exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Steve wrote: 19 Jul 2023 13:34 Am I the only person noticing that the serial output isn't seeing the sd card and therefore is failing to mount an image? So of course the Atari won't see anything, as there is nothing to see.

I would say re-solder the sd card connector or check for shorts on it.

I've written the card image to an sd card using raspberrybpi imager so the card has 3 partitions on it. Its the 1GB version from PP website.

BrettRogersUK wrote: 19 Jul 2023 13:49

Steve wrote: 19 Jul 2023 13:34 Am I the only person noticing that the serial output isn't seeing the sd card and therefore is failing to mount an image? So of course the Atari won't see anything, as there is nothing to see.

I would say re-solder the sd card connector or check for shorts on it.

I've written the card image to an sd card using raspberrybpi imager so the card has 3 partitions on it. Its the 1GB version from PP website.

EDIT: Ok I just read the github page - it says it supports RAW and Image loading. So I assume since it doesn't find an image file, it defaults to loading RAW and that's what the terminal output means. Perhaps you could try to do it the other way, format the SD card as FAT32, create a blank IMG file with DD, tell the ACSI2STM to mount it ... then see if you can partition it on the Atari with a partition manager (make sure the image is less than 512mb)

Reading more on the github page ... it seems very interesting! It seems he's enabled a feature called 'Gemdrive' which implements Hatari's Gemdos drive code, so ... from what I'm reading, it seems that you can just format an SD card to fat16/fat32/exfat and just drag & drop files on to it?? And the Atari just see's it as an accessible drive?! Sounds too good to be true lol.

I'm reading this all here: https://github.com/retro16/acsi2stm/releases

Am I interpreting it right? If that's the case, why not try this out rather than using a RAW image file from pp.

Just quoting it here for anyone who can't find the information. It almost sounds too good to be true and I'm very surprised I haven't heard about it before, nobody seems to be talking about it on forums. So I suggest you try this method out! I don't think you even need a hard disk driver!

The ultimate solution

I found enough spare time for the huge folly I envisioned a while ago:
reproduce the GEMDOS drive feature of Hatari that hooks a PC filesystem at
GEMDOS level, and not at BIOS level.

Let me introduce GemDrive: a copycat of Hatari's GEMDOS drive, 100% in hardware.

And ... this actually works !

The whole GEMDOS is hooked into the STM32 ! Each and every GEMDOS call will
transit through a STM32 routine, then the STM32 decides if it should pass the
call back to the TOS, or implement the call with its 72MHz 32-bit CPU !

This means that the ST now benefits Bill Greiman's SdFat library in all its
goodness. Speed, compatibility, robustness, no size limitations, you name it;
everything turned to 11.

What GemDrive does

You can use FAT16, FAT32, and ExFAT, up to 2TB standard SD cards.

SD cards are mounted on the STM32 and directly exposed on the Atari.

The driver is just a shim that implements a few remote-control commands. It uses
only 512 bytes of RAM on the ST for maximum software compatibility.

Hot swapping SD cards is supported, with a lot of checks to make sure SD cards
aren't corrupted if programs try to access files from the old SD card.

The only limitation is that BIOS calls are unimplemented. The rule of thumb is:
everything that works on Hatari's GEMDOS drives should work with the new
GemDrive driver. And even more, since GemDrive mimics the weirdness of TOS
much more closely than Hatari.

Steve wrote: 19 Jul 2023 14:37
EDIT: Ok I just read the github page - it says it supports RAW and Image loading. So I assume since it doesn't find an image file, it defaults to loading RAW and that's what the terminal output means. Perhaps you could try to do it the other way, format the SD card as FAT32, create a blank IMG file with DD, tell the ACSI2STM to mount it ... then see if you can partition it on the Atari with a partition manager (make sure the image is less than 512mb)

Yeah, I've tried it that way too and still nothing coming up on the screen.

I'm gonna try to look at the connections underneath on the atari mainboard and try reflowing them to eliminate any bad or cracked solder joints.

Regards,

Brett

Steve wrote: 19 Jul 2023 13:34 Am I the only person noticing that the serial output isn't seeing the sd card and therefore is failing to mount an image? So of course the Atari won't see anything, as there is nothing to see.

I would say re-solder the sd card connector or check for shorts on it.

I've only just seen the post with the picture, and you're 100% right, it's not seeing the SD card.

rubber_jonnie wrote: 19 Jul 2023 16:45
I've only just seen the post with the picture, and you're 100% right, it's not seeing the SD card.

I've rechecked the sd card module and there is nothing wrong with the wiring. The CS pin is going to A4 (which detects it as SD0), MISO is going to A6, MOSI to A7, SCK to A5. All wored as per the docs on the github and tested and buzzed out with multimeter. No shorts.

The reason there is an error on the pic is when the sd speed is set at 36MHz. After that it does say in brackets the size of the card and that is bootable. So it is reading that there is an sd card there otherwise it would say that SD0 no card found as per the others underneath.

This was from a precompiled binary that I put on the STM32. The only thing that seems to be working is the reset pin (12 on acsi port). That resets the unit when I turn the machine on and I get a ready to go on the serial monitor.

I've tried switching to 5v through my FTDI serial device and it powers it OK and I've uploaded various configuration of the acsi2stm firmware and still am getting nothing on the screen nor any activity on the 'hard drive'. When I turn the machine on the device resets and I get a ready to go on the serial locator and the activity light goes out and stays out. There isn't any activity on the acsi at all.

I've reflowed the solder of the acsi port on the underneath of the atari mainboard. I've checked all the bank of resistors on the board and they all come back as 68R which is correct. I've checked continuity between the other end of the resistors and the 74LS244 and 74LS245 as well and all that checks out too. So I am at a total loss now. As an aside I thought I'd check things out with my diagnostic cartridge I got from exxos shop. That doesn't load either. All I get is the desktop. The cartridge won't load either 😪😪😪😪😪

Regards,

Brett

Is there any way to test the output of the acsi port at all by an Oscilloscope? What pins should I be checking to see if any signal is coming out. There's got to be something coming out to communicate with the device.

Thanks

Brett

@BrettRogersUK I think you need a way to eliminate either the ACSI2SD or your STe as being the culprit, because right now it could be either. Where abouts do you live? Perhaps someone can lend you a known working drive to test. Either that or you could post your home-made device to someone to test. I don't mind helping.

Steve wrote: 19 Jul 2023 19:17 @BrettRogersUK I think you need a way to eliminate either the ACSI2SD or your STe as being the culprit, because right now it could be either. Where abouts do you live? Perhaps someone can lend you a known working drive to test. Either that or you could post your home-made device to someone to test. I don't mind helping.

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the offer. I live in Bradford in the UK.

My dad has got another STE and he's just said that I can test it on his machine so I'm gonna post it to him to see if it works on his STE. Pretty much same spec as mine but without the drive swap mod and gotek. It also has 1MB RAM whereas mine has 4MB.

I'll keep you in mind though.

Regards

Brett