Hi Folks,
Firstly, Merry Christmas - Hope you all get everything you want.... ;D
What I'd like Father Christmas to bring me is a RTC addon for my PCW8256 - I've found instructions to build one in German, but this isn't much good to me.
Do any of you good people have any ideas / suggestions how easy this is to achieve?
As always, your suggestions are most welcome...
Regards,
Darren
Hi Darren
Not too tricky. An 8 bit address decode using a comparator chip and a DS1302 RTC, followed by code to read / write the RTC and a small "run and exit" FID to set the system time at bootup. Needs a latch, too, I think. With this you'd have 8 GPIO pins and 3 are needed by the RTC - so the other 5 pins you could use for other purposes.
The main problem will be connecting this to the PCW (use a Z80 shim, maybe) and the cost of the components. The rest of it is straightforward. If you have a uIDE installed it would be even easier, but you need to design / build a PCB.
Let me think a bit. Sounds like a useful project.
Thanks Jon -
That would be most appreciated.
I don't have a uIDE, although I'd love one...
Darren
Hmm, no idea about the how, but I'd find one pretty useful. I had one, and it was a help.
The one I had was an add-on - or should this be an add-in - for the CPS8256 unit. You needed to upen up the box, prise out the SIO chip (I think it was that one, add in the extra card which included the battery and the clock chip, and then plug the SIO chip back into the new socket). All went OK, it worked fine. I had quite a few disks set up to expand the DIR info for date/times, this was useful when I was programming. I don't think it's working now, as the battery has gone from lack of use. Or maybe it DID still work, but did not keep any change for very long?
The problem NOW is that the expansion slot is not available for the CPS box, as it's occupied by Jon's uIDE connector which is much more important. So how to get around that? If Jon can get around that??
Just found the little doc for the thing. It was the SCA Real Time Clock Module. You needed to remove the 'Z80 DART' chip, not sure if that's the same as the SIO? No need to refit the removed component, the card must have had a new one fitted. The package includes a prog, TIME.COM, to obtain or set the time stored, plus GETCLOCK.BAS which allows BASIC to access the system time/date.
I'll keep my fingers crossed. After all, it IS Christmas!!
Geoff
Hmm, well, I am trying to think of the best / most cost effective way to implement it.
The lazy way would be to use the address decoding mechanism of the uIDE (comparator) and bolt a RTC onto it. I'd have to build it so that the uIDE plugged into it. Either that or you'd need to use something like the Z80 bus card I proposed.
Geoff, you ought to use a Z80 shim if you need access to the expansion port...
I'd love one of these too, I have no IDE in my PcW (yet) so if there is a combined solution then I'd love to have an RTC in my PCW :)
Just for fun, then...
The board is called uRTC-8 and it is similar to uIDE-8, except it has a battery backed RTC on-board instead of an IDE port. You will need to add a connector to your Z80 bus cable when connecting it to a PCW that is equipped with uIDE-8 - this is a 40 way cable mounted female IDC socket. I'll probably produce a simple bus board,too.
That's amazing! IDE and RTC in one! Like the Symbiface II for the CPC. :)
I definitely would prefert the uIDE with RTC too. It's great that things can be made so easy (well, if you can deal with hardware of course). :)
No, they are separate boards that you would connect in parallel to the Z80 bus. Exiting uIDE owners need a viable upgrade path, and of course I want to fit the RTC to other Z80 machines.
You're still going to need the v1.15 CP/M that accepts FID files, though. I intend to provide a FID that will read time and date and initialise the PcW's in built clock at every boot, and the card will be supplied with utilities to get and set the date / time on the RTC.
"Made so easy"... hmm, I think my Mrs would have a thing or two to say about that. I spend a lot of time in my study doing this stuff. The board itself isn't complete yet... I'll post up a 3D render of it when done, but I have a lot of other stuff on the go right now.
In other words, the device is coming, but not too soon..
Take all the time you need. It will come, and that is what counts. :)
Yes, I'd like one of the RTC devices please.
I think I understand that it may add onto the existing uIDE cable, hopefully leaving space for other similar devices to be added later??
Make it easier to do things with date/time stamping of files, although I think I remember problems with INITDIR and 2k dates? Most (all ?) of the other CP/M utilities had been officially updated to make them 2k compliant, but not INITDIR? Or was it just that this update was 'unofficial'?
Geoff
I'd certainly want one when the times comes ;D
I want to make them cheaply, but the RTC is costly for some reason and of course there is the board and other components plus time to assemble.
Yes, I got the description of the connector wrong, Geoff. You'll need a FEMALE IDC socket crimped onto your existing Z80 bus cable, same orientation as the uIDE plug. And yes, you can add more if you like, but you will probably want to build a sort of chassis to hold them apart. I will put holes in the uRTC board at the same location as the uIDE-8, then you can just screw them together using PCB stand offs.
So... this leads me to that other holy grail, which is booting off the uIDE-8. For this we are going to need a set of additional connections between the boot board and the expansion port adapter. This is what the "Unused" port is for - it is present on the Video and Lite adapters:
[attach=2,msg173145]
So we'll need to carry some of these lines to the boot board using jumpers or a ribbon cable of some sort. About now, I am rather wishing I'd arranged this connector as 2x3 rows because it would have been easier to attach a ribbon cable to it, but at the time I expected to be using individual jumper wires if I ever needed to actually use the thing!
I expect it will look a bit like the file I attached below, only much, much neater..
By the way, the "boot module" and "uRTC module" are just dummies for illustration (boot module is an 8080 ICE card and the uRTC module is another uIDE-8).
It's all sooo exciting! :D
Jon, I don't want to cramp your style, but I'm not sure I'd be that worried about booting from the uIDE.
I've got no problem booting from the floppy, and this is very much a 'retro' computer, and booting from the floppy is about as 'retro' as you can get. Also, not sure how booting from the uIDE would cope with booting different systems, booting different versions of, say. Locoscript, or using games that need to boot from disk.
I find that the benefit of having the uIDE at boot time is still a massive plus. Yes, loading the EMS file, then the FID, then PROFILE.SUB from the floppy takes a little time, but then it's much faster, with the C: drive set as the default instead of M: and all the files that I might have needed to transfer from disk to M: staying on C: (marked as SYSTEM so they're accessible from all user areas) the whole operation of the machine is much better.
Maybe if my 3" drive dies (again) I'll need to think again, but it should last a while yet?
I'll keep an eye of your progress in this area, anyway.
Geoff
I guess you haven't see my Superbrain uIDE demo video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hshdu2_P7Q
This implementation gives a choice - to boot from the floppy drive or uIDE. I'm not sure how I'd do this on the PCW (what with its awful boot scheme) but at the very least I can imagine a switch on the boot board that disables it for floppy boot.
As you infer, the life of floppy disks and drives is limited. That's a good reason why you might want to boot from uIDE. I'm not sure about booting different systems, you might be able to just copy a different EMS / EMT file to C:, but in the case of CP/M it needs to be patched to pick up the PROFILE.SUB from C: rather than A:. Locoscript is likely to be be no different (and I'm not going to be patching that).
I will do the uRTC first as I still am not sure how to implement uIDE boot.
Quote from: torrind on 11:23, 12 April 19
I'd certainly want one when the times comes ;D
Me too! Haven't had the opportunity to actually fit the uIDE module yet but at least it's waiting for me back home on my desk. :D
Alright lads, it's "game on"!
Wonderful, my PcW just needs an RTC! :) I mean CP/M Plus is made for timestamps. :)
Initial board layout.
[attach=1,msg173420]
Quote from: TynH on 08:01, 16 April 19
Me too! Haven't had the opportunity to actually fit the uIDE module yet but at least it's waiting for me back home on my desk. :D
Oh, you are in for fun...
@GUNHED (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2029) stop "liking" and start commenting... ;)
Ha, I would give you an XXXL box of likes more if I could. Since I'm a software person I can't comment that much. However it looks neat, cleaned up and also it's a good idea to be able to alter the base address (I assume that's what the jumpers are for).
Regarding software, it should be very easy to use the watch: Read data and set the CP/M Plus clock. Nothing special needed. Just some GETRTC.COM in the profile.sub file. :) :) :)
Actually, a small FID that unloads immediately after setting the clock from the RTC was what I had in mind, but if you are using uIDE then you probably want the getrtc.com on C: so it will load quicker.
Now, I've had a little play with some spare boards. Take a close look at the attachments.
IMG_5470 shows two boards sandwiched together with plastic PCB standoffs, and then connected to a PCW Expansion port adapter with a 40 way IDC "Z80 bus" cable. Suppose one of these is a uIDE-8 and the other is a uRTC-8... this is what your setup might look like.
IMG_5471 is a close up of the boards, showing the standoffs. In practice I would expect uIDE-8 to be at the top and the uRTC-8 at the bottom (as it has no indicator lights), but there's no reason not to swap them around if you like.
So, the board's laid out. Dare I order a batch before building and testing a prototype...? :o
PS, Yes, the base address is alterable. Hence "Universal" RTC. It can be fitted to any Z80 machine having a socketed CPU, same as uIDE. And I am a software guy too, and my electronics knowledge is largely self taught.
Cheers
JonB
Excellent pictures, and good to see a bus system for the PcW. :)
Sorry Gunhed, it is not a PcW bus system, it's a Z80 bus system.
Anyway... the boards are on order, despite me not having built a prototype yet. Might be a waste of money (especially if there are errors!) but we will see.
Hi Jon,
Regarding Gunhed's comment on the GETRTC.COM to read the time and date - I notice that contained with uIDE is a DATE.COM command - Could this also be utilised? or his it redundant?
Following this all with great interest!
Darren
No help.
DATE.COM will be the standard CP/M utility, which prompts for a date and time to be entered manually, and then sets the system clock. It has no way of getting the date/time from anywhere else. The point of the new prog, whatever it's called, will be to get the time/date from the RTC and then put this into the system, automatically, without any user action (although this might be possible as an option.
Geoff
That's correct, Geoff.
I will provide a utility with the uTRC-8 board with the following facilities:
- Get time & date from the RTC and display on screen
- Set RTC time & date
- Transfer RTC time & date to PcW clock
I wrote a similar thing for the Multicomp RTC (which uses a different clock chip, the DS1203). The following should give an idea of how it is used:
A>date
Tue 10 Nov 2017 12:42:36
A>date 18/12/18
Tue 18 Dec 2018 12:42:52
A>date 17:05
Tue 18 Dec 2018 17:05:00
A>date 17:05:55
Tue 18 Dec 2018 17:05:55
A>date
Tue 18 Dec 2018 17:05:13
A>date help
Multicomp DS1203 RTC date & time utility - JonB 2018
usage: date - show date and time
date [[day] [dd/mm/yy] [hh:mm[:ss]]] - set date and/or time
A>date I am a teapot
Multicomp DS1203 RTC date & time utility - JonB 2018
usage: date - show date and time
date [[day] [dd/mm/yy] [hh:mm[:ss]]] - set date and/or time
A>
So we will call it uRTC.com and add a new option (such as -t) to transfer RTC date / time to the PcW clock. Thereafter you'd just need to set the uRTC date/time and put a call to c:uRTC -t in the profile.sub and "job done".
I'll probably have a "base I/O address" option so you can configure the board as you like, and change the utility to suit, but it will have a default (probably C0h).
Quote from: TynH on 08:01, 16 April 19Me too! Haven't had the opportunity to actually fit the uIDE module yet but at least it's waiting for me back home on my desk. :D
Quote from: JonB on 14:45, 18 April 19
Oh, you are in for fun...
Looking forward to what'll no doubt prove to be challenging. Unfortunately I'm still kinda stuck in here:
(https://i.postimg.cc/Px75Lq5s/DE0-CCBBB-3-C71-4688-B543-4-E539224-D253.jpg)
8)
Come on mate we are waiting to see if it works with your Schneider connector...!
;D
And by the way, it's pretty warm here in the UK: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47996418
Palm trees? We don't need no steenkin' palm trees!
You know what I mean. :)
Just prepping a Wiki page: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/URTC-8_Universal_RTC_for_Z80_computers
Good luck for the prototype boards! :)
Quote from: JonB on 14:50, 24 April 19
Just prepping a Wiki page: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/URTC-8_Universal_RTC_for_Z80_computers (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/URTC-8_Universal_RTC_for_Z80_computers)
I don't think this will work:
QuoteuRTCTX.FID performs the same function as uRTCTX.COM, except as a FID (field installable driver). Use this to set the PcW system clock when booting into LocoScript
I'm pretty sure that time stamps and the system clock only exist under CP/M - I've never seen anything to suggest LocoScript supports either.
That's great news, John - means I do not need to build a FID for it. :)
JonB
(a non user of Locoscript)
Jon,
Now that John Elliott mentions it, I had a thought. Some time back, there was a discussion here about problems with LocoScript disks being accessed within CP/M, and someone mentioned that CP/M disks ARE compatible with Loco as long as Initdir is NOT used. So it would probably NOT be a good idea to even try using time/date etc within LS??
Is essence, CP/M does not support time/date stamping, EXCEPT via certain extensions to CP/M. You need to use Initdir to prepare the disk directory area. You need to use special options of DIR.COM, and I think SET.COM. Locoscipt prob uses a somewhat cut down version of CP/M as far as files/dir facilities anyway, so it's never going to cope with the 'extras' required for date stamping.
Geoff
Hi Geoff
As you know, I am not a LocoScript user and so I assumed it could support timestamps. It's a pity that it doesn't. However, the device is generic and can be used on any computer with a socketed Z80 (CP/M or not), so I will proceed with it. CP/M 3 ("Plus") and MP/M do support file system timestamps, natively. The reason you need to use a utility to upgrade the file system is backwards compatibility.
All the things you might use a system clock for can be implemented in a CP/M Plus system without having a uRTC device fitted - but you'd have to enter time and date each time you cold boot the machine, which is what I want to get away from (also, if the date and time is set automatically, there is more incentive to use these features).
I think I will experiment a bit with it, see what happens in LocoScript.
Cheers
JonB
Quote from: GeoffB17 on 16:46, 25 April 19
Locoscipt prob uses a somewhat cut down version of CP/M as far as files/dir facilities anyway, so it's never going to cope with the 'extras' required for date stamping.
LocoScript doesn't use any CP/M code - it uses an independently-written module (which I've heard called PCWDOS) for file access. This module is also used by LocoLink, and a derivative (+3DOS) provides disk access on the Spectrum +3.
Quick update: Clock chips arrived today from China, five of them. Only took a month! Still waiting for the boards...
Never mind, gives you time to do other parts of the project. :) We did wait so long, now we can wait some months more too. ;) :)
Well, I could build a prototype and write the software but it's a lot of work (the prototyping I mean).
As usual, there are little stumbling blocks along the way. I ordered a bunch of 74LS688s or so I thought - when they turned up they were 74HC688 and not compatible. Other items still to arrive include the battery holders, but I can build one at least for software testing.
Another update: Boards still not here, so have declared them lost and the PCB fab house is redoing them (for free).
Chinese shipping... :picard:
One month later...
[attach=1]
Hooray!
Excellent! They look good! :)
Now, if only I could remember what collection of cables and adapters I used to connect the PCW to my PC. I need to copy a utility across to identify some spare ports for the uRTC to reside on. I've built the first one ready for some testing, though.
[attach=1]
Test fitting onto a uIDE-8 board..
[attach=1,msg176721]
Problem now is I cannot get my CPS8256 serial port to work. It's sending data to the PC but not receiving anything. Until I can work out what is wrong I'm stuck.
In the meantime I am developing the utilities for it on my Superbrain.
Quick update: It's bad news so far. I can't get the stupid thing to output any data other than 08h on any of its ports. Hmmm, it might be a bad design, or my assembler code. I am investigating!
Having a bit of a senior moment! Found a bug or five in my code - so now I am initialising, setting and reading the clock OK (although the read bit needs fixing properly). I can see the second / minute values incrementing!
OK, time for another update. uRTC is working on the Superbrain with uIDE. The utility program can set and read the time, but needs extra features added - such as parsing the date and time from the command line and setting the time from that, changing the clock mode (12/24hr), and transferring the clock time to the computer's system time (this feature is the main difference between Superbrain and PCW versions). I've had some problems with cabling, but the board seems to be working perfectly (and the backup battery circuit is good, too).
So, here we are:
[attach=1]
The uIDE-8 board is on the left and on the right hand a uRTC board with backup battery installed.
[attach=2]
Test run of the uRTC.COM utility. At the moment it just prints the time as found (hence the odd "YY MM DD" ordering for the date segment) but there is code to do all the other things I mentioned previously; it needs hooking up and modifying for the Epsom clock chip, but most of the donkey work is done.
Well, colour me surprised. A day of Z80 hackery and I have a fully working uRTC with comprehensive software utility on the Superbrain. Rather like the program I showed in a previous post, you can:
- Set the time, date and day of week (either all at the same time or individually).
- Ask the uRTC what date time it is - it reports in the format Day Date Month Year HH:MM:SS so for example, "Thu 15 Aug 2019 17:01:02".
- Transfer the date / time to the system clock (-t argument) after setting any date or time specified in the argument list (note, this function is system dependant).
- Ask it to perform the requested function quietly (-q argument) - particularly of use when using the -t argument in a profile.sub.
- Ask it to give usage instructions (-h argument).
The uRTC module connects to the uIDE Z80 bus cable by virtue of adding a second 40 way header to the ribbon. If you do not have uIDE you can connect uRTC to a computer via a Z80 shim and bus cable or (for the PCW) one of the expansion port adapters and bus cable. You don't need uIDE to use the uRTC.
Next steps.
- Get my PCW serial adapter working.
- Provide a PCW variant of the utility program uRTC.com.
- Work out a price for the uRTC unit.
- Update the CPCWiki uRTC page with details, downloads and prices
..at which point they can be ordered.
Sounds like great news!
I may finally get what I asked Father Christmas for last year!! Thanks to Santas lead Elf (Jon). ;D
Quote from: torrind on 19:02, 16 August 19
I may finally get what I asked Father Christmas for last year!! Thanks to Santas lead Elf (Jon). ;D
There's no "may" about it, old boy. It is a dead certainty. And you can take that to the bank!
So, in order to copy the uRTC date/time to the PCW we need to use BDOS function 104, but we first need to convert the date (in BCD) to a 16 bit integer day number with the epoch as 1st Jan 1978. Fortunately the PCW time is stored as BCD. Some fun programming awaits.
Quote from: JonB on 16:35, 19 August 19
......with the epoch as 1st Jan 1978.
Aaaaahhhhh Happy days.... as a 10 year old in flares, long hair and my trustee Steed "Grifter"
Darren
Quote from: JonB on 16:35, 19 August 19
So, in order to copy the uRTC date/time to the PCW we need to use BDOS function 104, but we first need to convert the date (in BCD) to a 16 bit integer day number with the epoch as 1st Jan 1978.
Is that a typo or am I missing something? Pretty sure my non-RTC equipped machines all revert to 01/01/1970 unix time. AFAIK only AmigaOS used 1978.
Edit: well a quick google proved me wrong and CP/M indeed used Jan 1978 - Sept 2067.
My bad.
@TynH (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3010) Yes it's a bit odd. But my info comes from the hallowed book "The Amstrad CP/M Plus" by David powys-Lybbe and Andrew RM Clarke. In it, they show how to convert the day number to a date (in assembler) but not the other way round. Looks like I'll have to do some real work this time! Unless @JohnElliott (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2402) comes to my rescue!
Quick demo of uRTC on the Superbrain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POBRlgAFxmo
Excellent work Jon.
Not too familiar with the Superbrain but What a wonderful old machine.... hmmmm maybe I need to investigate one for myself ! ;D
*edit: Hmmmm looking at the price of one on eBay, probably not!! :-X
Darren
Darren, they are proper CP/M boxes, now supported fully by uIDE and uRTC. A good working one should be about £250 (if you can find one - the eBay item is grossly overpriced). There are not enough (active) SB owners in the UK. Or anywhere to be fair. So let me know if you score one and we will nurse it back to health and get you in touch with the few other owners.
It's all a bit odd. The SB sold in huge numbers due to its robust all-in-one nature and quality keyboard. A genuine business workhorse. Yet so few remain, seemingly.
Thanks Jon.
There is one currently on ebay for £500 so I'll give that one a miss! I'll keep my eyes peeled for others! Thanks for the offer of support should it be needed!
Darren
So, back on topic (although I do love chatting about Superbrains), I spent the day working on the software and have "sort of" got the Superbrain uRTC.COM utility modified so as to build the CP/M Plus date time buffer and feed it to the BIOS to transfer the uRTC time to the PCW operating system. I say "sort of" because I cannot transfer the program to a PCW at the moment because my CPS8256 serial interface seems to have packed in. As a result, I am forced to debug it on the Superbrain. Not ideal.
But it is progress of sorts...
Right, got bored today and took out the 'scope to look at the CPS8256. Turned out the MC1489 receiver chip was toast and I luckily had a spare. Swapped them out and I have a working Kermit transfer again.
A quick rebuild of uRTC.COM (with the BDOS call to set the time uncommented out) and it appears to be working. You need the Y2K compliant versions of DATE.COM, SHOW.COM and DIR.COM as well as uRTC.COM to operate the full system, but I need to do some more testing before releasing it.
Please form an orderly queue... ;)
[Edit: Predictably enough, I have already found a bug!]
#1
me :)
(need to check I have the Y2K compliant versions of the .com commands tho')
Darren
Darren, you can download them from Gaby.de.
Bug is fixed but more testing to do. Watch this space.
#2 ;D
Quote from: torrind on 00:19, 25 December 18
Hi Folks,
Firstly, Merry Christmas - Hope you all get everything you want.... ;D
What I'd like Father Christmas to bring me is a RTC addon for my PCW8256 - I've found instructions to build one in German, but this isn't much good to me.
So I've been running with uRTC all week and time stamping like crazy!!!!
For those of you that remember, Last December 25th I posted a request for a pressie from Father Christmas and 10 months later I have it!!
Just want to put it out there of my next Christmas pressie! but being the sad git I am, I'll post it on Dec 25th 2019. ;D
I hope that doesn't worry anyone (Jon in particular ;))
Darren
uIDE, uRTC BBC
Unfortunately I can't get mine to do anything apart from locking up the machine, necessitating a power cycle.
(https://i.postimg.cc/B6zdPjf2/6276-C763-DB04-4-F46-AD9-D-510005-EF850-E.jpg)
Hmmm
Thats not good!
I had issues initially and these were down to a dodgy IDE cable.
If its locking up your machine then its obviously detecting something it doesn't like. Unfortunately I'll not be much help and would have to defer to Jon.
Darren
Certainly feels like a pretty solid crimp but how to tell? :(
Check these first
http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/nc100-nc200-pcw-pda600/announce-urtc-8-universal-rtc-for-the-pcw-and-other-z-80-computers/msg179222/#msg179222
@torrind (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2864) did you manage to find a ready-made cable with all three sockets?
"Ultimately it may be down to bad cable crimping by me, so I have ordered a ready-made cable from Ebay which should arrive in the next few days."
Could you tell me where you got yours from? I had to add a third connector myself.
Quote from: JonB on 08:48, 24 October 19
Check these first
http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/nc100-nc200-pcw-pda600/announce-urtc-8-universal-rtc-for-the-pcw-and-other-z-80-computers/msg179222/#msg179222 (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/nc100-nc200-pcw-pda600/announce-urtc-8-universal-rtc-for-the-pcw-and-other-z-80-computers/msg179222/#msg179222)
Before removing the battery:
https://i.postimg.cc/4Jqcq1B9/4456-A847-1-C76-4-EB1-8913-33-FFAB8-B460-E.jpg?dl=1 (https://i.postimg.cc/4Jqcq1B9/4456-A847-1-C76-4-EB1-8913-33-FFAB8-B460-E.jpg?dl=1)
https://i.postimg.cc/MzrffDkF/14-EA4545-9611-498-B-8-AFF-3561-F74-E7436.jpg?dl=1 (https://i.postimg.cc/MzrffDkF/14-EA4545-9611-498-B-8-AFF-3561-F74-E7436.jpg?dl=1)
After battery removal. Still hangs:
https://i.postimg.cc/VYrrqCmL/61-B9-E2-B1-D620-4-F7-A-8918-444-FF5615611.jpg?dl=1 (https://i.postimg.cc/VYrrqCmL/61-B9-E2-B1-D620-4-F7-A-8918-444-FF5615611.jpg?dl=1)
edit posting pictures not working?
This is exactly what was happening to me.
I fixed it by buying a ready-made cable from eBay which fixed the issue.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/40-Way-IDE-UDMA-ATA-HDD-CD-DVD-Ribbon-Cable-Data-Splitter-MBA017B/390492423530?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/40-Way-IDE-UDMA-ATA-HDD-CD-DVD-Ribbon-Cable-Data-Splitter-MBA017B/390492423530?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649)
Darren
Thanks apparently I wasn't searching for the correct thing, lots of offers now.
Ordered one but it's probably going to take a while, won't be able to test until next month or so.
Hi TynH
uRTC.COM shouldn't hang. It has a retry counter that will give an error message if it is unable to get a response from the clock chip. Could you check you are using the later version 0.2 , please?
Actually that's a really good point.
When I started to use 0.2 version, I had no hangs, just the "uRTC could not be found error"
I originally tried v 0.2 but thought maybe 0.1 was the correct one so gave that a try today. I'll retry later but just to be safe download v 0.2 again so I don't mix the two up.
Quote from: JonB on 11:08, 24 October 19
Hi TynH
uRTC.COM shouldn't hang. It has a retry counter that will give an error message if it is unable to get a response from the clock chip. Could you check you are using the later version 0.2 , please?
I just tried running uRTC with the RTC board physically disconnected/unplugged which also froze my PCW.
This would be v. 0.2.
.(https://i.postimg.cc/7Z1p83R4/2-DF31-C96-70-A5-48-C9-901-E-720-FC1-FB12-AA.jpg)
Since uRTC failed even without the board connected I thought it might be worth investigating the file. Apparently downloading it via Safari on iOS and copying it to my desktop via cloud broke something.
Happy to report I've been able to solve the problem and now working fine!
Ha! As we can see the PcW is perfect, the PC screwed it up! :laugh: :)
Boom!!
Excellent work sir!
That's good news!
Your H: drive is looking a bit rum. Might be a good idea to do "ERA ." That is, nothing dot nothing. It should delete all those dodgy directory entries. But back the files up first...
Quote from: JonB on 20:11, 24 October 19
That's good news!
Your H: drive is looking a bit rum. Might be a good idea to do "ERA ." That is, nothing dot nothing. It should delete all those dodgy directory entries. But back the files up first...
I was going to ask about that anyway. Unfortunately typing "era . " results in .?
"era : " gives ERASE COM required
"era *.*" works but obviously not a great option if you want to keep some of the actual files
okay, solved by copying everything to an empty drive, deleting source drive and copying my files back. Time consuming but not too difficult (yes I did use wildcards).
So, yes, it's a bug with the uIDE formatting program, which I think is now fixed. GeoffB17 wrote a post about how to correct the format without file loss (your method is one of them). I have a feeling that the format bug was present on the PCW uIDE master image, so if you're using this without reformatting you would see it. I also think I fixed that as well, but it was a while ago..
Could you check your other drives for the bug, and if so clean them up please?
Right..
If you're interested, this is the previous thread with the instructions:
http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/nc100-nc200-pcw-pda600/announce-pcw-xdriver-suite-v1-11-for-uide-users/
There's some other info about the problem in ther immed previous thread.
Any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Geoff
Just for information, I can now report that I've got my RTC module sorted. I received it from JonB a little while ago, but I've now got some 40 pin connectors, and got one attached to my uIDE cable (the first attempt I managed to break the connector, second try seems fine) and got the RTC attached now. Altered my usial PROFILE.SUB and checked that things were working fine. The clock was already set, but about a half hour out! Put the clock right, also tried a reboot to ensure things start up OK.
All seems fine.
Big thanks, JonB!!
Geoff
Um, 1/2 hour out. That.l be the dodgy testing I did!
By the way, I put your initdir.com on my download link. Can't imagine why it broke, I use Kermit for file transfer and it's normally reliable.
Cheers
JonB