][ Cart with the Antonia upgrade.. I don't know what was wrong the first time I tried but now understanding the OS slot usage better I am sure I have the correct MyBios OS selected and the Cart works just like it did when the Atari 800XL was just 64k ram.

 

Side2 still refuses to work even after trimming the config.sys down to

DEVICE SPARTA

DEVICE SIO

DEVICE ATARIDOS

ECHO I am going to try just one time..

[+Larry]

What Mybios version are you using?

 

-Larry

[Roydea6]

The Most Current beta #16.. Flashed to cart the 512 rom and in the #7 slot position of Antonia I put MyBios R2 beta 16.

Edited June 26, 2016 by rdea6

[Simius]

How to handle eXtension CONfiguration register (XCON=$D1F7)

 

bit7 - Write Enable.
Set this bit to 1 enables write operation to the register. Write operation must be done within next 4 machine cycles, with cleared bit7.

bit6...4 - ROM Bank Select

These bits select the ROM slot number

bit3 - High RAM enable

This bit enables linear RAM over $FFFF for W65C816 microprocessor.

bit2...0 - Banked RAM Configuration:

000 - no RAM bank

001 - 4 banks (130XE compatible.)

010 - 8 banks (130XE compatible.)

011 - 32 banks (130XE compatible.)

100 - 64 banks

101 - 12 banks

110 - 16 banks

111 - Axlon, 127 or 251 banks dependent of bit3

 

Example routine:

 

nmien equ $d40e

wsync equ $d40a

xcon equ $d1f7

 

sei ;IRQ off
lda #$00
sta nmien ;NMI off
lda #$80 ;bit7 set
ldx #new_conf ;(bit7=0)
sta wsync ;wait for end of scanline
sta xcon ;write enable
stx xcon ;write new configuration
lda #$40
sta nmien ;NMI on
cli ;IRQ on
rts

Edited June 26, 2016 by Simius

[+Larry]

No luck here with B16. I re-flashed the cart and slot (#7), and it still will not turn the cart on. You're using the Sparta image, aren't you? I may give that a try. What cartridge firmware version are you using -- you'd need to use the Maxflash Studio to see that, IIRC.

 

@ Simius-

The only hardware difference that I can see between Roy's setup and mine is that my 800XL still has the delay line in it and Roy's has it removed and pins jumpered as you described. Do you think this could affect anything? Not that I'm eager to desolder it, but I would if it might be useful.

 

-Larry

[Roydea6]

Larry this is what I get when reading Cartridge hardware..

 

[uSB Manager] Initialized and running.
[uSB Manager] USB driver version 1007
[uSB Manager] Programmer connected.
[Device Hardware] Update operation failed: Cancelled
[Device Hardware] Reading Cartridge Hardware Version...
[uSB Task] Cartridge Hardware Type: A3
[uSB Task] Cartridge Hardware Version: 20120907

 

and the USB info is

 

[uSB Manager] USB driver version 1007
[uSB Manager] Programmer connected.
[Device Firmware] Reading Firmware Build ID...
[uSB Task] USB Programmer Firmware Version: 20160529

Edited June 26, 2016 by rdea6

[Simius]

@ Simius-

The only hardware difference that I can see between Roy's setup and mine is that my 800XL still has the delay line in it and Roy's has it removed and pins jumpered as you described. Do you think this could affect anything? Not that I'm eager to desolder it, but I would if it might be useful.

 

I don't think so.

[+Larry]

Thanks guys. I'll check my carts and see if there is anything different in them. I've updated the firmware several times while testing various Mybios betas. I'll also try some earlier versions.

Larry

[+David_P]

I'm running into a problem on an 800xl - U29 sticks up too high, so I can't seat the board in the CPU socket. Is there a workaround?

[Roydea6]

I'm running into a problem on an 800xl - U29 sticks up too high, so I can't seat the board in the CPU socket. Is there a workaround?

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/249405-new-4mb-ram-expansion/?p=3535338

 

Check this post and several above it also..

[mr-atari]

MyIDE-][ (atarimax-forum:

You said the cartridge does not powers-up?
So I guess you mean, nothing happens.
But, you should at least get the atarimax-menu..?
This means the cartridge works (is getting power) if not, something else is wrong....

With atarimax-menu:
When nothing happens when you select an item: -> signals are of specification.
Generated by the MMU or added hardware

 

Old MyIDE (3.1 or with 1Mb flash) have non intelligent IO, they should work fine indeed.

[+Larry]

Larry this is what I get when reading Cartridge hardware..

 

[uSB Manager] Initialized and running.

[uSB Manager] USB driver version 1007

[uSB Manager] Programmer connected.

[Device Hardware] Update operation failed: Cancelled

[Device Hardware] Reading Cartridge Hardware Version...

[uSB Task] Cartridge Hardware Type: A3

[uSB Task] Cartridge Hardware Version: 20120907

 

and the USB info is

 

[uSB Manager] USB driver version 1007

[uSB Manager] Programmer connected.

[Device Firmware] Reading Firmware Build ID...

[uSB Task] USB Programmer Firmware Version: 20160529

 

Thanks, Roy and Sijmen-

 

I have two MyIDE-II carts. One has Version 5 and the other 20130303. The 20130303 is probably unchanged from when I received it from Atarimax. Versions 5 has been updated several times.

 

I have two 4MB upgrades for the XL series. (I swapped the upgrades in the same 800XL, and the MyIDE-II carts still behaves the same.)

 

 

I have flashed two slots with the MyBios R2 rom -- #1 and #7. The others are unchanged.

 

If I boot the Version 5 cartridge, I get a blue screen and nothing else. No boot. If I boot the 20130303, then in addition to the blue screen, I will get the normal SIO boot from APE D1:. It boots at hi-speed SIO, which is normal for the B16 rom. In neither case with the MyIDE-II cartridge inserted do I get the MYBIOS "Welcome Screen." If I boot without the cartridge inserted, I get the Welcome Screen and then press RETURN to boot from SIO. Both slots #1 and #7 behave the same.

 

So the cartridge firmware does affect this, although it may or may not be the key issue.

 

Roy, could you send me a copy of your cartridge firmware, if you have that file. I'll apply it to one of my carts and see if that affects anything.

 

In retrospect, I had similar problems with various versions of the XL14 -- some worked fine, some didn't. If I don't get anywhere with changing the cart firmware, I'll swap computers and see if that makes a difference.

 

-Larry