gtortone

Nice ! I'm from Naples but I live in Aversa... Can you check the boot time of A7800 with an oscilloscope ? I'm wondering which is the boot time of this device...

Hi @aotta nice to see other italian guys are developing for Atari !!! Feel free to ask on PlusCart-Pico code, take into account that with modified bootlader Pico boot time is around 16ms;

Yes, but take into account that current PlusCart-Pico uses Arduino-Pico libraries due to some Arduino library dependencies for ESP8266 (WiFi) and FAT filesystem, but for future Atari-2600 FujiNet code I'm considering the idea to use plain Pico-SDK to make the project minimal.

Hi @batari I have done some tests with an oscilloscope with a C code that setup a pin (GP5) and make an endless loop moving this pin up and down... I have used two probes: one on the +5V of RP2040 and the second one on the GP5 - so I put the trigger in single mode on the +5V channel and disconnect/reconnect the USB power in order to trigger the acquisition. This is the first test with Arduino-Pico library and C/C++ compiler -O3 optimization: (we have to measure the time between rise of CH1 and start of toggling of CH2) in this case we have 200ms of boot time As second test I have added to platformio.ini the bootloader optimized for my RP2040 board flash chip... boot time now is 100ms... very good but quite far to your requirements.... As third test I have removed Arduino-Pico library (that have some Arduino-like initialization for setup() and loop() functions and other stuff...) and I have used plain Pico-SDK to move GP5 pin. In this test I did not use overclocking or custom bootloader. boot time is now 17ms. It is clear that Arduino-Pico is very nice and suitable for C/C++ development, but as usual these frameworks add some overhead on hardware performances...

Hi @batari, you will find GIT repo of PlusCart-Pico here: https://github.com/gtortone/PlusCart-Pico Regarding RP2040 boot time let's take into account two things: 1) we are overclocking RP2040 @250MHz at startup with set_sys_clock_khz(250000, true) in main.c 2) flash read/write performances are optimized due usage of "proper" second stage bootlader for W25Q080 flash available on Pico "purple", if you take a look to platformio.ini you will find this line: board_build.arduino.earlephilhower.boot2_source = boot2_w25q080_2_padded_checksum.S In practice, during my developments I never had any issues with RP2040 boot time; I tested RP2040 with Atari 2600 Jr (PAL) and Atari 2600 Darth Vader (PAL). The customization of second stage bootloader was required to read ROMs that cannot be loaded in RAM due to huge size (e.g. 128 KB ROM), but I don't write the bootloader from scratch because there are a bunch of bootloader available in Pico-SDK to optimize read/write performances for different flash chips... Let me know if you need further details....

Hi, I have just realized that part of issue could be my upscaler (RetroScaler 2x), I'm waiting for Startech upscaler to test... I will keep you informed ! Thanks

Hi, few weeks ago I bought a Atari 800XL (PAL) that has this video issue: it seems that one line has correct color but the next line is wrong. I have played (a lot) with color potentiometer but nothing: these horizontal stripes are always displayed. I have also applied UGV video mod (https://ataribits.weebly.com/ugv.html) but without success regarding this issue... The other issue I have realized is that some colors are wrong - as example Ms.Pacman cherry is "green" and not "red"... other colors are ok but stripes are always present. I have oscilloscope, multimeter and other electronic lab equipments so if someone have an idea I'm happy to test... Thanks !

Hi @mytek UGV is a very great project, I discovered it on FujiNet Discord channel and I really like it ! Just a question: do you think a porting of UGV for Atari 2600 is possible ? I think Atari 2600 boards for (decent) video mod are very expensive (especially for european people) and UGV seems to be feasible for different platform... what do you think ?

Hi, yes I confirm I'm working to add TNFS support to PlusCart, this will allow to PlusCart to connect different TNFS servers as already happen with FujiNet hardware.

Hi, I'm working on PlusCart porting for RP2040 (Raspberry PI Pico): https://github.com/gtortone/United-Carts-of-Atari I started few weeks ago forking official PlusCart project. Currently the Pico emulates base cartridges files with support for ESP8266 uart-wifi bridge and SD support.Now I'm working to add other cartridge types (SuperCharger, ...);

Hi, I suspect I have this "fast boot" Atari Jr. release... I wrote some code to emulate a simple 2K cartridge on Pico without success, now I'm waiting for a STM32-Discovery board from a friend to test UltimateCart-2600...

Hi, I'm available to test or develop code if needed. I also have a Pico and an oscilloscope if this can help !