Time to test it. 🙂

PCB porn…

I basically told my program that there was a ROM already loaded (but it’s all $FF) and ran the diff (cool way to see big blocks of $FF data in ROM’s).

The output is formatted as follows: BANK, BLOCK_NUMBER,  ADDRESS, NUMBLOCKS, BANKSWITCH_FLAG (SWITCH means do the bank switch).

Test output from the control software on OSX…

Port opened.
Loaded /Users/CPUWIZ/Desktop/3khotspotroms/jinks-3k.bin (131072 bytes).
Loaded /Users/CPUWIZ/Desktop/3khotspotroms/jinks-3k.bin (131072 bytes).
[BANK 0] Block:   0 @ $8000 (57)    SWITCH
[BANK 1] Block:  64 @ $8000 (64)    SWITCH
[BANK 2] Block: 128 @ $8000 (54)    SWITCH
[BANK 2] Block: 191 @ $BF00 (1)
[BANK 3] Block: 192 @ $8000 (7)    SWITCH
[BANK 3] Block: 208 @ $9000 (8)
[BANK 3] Block: 224 @ $A000 (8)
[BANK 3] Block: 240 @ $B000 (8)
[BANK 3] Block: 255 @ $BF00 (1)
[BANK 4] Block: 256 @ $8000 (7)    SWITCH
[BANK 4] Block: 272 @ $9000 (8)
[BANK 4] Block: 288 @ $A000 (8)
[BANK 4] Block: 304 @ $B000 (8)
[BANK 4] Block: 319 @ $BF00 (1)
[BANK 5] Block: 320 @ $8000 (28)    SWITCH
[BANK 5] Block: 352 @ $A000 (25)
[BANK 5] Block: 383 @ $BF00 (1)
[BANK 6] Block: 384 @ $8000 (28)    SWITCH
[BANK 6] Block: 416 @ $A000 (25)
[BANK 6] Block: 447 @ $BF00 (1)
[BANK 7] Block: 448 @ $C000 (63)    SWITCH

🙂

I managed to power the MCP IO kit from the 7800 and replaced the connection with a BT connection.  It works, but even at 115200, it is super slow.  I am not sure if this is a buffering issue or what, but instead of 8 seconds for a 32K file, it takes 2 minutes.  However, it does work!

The SuperCart Rev.B board (16K to 256K with SARA support), has been finalized and submitted to the PCB manufacturer (you can thank ‘theloon’ from AtariAge for that).  Super-banking (0880) is confirmed working without SARA, but PLD code for traditional F8/F6/etc. access has also been done and extended to 256K.  Here is a quick PCB capture of the design that is now being built (black PCB’s, vs. Rev.A purple). 🙂

I have never programmed in this environment, so please be patient.  I got the basic framework running, driver and the MCPDevControl.app is coming along.  Comms are working, tested on a PC as the receiver.

Now, the tool actually tries to automatically connect to the port, if it finds the right port to use.  Could lead to false positives, if a ton of serial adapters of the same make are connected, but I don’t care.  It’s more convenient.

Not much, but it is going to happen. 🙂