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avatar_PulkoMandy

Albireo - USB/SD/Serial interface for CPC

Started by PulkoMandy, 15:54, 18 October 15

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CraigsBar

Quote from: krusty_benediction on 08:49, 05 August 17
Will it be possible to use both CPC-WIFI and Albireo (and switch of storage support with a simple rsx) ?
I use mine in conjunction with the m4 board. I use the m4 mass storage and the Albireo as a mouse controller for symbos. It is an amazing combo.

Sent from my ONEPLUS 3t using Tapatalk

IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

PulkoMandy

There are no I/O ports conflicts, so at least that part should work.
As for how the disk ROMs behave, I don't know, you'll have to ask the respective developers. But I don't see why not. The Albireo disk ROM does its best to not be invasive. I think the final version will be usable either as a replacement for AMSDOS running as ROM 7, which would bring maximal compatibility, or as a separate ROM, in which case ROM 7 can be used for something else.

skywalky

Quote from: PulkoMandy on 20:33, 17 June 17
PROBLEMS SOLVED
Are you going to resume the sales? I'm the first in the waiting list  :D

PulkoMandy

Yes, I just want to be really sure that there are no more problems now. I just need to finish writing the testing code and make sure I can reliably transfer files using the serial link (in both directions). So you get the final version of the board and I don't need to replace it later.

PulkoMandy

Hi there,


So, as the Alchimie Demoparty is near, it's time I prepare this... I had some time this and the previous week-end to finish the work. So, the good news: the new chip is confirmed working, and I finished orting the Arkos ROM to support Albireo at full baudrate (1.5Mbaud). I still need to confirm the readdsk and writedsk commands aer working, but I made several tests with getfile and sendfile and I'm getting good and reliable results.


This means I have no reason anymore to delay building and shipping more boards. So that will resume soon.

CraigsBar

Quote from: PulkoMandy on 18:17, 05 November 17
Hi there,


So, as the Alchimie Demoparty is near, it's time I prepare this... I had some time this and the previous week-end to finish the work. So, the good news: the new chip is confirmed working, and I finished orting the Arkos ROM to support Albireo at full baudrate (1.5Mbaud). I still need to confirm the readdsk and writedsk commands aer working, but I made several tests with getfile and sendfile and I'm getting good and reliable results.


This means I have no reason anymore to delay building and shipping more boards. So that will resume soon.
Yippee [emoji16] great news. More available Symbos mouse Controllers

Sent from my ONEPLUS 3t using Tapatalk

IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

Hergoth


Prodatron

There is a SymbOS CH376 driver now for USB mass storage devices. In this case I was using a 128GB memory stick on the MSX ("Rookie Drive"):



The driver could be used for the Albireo as well. SymbOS supports up to 2TB ("2TB should be enough for everyone"). Now I have to think about how to introduce a flexible driver system for the CPC, too (like we have for the MSX).

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

Munchausen

This is awesome! Does it support hubs so you can use the mouse at the same time?

Prodatron

Quote from: Munchausen on 02:52, 06 November 17
This is awesome! Does it support hubs so you can use the mouse at the same time?
Not sure about this, but it seems so. No idea how complex it is this to add USB-HUB support.
The USB protocol is terrible complex and flexible ;) That's the reason, why currently not all mouses are working. The HID protocol allows all kind of numbers and bit-depths for all x/y/buttons/wheels etc. It's a nice exercise, but if you want to do a short driver for an Z80 system it's a little bit annoying. The mass storage part is easier.

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

zhulien

are there any albireo available forsale?

Ast


some news from my "filemanager"


Follow me, if you want to know more....



_____________________

Ast/iMP4CT. "By the power of Grayskull, i've the power"

http://amstradplus.forumforever.com/index.php
http://impdos.wikidot.com/
http://impdraw.wikidot.com/

All friends are welcome !

GUNHED

http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

Ast


it's coming...  ;D
Just let me finish iMPdos first...
_____________________

Ast/iMP4CT. "By the power of Grayskull, i've the power"

http://amstradplus.forumforever.com/index.php
http://impdos.wikidot.com/
http://impdraw.wikidot.com/

All friends are welcome !

PulkoMandy

Long overdue status update

Hi there! Well it's been some time since I gave news about Albireo. Unfortunately, not-so-great news, but...

So, we had found a problem with the serial controller used in the initial 1.0 boards, and found a replacement chip. Some people sent me their cards back for upgrade (if I manage to desolder the old chip without breaking anything) or replacement (if I break something). Everything looked fine and Cloudstrife ordered PCBs for a second batch of boards, however...

The replacement chip we had found is now obsolete and out of stock in most places. So, we need to find and test yet another chip. We have identified one which should be compatible, but given the issues with the first chip used, we want to be really sure...

Various other real life things have interferred and I had no time to update the list here. However, things continued to happen for Albireo. I have sold cards to several people I met at demoparties, trying to priorize the ones who would write software for it, rather than just want to use it. You have recently seen the result of this for example with support for Albireo in Arkos Tracker. I have updated the list below to reflect this. If you are the owner of one of the borads number 21 to 33, let me know so I can adjust the list, it seems I forgot some people here.

I will check with Cloudstrife (who has the current stock of components and PCBs) how we proceed with assembling and shipping more of the boards.

Board from number 30 up are using a new PCB, no large changes, just moving components around for easier assembly.

Available software (update)


       
  • SD card/USB mass storage support: WIP prototype from OffseT, testing in progress, no official release yet
  • USB mouse: supported in SymbOS
  • Serial port (v1.1 boards): XModem transfer tool from CloudStrife, Arkos Tracker player.

Information about payments
Please wait until I contact you with payment info (I will do so when I have a board ready to ship for you).I don't want to receive payments too much in advance then have people waiting on me to ship the boards. I would then have to handle the pressure of everyone waiting, and also possibly cancelling and rescheduling orders and whatnot. So I prefer that you pay only when your board is ready to ship. Thanks for your patience!


You can pay either using paypal or a bank account transfer. The price is 25 euros, or 30 euros if you want tracked shipping.
If you want, you can order multiple boards. However, I will try to get the boards in the hand of as much people as possible, so I may delay shipping of your second (and third, ...) boards.


I'm assembling the boards on my free time, which is unfortunately a scarce resource. Please be patient.


Already shipped (with tracking numbers for those who chosen tracked shipping)


Please let me know when your board is delivered!




       
  • 0 - PulkoMandy (delivered)
  • 1 - OffseT (delivered)
  • 2 - Gryzor (delivered)
  • 3 - Prodatron (delivered)
  • 4 - cpcmaniaco(delivered)
  • 5 - ||C||-||E|| (delivered)
  • 6 - TFM (x1) (delivered)
  • 7 - pelrun (delivered)
  • 8 - hsimpson (delivered)
  • 9 - majikeyric (x1) (delivered)
  • 10 - SOS (delivered)
  • 11 - Audronic (delivered)
  • 12 - gros_minet (delivered)
  • 13 - Fessor (delivered)
  • 14 - Sykobee (Briggsy) (no tracking)


       
  • 15 - CraigsBar
  • 16 - OffseT (replacement for board number 1 which didn't seem to work for him)
  • 17 - tonio8bits 1L01692919632
  • 18 - PulkoMandy (rev.1 board kept for reference and testing)
  • 19 - CloudStrife
  • 20 - Hicks
  • 21 - Targhan
  • 22 - Prodatron (replacement for broken prototype board)
  • 23 - Gerald (for investigation of serial port problems)
  • 24 - Ast
  • 25 - roudoudou
  • 26 - Zik (self assembled)
  • 27 - Beb

  •    
  • 34 - Sid

Batch 1 waiting list
Status: Investigating problems with serial port. Some boards delivered without patches.


       
  • 35 - skywalky
  • 28 - Jungsi
  • 29 - Poliander
  • 30 - Yannis_uno
  • 31 - Rennert
  • 32 - HAL6128
  • 33 - Joseman
  • 36 - Tai
  • 37* - Grim
  • 38 - cosa_nostra_6128
  • 39 - oratyper

       
  • 40 - NiNxPe
  • 41 - Vandalsk (x1)
  • 42 - Dirtybb
  • 43 - Dubliner
  • 44 - ronaldo (x1)
  • 45~ - cpcmaniaco (x1)
  • 46 - Munchausen
  • 47 - jrodriguezv (x1)
  • 48 - netmercer
  • 49 - Shining
  • 50 - archosmo

       
  • 51 - awergh
  • 52 - wilco2009
  • 53 - dodogildo
  • 54 - Apollo (x1)
  • 55 - dxs
  • 56 - AlexD
  • 57 - jaime
  • 58 - merlinkv (x1)


Batch 2 waiting list
Status: Nothing done yet.

       
  • 59 - zhulien (x1)
  • 60 - Tolkin (x1)
  • 61 - Skunkfish
  • 62 - madram
  • 63 - Krusty
  • 64 - Eliot
  • 65 - Optimus
  • 66 - slarti
  • 67 - CraigsBar (second board)
  • 68 - TFM (second board)
  • 69 - tonio8bits (second board)
  • 70 - Merlinkv (second board)
  • 71 - Ronaldo (second board)
  • 72 - Zhulien (second board)
  • 73 - jrodriguezv (second board)
  • 74 - Tolkin (x2)
  • 76 - Apollo (second board)
  • 77 - Proteus (x2)
  • 79 - Madram (x2 - for OvL)
  • 81 - TbO
  • 82 - KaosOverride (x2)
  • 84 - jvaltane
  • 85 - Fedeo
  • 86 - Imsai_REAM
  • 87 - buzby
  • 88 - Rhino
  • 89 - remax
  • 90 - scarlettkitten
  • 91 - Edoz (MSX)
  • 92 - ASiC
  • 93 - Hergoth

GUNHED

Great to see that this project is not dead, but instead continued.  :)


It would be great to be able to have an expanded manual. Especially concerning the control bit for the USB I/O ports. Information like "which bit do I need to check if I want to know it's time to read or to send next byte". Lot's of commands are actually easy to implement in BASIC, but I have trouble in machine code.
And yes I know there are documents about the chips out there, I got them all, it just doesn't help. So I got frustrated and put the card a the side. Hopefully we get a great detailed manual soon. This would boost software for this nice little expansion card.  :) [size=78%] [/size]
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

PulkoMandy

The documentation is at https://pulkomandy.github.io/shinra.github.io/albireo.html


If you need more than that, I can improve it, but I need specific questions, because it seems quite complete to me.

Rennert

Great news ;D
My order already present
...KC Compact

Gryzor

Thanks for the update!

What was the problem with the initial chip then?

PulkoMandy

I had mentionned it in one of my previous messages, the TL16C550D is designed for use in a PC where there is an ALE (Address Latch Enable) signal. It can work without the signal, but in that configuration it needs the CPU to keep the address bus stable for some time after the end of a read or write cycle, which the z80 doesn't. As a result, a read would sometimes be handled twice by the chip, and since reading pops a byte from the receiving FIFO, that results in lost bytes.


Fortunately, the chips from other manufacturers (SC16C650 from NXP we used until now, for example) have better timings. I will see if I can find remaining stocks of that chip, but otherwise Exar also manufactures a similar one which should also work. For the first 50 or so boards, we already have a stock of ICs left, so these will be delivered.

Gryzor

Darn, after a renovation we did I don't remember where I've got my board so I can't check :( Probably waiting for my retro area to be set up...

GUNHED

Quote from: PulkoMandy on 16:43, 16 February 20
If you need more than that, I can improve it, but I need specific questions, because it seems quite complete to me.


Yes, meaning of the bits when doing USB / mouse communications.
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

PulkoMandy

I think the "Practical case: driver for an HID mouse" section is fairly complete and I still don't see what else I could add to it. It has the initialization phase with all commands you need to send to the mouse, it explains how to ask the mouse for a report, how to wait for a reply, and the format of the 3 byte report the mouse sends.

Is there a particular command which is not explained completely? Because I have no idea which "bits" you are referring to here. There are several commands and they all take different parameters.

xesrjb

Quote from: PulkoMandy on 14:29, 16 February 20
Long overdue status update

Hi there! Well it's been some time since I gave news about Albireo. Unfortunately, not-so-great news, but...

So, we had found a problem with the serial controller used in the initial 1.0 boards, and found a replacement chip. Some people sent me their cards back for upgrade (if I manage to desolder the old chip without breaking anything) or replacement (if I break something). Everything looked fine and Cloudstrife ordered PCBs for a second batch of boards, however...

The replacement chip we had found is now obsolete and out of stock in most places. So, we need to find and test yet another chip. We have identified one which should be compatible, but given the issues with the first chip used, we want to be really sure...

Various other real life things have interferred and I had no time to update the list here. However, things continued to happen for Albireo. I have sold cards to several people I met at demoparties, trying to priorize the ones who would write software for it, rather than just want to use it. You have recently seen the result of this for example with support for Albireo in Arkos Tracker. I have updated the list below to reflect this. If you are the owner of one of the borads number 21 to 33, let me know so I can adjust the list, it seems I forgot some people here.

I will check with Cloudstrife (who has the current stock of components and PCBs) how we proceed with assembling and shipping more of the boards.

Board from number 30 up are using a new PCB, no large changes, just moving components around for easier assembly.

Available software (update)


       
  • SD card/USB mass storage support: WIP prototype from OffseT, testing in progress, no official release yet
  • USB mouse: supported in SymbOS
  • Serial port (v1.1 boards): XModem transfer tool from CloudStrife, Arkos Tracker player.
Information about payments
Please wait until I contact you with payment info (I will do so when I have a board ready to ship for you).I don't want to receive payments too much in advance then have people waiting on me to ship the boards. I would then have to handle the pressure of everyone waiting, and also possibly cancelling and rescheduling orders and whatnot. So I prefer that you pay only when your board is ready to ship. Thanks for your patience!


You can pay either using paypal or a bank account transfer. The price is 25 euros, or 30 euros if you want tracked shipping.
If you want, you can order multiple boards. However, I will try to get the boards in the hand of as much people as possible, so I may delay shipping of your second (and third, ...) boards.


I'm assembling the boards on my free time, which is unfortunately a scarce resource. Please be patient.


Already shipped (with tracking numbers for those who chosen tracked shipping)


Please let me know when your board is delivered!




       
  • 0 - PulkoMandy (delivered)
  • 1 - OffseT (delivered)
  • 2 - Gryzor (delivered)
  • 3 - Prodatron (delivered)
  • 4 - cpcmaniaco(delivered)
  • 5 - ||C||-||E|| (delivered)
  • 6 - TFM (x1) (delivered)
  • 7 - pelrun (delivered)
  • 8 - hsimpson (delivered)
  • 9 - majikeyric (x1) (delivered)
  • 10 - SOS (delivered)
  • 11 - Audronic (delivered)
  • 12 - gros_minet (delivered)
  • 13 - Fessor (delivered)
  • 14 - Sykobee (Briggsy) (no tracking)


       
  • 15 - CraigsBar
  • 16 - OffseT (replacement for board number 1 which didn't seem to work for him)
  • 17 - tonio8bits 1L01692919632
  • 18 - PulkoMandy (rev.1 board kept for reference and testing)
  • 19 - CloudStrife
  • 20 - Hicks
  • 21 - Targhan
  • 22 - Prodatron (replacement for broken prototype board)
  • 23 - Gerald (for investigation of serial port problems)
  • 24 - Ast
  • 25 - roudoudou
  • 26 - Zik (self assembled)
  • 27 - Beb
  • 34 - Sid

Batch 1 waiting list
Status: Investigating problems with serial port. Some boards delivered without patches.


       
  • 35 - skywalky
  • 28 - Jungsi
  • 29 - Poliander
  • 30 - Yannis_uno
  • 31 - Rennert
  • 32 - HAL6128
  • 33 - Joseman
  • 36 - Tai
  • 37* - Grim
  • 38 - cosa_nostra_6128
  • 39 - oratyper

       
  • 40 - NiNxPe
  • 41 - Vandalsk (x1)
  • 42 - Dirtybb
  • 43 - Dubliner
  • 44 - ronaldo (x1)
  • 45~ - cpcmaniaco (x1)
  • 46 - Munchausen
  • 47 - jrodriguezv (x1)
  • 48 - netmercer
  • 49 - Shining
  • 50 - archosmo

       
  • 51 - awergh
  • 52 - wilco2009
  • 53 - dodogildo
  • 54 - Apollo (x1)
  • 55 - dxs
  • 56 - AlexD
  • 57 - jaime
  • 58 - merlinkv (x1)


Batch 2 waiting list
Status: Nothing done yet.

       
  • 59 - zhulien (x1)
  • 60 - Tolkin (x1)
  • 61 - Skunkfish
  • 62 - madram
  • 63 - Krusty
  • 64 - Eliot
  • 65 - Optimus
  • 66 - slarti
  • 67 - CraigsBar (second board)
  • 68 - TFM (second board)
  • 69 - tonio8bits (second board)
  • 70 - Merlinkv (second board)
  • 71 - Ronaldo (second board)
  • 72 - Zhulien (second board)
  • 73 - jrodriguezv (second board)
  • 74 - Tolkin (x2)
  • 76 - Apollo (second board)
  • 77 - Proteus (x2)
  • 79 - Madram (x2 - for OvL)
  • 81 - TbO
  • 82 - KaosOverride (x2)
  • 84 - jvaltane
  • 85 - Fedeo
  • 86 - Imsai_REAM
  • 87 - buzby
  • 88 - Rhino
  • 89 - remax
  • 90 - scarlettkitten
  • 91 - Edoz (MSX)
  • 92 - ASiC
  • 93 - Hergoth


I would like to get one of this boards..


xesrjb
,,The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true."

GUNHED

Quote from: PulkoMandy on 21:56, 17 February 20
I think the "Practical case: driver for an HID mouse" section is fairly complete and I still don't see what else I could add to it. It has the initialization phase with all commands you need to send to the mouse, it explains how to ask the mouse for a report, how to wait for a reply, and the format of the 3 byte report the mouse sends.

Is there a particular command which is not explained completely? Because I have no idea which "bits" you are referring to here. There are several commands and they all take different parameters.

Well it doesn't really expalain the meaning of the bits. It works well for BASIC, but not for MC as told. There is no working Z80 example. I told all that a coulple of times before. But never mind, there's plenty of other hardware I can do someting for.
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

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