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New development: GTIA in CPLD


Simius

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No need to solder anything. You just need to crimp a connector onto the cable that came with your USB Blaster (see image below for proper orientation).

 

post-29824-0-06337800-1489242301.jpg

 

 

Sophia uses a Micro-Match connector, so here is the mating part suitable for crimping onto the ribbon cable...

8-215083-0_sml.jpg

Digi-Key P/N: A99461CT-ND

TE Connectivity P/N: 8-215083-0

 

- Michael

 

 

Ok my USB blaster just arrived...haven't opened the package yet. So I need to order something else now? :?

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RGB Scart cable and component RCA cable.

 

I've been reading through this thread again so I can be ready when these become available again with the correct cables. I know this was asked and answered before, but I cannot understand the answer so I am going to try it again :)

 

In the SCART RGB cable diagram you show pin 2/7 going to the outside of pins 1,3,4 and 5 via the little circles. At the same time you states that the common shield should not connect to ground. Are the circles a logical connection rather than a physical one and should they just go directly to the respective ground pins on the SCART connection? Same with pin 4 surrounding to pin 2 and 6 on the SCART side.

 

If that is the case, what is the common shield connected to? It just seems to connect to pin 21 on the SCART but nothing on the DB9 end. Sorry for being so dense, I am trying to translate this into physical wiring.

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The circles means a physical connections. These are individual shields of the signal wires. Common shield is connected one side only, to pin 21 of the SCART connector.

Remember, that you have a rev.A board.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/258702-new-development-gtia-in-cpld/page-19?do=findComment&comment=3744242

 

Thanks, I hadn't realised it would be a Rev A board. Can you please confirm a couple of things for me:

1. Will it have the new Core loaded that have the PAL / NTSC automatic palette switching?

2. If not, can it take the new core?

3. The comment on the link above shows that Rev B has VSYNC removed, but the diagram for Rev A also shows no VSYNC (was it updated to remove it to)?

4. Apart from the movement of the pins, are there any other differences between the two I should be aware of?

 

Thanks as always for your help.

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What is the Gender of the DB9 cable supplied with the SOPHIA?

It's female.

 

So this afternoon I tried to connect up my USB Blaster to the Sophia. Seemingly though either the Quartus Prime software (this is 16.1 Lite) is just flakey as hell or the USB Blaster itself it, because either the software just hangs or Windows 10 crashes. I've had Windows 10 on this PC for ages and never seen the new BSoD, today I saw it about 10 times. I assume others don't experience these problems. What I PITA :(

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Thanks. That's good to know, I bought the right gender to connect to it then :)

 

I've not got the board to programme yet, but I have a DE-115 FPGA Development board with a built in blaster but not had any issues with it. Then again my main systems are both Mac which tends to be more stable with these sort of drivers.

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It's female.

 

So this afternoon I tried to connect up my USB Blaster to the Sophia. Seemingly though either the Quartus Prime software (this is 16.1 Lite) is just flakey as hell or the USB Blaster itself it, because either the software just hangs or Windows 10 crashes. I've had Windows 10 on this PC for ages and never seen the new BSoD, today I saw it about 10 times. I assume others don't experience these problems. What I PITA :(

Interesting. I had no problems on Windows 10. Did you get as far as getting the programmer software to recognize the CPLD? Edited by robbievgb
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No, it crashes running the Jtag Debugger or says something about the clock timing being invalid if run one of the diag tests in it. I suspect the USB Blaster is trash, I mean it cost peanuts off eBay so it wouldn't surprise me.

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Because I was trying to figure out if the USB Blaster was working or not, which clearly it wasn't. The debugger runs from the Quartus Prime program to help you diagnose problem. To be honest though all the software seems really flakey for some reason.

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Not sure if this is the right place to do this, but I'm so pleased with how my reprogrammed Sophia is now working I'd like to get in on the next pre-order, and get 3 boards :)

 

Simius you've really done a great thing with Sophia, and in my latest tests with the new firmware there is no doubt that it is the superior Atari video solution (now better than the UAV, but the UAV still brings us the best Composite/S-Video solution).

 

- Michael

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For those who might be new to programming these type of devices - you only need the Quartus Programmer package (v15 will do, ~600MB). You don't need the full blown Quartus suite.

Can you give us a download link for this? Also what OSs does it work with, I'm sure someone on here said you need v16 if using Windows 10.

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Anyone... How does Sophia look with 80 columns from the XEP80? Can you get all 80 columns on your screen and the 25 lines?

 

And how about the software 80-col. solutions -- how do they look? UAV (rev c) is good with software 80 columns, but still has a little bleeding of characters on my setup.

 

Getting closer to having time to get mine installed and working.

 

-Larry

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Yeah, I reckon I'll have to buy another, thing is where do you go to find a "proper" one exactly?

 

This is the one that I got -- and it worked:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00IRODADK/ref=dp_olp_new_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=new

I think if you don't get a "professional model" there is always a risk, but this was good for me.

 

-Larry

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Anyone... How does Sophia look with 80 columns from the XEP80? Can you get all 80 columns on your screen and the 25 lines?

 

And how about the software 80-col. solutions -- how do they look? UAV (rev c) is good with software 80 columns, but still has a little bleeding of characters on my setup.

 

Getting closer to having time to get mine installed and working.

 

-Larry

 

Huh? What does the XEP80 have to do with Sophia or the GTIA? Am I missing something?

 

The XEP80 gets its video information via a joystick port if I recall correctly.

 

EDIT: Maybe you meant to say how does the Sophia look with 80 column bit mapped output (Last Word, ect.) as compared to the XEP80. If that's the case, I haven't tried 80 column on my Sophia yet, but I wouldn't be able to give it a fair comparison since I no longer own an XEP80 (had one back in the early 90's).

 

- Michael

Edited by mytekcontrols
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