VBXE 2

[Jacques]

little something to keep everyone mind bubbling

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwJE1AkVG6A

 

hope You'll enjoy it

source code (Electron's) will be released within a week or so

 

Bring it on

[Dropcheck]

Hi,

 

I hope I haven't missed out on this again. Missed the first version. Are there any left?

[Syfo-Dyas]

DropCheck:

 

From what I understand, hardly anyone that showed interest in another batch of VBXE's has made their payment to Candle, so I'd send a message to him and see what's up. I finally paid him for one of the two I wanted yesterday, so I'd assume there's still time, but again, I'm not sure.

[candle]

not hardly anyone, as the list says, but there are some people who didn't, and haven't heard from them at all

[Syfo-Dyas]

Aghh, a relief, it's not as bad as I was thinking! Glad to see many others have sent in their money.

[rchennau]

I don't know if this convertor has been mentioned yet, it's reasonably cheap at US$25.

 

https://www.arcadesp...rter/12217.html

 

I think there's a typo in the specifications... should be 480i, not 480p. I have been told by someone it works fine converting arcade RGB signals for use on a normal TV.

 

 

Also... I finally got my VBXE working properly in Rambo 320 emulation mode. For some weird reason, it was defaulting to the wrong core.

 

Do you think the RGB Jamma to VGA converter would work as well? Wouldn't it be better than down grading the signal to S-Video

 

https://www.arcadespareparts.com/arcade_parts/video_converter/rgb_jamma_vga_converter_board/13052.html

Edited June 29, 2010 by rchennau

[Rybags]

That's the same product I linked by the look of it.

 

And it converts to compsite + S-Video, it's not a scandoubler for VGA.

[candle]

i have this board - it works with NTSC machines, but doesn't work at all with PAL ones

so if your target is NTSC machine, then go for it

model name is gonbes gbs-8020

[rchennau]

i have this board - it works with NTSC machines, but doesn't work at all with PAL ones

so if your target is NTSC machine, then go for it

model name is gonbes gbs-8020

 

Thanks for verifying. I do indeed have a 800XL NTSC that I wish to connect to my NTSC TV through its YUP component. So if I understand this board correctly I can take the RGB out from the VBXE and connect to the boards RGB in and then hook up my component YUP cable to the boards out and into my TV component YUP. Wow that was acronym soup.

 

I also ran across this device on eBay: SCART to YUV I suppose I could take the RGB from the VBXE and connect it to the correct pins of the SCART and accomplish my goal of RGB to YUV. I wonder if I opened the box if I could just remove the SCART connector and wire directly the RGB and Ground that would surely be on the PCB.

[candle]

hello all

 

here is little supprise for all of You

since i've heard there are some misterious, and unexplained reasons for the fact, that vbxe can't go vga that i was able to motivate Electron to make an upgraded core (being a PITA for past few weeks to make him do what required few hours of his time

 

this is just GTIA functionallity, but! it runs at 31khz - yep - that's right! its VGA GTIA core

 

here are some pictures - sorry for quality - maybe today will bring some hi-res pictures

today this will have to do

 

picture produced:

 

and close-up on actual hardware:

 

as you can see RDY signal (pin on adapter socket was removed for this - its not used in any of VBXE cores anyways) was utilised to serve as a csync source for standard VGA monitor

 

to make this sweet a bit bitter - not every monitor will work - ofcourse this is true only for PAL users - they will have to "find" one that will go as low as 50Hz, the rest of the world (NTSC) will do with ANY VGA monitor

 

now, put your hands for our good man Electron

[+Stephen]

hello all

 

here is little supprise for all of You

since i've heard there are some misterious, and unexplained reasons for the fact, that vbxe can't go vga that i was able to motivate Electron to make an upgraded core (being a PITA for past few weeks to make him do what required few hours of his time

 

this is just GTIA functionallity, but! it runs at 31khz - yep - that's right! its VGA GTIA core

 

SNIP

 

as you can see RDY signal (pin on adapter socket was removed for this - its not used in any of VBXE cores anyways) was utilised to serve as a csync source for standard VGA monitor

 

to make this sweet a bit bitter - not every monitor will work - ofcourse this is true only for PAL users - they will have to "find" one that will go as low as 50Hz, the rest of the world (NTSC) will do with ANY VGA monitor

 

now, put your hands for our good man Electron

Very cool. What do you mean "just GTIA functionality" is VGA? I assume we get stock A8 output to a VGA screen, but to use blitter & overlays, etc. that does not go to the VGA out?

[+skr]

Wow, that´s a great surprise. :-)

[candle]

Thats right Stephen

just stock GTIA functionality through VGA output

FX core is unmodified, and there is a question if it will get modified

mostly because pixel clock we need to get ie 80 cols text mode to work with VGA output, or HI-RES mode need to be doubled for it, and this is somewhat complicated with current hardware, not to mention FPGA space left in the device (with FX core loaded there is NO space left)

but! our guess was it will be nice add-on for current and future users of VBXE

no additional costs involved, just load the core and one is ready to go

[pps]

Thats right Stephen

just stock GTIA functionality through VGA output

FX core is unmodified, and there is a question if it will get modified

mostly because pixel clock we need to get ie 80 cols text mode to work with VGA output, or HI-RES mode need to be doubled for it, and this is somewhat complicated with current hardware, not to mention FPGA space left in the device (with FX core loaded there is NO space left)

but! our guess was it will be nice add-on for current and future users of VBXE

no additional costs involved, just load the core and one is ready to go

 

Wow that´s nice addon. atari 8 bit with vga out

 

Well done!

[doctorclu]

Thats right Stephen

just stock GTIA functionality through VGA output

FX core is unmodified, and there is a question if it will get modified

mostly because pixel clock we need to get ie 80 cols text mode to work with VGA output, or HI-RES mode need to be doubled for it, and this is somewhat complicated with current hardware, not to mention FPGA space left in the device (with FX core loaded there is NO space left)

but! our guess was it will be nice add-on for current and future users of VBXE

no additional costs involved, just load the core and one is ready to go

 

Wow that´s nice addon. atari 8 bit with vga out

 

Well done!

 

Sweet! Now I really want on of these. VGA out would be awesome.

[flashjazzcat]

Very cool indeed. Not so much of an issue for us lucky European users with SCART equipped sets, but an absolute godsend for US users, surely. Totoally ingenious: I was imagining that additional hardware would be required for something like this.

[Jacques]

Hi Candle What about this "VBXE and blitter capabilities" scrolling-demo? Is it published somewhere so one can run it on his machine?

[candle]

now we got preliminary version of FX core including 80 column text mode and hi-res mode running on vbxe2 with 28mhz crystal (atari still runs at stock speed)

just a proof of concept though

 

Edited July 26, 2010 by candle

[Beetle]

now we got preliminary version of FX core including 80 column text mode and hi-res mode running on vbxe2 with 28mhz crystal (atari still runs at stock speed)

just a proof of concept though

 

 

Thats awesome, overclock your pimp :-P

Edited July 27, 2010 by Beetle

[flashjazzcat]

For some reason I was musing upon the idea of a custom OS ROM for VBXE last night. I envisaged a built-in accelerated screen editor which would also interface with the VBXE 80 column mode, and extended graphics commands which would map onto the new modes. This would take away the need to have all the functionality in the application (or in an add-in driver). Of course the big stumbling block is where to put the new code.

 

It would certainly be nice to boot a VBXE machine with no disks or carts plugged in and have instant access to an 80 column screen editor. VBXE is such a fundamental modification to the machine, I see no reason why the OS shouldn't be customised to suit.

Edited August 4, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[Rybags]

Sounds cool... there's a tad over 3K there just begging to be used for something more useful... AKA the second character set and Self-Test ROM areas (there's 140 bytes or so free around $CB70)

 

Possibly some compression could be employed and maybe 4-5K of code could be compressed, then expanded into VBXE RAM and run from there. Then again, 3K should be more than enough to provide the extensions needed for S: and E:

 

With what's left over... I'd go for a Boot Menu that lets you specify which drive, and build in some SIO2SD and/or APE control as well.

[flashjazzcat]

It's a project. I'd better get hold of an XL OS listing and some info on accelerated "E:" handlers. I know Draco has written an "S2:" type hander for SpartaDOS, but it ain't open source.

[Mathy]

Hello Jon

 

Why not put all that code in a pass through cartridge? With a switch do disable it.

 

sincerely

 

Mathy

[flashjazzcat]

Why not put all that code in a pass through cartridge? With a switch do disable it.

If I had such a thing, I might consider it. I kind of thought it would be nice the make the operating system extensions "permanent", though. I do think a considerable amount could be achieved inside of 3K. The problem is finding the time to do this: I was leafing through the Rev. 5 XL/XE OS yesterday (with the interesting "Help File" patch???) and if I only wish I had a few days to sit down and have a crack at something. You could have a hot key to flip all editor screen output to an 80 column VBXE display, for example. BASIC and MAC/65 could use the 80 column mode. I assume SDX does or will offer the potential to patch VBXE into the display handler in this way.

[mega-hz]

Hi,

 

I have a 130XE with 1MB SRAM, 25K Bibomon and would like to put in the VBXE too.

There is a little problem with the adresses:

 

The Bibomon uses D6XX and D7XX too!

Is it possible to let the VBXE run on D1XX?

I know, this is the PBI Memory Range, but it`s unused in my ATARI.

 

Does anybode have the exakt memory-map of the VBXE?

If there are not too many Adresses of the VBXE, maybe i could patch the Bibomon D6XX Access...

 

Wolfram.