AVGCART

[tmp]

frankly, i've messed up this one back in 2018, most carts made have that header at a crappy place so while it should be possible hack the cable, it would probably be (semi)permanent

only the recent carts have it moved to a place where it allows plugging the cable without opening the shell (with appropriate female connector soldered in)

[xxl]

another example that AVG is unbeatable

[Mr Robot]

On 9/19/2021 at 7:35 AM, DjayBee said:

In view of one of the contestants in the ABBUC software contest 2021 which needs BASIC XE 4.1, I have a request for @Mr Robot's De-Re-AVGCART:

 

AVG can simultaneously load a CAR and disk images, but only if all are in the same directory of the SD card.

First assign the disk image to disk drive D1 by pressing SHIFT-1, then select the CAR file and press RETURN to boot the computer.

 

This does not work if you need to change the directory of the SD card in between.

I've updated the Loading ATR/ATX section of De Re AVGCART, it now says this 

 

Quote

You can mount ATR files in the virtual drive slots 1-4, and still launch CAR or XEX files. This can be useful if you need a save disk or if a program on an ATR needs a language cart (like BASIC XL or Altirra Extended BASIC) to be inserted at boot time to run. There are some limitations, the ATR's and CAR file need to be in the same subdirectory or you need to have defined the CAR as a shortcut. You can then just insert the disks you want to mount and launch the CAR file, or run the shortcut you have defined as the CAR. You currently cannot do this with ATX files.

 

[MiCV2]

2 hours ago, tmp said:

 

Incredible tmp, my dream came true ?

[+CharlieChaplin]

Hmmmm,

regarding 512k XRAM inside the AVG cart...

 

1) one end of the AVG XRAM-cable goes into the AVG cart, the other end into ECI ?

 

2) How about XL computers then - they need the much bigger PBI connector ? And 5V on PBI pin 46 or 47 or 48 ?

 

3) 512k XRAM uses which scheme?

 

a) 8 blocks with 4 banks each (fully DOS 2.x compatible), like this:

03,07,0B,0F,

23,27,2B,2F,

43,47,4B,4F,

63,67,6B,6F,

83,87,8B,8F,

A3,A7,AB,AF,

C3,C7,CB,CF,

E3,E7,EB,EF;

(can use Compyshop and/or Rambo programs)

 

or b) similar to U1MB (576k CS mode) or Rambo/Peterson/etc. = 4 blocks with 8 banks each (does not work with most DOS 2.x, e.g. DOS 2.5, SuperDOS, XDOS, BiboDOS, TurboDOS, Happy DOS II+D, etc. hang up during booting), e.g. like this:

 

81,83,85,87,89,8B,8D,8F,

A1,A3,A5,A7,A9,AB,AD,AF,

C1,C3,C5,C7,C9,CB,CD,CF,

E1,E3,E5,E7,E9,EB,ED,EF;

(can use only Rambo programs)

 

or like this:

21,23,25,27,29,2B,2D,2F

61,63,65,67,69,6B,6D,6F

A1,A3,A5,A7,A9,AB,AD,AF

E1,E3,E5,E7,E9,EB,ED,EF

(can use only Compyshop programs)

 

For SpartaDOS and SDX users it does not matter and even MyDOS works fine with all schemes, but most (older) DOS 2.x versions work only with scheme a) and hang up with scheme b). And errmm, there are dozens of demos (and also some games) from the 90s that come with DOS 2.x (e.g. Happy DOS II+D) and therefore would not work with scheme b). One would have to change the DOS (and batchfile in case of DOS II+D) then, which is not always easy and takes a lot of time.

 

[tmp]

4 hours ago, Mr Robot said:

I've updated the Loading ATR/ATX section of De Re AVGCART, it now says this 

 

You can mount ATR files in the virtual drive slots 1-4,

it's 1-8 since 0021

[tmp]

3 hours ago, CharlieChaplin said:

1) one end of the AVG XRAM-cable goes into the AVG cart, the other end into ECI ?

yes

 

3 hours ago, CharlieChaplin said:

2) How about XL computers then - they need the much bigger PBI connector ? And 5V on PBI pin 46 or 47 or 48 ?

no idea, for now it's eci only, too many issues with pbi version, i might try it in the future (i'm not sure whether the length of cables needed for xl wouldn't cause problems (other than people fainting when seeing such monstrosity), probably not but it's better to test that)

newer carts have 5v on one of the pins, the older have gnd there so that's another problem

 

3 hours ago, CharlieChaplin said:

3) 512k XRAM uses which scheme?

 

a) 8 blocks with 4 banks each (fully DOS 2.x compatible), like this:

03,07,0B,0F,

23,27,2B,2F,

43,47,4B,4F,

63,67,6B,6F,

83,87,8B,8F,

A3,A7,AB,AF,

C3,C7,CB,CF,

E3,E7,EB,EF;

(can use Compyshop and/or Rambo programs)

 

or b) similar to U1MB (576k CS mode) or Rambo/Peterson/etc. = 4 blocks with 8 banks each (does not work with most DOS 2.x, e.g. DOS 2.5, SuperDOS, XDOS, BiboDOS, TurboDOS, Happy DOS II+D, etc. hang up during booting), e.g. like this:

 

81,83,85,87,89,8B,8D,8F,

A1,A3,A5,A7,A9,AB,AD,AF,

C1,C3,C5,C7,C9,CB,CD,CF,

E1,E3,E5,E7,E9,EB,ED,EF;

(can use only Rambo programs)

 

or like this:

21,23,25,27,29,2B,2D,2F

61,63,65,67,69,6B,6D,6F

A1,A3,A5,A7,A9,AB,AD,AF

E1,E3,E5,E7,E9,EB,ED,EF

(can use only Compyshop programs)

 

For SpartaDOS and SDX users it does not matter and even MyDOS works fine with all schemes, but most (older) DOS 2.x versions work only with scheme a) and hang up with scheme b). And errmm, there are dozens of demos (and also some games) from the 90s that come with DOS 2.x (e.g. Happy DOS II+D) and therefore would not work with scheme b). One would have to change the DOS (and batchfile in case of DOS II+D) then, which is not always easy and takes a lot of time.

 

it uses bits 7,6,5,3,2 for bank selection but that's all just a quick hack for demo purposes

separate antic access should be possible to implement but i haven't tried that

[Irgendwer]

Now this cries for an internal installation. Looking less like a "Franken"-Cart... ?

Edited October 4, 2021 by Irgendwer

[Peri Noid]

The power of AVG is, that it's external. You can connect it to any machine. The external RAM expansion will not work on an XL machine nor on a 65XE without ECI (obvious) but ... oh, whatever

[mimo]

*drags 65XE out of storage*

[xxl]

I was curious if the functionality in AVG or external u1mb will appear sooner and I already know the answer ?

[+DjayBee]

No wonder, designing an xxl-software detect-and-crashinator takes its time.

[candle]

not really, that part is ready for quite some time

there is even fully featured memory monitor/debugger and disassembler written to patch offending code in one go...

 

[patjomki]

On 10/4/2021 at 3:39 AM, tmp said:

no idea, for now it's eci only, too many issues with pbi version, i might try it in the future (i'm not sure whether the length of cables needed for xl wouldn't cause problems

 

I vote for a pbi version for the xl anyway.?

[+CharlieChaplin]

1 hour ago, patjomki said:

 

I vote for a pbi version for the xl anyway.?

 

Hehe, take a look at tmp's new Avatar - this is a PBI RAM upgrade. Since the PBI on a 800XL normally does not have power, you have several alternatives to get it: a) solder a wire to the PBI, b) get power from the joystick port or c) get power from the AVG SIO-cable. So, this PBI RAM upgrade is the ultimative companion to the AVG cart. The prototype version I have at home for testing purposes currently offers:

 

- 1MB port B XRAM (can be setup to 1MB, 320k Rambo and XRAM off)

- 4MB Axlon comp. XRAM (can be setup to on/off)

- SDX onboard (evil as I am, I never use it)

- up to eight OS onboard (okay seven, since one of them is the possibility to use the standard / built-in OS of your computer), seven pre-config. OS are already there;

- up to eight 8k slots onboard (okay seven, since one of them is the possibility to use your standard / built-in Atari Basic), seven pre-configured 8k ROMs are already there;

- RTC and battery to save time, date and config. (4 configs can be saved)

- stereo Pokey emulation onboard (can be set to off, mono, stereo, auto)

- Covox upgrade (a small 2cm x 1cm enhancement that can be plugged into the PBI upgrade) with 3,5mm headphone out

- Reset-Help always goes to the built-in setup/config menu

- firmware can be updated with the A8 (e.g. from floppy-disk or from ATR on AVG cart.)

- comes with a housing that is only a few mm thick and has almost the same height as an 800XL (no need to ask ctirad about his PBI RAM upgrade any longer)

- maybe several other things I forgot...

 

What it does not do:

1) Since this is a PBI RAM upgrade and it installs without any wires there is currently no way to get sep. Antic access. (It is not completely impossible to do, but one would have to solder one or more wires then.) Unsure if Compyshop mode (without sep. Antic access) would be possible, currently it is not available. (But one can simply use the 1MB port B mode and most if not all Compyshop programs seem to work fine, e.g. demos and tools that require 320k Compyshop work fine in the 1MB mode, programs that require sep. Antic do NOT work.)

2) The PBI upgrade does NOT de-activate any build-in RAM upgrade, so it is best used in a standard 64k computer without any RAM upgrades. Using it with a computer that already has a build-in RAM upgrade will lead to various problems and strange behaviour (in some cases even when the build-in RAM upgrade is switched off).

 

So, if U1MB is the perfect companion for SIDE3, I would say that this PBI upgrade is the perfect companion for AVG cart. + SIO-cable.

 

[Mclaneinc]

This is sounding amazing.. Hopefully not too expensive..

[Mr Robot]

I didn't know we were allowed to talk about that yet!
 

[patjomki]

Nice features! ?

[Atari_bbs_fan]

3 hours ago, CharlieChaplin said:

 

So, if U1MB is the perfect companion for SIDE3, I would say that this PBI upgrade is the perfect companion for AVG cart. + SIO-cable.

 

 

This does sound amazing but I'm curious about performance differences.  Would accessing this extended RAM via the PBI and/or ECI interface be slower than how say the U1MB does it's RAM expansion?

[+CharlieChaplin]

Of course not.

U1MB XRAM can be accessed & works instantly, PMU XRAM can be accessed & works instantly (PMU = PBI Memory Upgrade). Running e.g. a 1MB demo from U1MB (with standard 6502C) and running the same demo from PMU (with standard 6502C) you will not see nor notice any difference in speed (assuming that both machines are PAL or both machines are NTSC). Or are you measuring in atto-seconds, zepta-seconds, yocto-seconds ?

 

[xxl]

when will we see an ECI fix cable for AVG and an update so that AVG gets the function of memory expansion and ROM replacement?

[tmp]

5 hours ago, xxl said:

when will we see an ECI fix cable for AVG and an update so that AVG gets the function of memory expansion and ROM replacement?

pcbs for eci cables should arrive today, rom replacement feature is currently not planned

[mimo]

Put me down for one please ?

[tmp]

just in

[leech]

30 minutes ago, tmp said:

just in

Sweet. Pretty sure I put in for one already, but if not, put me down for one!