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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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MacDeath

 TotO, why don"t you simply outsource to china...
;D

TotO

Quote from: pelrun on 12:24, 11 July 14A 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
It look to be not enough power for the two boards...
Do you use a 3"1/2 drive connected to the CPC +5V  ;D  (if yes, it's bad as you have to use 12V to 5V regulator instead :p)
A way to fix that is to plug an external 5V PSU to the MotherX4 for powering the external expansions.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

Grimmsqueaker

This looks cool, would need to also get the 4 slot expansion board so I could also plug in the DD1 Clone to allow access to a HxC which will give me access to the 128k only games and the benefits of a single load on games like Chase HQ.

Just need to get some cash together now and start getting a few bits :)

pelrun

Quote from: TotO on 14:40, 11 July 14
It look to be not enough power for the two boards...
Do you use a 3"1/2 drive connected to the CPC +5V  ;D  (if yes, it's bad as you have to use 12V to 5V regulator instead :p)
A way to fix that is to plug an external 5V PSU to the MotherX4 for powering the external expansions.


No external drive, but I am using a separate 12v/5v psu (my CTM640 is in storage) which might not be sourcing enough current. Easily enough fixed.

SyX

Quote from: pelrun on 12:24, 11 July 14
Fine, I'll figure out the palette change myself, it won't be hard to find.
The palette is in the same place than the 6128 rom (offset $1052) ;)

pelrun

Ok, a second PSU has allowed the mini-booster and x-mem to work together. I'm still getting crashes every few transfers, though, which lets me do file transfers but blocks any attempt to transfer a full disk image... I guess I'll keep using my dsk2cdt2disc a bit longer until I get it sorted :D


One more issue I've got - |FLASH,"romimg.rom",30 is actually writing to slot 2.  ???

Ast

Hi, i have a big problem on my xmem card because when i plug it on my cpc plus and run the exram program i only see :


Vga ram : 64k
Cpu ram : 64k


Some precision, my xmem car is plugged in a mother x4.


Thanks for all reply.
_____________________

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TotO

#257
@Ast : I have answered to you email.
I suggest you to check your own ribbon cable, as the boards work fine with mine before sending them.

@pelrun : Really strange.
Is the install and flasher tools allow to flash the good ROM slots?

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

pelrun

Flasher worked. I'll try the other tools and see if they're any different.

TFM

Quote from: pelrun on 15:04, 11 July 14

No external drive, but I am using a separate 12v/5v psu (my CTM640 is in storage) which might not be sourcing enough current. Easily enough fixed.


I'm sure that this is the problem. Because my GT65 does is all fine here (also 3.5" floppy there).

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

pelrun

More likely to be that my edge connector is still heavily oxidised and needs much more rigorous cleaning - I used a good 5v supply to no benefit.

Nilquader

Just to let you know: ROMAN 2.0 works on the X-MEM, it just doesn't run on FW 3.14, so switch back to the standard firmware if you want to use ROMAN to write your ROMs.
--
Nilquader of SPRING
http://www.nilquader.net/

SyX

Quote from: pelrun on 17:10, 14 July 14
More likely to be that my edge connector is still heavily oxidised and needs much more rigorous cleaning - I used a good 5v supply to no benefit.
I had yesterday the same problem and it was that, i used a cotton wet with the clean electronics and circuits  spray and everything return to working perfectly :)

Nilquader

Is there an unused Pin (and a few free cells) on the X-MEM CPLD left? If yes, and if TotO wants to help, it would be easy to upgrade the X-MEM to 64 ROM slots by soldering a second flash chip piggybacked on top of the other and connect the !CE-Pin to the free CPLD pin. Need s some CPLD reprogramming, though. Would be great for the game ROM collectors...
--
Nilquader of SPRING
http://www.nilquader.net/

Gryzor

Quote from: Nilquader on 20:50, 14 July 14
Is there an unused Pin (and a few free cells) on the X-MEM CPLD left? If yes, and if TotO wants to help, it would be easy to upgrade the X-MEM to 64 ROM slots by soldering a second flash chip piggybacked on top of the other and connect the !CE-Pin to the free CPLD pin. Need s some CPLD reprogramming, though. Would be great for the game ROM collectors...


Indeed that would be fantastic...

TotO

Quote from: GryzorIndeed that would be fantastic...
You can Imagine that I have needed to remove extra settings features because no pin left and not the invert. :)
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

Gryzor


Bryce

Quote from: Nilquader on 20:50, 14 July 14
Is there an unused Pin (and a few free cells) on the X-MEM CPLD left? If yes, and if TotO wants to help, it would be easy to upgrade the X-MEM to 64 ROM slots by soldering a second flash chip piggybacked on top of the other and connect the !CE-Pin to the free CPLD pin. Need s some CPLD reprogramming, though. Would be great for the game ROM collectors...

There's already been problems reported when all 32 ROMs have been populated, so I doubt 64 ROMs would ever be usable without doing lots of parking/unparking of ROMs.

Bryce.

CraigsBar

Quote from: Bryce on 11:38, 15 July 14
There's already been problems reported when all 32 ROMs have been populated, so I doubt 64 ROMs would ever be usable without doing lots of parking/unparking of ROMs.

Bryce.
I've not yet had any problems with all 32 slots populated on my symbifaces. Games, serious stuff and cp/m or a mix of all 3. What issues have been seen?
IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

Bryce

I haven't encountered any problems myself (because I rarely fill my MegaFlash), but there were users posting that some games won't run when the ROMBoard has too many ROMs installed. I believe MrLou was one user experiencing these problems.

Bryce.

SyX

The main problem is the firmware only reserve 32 bytes for storing the pointer to the reserved ram buffer for 16 roms (2 bytes), with programs that don't use/reserve a ram buffer (those game roms) is not too much problematic at first, because they ignore this buffer pointer parameter when is sent to them, but those pointers are saved in ram even if the rom doesn't use it.

But in the moment you have installed more than 16 roms, the ram after those 32 bytes is overwritten and you start to corrupt the first firmware jumps.

My solution was changing the place in ram where those variables are storaged to one with enough space to storage 32 pointers (64 bytes).

But the best solution for game roms, it's making a rom launcher and mark the games roms as not need to be initialized by the firmware.


arnoldemu

My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

Gryzor

Well, if 64 ROMs are a problem I guess you could well do with a switchable 2x32 board...

Nilquader

Quote from: SyX on 13:18, 15 July 14
But the best solution for game roms, it's making a rom launcher and mark the games roms as not need to be initialized by the firmware.

I did that with my MegaFlash Quickstart ROM. Games in Slots 16-31 are not being initialized when using a standard firmware, but found by the ROM launcher. So there is no need to change the initialization routine or header of game roms. (Download here: Converting a game to ROM - and LOTS of ROM files inside! )
--
Nilquader of SPRING
http://www.nilquader.net/

TFM

Not every ROM must be an Expansion ROM!!! When using extension ROM no RAM will be wasted. For example you need only one ROM initialized for FutureOS, the other three ROM can or can not be initialized. I guess it's similar with symbos. And for games, if a game uses 2 or 3 ROMs, then just initialize the first one, a smart launcher system will find the other parts too. Just my 7 Pfennige.

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

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