Anyone used a FujiNet with a Rev.A OS CTIA 400?

[bfollowell]

I was going to check out the new Atari 400 that I Was gifted recently. It's a Rev.A OS, 32K machine with CTIA. This is also the first time I've used the new FujiNet v1.5 I bought from Gavin a month or two ago. I didn't have time to look into the power requirements for attaching external power for use with a 400/800 machine, so I booted holding down the Start button, waited a few seconds, then pressed System Reset. It picked up the FujiNet without issue and I got the FujiNet logo on the screen. After a few seconds, I was presented with a screen asking for which wi-fi network to connect to. I noticed right off that there were some strange graphics artifacts on the screen. Some of the letters looked like the letters were madeup of multi-colored pixels and some pixels were blinking. I selected a network and entered the password. Then it moved on to what I expected to be the Host/Slot screen, but it never loaded. I got the larger upper and lower windows, but they were just blank windows and the borders were all orange. There was no text anywhere on the screen.

 

Honestly, I don't suspect an issue with my new FujiNet, and I suspect the issues may be coming from this old 400, but my other 8-bits are all down for the moment and I can't check the FN out with another system until this weekend, so I thought I'd ask if anyone else has used their FN with an old, erarly OS, CTIA system and had similar issues, or if those issues have already been reported somewhere and I just haven't seen them yet. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to checkout my FN with one of my 800XLs or my 600XL this weekend.

 

I can post pictures or video in a couple of days if anyone is interested in what I'm seeing.

 

Thanks.

 

[tschak909]

51 minutes ago, bfollowell said:

I was going to check out the new Atari 400 that I Was gifted recently. It's a Rev.A OS, 32K machine with CTIA. This is also the first time I've used the new FujiNet v1.5 I bought from Gavin a month or two ago. I didn't have time to look into the power requirements for attaching external power for use with a 400/800 machine, so I booted holding down the Start button, waited a few seconds, then pressed System Reset. It picked up the FujiNet without issue and I got the FujiNet logo on the screen. After a few seconds, I was presented with a screen asking for which wi-fi network to connect to. I noticed right off that there were some strange graphics artifacts on the screen. Some of the letters looked like the letters were madeup of multi-colored pixels and some pixels were blinking. I selected a network and entered the password. Then it moved on to what I expected to be the Host/Slot screen, but it never loaded. I got the larger upper and lower windows, but they were just blank windows and the borders were all orange. There was no text anywhere on the screen.

 

Honestly, I don't suspect an issue with my new FujiNet, and I suspect the issues may be coming from this old 400, but my other 8-bits are all down for the moment and I can't check the FN out with another system until this weekend, so I thought I'd ask if anyone else has used their FN with an old, erarly OS, CTIA system and had similar issues, or if those issues have already been reported somewhere and I just haven't seen them yet. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to checkout my FN with one of my 800XLs or my 600XL this weekend.

 

I can post pictures or video in a couple of days if anyone is interested in what I'm seeing.

 

Thanks.

 

If I remember correctly, I made the memory map for CONFIG assume that there was at least 48K of RAM.

 

-Thom

[SS]

Both of my 400s were manufactured in 1982, so I can't really help on this front.  However, I do have OSa loaded into one of the ROM slots on my ANTONIA modded 600XL.  I will try it out with my FujiNet 1.5 (hopefully) tomorrow to see if the OS causes any issues.  My guess is that the incompatibility problem might be with the CTIA chip though. 

 

EDIT - Or insufficient amount of RAM like Thom said.

 

...

Edited November 2, 2021 by SS

[bfollowell]

Yes, this is definitely a 32K machine. I know 16K machines typically have issues running disk based software, if they're able to at all, so I was pretty sure it needed more than that, but I wasn't sure what the minimum was. I really don't suspect that the issue is with the FN itself though. I'm assuming 32K is too little memory and/or CTIA issues.

 

I'll check it out further with one of my XLs this weekend.

 

Thanks guys.

[SS]

@bfollowell - As I kind of expected, my FujiNet 1.5 worked just fine under OSa on my ANTONIA 600XL.  I had the ANTONIA set to 64K so it was running at the full 48K that OSa could access (there is no way to set the ANTONIA board to any lower RAM configuration).  I experienced no graphic/artifacting issues and the FujiNet booted fully.  I *think* that this should at least eliminate OSa as your culprit for the issues that you saw. 

[bfollowell]

Yeah, I'm really expecting the issues to be a combination of CTIA and having only 32K of RAM. Thanks for ruling out the OS though. I have to get my XL keyboards squared away before I can really verify that my FujiNet is good, but I trust Gavin, his work and his quality control implicitly, so I really have no reason to suspect that there is an issue with my FN. Once I can confirm it works well with my XLs, then I'll know the problem is with the 400. After that, the only way to further check it out will be if/whenever I decide to put in one of tf_hh's 48/52K cards. Actually, that's not quite true. I guess I could pull a GTIA out of one of my XLs and put it in the 400 temporarily. Then I should be able to rule out the CTIA as the culprit. After that, assuming a good FN, about the only remaining issue could be memory.

 

Now that fall has hit and my garage workshop is no longer a blast furnace, and since I just received my new Hakko FR-301 desoldering tool, I really need to get my XL mechanical keyboard repaired. That will allow my to play around with my XLs again and verify the FN's operation.

 

Edited November 4, 2021 by bfollowell

[tschak909]

sigh.

 

Are you guys not listening?

 

You literally got an answer from me, the guy who wrote the damned program.

 

This is why:

https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-config/blob/master/src/atari.cfg#L19

 

It's placing the stack too far up in memory for a 32K machine.

 

Also things like this, in screen.h:

https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-config/blob/master/src/screen.h#L13

 

These would have to be relocated in order to fit on a 32K machine.

 

-Thom

 

Edited November 4, 2021 by tschak909

[bfollowell]

19 minutes ago, tschak909 said:

sigh.

 

Are you guys not listening?

 

You literally got an answer from me, the guy who wrote the damned program.

 

This is why:

https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-config/blob/master/src/atari.cfg#L19

 

It's placing the stack too far up in memory for a 32K machine.

 

Also things like this, in screen.h:

https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-config/blob/master/src/screen.h#L13

 

These would have to be relocated in order to fit on a 32K machine.

 

-Thom

 

 

Arrgghhhhh, no, honestly, I did miss it. When I'm scrolling through, and I see those big quote boxes, with a one or two line reply under them, it's easy for me to miss them.

 

If that's the case, then it's dead with my 400 until I get a 48/52K card sometime in the future. Thanks for confirming.

 

I still wonder about the weird graphic irregularities that I got up until the point when the host/drives screen wouldn't load. I wonder if those were just because things were loading too far up and causing issues, or if those are CTIA artifacts. I guess I'll have to wait until I upgrade it to check it out.

 

Thanks for your reply Thom, and I'm sorry that I missed it earlier.

 

Edited November 4, 2021 by bfollowell