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Problems with Pokey MAX V2. No COVOX


Pmetzen

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I have now installed the Pokey MAX V2 and this one in my Atari. According to the instructions for my Pokey MAX Quad Auto + Covox there are only the lines A4, A5 and A7 to connect, which I have also done. Works everything wonderfully. Except for Covox, not a single sound comes out. In my Atari a U1MB and a VBXE is installed. But Covox doesn't work. What else is missing? I connected everything correctly according to the instructions. Does anyone know any advice?

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I use madteam a par player like Inertia or Neotrack like Protrack. The address cannot be changed to 0xd280. If there are only address changes like 0x6d40 0xd740 or 0xd520 or whatever that was. Where can I get pokeycfg.xex and where does a player that works and can be changed to 0xd280? Didn't find it anywhere. Just as little the firmware for flashing and the flash program. In the same way, I would like to have a kind of test program to see if all the pokeys are really addressed. Would like to archive it so i have a software collection to Pokey Max. Would be nice if someone could help me there.

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I've recently installed the same version Pokeymax, though I have yet to test, beyond making sure it's working as a standard Pokey replacement, I haven't installed audio outs for it yet and I'm installing other upgrades at the same time, but soon, and it's in my 800 with Incognito installed, so I'll probably need the same help.

Edited by Gunstar
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I think there is no mod player for the Pokeymax Quad AUTO+COVOX that works with it, because they don't provide the address 0xd280 for selection. But I also think that it could be somehow because of my VBXE card. There should be a pin for COVOX. But where it should be, I do not know or where it is to be found on the VBXE map. Wouldn't there be a pin free at PokeyMax anyway. Therefore, with my PokeyMAX Quad AUTO+COVOX version, the COVOX functionality is unusable. And why the address 0xd280 is used, which you can't change and is not supported by a mod player, is obscure to me. And I searched for the software pokeycgf.xex everywhere, but nowhere can you find it here in the forum. Would be nice if you could use this software to change the configuration 0xd280 so that it works. But I think that with the software pokeycfg.xex you can only read the firmware.

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Did you try neo tracker? I read that has the 0xd280 option. I believe that other upgrades are already using D280 so I'd be surprised if most maintained software does not already have the option. If the software is unmaintained then it should be possible to change the address fairly easily with a hex editor, though that is an exercise for the reader.

 

The benefit of 0xd280 in a pokey upgrade is that it sits within the chip's allocated space of 0xd2xx, so can use the existing MMU chip select logic etc. Also there are known clashes with many of the other addresses that have been used (pbi etc).

 

I thought that pokeycfg.xex was on the Retronics site, but I was mistaken (sorry). I just discussed with @Duddie that I will host it, so I've put it here along with the developers guide and users manual.

http://www.64kib.com/pokeymax_files/

It is not that polished a tool yet but does allow seeing the exact version, changing the options (temporarily on 10M02 and to flash on 10M04/10M08) or upgrading the core in-system (supported on recent cores only and only on 10M04/10M08).

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So, doing some experimenting. For neo tracker you need to set the address by installing it using NEO18INS.XEX. This saves a NEO.COM file which you can load .NEO tracks with (ctrl-l to select what to load, then shift return to play).

 

Going to see if I can get inertia tracker working...

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So Inertia Tracker 4.5. It seems to copy the player to page 0 when it plays, before that it is stored in 0x3eXX.

So in the altirra I can make it play by doing this in the debugger after loading:

f 3e2d L2 80 d2

f 3e5c L2 81 d2

f 3e8b L2 82 d2

f 3eba L2 83 d2

It looks like the binary is packed though, at least I see it writing this to b0xx then copying it to down to 3exx. I guess if the packer is known, we can unpack it, modify then re-pack it. Otherwise I guess I could add an interrupt handler to overwrite these bytes?! Unfortunately there isn't a handle init->unpack then run address.

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you can also try to find version for SimpleStereo v2 - these had covox at 0xD280, thus polish software that used covox were adjusted for this

first one was NeoTracker, but I know that Pajero/MadTeam also had a version of Covox that used this address, and my guess is their software should be at least configurable to utilise this

perhaps you need another version

 

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So with many mod players I've tried, I didn't have the choice. Such as Inertia. There you have 4 bit pokey or 8 bit COVOX to choose from. Protrack only has the selection D5, D6 or D7 for COVOX. At NEO Tracker I only had 4 BIT Pokey or 8 BIT COVOX to choose from. I don't know which page address it uses. I have to do a lot more research on this. Thank you for the PokeyMax Files.

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I tried again. Neotracker V1.6 installed. You can only choose from Pokey or COVOX at NEOins.com. You can't select a PAGE address. Not a single sound comes out. I think my PokeyMAX is broken again, although I got a new one sent by the manufacturer. The firmware is V116M04QC. Have one more with V116R04QC, also this one is not possible and another with V111M04QC which also does not work. You can only make the best of it. After all, Quad Stereo goes. COVOX I think sometimes is only intended for the CHIPS and does not work at the moment. At least I don't get to run. There is not a single MOD player running on it. I've already tried it all. There is nothing to do.

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Neo works but you do need to use the 1.8 installer and set covox to d280. I tested this yesterday.

 

I was trying to patch a binary for Inertia for you yesterday but am not there yet. Though it is probably not worth it anyway, since Candle says that Inertia was already modified. So we just need to find it.

 

Why do you think you have a hardware fault? It sounds like you just need to find the right software version and set it up correctly.

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Afaik,

 

all Covox programs work with $D600, but only a few ones (e.g. NeoTracker 1.8) work with other mem. areas like e.g. $D280.

 

We already had a discussion in the RAM320XE (+ Covox) or IDE-2 (+ Covox) topic that $D600 would be the better solution - not only because more software supports that, but also because $D280 is the Pokey shadow register and therefore creates a lot of unwanted noise.

 

But maybe this is not the case with the PokeyMax board ? Cannot tell, since I do not have Covox or a PokeyMax board...

 

You can find some Covox software (e.g. posts #5, #12 and #14) here:

 

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@Pmetzen: Here is NeoTracker 1.8: http://atarionline.pl/v01/index.php?ct=utils&sub=3. Muzyka&tg=NeoTracker#NeoTracker

After running NEO18INS.COM put the cursor on Output Device field using TAB key. Now you can change address of COVOX device by pressing SPACE. After all press RETURN few times and save new NEO.COM file. Now you can try NEO.COM with proper configuration for your COVOX to compose or play any .NEO music.

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Additionally you can quickly test your COVOX with "XL Digital" music disk: http://mono.i-demo.pl/xl_digital/xl_digital.atr

Boot this disk, then load XLDIGIT.COM by L option.

On main menu use TAB key to setup COVOX address to $D280 then press 0 - all tunes will be played one by one.

 

Edit: Other disks with Pinokio's songs are:

- http://mono.i-demo.pl/xl_digital/x16_tons.atr
-
http://mono.i-demo.pl/xl_digital/fort.atr

Load .XEX file with depressed SHIFT key, then configure COVOX address by arrow keys and accept your choice by RETURN. Song will be loaded and played.

And at last the same for Yerzmyey's songs used in XL Digital: http://mono.i-demo.pl/xl_digital/xl_digital_play.atr

Edited by mono
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4 minutes ago, mono said:

Additionally you can quickly test your COVOX with "XL Digital" music disk: http://mono.i-demo.pl/xl_digital/xl_digital.atr

Boot this disk, then load XLDIGIT.COM by L option.

On main menu use TAB key to setup COVOX address to $D280 then press 0 - all tunes will be played one by one.

Thanks!  I don't have many covox demos.

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This is turbo freezer saved version of Inertia Tracker 4.5 that writes to D280-D283. Boot it with option, then put in a disk into D1 with some mod files, load and enjoy.

 

I'm sure someone can do this better, but this does at least work :D

Inertia.atr

 

ps ignore the 'files' on the disk, I overwrote it all with the freezer 'save as boot'...

Edited by foft
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  • 2 weeks later...

I wanted to thank everyone for the files again, I finally have had time to set all my Incognito settings the way I want, though I did notice that while stereo pokey is detected by Incognito, Covox doesn't register with Incognito even though it's supposed to be a default plug-in too. But I just use APE & SIO2PC to try out the Digital XL demo. set at the appropriate address and my Covox is indeed working on my Pokey Max Quad+Covox!

 

Anybody have some Pokey Quad players or demos? I still need to test it out.

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  • 4 months later...
On 10/14/2020 at 2:03 PM, foft said:

This is turbo freezer saved version of Inertia Tracker 4.5 that writes to D280-D283. Boot it with option, then put in a disk into D1 with some mod files, load and enjoy.

 

I'm sure someone can do this better, but this does at least work :D

Inertia.atr 359.64 kB · 18 downloads

 

ps ignore the 'files' on the disk, I overwrote it all with the freezer 'save as boot'...

I hate to be a bother, but could you possibly make a version of Inertia that writes to Covox at D700?  I have a P-Covox from Lotharek, and the only addressing options it provides me are D600 and D700, and I have my VBXE at D600.

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