DiagROM for ST

[exxos]

I've never found the atari cart useful unless the machine is basically working to start with. I just tend not to bother with it anymore. So I think some better diagnostic tools in the making would be really useful in hardware diagnostics.

[PhilC]

So you'd assemble this and then burn it to a couple of roms and put them into a diagnostic cart? Or into the existing rom sockets?

[terriblefire]

So you'd assemble this and then burn it to a couple of roms and put them into a diagnostic cart? Or into the existing rom sockets?

right now its compiled for use at 0xE00000. You can change the base address in code if you want "proper" ST support (I use a TBoard)

Yes you burn some roms and install them in the ST. Or if someone compiles it up for a cart you could put them in the cart.

Is really aimed at me testing very very broken hardware.

[exxos]

So you'd assemble this and then burn it to a couple of roms and put them into a diagnostic cart? Or into the existing rom sockets?

It goes into the existing ROM sockets.

The cartridge port needs TOS to be partly working for it to boot to the cart address, which is done via the GLUE. Even with working ROM's, the machine may simply not start up TOS and the atari diag-cart doesn't do anything, thats the problem I always have with it. DiagROM "Replaces" TOS with its own routines so it doesn't need TOS to start up.

[exxos]

right now its compiled for use at 0xE00000. You can change the base address in code if you want "proper" ST support (I use a TBoard)

ah, might be idea to compile for TOS104 space as the STF MB doesn't decode TOS206 space.. yet...

[terriblefire]

right now its compiled for use at 0xE00000. You can change the base address in code if you want "proper" ST support (I use a TBoard)

ah, might be idea to compile for TOS104 space as the STF MB doesn't decode TOS206 space.. yet...

Yeah i need to kick exxos in the cahones for not decoding at 0xe00000 :)

[PhilC]

Sounding cool. Shame that part of things is beyond me though.

All the gear and no idea as they say.

[exxos]

Yeah i need to kick exxos in the cahones for not decoding at 0xe00000 :)

Needs a new GLUE chip to do that :( If I can get the FPGA blitter working, next step is the FPGA GLUE, then can use TOS206 decoding as well.

[terriblefire]

fair enough.

If there is something that the diagnostics cart does that DiagROM doesnt then we can add it to DiagROM.

I've used DiagROM to print out what tests pass fail in early startup to do diagnosis of many 68K machines. Its simply the only thing out there that works for hardware dev.

The Diagnosis cart is a toy for checking if something subtle is happening in on of the chips. DiagROM will help you find data bus shorts when building a machine.

[exxos]

The Diagnosis cart is a toy for checking if something subtle is happening in on of the chips. DiagROM will help you find data bus shorts when building a machine.

I don't tend to use the cart much at all.. it can test a lot of things, but for me its pointless. I mean I know if the keyboard isn't working, I don't need the cart to tell me that. Over serial on a faulty machine, I only saw garbage output, if the system is working fine, then the serial is fine, but again, unless the machine is partly working its just useless for me.

czietz wrote a really good RAM test program https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... ?f=25&t=28 as the atari-cart wasn't finding some very subtle errors. So that one is more in-depth tests and finds such faults. But of course the machine has to be partly working to load it up. I'm waiting for the proper cartridge version at the moment as I want to add it to my own diag-cart board.

The tool I use is GB6 for testing, its not designed to be a diagnostic tool, but it tests a lot of the system and its the only program I really use.. Beyond that its guesswork and scope readings. As you know now with your new LA, you can quickly find things which would take me months to find otherwise. A lot of it is noise related glitches on the ST bus which are a nightmare to track down. Pretty much have to guess at what line is doing it and keep trying :roll:

There are not many who will really understand such problems, I mean look at the nightmare the DMA issues cause on the STe. Its why I made the choice to jump to designing a new ST board and debugging that instead. The ST faults are never ending and seem to be getting worse over time, I am really "done" with messing about with those faults. Once its been tested out and working stable, then it will start getting upgrades. Of course we need good tools to get the new STF board up and running.