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RespeQt r4 released


Joey Z

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I am having some trouble connecting RespeQt r4 to my A8 through a genuine FTDI chip. I have installed the newest FTDI drivers and set up the USB connection to appear as a virtual 'COM10' device under Win7. Handshaking is set as RI on both the SIO2PC and in RespeQt. This is my current (failing) procedure:

 

  1. Having both SIO and USB plugged into their appropriate machines, I start RespeQt in Windows and tell it to create and attach a blank double-density disk image to 'D1:'.
  2. I then turn on my A8, with FJC's high-speed SIO patch enabled for drives 1-4 in the U1MB setup.
  3. The usual handshaking buzz occurs on booting the A8 and the RespeQt status windows shows 'Serial Port Speed set to 57600' and 'Serial Port Speed set to 19200' repeated four times. It settles at the '19200' figure.
  4. I now change to 'D1:' under SDX and open the 'Format' window.
  5. However, if in this menu I tell it to look at 'Drive 1' (or 'Drive A') I continually get the 'Drive not Ready' response from SDX.

Now, going from all this it would seem the FTDI chip is being recognized by Windows, its virtual 'COM10' port enabled and in turn recognized by RespeQt. Also, since it goes through the hand-shake speed-setting sequence the A8 and RespeQt must be talking to each other. That is as far as it goes however and if anyone could suggest something obvious I have missed or a fault-finding process to try I would be very grateful!

 

Incidentally, despite having the PCLink driver enabled and setup in the SDX 'config.sys' file and a folder image specified as 'D3:' in RespeQt the message 'Warning: no server response' is given by SDX on boot.

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I am having some trouble connecting RespeQt r4 to my A8 through a genuine FTDI chip. I have installed the newest FTDI drivers and set up the USB connection to appear as a virtual 'COM10' device under Win7. Handshaking is set as RI on both the SIO2PC and in RespeQt. This is my current (failing) procedure:

  • Having both SIO and USB plugged into their appropriate machines, I start RespeQt in Windows and tell it to create and attach a blank double-density disk image to 'D1:'.
  • I then turn on my A8, with FJC's high-speed SIO patch enabled for drives 1-4 in the U1MB setup.
  • The usual handshaking buzz occurs on booting the A8 and the RespeQt status windows shows 'Serial Port Speed set to 57600' and 'Serial Port Speed set to 19200' repeated four times. It settles at the '19200' figure.
  • I now change to 'D1:' under SDX and open the 'Format' window.
  • However, if in this menu I tell it to look at 'Drive 1' (or 'Drive A') I continually get the 'Drive not Ready' response from SDX.
Now, going from all this it would seem the FTDI chip is being recognized by Windows, its virtual 'COM10' port enabled and in turn recognized by RespeQt. Also, since it goes through the hand-shake speed-setting sequence the A8 and RespeQt must be talking to each other. That is as far as it goes however and if anyone could suggest something obvious I have missed or a fault-finding process to try I would be very grateful!

 

Incidentally, despite having the PCLink driver enabled and setup in the SDX 'config.sys' file and a folder image specified as 'D3:' in RespeQt the message 'Warning: no server response' is given by SDX on boot.

 

Query: have you ensured your Atari can boot from other SIO devices? It's possible your POKEY has failed or there's some other issue with the SIO port.

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I'm sorry but when using ring indicate (speed indicate 'ri' on rs232 is falling edge) there was an edge select option in respeqt....

 

"Trigger on Falling edge" is select-able if you use hardware handshake, so it is only visible if you selected DSR/CTS/RI.

 

or select one of the other control lines.. remember the other lines react at a much faster rate.....

 

in any event unless something has changed, that is the proper convention when using RI... toggle it an see that is works for you...

 

select standard divisor and then 3x and work your way up until your DOS filters fail

 

make certain your Atari has the speed limiting caps snipped, if not you won't have a lot of success beyond 4.47 of spartados x at the faster rates.

 

that is all...

 

_Commander Adama__

Edited by _The Doctor__
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Many thanks for the tips guys! I've pretty much come down on the problem laying with the chip itself. Sadly I don't have another working SIO device to test, but the audio and keyboard aspect of POKEY are running okay for whatever that is worth.

 

Most of the cheap FTDI devices use CTS for the Command line.

 

Very true! Thinking along those lines; I wanted a bit more versatility so bought a Sparkfun breakout board that gave access to almost all the FT232RL pins (except the most important for me, 'Reset'... I had to hack that one by bending up the pin with a very fine laceworking needle and magnifying glass!) I then connected the purple SIO handshake wire through a three position switch that allowed me to select between RI/DTR/CTS at will. It worked for a while but now seems to have given up the ghost over the last two years for some reason.

 

I think this is going to be my next attempt at a rugged SIO2PC:

 

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/interface-development-kits/7158522/

 

I am thinking I will connect it to a mini-DIN5 plug and add a matching socket in my case which connects directly to the back of the appropriate 'DataIn', 'DataOut', 'GND' and 'Handshake' pins of the SIO socket on the motherboard. That way I completely sidestep the need to find another genuine SIO cable to hack up. It doesn't get any easier than a straight USB cable to a compact DIN plug! The only loss will be a reset button and no LED's to show data throughput. I will also have to permanently wire the handshaking for CTS with this cable.

 

That would essentially give me a dedicated SIO2PC socket without having to worry about daisy-chaining.

Edited by morelenmir
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whatever version you pick must be 5 V tolerant....both sides.... some different results occur with 3.3 volt variants and their longevity...

 

It is actually pretty bewildering the number of different options that cable has--both 5V and 3.3V along with the signals it breaks out to wires. Sadly none of them offer the LED's or the Reset pin. I am pretty attracted to the Audio Jack version, but that only exports three signals sadly. I suspect that longevity issue may well be what happened to my existing box... Annoying as I spent a long time on working up the project box and its controls.

 

Try this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/6P-FTDI-FT232RL-USB-to-Serial-adapter-module-USB-TO-TTL-RS232-Cable-F-Arduino-5v/111241824248?hash=item19e68787f8:g:7ScAAOxycmBSs3lW

 

Connect BLUE wire to Command.

 

Edit:I use this with divisor zero (125K Baud) and it works perfectly.

 

I shall check it out at once Kyle! Many thanks!!!

 

Update: That looks pretty much exactly like the 8-wire variant from RS--except at literally a quarter of the price!!! Excellent!!! The only potential issue I can see is if the chip is indeed a real FTDI device? I know they deliberately brick fake chips in their software.

Edited by morelenmir
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Query: have you ensured your Atari can boot from other SIO devices? It's possible your POKEY has failed or there's some other issue with the SIO port.

 

A very shrewd observation DrVenkman!!! It turns out that when I swapped the primary and secondary POKEY's around in my SimpleStereo the SIO2PC-USB suddenly started working again! So I guess that was the problem all along. Apparently it is not unknown for a POKEY chip to fail for SIO purposes but still properly do sound, keyboard and some of its other duties.

 

Sadly a new one costs £30 on eBay and that is when imported from America! Lotharek used to sell them to go with his stereo mods but he also seems to be out of stock. Unless a CPLD reproduction can be made I guess the POKEY shortage will be terminal!!!

Edited by morelenmir
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pokey sio doesn't normally fail unless something stresses it or it takes a burst of some kind, if the rest of the pokey is working fine. The aberrant behavior normally manifests itself in many ways across the all of it's function. This makes me wonder if the sockets had shifted or corroded in some way, when re seated, wiped clean and worked again, or even a possible solder joint... not quite up to snuff..... I would double check and explore all of those possibilities.... that will ensure the problem does not return. I have seen chips damaged due to sockets working lose etc. I've taken to securing such stacked sockets with clips, zip ties, and such... it saves headaches down the road....

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pokey sio doesn't normally fail unless something stresses it or it takes a burst of some kind, if the rest of the pokey is working fine. The aberrant behavior normally manifests itself in many ways across the all of it's function. This makes me wonder if the sockets had shifted or corroded in some way, when re seated, wiped clean and worked again, or even a possible solder joint... not quite up to snuff..... I would double check and explore all of those possibilities.... that will ensure the problem does not return. I have seen chips damaged due to sockets working lose etc. I've taken to securing such stacked sockets with clips, zip ties, and such... it saves headaches down the road....

 

That's a good point. For instance, in my "Ugly Duckling" 1200XL restoration last year, the SIO wasn't working and when I pulled the chip I figured out why: several wipes in those cheap-a$$ single-wipe sockets had corroded, and/or bent to the point they lost all spring tension and so those chip legs had intermittent contact at best. Replaced the socket with some quality double-wipes and voila, problem solved. I also found similar issues on a couple other sockets, including one wipe on the 6520 PIA socket that had broken clean off due to the corrosion and spring tension.

 

So if you're up to socket replacement, it might be worth looking into examining all the sockets under magnification with the chips removed to see if there are any issues there.

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If replacing POKEY fixed SIO, job done. I've seen several POKEYs which wouldn't drive SIO for whatever reason, but were otherwise perfectly functional. If a replacement IC exhibited the same issues (which I understand it doesn't in this case), then it would be time to look elsewhere.

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In regards my duff POKEY--honestly this XE is so hopeless screwed that it is probably an intermittent problem that will come and go just to make me pull my hair out! I will give the original a good look over though and check its legs for corrosion/fouling. The socket is supposedly a 'precision' unit as I resocketted all the IC's on the motherboard when I first got it.

 

I wonder though, could attaching the 5V pull-up resister to SIO Pin 5 as part of the 'capacitor snip' mod that improves throughput give the chip that extra stress or sudden zap which might have cooked it?

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the snip of rx and tx caps will not harm the computer... with all items off and not plugged to mains you can safely connect disconnect drives etc.... last thing to do in all connections is to the mains..

 

the 5v mod pull up is not a mod I've ever needed to do as I use low voltage drop fast shottky diodes with home brew SIO devices... running full out with ape and respeqt never an issue.... only limit is DOS filters etc, but most everything handles the Div 0 just fine...

Edited by _The Doctor__
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