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X-MEM, a new memory expansion for all CPC.

Started by TotO, 20:41, 26 April 14

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SyX

Yes, you need these holidays... for coming with new AMAZING ideas :)

Ast

Maybe a graphics card for our cpc  ;D  Who knows ?
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All friends are welcome !

TotO

Bufff, I have counted wrong and I'm not on the top page.  :-\
Thank you and we will see next!
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

joska

So what am I doing wrong? Can't seem to flash any ROMs. I've tried with "|flash" from BASIC and the flasher utility. I've downloaded SymbOS and Protext, and whenever I try to flash one of them the screen is instantly garbled and the ROM title are seemingly random characters.

I tried to save one of the ROMs and write it back, that worked perfectly. So I'm doing something wrong with the downloaded ROMs. Should they be converted or altered in any way? They are all 16384 bytes.

To get these on a CPC floppy I saved them to a 720Kb MS-DOS disk using mtools on my Linux PC. I only have a USB floppy so I can't write AMSDOS floppies directly. Then I used SymCommander under SymbOS 2.1 to copy them to an AMSDOS floppy, rebooted to BASIC and attempted to flash them.

Joseman

hi

take care that the files doesn't have the AMSDOS header... they have to be pure bin files.

i remember extracting the amsdos header with  an hex editor.

i think that this can be the problem...

Gryzor


joska

Quote from: Joseman on 00:26, 06 July 14take care that the files doesn't have the AMSDOS header... they have to be pure bin files.


Yes, that could be it. I tried to LOAD them into RAM in order to have a quick peek at the header, and LOAD filename,<addr> failed with a syntax error while a simple LOAD filename worked fine. The ROM I saved could be loaded at a specific address, so there's definitely a difference.

TotO

Hello !

I have run the INSTALL process for installing the FW3.15, FW3.15 EXP and BASIC to your board before shipping it.
So, there is no doubt about the fact that it work properly. :)

From the X-MEM floppy, run MONITOR and let me know what you see for the ROM that you have tried to burn.
(you will see if the header is OK or wrong)

Else, you can try to run the INSTALL process and ask for installing the optional CP/M ROM.
That will add the system to ROM8 and ROM9. Then, you can start CP/M using |EMS.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

joska

#233
I have no doubt that it works :) It's my lack of understanding of the CPC that's the problem. I have almost for sure messed up the ROM files while transfering them to an AMSDOS disk.

Using flasher.bas does not work with these files. It crash with a syntax error at line 1100 (load file$,&4000).

TotO

haha... I suggest that your filename is not standard. (to produce a syntax error)

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

joska

LOAD "PROTEXT.ROM",&4000 crash.
LOAD "PROTEXT.ROM" works.

TotO

funny.  ;D

Is the tool that you have used to put the ROM to the floppy ask for the ROM address when it add the header?
If yes, is this value equal to &4000 by default? I remember than CPC DiskXP put &6000 by deflault, so programs only load half of the ROM and override the program into the memory... Make it crashing.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

joska

I used SymCommander to copy the files from an MS-DOS formatted 720kb floppy to an AMSDOS floppy. I don't know if SymCommander altered the files in any way.
Today I used DskManager on my office PC to write the ROM files to a newly created dsk image. I then mounted this image in WinAPE and I could load them to a specific address. I also tested the ROMs.
I will write the image to a floppy tonight and test the ROMs. I'm quite sure it will work.

joska

Quote from: joska on 17:23, 07 July 14I will write the image to a floppy tonight and test the ROMs. I'm quite sure it will work.

It did. So somewhere between writing the ROMs to a MS-DOS disk on my laptop and writing them to an AMSDOS disk on my CPC the files got corrupted.

Prodatron

Quote from: joska on 17:23, 07 July 14
I used SymCommander to copy the files from an MS-DOS formatted 720kb floppy to an AMSDOS floppy. I don't know if SymCommander altered the files in any way.
SymCommander doesn't alter anything when copying files. The only thing which may be altered is the size of a file, as in AMSDOS you always have to round the size up to 128byte aligned values.

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

Tai

ohh! I just received my X-MEM board!!

What an amazing piece of wonderfulness :)

Thanks to all people involved in this project  8)

pelrun

Me too! YAAAAAAAAAA...


Couldn't help myself, had to open the package at work and look at all the shiny.


...AAAAAAY!

CPC_Fan

TotO - Is it still possible to order an X-Mem board at the moment? I only ask as when I go to the website, it says that the store is closed.

TFM

Let em have their summer vacation (see TotO's post before). They will open again soon. :-)

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

TotO

If I don't close it, peoples will not understand that they will have to wait 1 month more than others.
And I prefer to don't back from holidays with tons of pre-orders and money on my Paypal account.

You will be able to pre-order again in August, and get boards in the same delay. :)
Thank you for understanding,

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

CPC_Fan

Thanks for the information TotO. Sorry I must have somehow missed your post about taking a holiday. I just hope that when the store is open again, that I have still got the money to purchase one from you....

TotO

#246
If you really want it, there is no doubt.  ;)

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

pelrun

Well, I got my X-MEM working eventually, it was a bit of a trial because my expansion port has never had anything plugged into it ever, so cleaning it successfully was a pain. Ended up scratching at the pads with a screwdriver to get them to shine up (my fibreglass cleaning pen's gone missing again.)


Any way to get the mode-2 boot screen using a different colour scheme though? Not being gold on blue just looks *wrong*.

TotO

Quote from: pelrun on 05:28, 11 July 14cleaning it successfully was a pain. Ended up scratching at the pads with a screwdriver to get them to shine up (my fibreglass cleaning pen's gone missing again.)
Using 70° alcohol on cotton swab is enough to clean properly a 30 years old connector. Then, plug/unplug some times the edge connector.
A screwdriver may damage it...

Quote from: pelrun on 05:28, 11 July 14Any way to get the mode-2 boot screen using a different colour scheme though? Not being gold on blue just looks *wrong*.
The FW 3.1 boot on MODE 2 using readable CP/M styled bright Platinum on blue (yes...white)
Yellow is a pain to read in mode 2, but you can use the middle switch to back to the original FW and see if your colors are ok.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

pelrun

Fine, I'll figure out the palette change myself, it won't be hard to find.


A bigger issue is my Mini-booster stops being visible if the X-MEM is also plugged in - inp(&ff00) gives 170 if the minibooster is alone, and 255 if the X-MEM is present, and the Arkos RSXes in rom don't detect it. Are they incompatible or is there something going wrong with my setup?


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