DigicoolThings Forum

I tried compiling with as09 and I get exactly the same s19 outputs - so I'm not sure that the file itself is the problem.

epaell wrote: ↑Mon Mar 18, 2024 6:41 am Good news, finally received my reset circuit (the right one this time). I just tried the 6809 board with the I/O board and I get the ASSIST09 prompt and serial seems to work at 38400 baud - woohoo! I also removed my Motorola 6809 and inserted the Hitachi 63C09 that I ordered (with the 74HCT73 clock circuitry added, jumper removed, and 12 MHz crystal module instead of the 4 MHz one) and that too seems to work! This is now, by far, the fastest 6809 I have ever had!

-_- g'damn it, I have to get my rear in gear and start on mine now...

epaell wrote: ↑Mon Mar 18, 2024 6:41 am Good news, finally received my reset circuit (the right one this time). I just tried the 6809 board with the I/O board and I get the ASSIST09 prompt and serial seems to work at 38400 baud - woohoo! I also removed my Motorola 6809 and inserted the Hitachi 63C09 that I ordered (with the 74HCT73 clock circuitry added, jumper removed, and 12 MHz crystal module instead of the 4 MHz one) and that too seems to work! This is now, by far, the fastest 6809 I have ever had!

Awesome! That’s great to hear. Note, in my testing video I was successfully running with a 16MHz crystal oscillator, successfully running even a MC68B09 at double its rated speed (4MHz).

So you might be able to achieve even more speed?

epaell wrote: ↑Mon Mar 18, 2024 6:41 amI was hoping to test the sound and graphics card but ran into a problem where I couldn't load the S19-format data. ASSIST09 appears to start reading but then decides it doesn't like it. I seem to recall reading on Jeff Tranter's Blog that he ran into a checksum issue when working with asm6809 (he mentions that he fixed the code but not how). I'm curious - did you happen to run into this issue as well? I must admit that I'm using a Mac (via minicom) to do this so it is possible that there is something else going on. I just thought I'd check whether you had to do anything special or whether it just worked out of the box (as I probably won't have time to do more debugging until the weekend ).

The only issue I experienced is the need to add end of line delays in the terminal software (I’m using Tera Term on Windows).
This would be due to the processing time required for finalising the processing of each line.

Without the delay the file S19 file transfer would fail, depending on the serial / processor speed.

I have not encountered any checksum issues otherwise, with asm6809 S19 output.

Ah, that's good to know - I might try paste line by line just to test that and/or check if the software I'm using has the end of line delays.
I'd like to get that going before I try anything more extreme with speed (plus I'd need a higher speed crystal - which I don't have at the moment).

So that was the problem - I found out how to add delays in minicom and that started to work.

Unfortunately, it appears my video/audio isn't doing anything. I'm wondering if my SCART to HDMI converter is unable to deal with the signal for some reason? I had the CRO out for a little while and it did look like there were video-like signals on the SCART side - unfortunately I forgot to check the audio while I had it out. I might try write a couple of really simple test programs that make use of ASSIST09 for I/O just to see if I can read/write the VRAM and maybe just generate a simple tone with the audio chip (I didn't check this device so I'm not sure if it is a operational one) ... but that may need to wait for the weekend (unless I just can't keep away from this thing).

epaell wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 12:24 pm So that was the problem - I found out how to add delays in minicom and that started to work.

Great to hear!

epaell wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 12:24 pm Unfortunately, it appears my video/audio isn't doing anything. I'm wondering if my SCART to HDMI converter is unable to deal with the signal for some reason?

Just wondering which SCART to HDMI convertor you are using? The first thing that came to mind is that many of the cheaper ones are simply CVBS input only, on the SCART
i.e. Composite Video only input from the SCART connector, not RGBS as being output by the TMS9929/28 + TMS-RGB module.

I'm using a homemade GBS-Control based convertor (based on the reasonably priced GBS8200 RGBS to VGA convertor board).

I am just using the VGA input of my monitor, but there are also pre-built GBS-Control units available with HDMI output (or you can add a VGA - HDMI convertor module).

One thing for sure, the GBS-Control solution does do a very clean job of the conversion, so you're not really loosing any of the awesome TMS-RGB output picture quality.

epaell wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 12:24 pm ... but that may need to wait for the weekend (unless I just can't keep away from this thing).

Yeah, I know, it's kind of addictive.

That may well be the case, I was unfamiliar with SCART and ordered one of the really cheap converters and now that I look at the limited specs it provides it does seem like RGB is not actually mentioned (https://www.amazon.com.au/SCART-HDMI-Co ... hdGY&psc=1).

When I get a bit of a chance I'll do a bit more checking and perhaps order one of the GBS-Control units you mentioned as a failsafe.

epaell wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 8:13 pm That may well be the case, I was unfamiliar with SCART and ordered one of the really cheap converters and now that I look at the limited specs it provides it does seem like RGB is not actually mentioned...

Yes, I see in the description: "1. Convert composite scart analog signal to hdmi digital signal."
So, it will be Composite Video input only.

SCART can carry Composite, RGBS, (and even S-Video), but most of the cheaper adapters are Composite Video only.
Effectively just using a SCART input connector, instead of 3x RCA (Video + L/R Audio).

This will be the issue!

epaell wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 8:13 pm When I get a bit of a chance I'll do a bit more checking and perhaps order one of the GBS-Control units you mentioned as a failsafe.

Failing a SCART input TV or Monitor, I do highly recommend going the GBS-Control route.

You can save money (over a pre-made unit), by making your own, with a GBS8200 and an ESP8266 module. You can find more about this here: https://github.com/ramapcsx2/gbs-control

This will enable you to get the full component video benefit of the TMS-RGB module's pristine RGBS output from the VDP, with a VGA input display (or HDMI with a VGA -> HDMI convertor).

Hope this is of some help.

That's great - thanks again for your help.

Couldn't help myself - I wrote a really basic VRAM memory checker (working through filling with zeros, filling with FFs, filling with AAs, filling with 55s and then finally filling with incrementing values and checking what is in memory after each step). It's not the most rigorous checker out there but simple to write in a few minutes assuming that there isn't something subtle going on. Anyway, memory checks out OK - which means communication to the video hardware is also fine. So I suspect my main problem is the convertor. I just need to specifically check the sound side of things to work out if that is working.