SymbOS on NC200?

[Prodatron]

Here is a SymbOS NC release as an SRAM card image.

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Copy the file "nc200.card" to your nc100em emulator directory. Use the original Amstrad ROM for this machine and start nc100em in NC200 mode (option -2 ). Now in the original UI just press Function+X, and SymbOS will boot from the sram card.
It will use the first internal 64K of the NC200 and 448K from the card for having a total of 512K ram.
The second 512K of the card is used as ram disc and is pre-installed with several apps and data. Thanks to the new ZX0 cruncher support it was possible to put a lot of stuff within 512K.
When you quit SymbOS with any of its shutdown options, the emulator will write back all changes to the nc200.card file.
The first 48K of the sram contain the boot code and compressed SymbOS core binaries.

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Important keys for using SymbOS on the NC:
- press alt+arrow keys to control the mouse, alt+space/menu for left/right mouse button (alt=symbol)
- press function for scrolling the screen
- press shift+function to turn joystick emulation on and off. In joystick emulation, arrow keys and space/menu will be directly used for controlling the mouse pointer, which is more comfortable.
- the screen will scroll automatically if the mouse pointer reaches an invisible area.

Next plan is to write a tool, which is able to copy such a dump from floppy disc to the SRAM card on a real machine.

[robcfg]

Amazing! 

[pollito]

I've finally managed to get myself a 1MB PCMCIA card for my NC 200. Could anyone explain to me how I can transfer the image over a null modem cable? I don't currently have a PCMCIA card reader.

[Gryzor]

This... is surreal. Must find my NC200 asap

[Prodatron]

Could anyone explain to me how I can transfer the image over a null modem cable? I don't currently have a PCMCIA card reader.

That is what I would like to know as well The NC200 port is more or less finished, but something for booting it on a real machine is still missing.
My old real NC200 was out-of-order, I got another one two weeks ago, but it seems, that the disc drive has some problems.

[pollito]

Could anyone explain to me how I can transfer the image over a null modem cable? I don't currently have a PCMCIA card reader.

That is what I would like to know as well The NC200 port is more or less finished, but something for booting it on a real machine is still missing.
My old real NC200 was out-of-order, I got another one two weeks ago, but it seems, that the disc drive has some problems.

I'm ordering a PCMCIA reader now but it's PCI-e so not sure how much luck I will have with my PCs. Should I be able to just dd the nc200.card image to the card and it will boot?

I also have floppy drive issues, and am sure it's the rubber band. I'm plucking up enough courage to open the NC 200, but I'd really like to know the capacitor values first because I know at least one of them is dodgy. I want to fix everything in one hit.

[Prodatron]

Should I be able to just dd the nc200.card image to the card and it will boot?

It's a battery-backed 1MB SRAM PCMCIA card?

Then yes: Just dump the nc200.card image 1:1 to this card. I wonder if this will work and how exactly you will do it. Would be cool if you can share your experiences here.
And good luck with your drive and capacitors!

[pollito]

Should I be able to just dd the nc200.card image to the card and it will boot?

It's a battery-backed 1MB SRAM PCMCIA card?

Then yes: Just dump the nc200.card image 1:1 to this card. I wonder if this will work and how exactly you will do it. Would be cool if you can share your experiences here.
And good luck with your drive and capacitors!

Yes it's battery-backed. I ordered two from a guy in the US who refused to send it outside the country, so I got him to send them to a colleague who lives in a different state. Then his friend from the UK brought them back next time she visited, and posted them to my parents. Finally, I picked them up last time I visited my parents in the UK, and brought them back to Romania. 

I was hoping there would be a BBC BASIC program to receive the file over XMODEM/YMODEM and write it directly to the card, but I can't find anything to do that. It might take a couple of weeks before I receive the card reader as the company has to order it, but yes of course I will share my experiences here!

Thanks, I think I will post a new thread asking about the capacitor values.

[robcfg]

Doesn't the NCs have a file transfer function?

Edit: Indeed! https://www.ncus.org.uk/m200_04.htm Function+S Should bring up the serial terminal.

[genesis8]

I have a dumb idea, someone making a board with a Raspberry Pico or ESP32 with a screen attached or just a VGA connector (connected to printer or serial port of the Notepad N200), with a graphical API to send only a few bytes to change the external screen content.

Which makes me think, who was working on an graphical API for an external Amstrad CPC screen ? I think that I didnt write about it, and my memory is bad...

[Prodatron]

At the end, my goal is always to have SymbOS running on a naked unexpanded original machine (these with 128K + floppy), doesn't matter which platform.
That was always possible for all existing ports, and I hope I can achive this as well for at least the NC200 (+NC100 with preinstalled memory card).

Thansk Robcfg for the hint!

[pollito]

Doesn't the NCs have a file transfer function?

Edit: Indeed! https://www.ncus.org.uk/m200_04.htm Function+S Should bring up the serial terminal.

Files can be transferred easily enough, but then you would just get the image file rather than the contents of the image being written to the PCMCIA card. I wonder if someone with the right coding skills could write a program to receive the data from the serial port using XMODEM/YMODEM, and write it directly to the card?

[pollito]

Quick update - my PCMCIA reader card arrived but it wasn't PCI-e at all, it was PCI, and I didn't have any PCs that could take full height PCI cards. Eventually one of my friends was throwing out an old PC that had PCI slots, so I rebuilt it, and installed FreeBSD (my weapon of choice).

Unfortunately, FreeBSD dropped PCMCIA support after version 12 (current version is 14). I then installed NetBSD in its place. It reads a CF card in a PCMCIA adaptor fine, but whenever I insert either of my Apple Newton PCMCIA cards (with the batteries) I get pcmcia0: card appears to have a bogus CIS and there is no device to mount.

I installed a second hard drive in the machine and, after a lot of battling, managed to install Windows XP. Again, the CF card in the PCMCIA adaptor works fine, but both of my PCMCIA cards show up in Device Manager as PCMCIA UNKNOWN_MANUFACTURER. I've tried Snappy Driver Installer but it can't find a driver.

So I'm a bit stuck now. I never thought it would be so difficult to write an image to a card! Any ideas?

[pelrun]

This document seems to provide the required next steps for your XP install: https://dl.cdn-anritsu.com/en-au/test-measurement/files/Manuals/Operation-Manual/SRAM_Card_Driver_Install_Manual_for_Windows_XP_SP1_E.pdf

[pelrun]

Additionally (since I finally just found it) here's a copy of Elan Memory Card Explorer for XP, that should be able to read/write image files to the device once it's properly installed:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_2PawvQI5HMhtq2bd00Od0NYb6hWsGO4/view?usp=sharing

(it's a bit too big to attach, so it's on my google drive for the moment)

[pollito]

@pelrun many thanks for this. I've got next week off work so I'll give it a go and report back.

I think the issue was that I was thinking of the PCMCIA card for the PC like an SD or CF card reader when it is actually an interface.  

[pollito]

@pelrun thanks again. After flashing the BIOS on the PC due to a weird "memory window" error, I was finally able to write the SymbOS image!

@Prodatron unfortunately I have no idea how to run SymbOS from the card. [Function] + [R] runs code from floppy but doesn't seem to do the same for the PCMCIA card.

EDIT: Sorry, I see it's [Function] + [X]. Okay this showed a SymbOS boot screen but then the screen just got corrupted. I'll try again with the other PCMCIA card.

[Prodatron]

Hi Pollito, so you are already able to fill the SRAM PCMCIA card with an image?
And if you even see a boot screen: that is a first great step, wow
Please let me contact you soon, currently I am a little bit occupied, but this is really some good progress.
PS: What is the size of the SRAM?

[pollito]

Hi Pollito, so you are already able to fill the SRAM PCMCIA card with an image?
And if you even see a boot screen: that is a first great step, wow
Please let me contact you soon, currently I am a little bit occupied, but this is really some good progress.
PS: What is the size of the SRAM?

The memory card type I'm using is a 1MB Apple Newton Storage Card (that uses a coin battery). I have two of these. I used Memory Card Explorer to erase one of the cards, and then to write your image to it.

The write completes, but MCE gives "Last Op: Checking written data.. 06% Error Card & file different". Inserting the card into the NC 200 and pressing [Function] + [X] shows the SymbOS boot screen, but after the loading bar reaches the end, the computer freezes.

I tried again with the other memory card. Again it shows the "Error Card & file different" in MCE, but with this card [Function] +
[X] doesn't do anything on the NC 200.

Feel free to contact me whenever you have time. I have packed away the XP machine for the time being as my parents-in-law are coming to stay over Christmas while we are in the UK.