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RespeQt 4.2 beta


ebiguy

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Here is a new beta version called r4.2

What are the changes ?
Only one : now Happy 1050 Rev.7 is supported.
You can use RespeQt and your Happy 1050 drive to create floppies from your ATX images.
Note that this version is now based on the 'develop' branch, meaning that the latest changes from TheMontezuma are embedded in this version.

How to create floppies from ATX images ?
Yes, you know how to use Happy Warp Speed Software v7.1 but there is something special with RespeQt you don't know yet.
I did not manage to fully support Happy double speed (38400) between Happy drive and RespeQt:
- When Happy reads sectors at double speed from RespeQt, it works.
- When Happy writes sectors at double speed to RespeQt, it fails.
Happy Backup program uses the double speed (arg !).
So, to make it work, I had to patch Happy Warp Speed Software v7.1 to make it compatible with RespeQt.
The Backup program now identifies drives as real Happy drives or RespeQt drives.
When writing sectors to a RespeQt drive, the normal speed (19200) is used to be compatible with RespeQt.

Where is the patched Happy Warp Speed Software v7.1.atr ?
There is no patched ATR.
Instead, you have to boot from your Happy Warp Speed Software v7.1.atr image loaded in slot 1 (D1:) and RespeQt will patch it on the fly:
- Change your real Happy disk drive to device number 2 (D2:)
- Load the image Happy Warp Speed Software v7.1.atr in slot 1 (D1:). RespeQt will patch the backup program only if it is located in slot 1 !
- Activate the Happy mode (face with smile)
- Boot your Atari: the Happy main menu appears
- Select option '4' to run the backup program.

- NOW is the time to change the content of slot 1 in RespecQt, load the image you want to copy into slot 1

- Activate the Happy mode (face with smile)
- Answer 'N' to the question about PDB files.
- Activate Skew option if needed (if you do not know, then activate it) with the keys: 'S', then 'A', and 'X'
- Start the copy process by pressing the 'C' key.

If you do not follow this procedure and you boot from your Happy drive with Happy software inside, then the backup program will not be patched and it will not work with RespeQt.
As you see, the recommanded setting for software preservation using Happy is to set the Happy drive as D2:.
That way, you can either:
- create floppies from ResspeQt (D1:) to Happy drive (D2:) or
- backup floppies from Happy drive (D2:) to RespeQt (D3:) by setting D1: in Unhappy mode just before answering 'N' to the PDB question.

A final note: PDB files are not supported yet ! I did not test that feature. Maybe in a next beta version...

 

This version should be compatible with Windows XP

RespeQt.zip

Edited by ebiguy
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good work, are these changes in the development branch? I ask why I do not see anything of the HAPPY support :?

 

I explained in the thread 'RespeQt 4.1 beta' that I will push my commit when the beta test will be over.

Not a very long time to wait...

My next move will be to support PDB files I guess.

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I explained in the thread 'RespeQt 4.1 beta' that I will push my commit when the beta test will be over.

Not a very long time to wait...

My next move will be to support PDB files I guess.

perfect, I was asking it to generate the .TS to translate the messages. then I will wait :D

 

regards

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It looks like Joey is back accepting pull requests for at least a little bit, per a PM from him last night and some Github activity today. I know he's looking to contact an acquaintaince, TheMontezuma, to potentially take over as the "official" RespeQt maintainer.

 

In the meantime, it's good to see continued development work by others. :)

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I explained in the thread 'RespeQt 4.1 beta' that I will push my commit when the beta test will be over.

Not a very long time to wait...

My next move will be to support PDB files I guess.

I suggest you push what you can right now and perform the pull request, it will make sure the ball is rolling until someone takes over. Time is kind of limited. Here's to hoping whoever takes the wheel is talented and willing to hold the reigns long enough to see the project through.

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It looks like Joey is back accepting pull requests for at least a little bit, per a PM from him last night and some Github activity today. I know he's looking to contact an acquaintaince, TheMontezuma, to potentially take over as the "official" RespeQt maintainer.

 

In the meantime, it's good to see continued development work by others. :)

 

 

I suggest you push what you can right now and perform the pull request, it will make sure the ball is rolling until someone takes over. Time is kind of limited. Here's to hoping whoever takes the wheel is talented and willing to hold the reigns long enough to see the project through.

 

I just saw your message now. Hope it is not too late.

I just did the pull request.

If you are in contact with Joey, could you please tell him.

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I just discovered a bug in the version r4.2 above.

The Happy backup feature can copy protected tracks but, sometimes, normal tracks are detected as 'UNREADABLE FORMAT'.

Here is the fix called r4.2.1.

 

Is this just for floppy sized atr's because I can not get a directory of any SpartaDos X 512 sector size.

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why would you have happy activated during 512 sdx sector slot? happy never handled 512 sdx... are you saying a source as that perhaps?

So are saying that this version is only for floppy and diskette atr's.

Happy is not activated so version should react to all atr's as the original 4.1 version does....

pclink is working correctly from SpartaDos x

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you for the newest version!

 

Are you planning to make Respeqt work with the SIO2PC USB from Atarimax? I think that device can work at higher speeds directly.

 

Cheers!

 

Short answer is no,

 

Long answer:

I am a big fan of Steven's products and I bought many products from him.

I like very much Sio2Usb also and I used it for many years.

I wanted to add support for Super Archiver and Happy commands into APE so I contacted Steven to ask how I could do that.

The answer is that it is not possible because the Sio2Usb hardware is intelligent.

If I understood correctly, the hardware transmit only commands it understands to the PC (so it filters Happy and Super Archiver commands).

Changing the firmware to transmit these new commands or implement a passthru mode is complex and Steven did not implement that.

 

That's why I started to implement Happy and Super Archiver support in RespeQt because the hardware has no intelligence and all data sent by the Atari is received by the PC.

Even if the two devices offer the same features, they are indeed very different.

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I like very much Sio2Usb also and I used it for many years.

 

The answer is that it is not possible because the Sio2Usb hardware is intelligent.

 

I'm sure everyone understands what you're talking about (I do); but, for clarity, SIO2USB is a stand-alone device

that uses USB flash drives to load disks and files through the SIO port (similar to how an SIO2SD works).

 

What you're talking about is correctly termed SIO2PC USB, same as all the devices that are used with RespeQt.

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Is there any chance that some kind of system to allow *.CAS images to be played back from different points in their run length? For instance, as it stands now all cassettes are played from the beginning. However I have quite a few compilation cassettes that have multiple programmes on them then begin consecutively along the tape. It would be very convenient to be able to 'fast forward' or 'rewind' to one of the later/earlier programmes. I mentioned this once to JoeyZ but--totally understandably--his focus was elsewhere at the time.

 

It wouldn't need to be anything super fancy like a waveform and visual selector. Just an edit box where you could manually enter the time offset to begin from would be absolutely fine, although a horizontal slider that scrubs from the start time to the finish time would be even better while remaining minimalist. The latter would also automatically take care of bounds checking.

 

Obviously these are all nothing more than polite suggestions and nebulous ideas. Absolutely no demands of any kind are being made!!!

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  • 3 weeks later...

After reading the above, I'm a little confused about what you can use for this new revision. I have a Happy 1050 board and SIO2PC usb version from Lotharek. I also have the original SIO2PC serial port device. Am I good to go with both or...?

 

Yes, you are good !

That's what I am using: Happy 1050 and SIO2PC usb version from Lotharek.

You can use this version for

- running ATX images on your real Atari (load an ATX file in slot D1: of RespeQt)

- creating a real floppy disk from an ATX image (lfollow the instructions in the first post) then you can boot the game from your real drive

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Yes, you are good !

That's what I am using: Happy 1050 and SIO2PC usb version from Lotharek.

You can use this version for

- running ATX images on your real Atari (load an ATX file in slot D1: of RespeQt)

- creating a real floppy disk from an ATX image (lfollow the instructions in the first post) then you can boot the game from your real drive

 

Ok, thanks for the info... I'll try it out.

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  • 3 months later...

not sure if it's windows, the usb driver, the pclink portion or whatever but in the last few revisions of respeqt during large drive back up at high speeds a crash sometimes occurs, kyle can get it to happen every time it seems..... I have had random results... we both went back a couple revs but gave up as it got late, it's important moreso for kyles use because this method is how the boards backs up....

Edited by _The Doctor__
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I’m running on Raspbian Linux. Both these features worked in prior versions of RespeQt but I don’t remember exactly what version they stopped working for me.

 

I have Windows binaries for this branch on my laptop as well. I can check tonight to see if the issue affects that platform.

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kyle was talking to me about it and we concluded that if we follow the backup and paid attention to the last file to copy and the next file that was to copy we might find a reason for some of this. We agreed to this path and Kyle sifted though the files in as written order and discovered a time/date stamp commonality. It was then verified this was in play as we both have the files it was choking on. It is now in the hands of the current respeqt crew.

 

I see you have noted some issues with explorering as well, time to play with that some more.

Edited by _The Doctor__
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