Atari Lynx Programmer Pi Hat Orders

[Igor]

Perfect! How long is it taking to flash a cart? rpi0w was quite slow in my tests. I'm thinking of getting an rpi3 actually, because even rpi2 is not that fast.

[Nop90]

About 140 seconds to dump a cart. Made only a write text while doing other things and not noted the time (but it's slow).

 

I'm thinking to buy a rpi3 too, but for the moment the zero does it's job.

 

[Nop90]

Wrote a couple of carts. Writing takes 620 seconds. I'm not using the turbo mode.

[Igor]

That's a long time! Turbo mode is quite safe to use, I think I will actually make it the default soon. Haven't had much time to add more features to the software.

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

I programmed a couple of carts last night with my raspberry pi 2, and it took a little over 12min per cart, that's with some old version of the software though. A very long time if you stare at the raspi screen haha, but not very long if you do something else meanwhile. ?

[Igor]

You need to get the updated version, 12 mins is waaaay too long! Raspberry Pi 4 is announced now too, that could be interesting.

[Songbird]

I just got my first ever Raspberry Pi Zero W. At the risk of exposing my total newbness, now what do I do? Does the Rasp Pi come with anything installed? If I need to install something on it, what do I install? I saw a little bit of information on https://atarigamer.com/pages/lynx-cart-programmer-pi-hat, but I'm really looking for a step-by-step guide. Thanks!

[Nop90]

56 minutes ago, Songbird said:

I just got my first ever Raspberry Pi Zero W. At the risk of exposing my total newbness, now what do I do? Does the Rasp Pi come with anything installed? If I need to install something on it, what do I install? I saw a little bit of information on https://atarigamer.com/pages/lynx-cart-programmer-pi-hat, but I'm really looking for a step-by-step guide. Thanks!

Does the rpi0 come with an sd card with Raspian preinstalled?

 

If yes, you have a full linux environment and have only to download and build some packages as described in the article you linked.

 

If not, buy a micro sd card and install on it Raspbian using one of the tutorial you can find online.

If you need more support PM me.

 

Edited June 29, 2019 by Nop90

[Songbird]

Well, that was painful. But maybe partly self-inflicted.

 

I bought the Zero because I wanted WiFi and the ability to VNC into the desktop, instead of hooking up a separate monitor/mouse/keyboard. So I had to figure out which version of Raspian I wanted to install, which was non-obvious. I went with the full distribution but not the one with extra apps installed. It fit fine on my 4GB SD card, even though they recommended 8GB minimum.

 

I followed some tutorials to change the config to support SSH and WiFi on boot, but that took a number of tries and there were non-obvious steps, like the fact that the "ssh" file gets deleted after the first time it is detected, but then you don't need it. So I kept putting the ssh file back on the SD card because I didn't know that. Then my Win 7 PC would not recognize a RNDIS device, so I had to search for a driver that would support that. Finally, I could get Putty to recognize the Zero, but didn't know what the password was! Had to search for that, too. Then I had to enable the VNC server, because of course it's there but not activated by default. Got that working, figured out the IP address using the ifconfig command for wlan0, manually connected in the VNC client, then I got a "Cannot display desktop" message from VNC. Found out you need to change the default resolution if you don't have a physical monitor hooked up.

 

Three hours into it, I finally have the remote desktop displaying on VNC and I was able to download and install the Lynx tools. Maybe later I can actually connect a cartridge and try something.

 

I mention all this just to warn people this may not be a trivial process, especially if you've never used a Raspberry Pi before (like me). I looked for simple "follow these steps to get your Pi Zero working" online tutorials, but instead I found pieces here and there and had to figure out the missing pieces myself.

 

Onto the fun part!

[Nop90]

VNC setup can be frustrating. I prefer to connect an usb keyboard and my 32'' tv with an HDMI cable, login and voilla.

 

I use Sftp to tranfer files on the RPI0 only because my Win10 PC has write lock on external storages (Company security policy) otherwise I would use a micro sd to usb adapter.

 

 

[+karri]

My workflow today is:

 

Compile on laptop.

scp onduty.lnx burnerpi:lynx/contrib/blankcarts/programmer
ssh burnerpi
./OnDuty

This burns the game on a cart,

[Nop90]

During the last week I burned a lot of carts with the -turbo mode and it's reliable. I'm going to use the slow mode only for final carts I want to give to friends.

 

But often I use the programmer for test programs of few kB and it's tedious to wait that all 256 blocks are written with dummy data.

 

Is it possible to add a -trim function that stops writing when the important data is written?

[+karri]

In my original sw I always cut burning after the payload is written.

[42bs]

2 hours ago, karri said:

In my original sw I always cut burning after the payload is written.

In   my SRAM card writer I build a CRC for every block and only write it when it was different from the one to be programmed.  But a Flash is certainly different to handle. I guess the blocksizes are different.

[+karri]

13 minutes ago, 42bs said:

In   my SRAM card writer I build a CRC for every block and only write it when it was different from the one to be programmed.  But a Flash is certainly different to handle. I guess the blocksizes are different.

Yep. The flash is completely erased to '1' bits at start of the programming session. Then you can burn bits to zero until you reach the end of the file. You do not have to care about bits not read during gameplay. So if you burn a commercial cart that checks every bit you need to burn it all. If your game is only 1k - just burn 1k.

 

There is some kind of block erase available. My code does not use it. It uses erase chip instead. And burns a byte at a time.

[42bs]

39 minutes ago, karri said:

Yep. The flash is completely erased to '1' bits at start of the programming session. Then you can burn bits to zero until you reach the end of the file. You do not have to care about bits not read during gameplay. So if you burn a commercial cart that checks every bit you need to burn it all. If your game is only 1k - just burn 1k.

 

There is some kind of block erase available. My code does not use it. It uses erase chip instead. And burns a byte at a time.

Why not use block erase? Sure for a complete write, chip erase is likely quicker, but during development one could store persistent data at the end and only change the program. Means, only erasing the modified blocks.

[Igor]

Apologies for the long time to respond. I've been meaning to do a "For Dummies" article on how to set it all up. With wedding preparations my time has been very limited however. I will probably get around to writing one after a month's time. Also I want to check out how long each of the modes takes on different hardware, I have a Raspbery Pi Zero, 2b and 3b+ here so that will be a good starting base. I might get the model 4 at some point too.

 

Regarding software, the logic in my version hasn't changed vs what Karri's version has, so if he is trimming in his, so am I.

 

Not a bad idea on the block erase approach.

[+karri]

There is a logical problem with block erase. The blocks used by the Lynx are very different from the blocks used by the chip. It is certainly doable and it will cut down on the programming time. But I don't really feel like twisting my head into this problem. So far my code was a feasibility study and necrocia has tuned it into an usable program.

[42bs]

Karri, I totally understand. In the end: The source is there, so anyone needing such a feature can "easily" add it

[Igor]

Not sure if everyone needs this, but I had some question so decided to make this page - Installing the Atari Lynx cartridge reader/writer board onto your Raspberry Pi

[+karri]

Guess who just received a Pi4 with 4G RAM...?

Goodbye PiZero speeds for programming, compiling and emulating.

Eat your hearts out guys.

 

With this much power OnDuty could be ready for release later today.

 

[42bs]

Karri, so you are a tier 1 customer ? Delivery time in Germany for the Pi4-4 is 3 to 6 weeks.

[Nop90]

On 6/30/2019 at 6:17 PM, karri said:

In my original sw I always cut burning after the payload is written.

Checking the code on your repository the write loop always writes 256 blocks

 

      while (blocknr < 256) {
        printf("Block %d\n", addr/2048);
        fread(block, blocksize, 1, fp);
        for (i = 0; i < 2048; i++) {
          if (i < blocksize) {
            if (byteProgram(addr, block[i])) {
              return 1;
            }
          }
          addr++;
        }
        blocknr++;
      }

To stop writing after the end of the input file, the line with the while instruction could be modified in:

 

      while (blocknr < 256 && !feof(fp)) {

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Nop90

[+karri]

So I forgot to check in my latest modifications. ?

Because my programming stops at the last byte to be programmed.

 

[Igor]

Hey thanks Nop90, I'll add that as an argument that can be passed in.

Karri - Pi4, nice! I'd like to see some timing information for programming a cart...