My (attempted) PiSTorm STacy installation

[Darklord]

No show on the Pi3a+ today. Amazon is still showing it for delivery by 9pm but it's being shipped by USPS and the mail has already run today. Typically, that means it will show up the next day (tomorrow - Wednesday). I'm not surprised. The universe hates me. :)

Shipping-01.JPG

[Darklord]

Delayed again...maybe Thursday (14th) now... :roll:

[Darklord]

Just making sure here (again) that I've got the correct pins cut on the extender header (blocking the 5v from pins 2 and 4 on the Pi4b from getting to the PiSTorm board). Thanks.

PiSTorm-Pi4b-Pins2+4.JPG

[Darklord]

Just a quick update. I finally received the Pi3a+ last night and it appears
to be a faulty unit. Typical. I'm returning it, but in the meantime, Cryptodad
and the Discord PiSTorm team have tentatively reached the conclusion that
the PiSTorms with 373a latches do not work as well as the ones with 374 latches.

I'm going to reorder one with the 374 latches and we'll see how things go after
I get that one in. It might be a while, the AmigaKit Store told me via e-mail
that they were running short of 374's so it would be after the holiday season,
at the least.

Anyway, be sure and specify 374 latches or use them if building your own.

Thanks all.

PS The Pi3a+ box was crushed and already opened when I pulled it out of the
the Amazon shipping envelope (see picture).

Capture.JPG

[Darklord]

Okay, another update. I got the 2nd (replacement) Pi3a+ in. It
seems to be working like a Pi is supposed to. I set it up with a
32gig SanDisk micro SD card and that part is good to go.

So I'm pleased to report progress has been made. Due to the
tireless (superhuman even!) efforts of cryptodad, (dad66npc
on here, IIRC), the PiSTorm/Pi3a+ combo is at least, now
functioning with my STacy. It's been a slog, I'm here to tell
you. I'd upload all the saved screenshots of crashes we went
through but I don't want Exxos warning me about taking up
too much space. :)

So I'll simply show you the console screen from my Kubuntu
Linux laptop first, where I'm ssh'ed into the PiSTorm setup and
launching the emulator software:

Capture1.png

Now here's the initial EmuTOS screen via an external SC1224
monitor, hooked up to my STacy:

Capture2.JPG

And finally the desktop - again via an SC1224 monitor and my
STacy. I was able to run programs, access the partitions on my
Ultrasatan, etc, etc,...

Capture3.JPG

I reordered another PiSTorm board with the 374 latches. As soon
as it comes in, we'll use it to attempt to get a Pi4b going with my
STacy.

There's still an incredible amount of work to be done. Honestly,
this project needs a lot more people involved. I can help with
the testing but it needs people with experience with Raspberry
Pi's and verilog.

We're hoping more people will step up and join in. There's an
awful lot of potential with the PiSTorm board for the ST line,
it would be a shame to see it fail to progress because of a lack
of interest or participation.

[Darklord]

Okay, just wanted to do a quick update and let everyone know that this is still being worked on. :)

The PiSTorm board with the 374 latches arrived. I installed it immediately and the good news is that
it does now work.

I'm ssh'ed into the PiSTorm/Pi4b setup from my Kubuntu Linux laptop and running the memory test,
it passes:

Capture1.JPG

Now launching the PiSTorm emulator software:

Capture2.JPG

And we've got an EmuTOS desktop. Hurrah.

Capture3.JPG

However, we've got a problem. You'll notice the picture above is in low resolution.
Any attempt on my part to change to medium resolution results in a crash. I thought
maybe the EMUDESK.INF file was corrupted so I deleted it but that made no difference.
I thought I'd be clever so I copied another EMUDESK.INF file over from another partition
that was already saved in medium resolution but that only resulted in an immediate
crash as soon as it reaches the EmuTOS desktop. You can't just pop the micro SD-card
into a Windows machine and read the partitions so you can't delete it that way either
and I was beginning to think that I might have to do a complete re-install. Luckily, I
remembered that with EmuTOS you can boot straight into it's command-line console
so I was able to delete the file there (before it crashed). So...back to low resolution.

Capture4.JPG

Also, I attempted to boot from the TOS v2.06 ROM instead of EmuTOS but for whatever
reason, when I do that it fails to find my Ultrasatan and only shows the floppy drive A
and B icons. It then immediately crashes at that point.

Capture5.JPG

Capture6.JPG

The good news overall though, as I mentioned at the start of the post is that, with the
PiSTorm board with the 374 latches, the Pi4b is now working. It seems to be reasonably
stable, at least in low resolution.

So progress, albeit slowly. All good things, eh? :lol:

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Wow, quite the adventure, good job detailing the journey. So how is it going now?

[Darklord]

Wow, quite the adventure, good job detailing the journey. So how is it going now?

A few more people have joined (as testers) in the PiSTorm Discord channel. I think
everyone is keeping their fingers crossed that Alexh will be able to find some free
time to contribute to the software side of things.

There's a new build out that I've not had a chance to test yet.

Still really, really seriously need more people involved. So much potential but
it's very much unrealized at the moment.

I've been working on some other upgrades for my STacy, so I think I'm going to
continue with those and use a spare STacy motherboard that I have to continue
testing with the PiSTorm equipment.

I wish I could report something more positive but it's very much a "work in progress".

[alexh]

An RPi Zero 2W might be a better form factor?

[Darklord]

An RPi Zero 2W might be a better form factor?

Hey Alex. You mean, considering the STacy's inherent lack of space to work with? :)

I suppose it would help - but my understanding is that it has to be overclocked and
doesn't give the performance return of the Pi3a+ or Pi4b? I could be wrong on that
though...