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Re: General Stuff(tm)

Posted: 22 Feb 2022 23:11
by stephen_usher
Yep, the Advanced Passenger Train (Prototype).

Re: General Stuff(tm)

Posted: 26 Feb 2022 17:32
by stephen_usher
With a mind to the Apricot hard drive project I've got myself some Raspberri Pi Picos (5 for £15 from Pimoroni!).

The 8 bit wide PIO looks promising and within MicroPython you can talk to SD cards via SPI and read/write to files on a FAT filesystem easily.

Now, whether 8 bit PIO and the SPI library stuff will play nicely together is another matter.

Oh, the other difficulty... I'm going to have to learn Python. How hard can that be? ;-)

Re: General Stuff(tm)

Posted: 26 Feb 2022 18:38
by rubber_jonnie
stephen_usher wrote: 22 Feb 2022 23:11 Yep, the Advanced Passenger Train (Prototype).
Cool :)

Re: General Stuff(tm)

Posted: 26 Feb 2022 18:39
by rubber_jonnie
stephen_usher wrote: 26 Feb 2022 17:32 With a mind to the Apricot hard drive project I've got myself some Raspberri Pi Picos (5 for £15 from Pimoroni!).

The 8 bit wide PIO looks promising and within MicroPython you can talk to SD cards via SPI and read/write to files on a FAT filesystem easily.

Now, whether 8 bit PIO and the SPI library stuff will play nicely together is another matter.

Oh, the other difficulty... I'm going to have to learn Python. How hard can that be? ;-)
Nice price :)

As for Python, if I can do it, you should be fine.

One word though. Indent!

Re: General Stuff(tm)

Posted: 26 Feb 2022 18:54
by stephen_usher
rubber_jonnie wrote: 26 Feb 2022 18:39 As for Python, if I can do it, you should be fine.

One word though. Indent!
I know! That's the problem with Python, whitespace is syntactic.

Re: General Stuff(tm)

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 12:29
by stephen_usher
I've brought out the big guns in readiness for my PLCC-44 break-out board arriving tomorrow so I can get started trying to figure out how the Sun 3/80's DECODE1 chip generates the control signals for the serial port chips.

IMG_2585.jpg

I'll use the 16 channel logic analyser on the Tektronix MSO 'scope to see what the inputs are and see what triggers the output for the tty-b chip, from there I should be able to infer, with the help of the disassembled boot ROM contents, how to use a GAL to replace the missing signal output, hopefully.

Re: General Stuff(tm)

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 15:08
by rubber_jonnie
stephen_usher wrote: 27 Feb 2022 12:29 I've brought out the big guns in readiness for my PLCC-44 break-out board arriving tomorrow so I can get started trying to figure out how the Sun 3/80's DECODE1 chip generates the control signals for the serial port chips.

IMG_2585.jpg

I'll use the 16 channel logic analyser on the Tektronix MSO 'scope to see what the inputs are and see what triggers the output for the tty-b chip, from there I should be able to infer, with the help of the disassembled boot ROM contents, how to use a GAL to replace the missing signal output, hopefully.
Sounds pretty cool :)

Re: General Stuff(tm)

Posted: 28 Feb 2022 16:37
by stephen_usher
Bother! No-one was at reception when DHL just tried to deliver the the PCBs, so back to the depot they went.

Re: General Stuff(tm)

Posted: 28 Feb 2022 16:48
by BennehBoy
I just searched your DSO on ebay and my eyes popped out at the prices!

Re: General Stuff(tm)

Posted: 28 Feb 2022 17:20
by rubber_jonnie
stephen_usher wrote: 28 Feb 2022 16:37 Bother! No-one was at reception when DHL just tried to deliver the the PCBs, so back to the depot they went.
That's a bit rubbish!!