Cartridge keys and emulation

[troed]

Over the next week I have a bunch of cartridges on their way in. Started today, with Cubase Audio and C-Lab Creator.

cubase_audio_top.jpg

cubase_audio_bottom.jpg

The C-Lab cartridge seems to be a single piece of plastic, filled with black epoxy resin, exposing only the cartridge connector. I only know of fully destructive ways of getting around that, so maybe that's where I'll go.

/Troed

[Tomswork]

Very interesting picture the schmatic will tell an interesting story

Tom

[troed]

Alright, chemical warfare it is.

C-Lab Creator key:

c_lab_creator.jpg

/Troed

[Tomswork]

EP600.pdf

Yes about the only way and hot air helps
I have seen this design before rtc ram chip on top a simple pal or rom

It's a older epld

Tom

[troed]

... and, done.

c_lab_creator_exposed_top.JPG

c_lab_creator_exposed_bottom.JPG.JPG

/Troed

[Tomswork]

Good job on the clean up.

Tom

[troed]

Thanks.

So the C-Lab epld seems to be hooked up pretty much like the Steinberg 'A' key. A1-A8 and D9-D15, UDS ... but, instead of connecing UDS directly to CLK it routes to an input pin and then has its own connection from an output to CLK2. This is a method I've used myself in a GAL project.

I have not verified if this epld has any hidden registers yet. It does not have a specific OE pin.

Code: Select all

#1 CLK1 -> ROM4
#2 I/O -> A7
#3 I/O -> N/C (sic!)
#4 I/O -> A6
#5 I/O -> A5
#6 I/O -> A4
#7 I/O -> A3
#8 I/O -> ROM3
#9 I/O -> A2
#10 I/O -> #13 CLK2 (internal connection)
#11 INPUT -> A1
#12 GND -> GND

#13 CLK2 -> #10 I/O
#14 INPUT -> UDS
#15 I/O -> D9
#16 I/O -> D8
#17 I/O -> D11
#18 I/O -> D10
#19 I/O -> D13
#20 I/O -> D12
#21 I/O -> D15
#22 I/O -> D14
#23 INPUT -> A8
#24 VCC -> VCC

From this follows that they're likely using ROM4 as OE, ROM3 as some input, UDS to clock an internal equation that in turn clock itself using CLK2. The datasheet seems to say that CLK1 and CLK2 clock only some parts each but I haven't studied that in detail yet. Otherwise it's the same one byte of address and one byte of data.

/Troed

[Tomswork]

Troed

I let my coworker take a look at the cubase cartridge he says it looks like a programmable cpu out of a microwave

Tom

[czietz]

From the style of the case and the style of the marking, the chip in the Cubase dongle looks very much like OKI to me. See https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/e2kAAOSw ... -l1600.jpg for a comparison. This doesn't help much, though. OKI had a lot of mask programmed microcontrollers.

[troed]

Just a keep-alive post to let everybody know that this is still happening. Got sidetracked with the H4 build on the somewhat less retro time I've had for a few weeks again.

dongles.JPG

Also, I've been in communication with someone (who will stay anonymous until they decide themselves not to) that have already managed to not only extract tables from a Cubase 2 dongle but get all the way to equations that work perfectly fine programmed into a clone GAL16V8. This again is validation that all the "v1" dongles we can be sure will be successfully made available for emulation.

/Troed