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Started by SyX, 19:28, 25 September 14

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Munchausen

Quote from: TFM on 18:12, 08 December 14
An even more unlikely idea is this: Using the Minibooster Bluetooth port connecting an wireless Mouse.  :)

This would be cool but is impossible I think. The minibooster bluetooth will only send serial, it can't talk the bluetooth human interface device standard used by mice. You could have something attached to a mouse that converts it to serial and then add a bluetooth serial module to that... but it's a bit complicated!

TotO

#101
Quote from: TFM on 19:35, 08 December 14I accept your opinion of course. My opinion is that too much new "standards" will give us the same problems to be seen in the PC world (every expansion needs own drivers!!!). IMHO new hardware should be compatible to old hardware if possible. If it can't be, then not.  :)

You have to talk to Prodatron for Minibooster support, I'm sure he is eager to help. But IIRC then Symbos already supports couple things.

Exactly. It's why X-MASS was designed to be IDE interfaced and use the same ports as SymbOS. But, I was not able to put RTC on it...
Not enough space to add the compatible IC and the lithium battery. (I made it compatible on the developement board only)

Mouse and RTC have their place on a serial add-on and will be cheapest than building a dedicated expansion and will allow more stuffs.
I'm sure that SymbOS will be able to support them without problem ; As easy the PlayCity player was added!  ;D
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

CraigsBar

Me too now prodatron is back into active development. We need to get futureos support (and a cyber chicken patch) too
IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

TFM

What do you want for CyberChicken?

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

Prodatron

#104
Quote from: TotO on 20:22, 08 December 14
Exactly. It's why X-MASS was designed to be IDE interfaced and use the same ports as SymbOS. But, I was not able to put RTC on it...
Not enough space to add the compatible IC and the lithium battery. (I made it compatible on the developement board only)

Mouse and RTC have their place on a serial add-on and will be cheapest than building a dedicated expansion and will allow more stuffs.
I'm sure that SymbOS will be able to support them without problem ; As easy the PlayCity player was added!  ;D
I am very glad that the X-MASS interface is fully SymbOS/BonnyDOS compatible, thanks a lot for keeping this SF2 standard, TotO!! Mouse and RTC will be great to have, too, but the X-MEM and the X-MASS were the most important expansions for me. And yes, I would look forward to support another type of proportional mouse for the CPC. After 5 different proportional mouse drivers for Z80 systems it shouldn't be a problem to add another one! :)

PS: Cool, this is my 256 post here  ;D

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

TotO

Is SymbOS allow to read/write the BDOS partitions?
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

Prodatron

No, BonnyDOS istn't FAT or Amsdos like, it introduced an own filesystem back in these days.

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

TotO

"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

TFM

Quote from: Prodatron on 22:51, 08 December 14
PS: Cool, this is my 256 post here  ;D


And I make your 200 Likes full.  :P
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

CraigsBar

Quote from: TFM on 22:37, 08 December 14
What do you want for CyberChicken?
Support for the new minibooster based mouse when TotO starts selling it [emoji6]
IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

Prodatron

Again I have to admit, that I am really glad, that TotO designed the X-MASS in a way, that it's SF2 compatible. Have a look:
[attachimg=1]
These are all MSX mass storage interfaces I am owning now:
- one SCSI interface (Club Gouda; there are other different ones available)
- two different IDE interfaces (Sunrise + Beer)
- three different SD/MMC card interfaces (MegaSD + PadialSD + clone of a korean interface)
They all require own drivers, as they are all different. On the MSX this doesn't matter: Every expansion card usually includes a ROM which automatically adds the driver, which is required for the device, to MSX-BIOS/MSX-DOS. 99% of the software is fine with this. But it's a hard job to support all these devices, if you don't use MSX-BIOS  ???

So as TFM said some posts ago, it's really good to try to keep hardware compatible :)

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

TFM

#111
Kudos for supporting them in SymbOS. After a while it must get really boring with supporting the x-th different mass storage solution (even if they all use FAT). I guess you can keep drivers relatively short. But I'm really glad, that on CPC side the situation is better.
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Prodatron

Quote from: TFM on 17:17, 09 December 14
Kudos for supporting them in SymbOS. After a while it must get really boring with supporting the x-th different mass storage solution (even if they all use FAT). I guess you can keep drivers relatively short. But I'm really glad, that on CPC side the situation is better.

Yes, the drivers contain not much more than sector read/write and media detect/init routines. For each device this is always around 500 lines of Z80 code. I totally agree, it's boring and annoying a lot!... But after finishing another one, again 30 additional people are happy as well :D

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

TFM

And the good thing is with computers...  You have to do it only once! [nb]As long as you don't have a power outrage just before you save your source.  :o [/nb]
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

TotO

#114
The MSX look to have more expansion boards than users.  :laugh:

The problem... They want all to build their own devices that are never compatible to be sure to be not a copy... or copied.
At end, you have to do X time the job for them...  ;D
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

TFM

Exactly! But I guess they have a lot of users.
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

TotO

Sure, they have. I was just jocking about that.  :P
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

TFM

Well, I'm sticking with the CPC, my spare-time is so scarce that I don't even have the time to care about other Z80 computers - shame on me. SyX once told me that in Brazil they have a lot of MSX. But I got no idea actually.  :laugh:

However... let me get a bit more back to topic...

Can the X-MASS also be ordered with bigger DOM modules? One GB would sound nice to me  ;)

But for sure it's a cool thing to have a few 128 MB types at hand, so one can travel to a meeting with such a DOM and having all important stuff in the pocket.  :)
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

TotO

Quote from: TFM on 22:48, 09 December 14Well, I'm sticking with the CPC, my spare-time is so scarce that I don't even have the time to care about other Z80 computers - shame on me. SyX once told me that in Brazil they have a lot of MSX. But I got no idea actually.  :laugh:
SyX told me that in Brazil they have one CPC.  ;D



Quote from: TFM on 22:48, 09 December 14However... let me get a bit more back to topic... Can the X-MASS also be ordered with bigger DOM modules? One GB would sound nice to me  ;) 
But for sure it's a cool thing to have a few 128 MB types at hand, so one can travel to a meeting with such a DOM and having all important stuff in the pocket.  :)
No, the X-MASS will come by default with a huge[nb]Around 360 DATA formated floppy discs in your pocket[/nb] 128MB SLC IDE Flash Drive.
But, the future is not closed as each peoples had its own usage.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

TFM

Yes, I understood.  :)  Just asking of bigger drive modules are available?
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

TotO

#120
Yes, but I have to made tests to be sure about the compatibility before speaking about them.
I have to test some 44-pin IDE to CF, SD, SATA adapters for fun too.  :laugh:

To finish about that, understand that an industrial SLC flash drive is more secure for storing your data than a poor phone sd card.
I don't want to reach the biggest capacity, because it's not an exchange media. It's a mass storage for storing precious data.
Don't confuse it with the HxC for example... X-MASS was first made for CPC developers. 128MB is more that I bought and never fill with my A1200, 20 years ago.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

TFM

Security is important. I could imagine that it could become a exchange media one day though. The HxC is limited to disc sizes, and so people will really appreciate the X-MEM features.  :)
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

TotO

About exchange media, not late than yesterday I have copied 4GB data on a 8GB Microsoft USB pen.
Back at home, I put it on my computer and... I got a message like "Unformated disk. Do you want to initialize it?"...
Great!  :-X
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

Bryce

I hate when that happens. I've had USB sticks fail on me several times, but I've only ever had one SD card die on me and that was my own fault because I put it in my pocket and it got bent.
I still prefer your compact flash solution though, especially as you've managed to keep the size down to the MX4 format!

Bryce.

TotO

Quote from: Bryce on 11:00, 11 December 14I still prefer your compact flash solution though, especially as you've managed to keep the size down to the MX4 format!
Yes, it was a requirement. Working with some limitations help to improve its own design.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

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