My (attempted) PiSTorm STacy installation

[Darklord]

Okay, let's see if I've got this straight.

Since it's in development and there will be lots of changes and experimentation
going on, we want pins 2/4 on the header extender to be cut. Then, we run a +5v
USB-C cable to the USB-C port on the Pi 4 from external power. This is not from the
Atari MB or something like a Pico P/S. With this setup, when we need to power cycle
the Atari, we can safely do so without interrupting the power to the Pi 4.

So when development reaches a stage where things are ironed out and stable,
and we close up our Atari's, pins 2/4 on the extender are cut, with +5v USB-C lead
into the Pi 4's USB-C socket from internal power, presumably from the Atari's
motherboard or something like a Pico P/S, so that when you turn the Atari on
and off, it and the PiStorm/Pi 4 all power on together.

Is this right? Thanks.

[Steve]

You're way over thinking this. It's just that developers want to rule out undervoltage as an issue so that they know their code is causing issues and not throttling etc.

For the end-user it's not really convenient to have a usb cable running from a wall plug into their Atari.

But right now we aren't really classed as end users, we're all alpha testers.

You just decide based on your own needs/wants :)

[Darklord]

Well, just going by the conversation in the Discord channel, it seems to me that
things are definitely still in the development stage and very much in flux.

I've got my STacy apart anyway for other mods/upgrades I'm going to attempt,
so it's not an issue for me to keep that separate USB P/S for the Pi 4 for now.

I get your point though, and I do tend to way overthink things. Just overly
cautious I guess.

BTW, with the separate P/S arrangement for development, I'm still not clear
on which should be powered up first - the Atari or the PiSTorm/Pi 4? Thanks.

[Steve]

BTW, with the separate P/S arrangement for development, I'm still not clear
on which should be powered up first - the Atari or the PiSTorm/Pi 4? Thanks.

It does not matter. The stacy won't do anything till you run the emulator anyway.

[Darklord]

BTW, with the separate P/S arrangement for development, I'm still not clear
on which should be powered up first - the Atari or the PiSTorm/Pi 4? Thanks.

It does not matter. The stacy won't do anything till you run the emulator anyway.

Oh, okay - thanks! :)

[Darklord]

Hmm, okay - being dense again I guess but where do I look to figure out whether I
have the "EPM240 or EPM570" so I can flash the PiSTorm's firmware? Thanks...

[EDIT]
Never mind - answered on the Discord channel.

It's text on one of the chips on the PiSTorm board itself... "EPM240" in my case.

[Darklord]

Okay... I managed to find it, it looks like "EPM240". I did the firmware update and got an (apparently expected) error message. I ran the memory test. Lots of errors. Here's some pictures (I SSH'ed in from my Kubuntu Linux laptop). This STacy has 4 megs of RAM. Currently the SC1224 monitor is showing a white screen - I reckon it's supposed to be like that until the emulator is run? Anyways, waiting for further instructions as to how to proceed from here. Thanks.

(I also posted this to the PiSTorm Discord channel)

Screenshot_20231208_220453.png

Screenshot_20231208_220629.png

Screenshot_20231208_220642.png

[Steve]

I don't know about it being apparently expected (the error message) but when I flash mine it always says: epm240 found / flashing / flash successful. So I don't think your firmware has flashed.

[Darklord]

I don't know about it being apparently expected (the error message) but when I flash mine it always says: epm240 found / flashing / flash successful. So I don't think your firmware has flashed.

Oh...I was going by the github readme:

"Expect a "Warning" to be shown. This can be ignored."

[dad664npc]

The flashing method has changed as openocd no longer works for us.
The replacement tool, "pistormflash", is included in the rtl directory. It produces a warning message, not an error message. The warning message is expected.