Rombo Romboard reverse engineering troubleshooting help required

[IanS]

Slightly off topic, but which Rom is it that gives the |help extension? I've just built a version of bryce"s megaflash and would like to get the most of it with my 464 with 664 firmware/basic.

Looks like the standard output from Utopia.

[The Equalizor]

IanS has this annoying habit of being right  , and this time...yup, he is again. It's Utopia, by Arnor.


Rob

[ComSoft6128]

Hi Chinnery,

You could also use DES.
Using the Rom option (from the Desktop) in DES provides the user with two list boxes. The left box shows all the Roms connected, the right box shows the commands associated with each Rom. A mouse is not necessary as the function keys are predefined and can be used to scroll up and down the list of Roms, to execute any Rom command simply press "R".
Have a look at page 14 of the manual:
http://www.cpcwiki.eu/imgs/7/78/DES_User_Manual.pdf

The Roms (2) are available from here: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Desktop_Environment_System

However, I am unable to check DES and megaflash compatibilty as I don't have this hardware.
Has anyone tried this combination?

Cheers,

Peter

[Chinnery]

@ComSoft6128 , @The Equalizor , @IanS
Thanks for the info - DES looks kinda fun to have in a rombox - I'll write them both in and see what happens


@thread - sorry for hijack... as you were now. nothing to see here. move along. thank you.

[Bryce]

IanS has this annoying habit of being right  , and this time...yup, he is again. It's Utopia, by Arnor.


Rob

Actually all Arnor ROMs include the Help command. So having Maxam, Protext, Utopia or whatever installed is enough.

Bryce.

[The Equalizor]

Just a quick heads up to the people that have ordered Rombo Redux boards, just waiting on the anti static bags and jiffy bags to arrive, then I'll be in touch for shipping details and payment.


regards

Rob

[LambdaMikel]

That's great, I am really looking forward to getting one!

[The Equalizor]

Well, this is your one, waiting for its new home!


Regards

Rob

[LambdaMikel]

Wow! What a beauty    - terrific job!! 

[The Equalizor]

Okay the testing issues that I thought I had don't exist on either of the CPC6128 machines I've tested it on, only on my heavily modified Plus at home. I will be retesting on another Plus today and one of the boards main hardware gurus is actually building a ROmbo Redux and will give it a proper independent test, so I can be sure they're okay  -I don't want to send then halfway round the world only to find they have issues. I will update this thread with any results shortly.


Rob

[Bryce]

What mods are installed on the heavily modded Plus?

Bryce.

[The Equalizor]

Well, probably the dogiest one would be the cartridge slot extension that replicates the cartridge slot from the side of the PCB to the top of the custom case. Its using standard ribbon cable but separate strands. Also I may have, ahem, cut off the 2nd drive connector on the mainboard.


Rob

[The Equalizor]

Confirmed working - its my Plus at home that's having issues. Tested on 2 x 6128's and one 6128 Plus. my one at home wouldn't even boot the CPM roms whereas the one here does!


I'll be in contact with the people that want one of these shortly.


Regards

Rob

[The Equalizor]

New boards are in.


Now what I'd really like is for someone other than me to further test it.Ive given it a good run through and found no issues but I don't want to send these half way round the world and then find some stupid glitch with them.


My offer is this. If someone out there who is reasonably technical and experienced with ROMs and ROMboards wants to test it for me, I'll send them a free one. You'll need to be able to prove your credentials in the aforementioned area, and I'll be sending a bare board to Bryce regardless.


Any offers?

[The Equalizor]

First batch ready for their new homes :-)


I'm waiting on new edge connectors and then I'm planning my second batch. If anyone is interested in one of these who I haven't contacted today, please PM me.


Regards


Rob

[Chinnery]

I was lucky enough to be able to test this board before release, so think it's only polite to write a mini review here.
<TLDR>
It's a great bit of kit.
</TLDR>


When I got the board my first impression was how tidy it was. Most of the SMD components were hidden away safely under the sockets protecting them from ham-fisted handling, the dip switches are a neat idea and the fact it connected to the CPC via a ribbon was great - no more wear and tear on my poor CPC edge connector. It is a well thought out design in my untrained opinion.


In use, I have given it quite a test in all of my non-plus machines and haven't found any issues. Even with a bad rom inserted, it was easy to debug using the dip switches to disable all roms and  turn them on one by one to work out which was bad. In this instance it was a utopia rom that had a header which I forgot to remove, causing the CPC to reboot continuously. I tried this bad rom in another romboard and got exactly the same symptoms.


It's worked great with my "fake" 664 and 6128 as both banks 0-7 and 8-15, and my 464 as banks 0-7. I've chained it with my speech synth, DDI3 with 512k ram, multiface 2 clone (not all at the same time I have to say) - everything works great. The DK Tronic's speech synth rom now has pride of place in the romboard and is easy to toggle on or off.


I've tested it with 16k and 32k eeproms (using half the 32k one), and 32k proms (again using only the upper half). Things just seem to work.


The only issue I can see with this is not being able to burn your own roms, or being scared of doing so/not understanding how. My eeprom programmer was only £35 from ebay and it is pretty straight forward to use. I can give some help for those wanting to get into the fun world of roms - I'll even burn and post them for cost to get you going if you're really scared.


I've also burned a couple of games to rom - games I always go back to. Being able to type |ManicMiner or |Thrust to get instantly into the game is just great. I even had a quick 5 mins using future os just to test.


So yeah. A great board all round. Compatibility seems high with both software and hardware.

[The Equalizor]

Well, that went well!


The first batch is now sold out!


I've ordered some new parts which I'm expecting in a couple of weeks, production will begin once they've arrived.


Regards


Rob

[LambdaMikel]

Congratulations to pulling it off - it works great!Thanks a lot!

[LambdaMikel]

Btw, anybody has Fruity Frank ROM and/or Sorcery?

[Bryce]

Btw, anybody has Fruity Frank ROM and/or Sorcery?

All currently available game ROMs can be found here: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/ROM_List

Neither of the games you are looking for are there though and I doubt Socery would fit on a single ROM.

Bryce.

[The Equalizor]

For those interested I've just made a video showing a time lapse of me making one of these awesome boards :-) These usually take an hour to build.


Its on my channel and I've linked the video below. If you like videos of CPC Hardware stuff I'd really appreciate it if you subscribed to my YouTube channel.


Regards


Rob



https://youtu.be/v7xvqmfcbBI

[||C|-|E||]

Some decent soldering skills in there!

[The Equalizor]

Thank you

It helps that my dad was an electrical engineer and taught me how to solder when I was 8 He also recommended the JBC soldering station that I use for this stuff.

Cheers

Rob

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

[Skunkfish]

Great video, I wish I could solder like that!
Although, if the video really is sped up 800x and is 7 minutes long, then the board must have actually taken 93 hours to build?! 

[The Equalizor]

Well done, you spotted my, um *deliberate* mistake.


Yeah obviously its not 800x, it's actually 800% :-) that's late night video editing for you.


Rob