16BIT ROM CART THOUGHTS

[exxos]

Been a couple of months since last update.. But I have started to assemble this now.. Hopefully get it finished up this week....

c5.jpg

[exxos]

3 Months later...

v5.jpg

It boots up with 3 jumper settings.. one works, one almost works, the other goes nuts. So proves 3 ROM's are working in the thing currently. I need to try it on my Falcon next.. I think that was the issue I had before because the XOR gate is needed for the Falcon ROM..

I also need to figure out what jumper settings select which ROM :lol: :roll:

EDIT:

yay!

IMG_3754.JPG

Seems I put a jumper in the wrong place on the PCB :roll: So need to do a tweak on the board, but at least we all working now :)

[rpineau]

:bravo:

[exxos]

I've updated to version 7 and worked out the ROM locations. I am hoping to include YAART on there as I find it really useful, though there isn't currently a cartridge version... but hopefully one day..

I've added the jumper list onto the PCB and reduced the size of the edge connector as it was rather long before and just wan't needed.

I also added in 2x 2.8mm holes in case anyone wants to design a small case for it in the future. At least there will be a way to screw the top and bottom sections together with some holes in the PCB ready! Also left a small area all around the PCB in the thought it may need to be slotted into place. I guess a cased version would have to have 4 small toggle switches to do the selection, or a big hole in the case to alter the jumper links.. In anycase, Its not something I will have time to work on anytime soon. No big issue to use it without a case anyway.

v7.jpg

[Atarian Computing]

Here is a couple of cart images. I just made the YAART.STC and the ULTIBOOT.STC is a utility cart I created last summer. It's a Ramdisk in a cart. Run it and warm boot and it creates a C: partition. Yaart is included in it as well.

YAART.zip

ULTIBOOT.zip

[Atarian Computing]

Here's a Powershell script I created last summer to make cartridge images. It uses two functions freely available from the net. It's only for one program for now and creates a 128KB image. I might work further with it.

Code: Select all

function Convert-HexStringToByteArray
{
################################################################
#.Synopsis
# Convert a string of hex data into a System.Byte[] array. An
# array is always returned, even if it contains only one byte.
#.Parameter String
# A string containing hex data in any of a variety of formats,
# including strings like the following, with or without extra
# tabs, spaces, quotes or other non-hex characters:
# 0x41,0x42,0x43,0x44
# \x41\x42\x43\x44
# 41-42-43-44
# 41424344 ==
# The string can be piped into the function too.
################################################################
[CmdletBinding()]
Param ( [Parameter(Mandatory = $True, ValueFromPipeline = $True)] [String] $String )
 
#Clean out whitespaces and any other non-hex crud.
$String = $String.ToLower() -replace '[^a-f0-9\\,x\-\:]'
 
# Try to put into canonical colon-delimited format.
$String = $String -replace '0x|\x|\-|,',':'
 
#Remove beginning and ending colons, and other detritus.
$String = $String -replace '^:+|:+$|x|\'
 
#Maybe there's nothing left over to convert...
if ($String.Length -eq 0) { ,@() ; return }

#Split string with or without colon delimiters.
if ($String.Length -eq 1)
{ ,@([System.Convert]::ToByte($String,16)) }
elseif (($String.Length % 2 -eq 0) -and ($String.IndexOf(":") -eq -1))
{ ,@($String -split '([a-f0-9]{2})' | foreach-object { if ($_) {[System.Convert]::ToByte($_,16)}}) }
elseif ($String.IndexOf(":") -ne -1)
{ ,@($String -split ':+' | foreach-object {[System.Convert]::ToByte($_,16)}) }
else
{ ,@() }
#The strange ",@(...)" syntax is needed to force the output into an
#array even if there is only one element in the output (or none).
}

function Write-FileByte
{
################################################################
#.Synopsis
# Overwrites or creates a file with an array of raw bytes.
#.Parameter ByteArray
# System.Byte[] array of bytes to put into the file. If you
# pipe this array in, you must pipe the [Ref] to the array.
#.Parameter Path
# Path to the file as a string or as System.IO.FileInfo object.
# Path as a string can be relative, absolute, or a simple file
# name if the file is in the present working directory.
#.Example
# write-filebyte -bytearray $bytes -path outfile.bin
#.Example
# [Ref] $bytes | write-filebyte -path c:\temp\outfile.bin
################################################################
[CmdletBinding()] Param (
[Parameter(Mandatory = $True, ValueFromPipeline = $True)] [System.Byte[]] $ByteArray,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $True)] $Path )
 
if ($Path -is [System.IO.FileInfo])
{ $Path = $Path.FullName }
elseif ($Path -notlike "*\*") #Simple file name.
{ $Path = "$pwd" + "\" + "$Path" }
elseif ($Path -like ".\*") #pwd of script
{ $Path = $Path -replace "^\.",$pwd.Path }
elseif ($Path -like "..\*") #parent directory of pwd of script
{ $Path = $Path -replace "^\.\.",$(get-item $pwd).Parent.FullName }
else
{ throw "Cannot resolve path!" }
 
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllBytes($Path, $ByteArray)
}

$File1 = Read-Host "Enter Filename"
$CA_MAGIC = "ABCDEF42"
$CA_NEXT1 = "00000000"
$CA_INIT1 = "00000000"
$CA_RUN1 = "00FA0026"
$CA_TIMEDATE = "00000000"
$CA_SIZE1 = [string]("{0:X}" -f ((Get-ChildItem ".\$File1").Length)).PadLeft(8, '0')
$CA_NAME1 = (("$File1" | Format-Hex | Select-Object -Expand Bytes | ForEach-Object { '{0:X2}' -f $_ }) -join '').PadRight(28, '0')
$Pad = "2A6F000449FA008C41EC001C43ED0100202C0002D0AC0006D0AC000EE288538032D851C8FFFC200F082C000000196706202C000AD08932FC0000B0896EF84A90672043ED010022097000D3D8D39110186710B03C00016606D2FC00FE60F0D2C060EA43ED010022092B410008202C00022B40000CD2802B410010202C00062B400014D2802B4100182B6C000A001C91C84ED1"
$Program1 = [string]::join('', (gc ".\$File1" -en byte | % {'{0:X2}' -f $_}))
$Hex = ($CA_MAGIC+$CA_NEXT1+$CA_INIT1+$CA_RUN1+$CA_TIMEDATE+$CA_SIZE1+$CA_NAME1+$Pad+$Program1 | % {$_.PadRight(262144, '0')})
Convert-HexStringToByteArray $Hex | Write-FileByte -Path "$file1.stc"

[exxos]

No idea what a powershell script is, but sure be useful for someone :)

I'm using good old hex workshop here :)

[Atarian Computing]

No idea what a powershell script is, but sure be useful for someone :)

I'm using good old hex workshop here :)

Yeah, I manually do hex stuff when making complex carts. Can you test the yaart image from the previous page?

I might also do a GUI for the powershell script in a proper windows executable if I get enough requests.

[exxos]

Can you test the yaart image from the previous page?

Now I remember you saying about that RAM disk think as well now! I don't think there is space in the ROM for it all though :(

I think it might have been me who posted the cart image in the first place and I use it all the time, but I also need the TT one which czietz hasn't created yet.

[Atarian Computing]

Can you test the yaart image from the previous page?

Now I remember you saying about that RAM disk think as well now! I don't think there is space in the ROM for it all though :(

I think it might have been me who posted the cart image in the first place and I use it all the time, but I also need the TT one which czietz hasn't created yet.

The cart with the ramdisk is 128KB.