Author Topic: X-MEM, a new memory expansion for all CPC. (Read 111335 times)

MacDeath · « **Reply #250 on:** 14:53, 11 July 14 »

TotO, why don"t you simply outsource to china...

TotO · « **Reply #251 on:** 16:40, 11 July 14 »

A bigger issue is my Mini-booster stops being visible if the X-MEM is also plugged in - inp(&ff00) gives 170 if the minibooster is alone, and 255 if the X-MEM is present

It look to be not enough power for the two boards...
Do you use a 3"1/2 drive connected to the CPC +5V

(if yes, it's bad as you have to use 12V to 5V regulator instead :p)
A way to fix that is to plug an external 5V PSU to the MotherX4 for powering the external expansions.

Grimmsqueaker · « **Reply #252 on:** 16:59, 11 July 14 »

This looks cool, would need to also get the 4 slot expansion board so I could also plug in the DD1 Clone to allow access to a HxC which will give me access to the 128k only games and the benefits of a single load on games like Chase HQ.

Just need to get some cash together now and start getting a few bits

pelrun · « **Reply #253 on:** 17:04, 11 July 14 »

Quote from: TotO on 16:40, 11 July 14

It look to be not enough power for the two boards...
Do you use a 3"1/2 drive connected to the CPC +5V (if yes, it's bad as you have to use 12V to 5V regulator instead :p)
A way to fix that is to plug an external 5V PSU to the MotherX4 for powering the external expansions.

No external drive, but I am using a separate 12v/5v psu (my CTM640 is in storage) which might not be sourcing enough current. Easily enough fixed.

SyX · « **Reply #254 on:** 22:59, 11 July 14 »

Quote from: pelrun on 14:24, 11 July 14

Fine, I'll figure out the palette change myself, it won't be hard to find.

The palette is in the same place than the 6128 rom (offset $1052)

pelrun · « **Reply #255 on:** 19:25, 12 July 14 »

Ok, a second PSU has allowed the mini-booster and x-mem to work together. I'm still getting crashes every few transfers, though, which lets me do file transfers but blocks any attempt to transfer a full disk image... I guess I'll keep using my dsk2cdt2disc a bit longer until I get it sorted

One more issue I've got - |FLASH,"romimg.rom",30 is actually writing to slot 2.

Ast · « **Reply #256 on:** 00:56, 13 July 14 »

Hi, i have a big problem on my xmem card because when i plug it on my cpc plus and run the exram program i only see :

Vga ram : 64k
Cpu ram : 64k

Some precision, my xmem car is plugged in a mother x4.

Thanks for all reply.

TotO · « **Reply #257 on:** 03:00, 13 July 14 »

@Ast : I have answered to you email.
I suggest you to check your own ribbon cable, as the boards work fine with mine before sending them.

@pelrun : Really strange.
Is the install and flasher tools allow to flash the good ROM slots?

pelrun · « **Reply #258 on:** 04:54, 14 July 14 »

Flasher worked. I'll try the other tools and see if they're any different.

TFM · « **Reply #259 on:** 19:06, 14 July 14 »

Quote from: pelrun on 17:04, 11 July 14

No external drive, but I am using a separate 12v/5v psu (my CTM640 is in storage) which might not be sourcing enough current. Easily enough fixed.

I'm sure that this is the problem. Because my GT65 does is all fine here (also 3.5" floppy there).

pelrun · « **Reply #260 on:** 19:10, 14 July 14 »

More likely to be that my edge connector is still heavily oxidised and needs much more rigorous cleaning - I used a good 5v supply to no benefit.

Nilquader · « **Reply #261 on:** 19:38, 14 July 14 »

Just to let you know: ROMAN 2.0 works on the X-MEM, it just doesn't run on FW 3.14, so switch back to the standard firmware if you want to use ROMAN to write your ROMs.

SyX · « **Reply #262 on:** 20:27, 14 July 14 »

Quote from: pelrun on 19:10, 14 July 14

More likely to be that my edge connector is still heavily oxidised and needs much more rigorous cleaning - I used a good 5v supply to no benefit.

I had yesterday the same problem and it was that, i used a cotton wet with the clean electronics and circuits spray and everything return to working perfectly

Nilquader · « **Reply #263 on:** 22:50, 14 July 14 »

Is there an unused Pin (and a few free cells) on the X-MEM CPLD left? If yes, and if TotO wants to help, it would be easy to upgrade the X-MEM to 64 ROM slots by soldering a second flash chip piggybacked on top of the other and connect the !CE-Pin to the free CPLD pin. Need s some CPLD reprogramming, though. Would be great for the game ROM collectors...

Gryzor · « **Reply #264 on:** 22:58, 14 July 14 »

Quote from: Nilquader on 22:50, 14 July 14

Is there an unused Pin (and a few free cells) on the X-MEM CPLD left? If yes, and if TotO wants to help, it would be easy to upgrade the X-MEM to 64 ROM slots by soldering a second flash chip piggybacked on top of the other and connect the !CE-Pin to the free CPLD pin. Need s some CPLD reprogramming, though. Would be great for the game ROM collectors...

Indeed that would be fantastic...

TotO · « **Reply #265 on:** 23:04, 14 July 14 »

Quote from: Gryzor

Indeed that would be fantastic...

You can Imagine that I have needed to remove extra settings features because no pin left and not the invert.

Gryzor · « **Reply #266 on:** 23:14, 14 July 14 »

Ah rats

Bryce · « **Reply #267 on:** 13:38, 15 July 14 »

Quote from: Nilquader on 22:50, 14 July 14

Is there an unused Pin (and a few free cells) on the X-MEM CPLD left? If yes, and if TotO wants to help, it would be easy to upgrade the X-MEM to 64 ROM slots by soldering a second flash chip piggybacked on top of the other and connect the !CE-Pin to the free CPLD pin. Need s some CPLD reprogramming, though. Would be great for the game ROM collectors...

There's already been problems reported when all 32 ROMs have been populated, so I doubt 64 ROMs would ever be usable without doing lots of parking/unparking of ROMs.

Bryce.

CraigsBar · « **Reply #268 on:** 13:41, 15 July 14 »

Quote from: Bryce on 13:38, 15 July 14

There's already been problems reported when all 32 ROMs have been populated, so I doubt 64 ROMs would ever be usable without doing lots of parking/unparking of ROMs.

Bryce.

I've not yet had any problems with all 32 slots populated on my symbifaces. Games, serious stuff and cp/m or a mix of all 3. What issues have been seen?

Bryce · « **Reply #269 on:** 14:21, 15 July 14 »

I haven't encountered any problems myself (because I rarely fill my MegaFlash), but there were users posting that some games won't run when the ROMBoard has too many ROMs installed. I believe MrLou was one user experiencing these problems.

Bryce.

SyX · « **Reply #270 on:** 15:18, 15 July 14 »

The main problem is the firmware only reserve 32 bytes for storing the pointer to the reserved ram buffer for 16 roms (2 bytes), with programs that don't use/reserve a ram buffer (those game roms) is not too much problematic at first, because they ignore this buffer pointer parameter when is sent to them, but those pointers are saved in ram even if the rom doesn't use it.

But in the moment you have installed more than 16 roms, the ram after those 32 bytes is overwritten and you start to corrupt the first firmware jumps.

My solution was changing the place in ram where those variables are storaged to one with enough space to storage 32 pointers (64 bytes).

But the best solution for game roms, it's making a rom launcher and mark the games roms as not need to be initialized by the firmware.

arnoldemu · « **Reply #271 on:** 15:30, 15 July 14 »

@redbox: Any news on this game rom system?

Gryzor · « **Reply #272 on:** 20:30, 15 July 14 »

Well, if 64 ROMs are a problem I guess you could well do with a switchable 2x32 board...

Nilquader · « **Reply #273 on:** 23:36, 15 July 14 »

Quote from: SyX on 15:18, 15 July 14

But the best solution for game roms, it's making a rom launcher and mark the games roms as not need to be initialized by the firmware.

I did that with my MegaFlash Quickstart ROM. Games in Slots 16-31 are not being initialized when using a standard firmware, but found by the ROM launcher. So there is no need to change the initialization routine or header of game roms. (Download here: Converting a game to ROM - and LOTS of ROM files inside! )

TFM · « **Reply #274 on:** 15:16, 17 July 14 »

Not every ROM must be an Expansion ROM!!! When using extension ROM no RAM will be wasted. For example you need only one ROM initialized for FutureOS, the other three ROM can or can not be initialized. I guess it's similar with symbos. And for games, if a game uses 2 or 3 ROMs, then just initialize the first one, a smart launcher system will find the other parts too. Just my 7 Pfennige.

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Author Topic: X-MEM, a new memory expansion for all CPC. (Read 111335 times)