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UnoCart-2600 : a DIY SD multi-cart for the 2600


electrotrains

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Good to hear! I am not 100% satisfied with the labels. My printer needs a new fuser, I think. I actually ordered a new one that should be here Monday. If anyone wants a new label, just let me know and I will send one along.

 

As for not seeing files, it may be that those files do not comply with what UNO wants to see as far as extensions/file formats. Are the files all in the same format? Also, there is a limit to the number of files that UNO will display/see at any one time, so you might want to put them in separate subdirectories.

 

Got it to work correctly! I would love a new label, and the tiny plastic piece that goes on the front pins in the top of the cart.

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Got it to work correctly! I would love a new label, and the tiny plastic piece that goes on the front pins in the top of the cart.

 

 

 

Cool. The shorting jumper? Would you mind checking the bag? It was only attached by one pin, so it may have come off in shipping (It should not be shorting any pins if it is running NTSC ROMs, thus I leave it unconnected on US shipments.).

 

I will send along another label. You had the Black label?

 

-M

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Cart arrived and love it. A couple of questions. What is the max size sd card supported? When I try to go through the game list, it jumps from games starting with the letter c to w in the menu screen. I am playing this cart on a 7800. I will test it later on a 2600.

You need to download and run drivesort.exe on a pc to renumerate the file index so that the game roms are arranged in alphabetical order. Also don't stick thousands of files in a single folder. I try to limit my folders to 200 or less, and this applies to all my flashcart systems. I split into folders by alphabet. Letters with more than 200 files a piece get further subdivided. Also do not use the "good" sets. They are full of bad dumps. "No Intro" sets trim most of the fat and leave only verified good dumps of known games.

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You don't need drivesort.exe or anything like that.

 

The UnoCart sorts the files alphabetically by itself, with directories at the top.

However the UnoCart firmware only supports up to 80 files per directory (see the manual) so its probably stopped reading after 80 files, and just sorted what it found thus far.

 

regards,

Robin

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Latest manual is always on github

https://github.com/robinhedwards/UnoCart-2600/blob/master/UnoCart-2600-Manual.pdf

 

Reason for the limit - mainly laziness on my part when writing the firmware, it wouldn't be that much work to overcome it.

 

Robin

Based upon my experience, most flash carts for 8-bit systems can support up to 250 files per directory. Beyond that the index increases beyond the limit of 255 entries counting navigational functions. I've always limited files to 250 or less per directory and it works pretty well. The NES PowerPak could support up to 252 files for instance. If you count menu options, folder up, etc, you've used up the 256 maximum pointers.

 

So for those of us who've already prearranged our ROM collections and optimized them for Harmony, it may be desirable to expand the index limit to at least 200. I've never had issues with 250 or less ROMs per directory on any flash cart. Some are capable to support thousands in one folder, but beyond a couple hundred files it gets tiring to scroll through so many pages.

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I couldn't get Pitfall II to work. It launches and shows graphics, but locks up to a light grey screen after a few seconds. Thinking about it, didn't that cart have some extra circuitry?

 

 

The extra circuitry is the DPC, and it is emulated by the UnoCard ;) What console are you using?

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I have added support for large (up to 512kb) 3F images to the firmware. As such files exceed the amount of RAM available on the STM32F4x (the firmware has 160k available for cartridge images), the banks that exceed this limit are copied to flash when the image is launched. I have used ZackAttack's and my own audio test ROMS from this thread for testing.

 

The changes are not yet integrated in the main repository, but they are available in my fork on GitHub. I have attached a build of the updated firmware. In order to program the firmware, you need a ST-Link V2 USB programmer (<10€ on eBay or Amazon) that you connect to your UnoCard (you have to power the cart with your VCS during programming).

 

attachicon.giffirmware.zip

 

Received my cart from MacRorie over the weekend flashed the new firmware and finally got to hear those test ROMs running on actual hardware!

 

A couple of notes for anyone else who needs to upgrade their firmware.

  • Programmer software can be downloaded for free from ST's site by clicking "Get Software" at the bottom right.
  • The USB programmer can be bought from amazon prime for less than $10.
  • I used 3 short lengths of hookup wire to connect from the programmer leads to the PCB. I think it's solid core 22awg or 24awg wire. @MacRorie, IMO it would have been nice if the connector on the cart was a 3 pin male connector like the jumper connector used for TV mode selection.
  • The bin files needed to be renamed to have a .3f extension in order to work with this version of the firmware. My first attempt kept the .bin extension and resulted in a bad rom error.
  • The whole operation takes just a few minutes and should be easy enough for just about anyone.
  • BACK TO THE FUTURE!!!!
Edited by ZackAttack
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Received my cart from MacRorie over the weekend flashed the new firmware and finally got to hear those test ROMs running on actual hardware!

 

A couple of notes for anyone else who needs to upgrade their firmware.

  • Programmer software can be downloaded for free from ST's site by clicking "Get Software" at the bottom right.
  • The USB programmer can be bought from amazon prime for less than $10.
  • I used 3 short lengths of hookup wire to connect from the programmer leads to the PCB. I think it's solid core 22awg or 24awg wire. @MacRorie, IMO it would have been nice if the connector on the cart was a 3 pin male connector like the jumper connector used for TV mode selection.
  • The bin files needed to be renamed to have a .3f extension in order to work with this version of the firmware. My first attempt kept the .bin extension and resulted in a bad rom error.
  • The whole operation takes just a few minutes and should be easy enough for just about anyone.
  • BACK TO THE FUTURE!!!!

 

 

Thanks for the confirmation, I was still missing a test from a 512k SOC (I presume McRorie uses those; the prototype Electrotrains kindly sent me has a 1MB SOC).

 

+1 for the male connector. I had trouble getting a stable connecting with the jump wires I used and ended up desoldering and replacing the connector with a male one. Robin also fitted his later prototypes with an angled male connector.

 

As an alternative to the official ST tools, you can also use https://github.com/texane/stlinkfor flashing from the command line (Mac & Linux).

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The extra circuitry is the DPC, and it is emulated by the UnoCard ;) What console are you using?

 

 

Ah right!

 

I'm using a 7800 (PAL). I'll try a 2600 and see what happens.

 

Thanks.

 

Pitfall II works fine on my light sixer. I've had it running for an hour or so.

 

I'll try my other 7800 and see how that works.

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Thanks for the confirmation, I was still missing a test from a 512k SOC (I presume McRorie uses those; the prototype Electrotrains kindly sent me has a 1MB SOC).

 

 

 

I use whatever I can find. Although I tend to default to the 1MB ones. I can try to make a 512k one specifically for test purposes, however. It just means I have to open a package and assemble all of them since they only have a week shelf life once the package is opened.

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I use whatever I can find. Although I tend to default to the 1MB ones. I can try to make a 512k one specifically for test purposes, however. It just means I have to open a package and assemble all of them since they only have a week shelf life once the package is opened.

If possible you should only use 1mb for sd based carts and save the 512k for publishing homebrews. Since the SD card is more suitable for development it makes sense to give it the extra storage.

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Actually, forget I said anything about 1MB. I don't want the hardware to be any more difficult or expensive than it needs to be and I also don't want to create a situation where there are games that only work for some of the Uno Cart owners.

 

I'll restrict my rom usage to 448KB (64KB for firmware). If a game needs to be larger than that it can make use of the SD card or some other form of external flash memory.

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Whooot, how could I have missed such an awesome project so far?

I grew up with the 2600 (it was my first console) and always wanted to resell a flashcart for it as well (www.everdrive.de and www.dragonbox.de are my shops)

 

I'd really love to resell it here in Europe, if you're fine with that.

I am experienced in PCB and case production, so I could do that.

 

As far as I read, a shell doesn't exist yet, right? I could take care of that.

I could also mass produce PCBs (though it looks like these are done in the US?)

 

So, I'm ready to contribute and make them more widely available. I don't want to simply steal the design and reproduce it, I'd be happy buying finished PCBs, producing them myself (contributing some of the income to the main developer) and of course provide the 3D files for the case or fully produced plastic shells for everyone who already has one of the PCBs.

 

Would that be possible and what would you prefer? :)

 

Sent from my Moto Z using Tapatalk

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