CT63 only starts from 030 mode

Problems with your machine in general.
foft
Posts: 343
Joined: 28 Mar 2022 12:20

Re: CT63 only starts from 030 mode

Post by foft »

exxos wrote: 01 Oct 2022 05:44 Has you seen this topic ? https://exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... =25&t=3351
I hadn’t, thanks.

Are ct60e, ct60 and ct63 all compatible?
foft
Posts: 343
Joined: 28 Mar 2022 12:20

Re: CT63 only starts from 030 mode

Post by foft »

Feeling seriously tempted right now to sell this CT63 to someone as a project, it’s a right pain…

Compare with the TF1260, plug it in, install mmulib and it just works.

This just feels like an unfinished and broken product:(
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exxos
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Re: CT63 only starts from 030 mode

Post by exxos »

foft wrote: 01 Oct 2022 09:35 Feeling seriously tempted right now to sell this CT63 to someone as a project, it’s a right pain…

Compare with the TF1260, plug it in, install mmulib and it just works.

This just feels like an unfinished and broken product:(
I know the feeling. I literally spent years trying to get mine to work and part of the problem was a wrong resistor value on the board. Multiple versions of control panel and firmware. The CTCM module caused me much stress never worked properly. It is why I created my own RSO module instead. I did not know NVDI to be installed until someone mentioned it. The documentation is seriously bad or non-existent from what I have seen :( I guess it could be possible the board is just simply faulty ? Have you contacted the guy who sold it to you for support ?

People do get it working and it is extremely fast. Everything is easy when you know how to do things I guess. But yeah, I just gave up with mine ultimately in the end. I sold my original CT60 a few years back. I did however buy a CT60e from Willy as I like the fitting and new development of it better. But I don't think he sells them anymore :( I cannot say I have really used it other than benchmarking GB6 with it.

Certainly not trying to put you off, it is a great product when you can get it all working properly.
Steve
Posts: 3305
Joined: 15 Sep 2017 11:49

Re: CT63 only starts from 030 mode

Post by Steve »

Not sure why anyone would even use ancient Xcontrol these days anyway, even the patched versions. The modern control panel is COPs: https://github.com/freemint/cops

You're always best to start with a FRESH hard drive partition when you move to a ct60/63/e. Who knows what old legacy crap is in your root partition. Just backup your apps, create a fresh partition, install COPS and NVDI. In all honesty I barely use control panels for anything, I don't even have the ct60 panels installed - the latest ct60 firmware 1.05 has frequency selection and all other options in the BIOS, making the control panel redundant and just pointless.
foft
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Joined: 28 Mar 2022 12:20

Re: CT63 only starts from 030 mode

Post by foft »

Thanks interesting. I'm pretty new to Falcon/ST. I was more involved in the 800XL.

Unfortunately 'save' in the firmware menu doesn't actually save. Its a feature of my board I think. I checked pin 11 (WE) is connected ok to the flash.
foft
Posts: 343
Joined: 28 Mar 2022 12:20

Re: CT63 only starts from 030 mode

Post by foft »

Interestingly if I try to flash from the flash060.prg it tells me 'Unknown flash device! ($000122D6)'. Perhaps this is a chip that can only be flashing via jtag which is why save doesn't work?
foft
Posts: 343
Joined: 28 Mar 2022 12:20

Re: CT63 only starts from 030 mode

Post by foft »

The device and manufacturer code are correct for the chip I have:
https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sh ... 5,2018.pdf

So I guess I need to patch flash060.prg and the ct60 tos firmware? i.e. my hardware works, this is a software problem.

flashchip.JPG
ct60flash2.JPG
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foft
Posts: 343
Joined: 28 Mar 2022 12:20

Re: CT63 only starts from 030 mode

Post by foft »

I bought some of these to replace it, fingers crossed!

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mikro
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Re: CT63 only starts from 030 mode

Post by mikro »

To be honest, I find it hard to follow your steps. You're shooting random problems with random solutions, you're asking on three forums at once (and asking on Facebook is like asking for the shittiest advice of the year), you had disk full of unknown stuff, you never announce what fixed what (what happened to the reset problem? what happened to the missing SD RAM info?), you first didn't even read the documentation (otherwise you'd know that you are supposed to use the patched XControl etc) and now you're going to replace chips on the (new) CT63...

If I understand correctly, Centuriontech is supplying his CT63 with CT60 TOS 1.05 what is a fork of the original 1.03c. He didn't publish any information about the software side (i.e. whether the TOS is patched somehow, for example for the new flash chips he's using) and obviously he made some other changes (like booting without SD RAM - this definitely isn't possible with CT60, original CT63 and CT60e). So I'd start here, I'd ask him for support, i.e. what flash tools you should use; if you want 1.03, what version should you use (1.03c for CT60/63 or 1.03d for CT60e).

IIRC (not sure now, would need to look at source code), frequency and such stuff is stored in CT60 flash, so you see, again something which looks like wrong software <-> hardware combination. So yeah, go and ask Centuriontech before making things even worse.
foft
Posts: 343
Joined: 28 Mar 2022 12:20

Re: CT63 only starts from 030 mode

Post by foft »

Reset problem: Still exists, despite C7 cap change. NVRAM battery fixed the needing 030 mode to boot at all though. I’m pretty sure I mentioned that everywhere I posted it. (Edit: See I forgot Atari forum, sorry)

SDRAM missing info: That is someone else

SDRAM CL3: Booted anyway, but I now have CL2

CenturionTech support: Told me to try another PSU and clean contacts, then told me I have to solve it on my own and will not help any more. (*)

3 forums: Yeah sorry, was trying to follow up hardware side here and had already started on Facebook. Too impatient sorry.

RTFM: My bad, reading.. To be fair to me it’s hidden in the cache section rather than on some setup. Imagine you’ve never heard of xcontrol before too, I probably just thought it was something I wasn’t using!

*) I think maybe I phrased this in a way which sounds worse than it was...

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