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New yerar, new CPC board

Started by Piotr, 13:29, 07 January 15

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CraigsBar

IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

skywalky

Quote from: Piotr on 07:56, 06 August 15
Updated BOM and list of important changes, http://www.eightbitclone.com/justcpc.html
What about the GAL? What is the program?

Piotr


robcfg

As far as I remember, the gal program does the memory banking.

TotO

Yes, it does. It was dumped from my 6128 PAL after I have contacted Charles McDonald, then Porchy.
He does the same with my DK'Tronics PAL too... So, both are available since for the community.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

TFM

Quote from: TotO on 14:53, 08 August 15
Yes, it does. It was dumped from my 6128 PAL after I have contacted Charles McDonald, then Porchy.
He does the same with my DK'Tronics PAL too... So, both are available since for the community.


Somehow I wished you could dump the Dobbertin memory expansion GAL too, but on the other hand... we got the X-MEM now!  :) :) :)


Thanks TotO! Great service for the community!
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

radu14m


Great board !!! i love it :)@Piotr: is it possible to add a 6Mhz turbo switch ? :)

TotO

#432
Quote from: TFM on 23:01, 08 August 15Somehow I wished you could dump the Dobbertin memory expansion GAL too, but on the other hand... we got the X-MEM now!  :) :) :)
Thanks TotO! Great service for the community!
We should ask him for dumping your Dobbertin GAL. Sure the X-MEM exist, but better to do it for the posterity.
The fact is that most of them are read protected, but they own a special custom hardware to bypass that. (made for JAMMArcade.net PCB dump)

The DK'Tronics / DATEL PAL was easy to dump but the Amstrad PAL looked to be very custom and took some weeks to be able to make it working.
Porchy said me that was his more challenging dump to do. (unlinked pins 13, 14, 15 are internally used for magic [nb]More informations about Amstrad HAL chip reversing here. [/nb] features).
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

Porchy

If you want to send me the chip for reversing then PM me and we can work something out.


The HAL16L8 from the 6128 was a huge challenge as it's the first time I'd come across a non registered chip that had latches, coupled with the fact I had no experience using the Amstrad made it hard work. I've since found many chips that use latches and also developed a way to check for them too.

ronaldo

#434
It has arrived some minutes ago! :D
[attach=2]

Some quick questions, @Piotr:

       
  • Can I power it directly from a real Amstrad CPC Monitor? (CTM640/CTM644?)
  • The +5v Cable is power input? Can be powered from a MiniATX power source?
  • An AC/DC Adaptor with 12V/0.5A output would be okay? Is it recommended not to go below 2A output? (Specs: PRI 230V~50Hz 12W, SEC 12V -- 500mA 6VA)
Thank you! :D

TFM

#435
Quote from: Porchy on 21:55, 09 August 15
If you want to send me the chip for reversing then PM me and we can work something out.


The HAL16L8 from the 6128 was a huge challenge as it's the first time I'd come across a non registered chip that had latches, coupled with the fact I had no experience using the Amstrad made it hard work. I've since found many chips that use latches and also developed a way to check for them too.


Awesome work!!!  :) :) :)
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

CraigsBar

Quote from: Piotr on 09:05, 06 August 15
Wrong, your board is ready to post today. Sorry.
And I collected it from the Post Office this morning. But I cannot get any life out of it. What are the power supply requiremets? I assume 5v about 2a but that's a guess.
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fatbob

This  video appears to show it being powered by 12V 1.8A.



I am hoping to complete building mine either this afternoon or sometime tomorrow.

CraigsBar

#438
Quote from: CraigsBar on 11:38, 15 August 15
And I collected it from the Post Office this morning. But I cannot get any life out of it. What are the power supply requiremets? I assume 5v about 2a but that's a guess.
OK I got it working. 7.5v 2a

Wonderful. Works perfectly with the x arcade [emoji3]
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CraigsBar

OK @Piotr , Having had the board up and running today I noticed a couple of minor "Issues", Not sure how easily solveable these are but hopefully fairly...


1. When a Joypad is plugged in several keys on the keyboard generate 2 characters ('r' produces 're' for example and 'e' does 'e*Break*'


2. quite a few programs I have used demonstrate massive on screen interference. (CPM plus, Batman Forever are badly effected), in these there is lots of garbage marks on the screen - on Batman Forever they seem to match the Disc Activity but I cannot be sure.


The first on I can live with as seen in the photo above I won't be using the Joystick Port much as I will be setting up a custom X-Arcade TankStick definition to provide both Joysticks.


The second will limit what software I can use. See the picture below for an example.



IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

TFM

The artefacts correspond to one CRTC position, looks like the CRTC reads &FF instead of V-RAM. Hope this can be fixed!
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

CraigsBar

#441
Quote from: TFM on 22:04, 15 August 15
The artefacts correspond to one CRTC position, looks like the CRTC reads &FF instead of V-RAM. Hope this can be fixed!
You are not the only one. I hope @Piotr has a spare one as I really need one that works without the visual garbage. I can (and have) worked around the joystick issue with the programming function of the X-Arcade Tank stick. But the screen corruption is a deal breaker for me :(


Edit: OK Using a part from my Spares I have swapped out the CRTC - No difference so I returned mine to the Spares box and put back the original one in the board ;)

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ronaldo

Have you tried powering you board with 9V? Piotr recommended 9-12 V: 7.5V could be not enough.

CraigsBar

Yep. 7.5 to 12v all have the same symptom
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CraigsBar

OK, apologies @Piotr , I never tested just the Just CPC without the xmem attached. I just did and everything is fine. Does anyone else have oddness when running a just CPC with an xmem?

Unfortunately I just got my power leads back to front and fried my xmem and X-mass :( it seems they really dislike 12v. @TotO , do you think they are fixable? Or should I just order new ones?
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gerald

Quote from: CraigsBar on 12:48, 16 August 15
Unfortunately I just got my power leads back to front and fried my xmem and X-mass :( it seems they really dislike 12v. @TotO , do you think they are fixable? Or should I just order new ones?
This is why I do not like the JustCPC 9V power input !!!
Now for you X-cards, you have to hope that one component protected the others ....

Token

#446
.

Token

Easy mistake, be careful! 6 months ago I did it with my second PCW 8512 mainboard with the wrong psu, 9V instead 5V. Now I have stickers with voltage on them. Luckily, the mainboard run 100%, only the main chip inside the extern keyboard was fried. (quite unexpected)

CraigsBar

Quote from: gerald on 12:53, 16 August 15
This is why I do not like the JustCPC 9V power input !!!
Now for you X-cards, you have to hope that one component protected the others ....
Ordering replacements is no biggy, let's face it, they are not expensive.

OK, the same screen corruption occurs with a symbiface connected as well. So I guess external ram is not quite correctly setup on the Just CPC. Time to get additional expansions for the just CPC I guess
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Bryce

Sorry for sounding a bit sarcastic Piotr, but did you do ANY proper timing analysis or compatibility testing on the JustCPC or did you just  make a layout that fit on the board and have it produced?

Bryce.

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