Μ4 and ULIFAC together

[Takis Kalatzis]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has utilized M4 and ULIFAC boards together. The idea is to have the network capabilities of M4 (CPC gets an IP address) and the storage/extra memory capabilities of ULIFAC combined. 

I understand that this might need changes in configuration of both boards so that they do not conflict with each other. If anyone has done this already, please share what settings have been used.

Best regards,

Takis

[dodogildo]

Hmm, I tried to do this at one time, but failed.

I ended up using M4 (for networking and storage) happily with X-MEM (for extra RAM) + Albireo (for USB mouse interface). 

[Brocky]

if you put unidos on the M4 you can run both side by side without command clashes..

that said its easier to add a ESP8266/ESP32 to the usifac to get it networked..

[zhulien]

Both cards do work without conflict for me but... no dos currently works with both.  I'd love if symbos and unidos would.

[GUNHED]

Both cards do work without conflict for me but... no dos currently works with both.  I'd love if symbos and unidos would.

Well, it seems we have the same problems in 2025 as we had in the late 80ies for different DOS / expansion ROMs on the CPC.

Back the day this was one reason to create FutureOS to have all working under one OS only. 

I'm still thinking if it would make sense to add support for ULIfAC / USIfAC II to FutureOS. But I don't know if people are interested in that. In addition the documentation of "How to access mass media" seems to be very limited for  ULIfAC / USIfAC II.   Also the  ULIfAC / USIfAC II ROM does change its contents in real time, therefore it's not even doable to disassemble the ROM to analyze its function.

The  ULIfAC / USIfAC II documentation is great for user, but I really miss the precise description of "How to use its features". And - yes - I do understand that it's just not much fun to create documentation.   But I hope for a change. 

[Prodatron]

In addition the documentation of "How to access mass media" seems to be very limited for  ULIfAC / USIfAC II.

No, it's extremely simple and very well documented since it's all based on the CH376. Ikonsgr just did a great job and is always very helpful. Even people with just a little experience about file systems can implement it in 1-2 days, as the CH376 is doing everything for you, if you are not able to implement FAT32 directly on Z80 level.

[GUNHED]

In addition the documentation of "How to access mass media" seems to be very limited for  ULIfAC / USIfAC II.

No, it's extremely simple and very well documented since it's all based on the CH376. Ikonsgr just did a great job and is always very helpful. Even people with just a little experience about file systems can implement it in 1-2 days, as the CH376 is doing everything for you, if you are not able to implement FAT32 directly on Z80 level.

Nice, since it is extremely simple, please put example code into the Wiki for the community.   Not for me, but for everybody else. 

[ikonsgr]

Nice, since it is extremely simple, please put example code into the Wiki for the community.  Not for me, but for everybody else. 

I agree, it would be great if @Prodatron could share symbos code regarding communication with CH376, but if you want, you can also check what i sent to @Prodatron too: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ikvp9o21khzi8havh2z78/usb-host-ch376.zip?rlkey=05452eq50vx5bb2xpyotd4swn&dl=0
Apart from the included pdf guide, you can check commands.txt file (practically my notes while developing the various functions for CH376 communication), that have direct examples (e.g. byte sequences and appropriate responds from CH376), for opening a file, getting a directory, set sub directory, seek to a specific position of a file (very useful for accessing dsk images) and more.
And to confirm how easy you can develop your own communication routines with ch376, i remember that after i sent above help files to prodatron, he sent me in a matter of days, a "beta" version of symbos with ULIfAC mass storage support, that for the most part worked fine!  

I'm still thinking if it would make sense to add support for ULIfAC / USIfAC II to FutureOS. But I don't know if people are interested in that.

Well, i think that, the fact that we are close to 800 units of USIfAC II/ULIfAC sold so far, and i still give dozens every month,  answers your question

[GUNHED]

Thank you very much!!!!!!!! 

Indeed with your help it's indeed "extremely simple" as Prodatron told. 


btw: Please don't get me wrong I was not asking if people are interested in USIfAC II/ULIfAC per se. My question was if somebody would use it at all with FutureOS or not.