Alpine with Atari ST/TT

[Alex Czarnowski]

Is there anyone who used Alpine with Atari ST or TT? I was using Alpine with ST and at first everything looked fine, but now I have problems with uploading any code with aread command.

I would be grateful for any help.

Cheers,

Alex

[Thunderbird]

Is there anyone who used Alpine with Atari ST or TT? I was using Alpine with ST and at first everything looked fine, but now I have problems with uploading any code with aread command.

I would be grateful for any help.

Cheers,

Alex

 

If it was working fine and then stopped working and you never changed anything, perhaps you have had a failure of the hardware. Did you plug or unplug the parallel cable while the ST was on? Disconnecting devices and connecting devices from the ST while it it powered up is a great way to blow the TTL buffers on the parallel port. They are easy to replace however. If you blew the Alpine, then you're in trouble. I never had to fix theparallel port on one of those.

[Alex Czarnowski]

I always connect and disconnect cables when all equipment if turned off. I wasn't sure however if ST parallel port is bi-directional as this could be the cause of my problems. After my recent failure on ST I've connect alpine to PC and after a few tries I was able to upload code with aread command without any troubles. On both ST and PC I was able to trace code. Also alpine seems to be working fine, it keeps uploaded code, check command is working both on ST and PC. On ST check command was showing errors (no response from stub) after every aread. On PC it was working fine if aread succeeded, if it did not than reset/wait commands were issued and everything seemed to be working fine.

 

I was asking about ST mainly because I remember someone was complaining about problems with aread uploads on PC... which I am also facing now. Any clarification would be more than appreciated.

 

Regards,

Alex

[Thunderbird]

I always connect and disconnect cables when all equipment if turned off. I wasn't sure however if ST parallel port is bi-directional as this could be the cause of my problems. After my recent failure on ST I've connect alpine to PC and after a few tries I was able to upload code with aread command without any troubles. On both ST and PC I was able to trace code. Also alpine seems to be working fine, it keeps uploaded code, check command is working both on ST and PC. On ST check command was showing errors (no response from stub) after every aread. On PC it was working fine if aread succeeded, if it did not than reset/wait commands were issued and everything seemed to be working fine.

 

I was asking about ST mainly because I remember someone was complaining about problems with aread uploads on PC... which I am also facing now. Any clarification would be more than appreciated.

 

Regards,

Alex

 

 

I never had any problems with the ST. The system was DESIGNED to work with an ST and PC support was added later on. The trouble with PC's comes from the various ways they add papralle ports to them and all the different ways they can be set up. The problem isn't with a specific command on the PC, it's talking to the stub alltogether that doesn't work right. If you get a PC configured just right then it works great. Get one thing worng and it's a nightmare. The fast speed of PC CPU's also messes up the software delays in the RDBJAG code, so that can make a setup flaky as well and makes it harder to configure.

[atarifan49]

You should try and do something else on the ST's parallel port and make sure it's working. The sound chip in the ST mainly drives the parallel port (YM2149 PSG made by Yamaha, Atari PN C025983). The busy signal is handled by the MFP chip (Motorola 68901, Atari PN C025984).

 

If you have problems using the parallel port for something else, then the most likely fault is the sound chip is bad, since most of the signals come from that chip.

 

If you happen to have access to a Star NX-1000 dot matrix printer, it has a nice hex dump mode. What you can do is create a file filled with hex bytes like, 00, 01, 02, 04, 08, 10 , 20, 40, 80, AA, 55, FF, etc. You can use the dip switches to set the printer in this hex dump mode and send the contents of the file to the printer. Then using the hex dump see if you can see if the data is getting through correctly. This method is a poor mans method of testing a parallel port. But should be able to tell you if you have some bad bits on the parallel port.

 

The chips mentioned above are still available from B&C (www.myatari.net) or Best Electronics.

 

Good luck.

 

Glenn

[Tyrant]

Changing subject a tiny bit, but... what is the little red led for? Is it a battery indicator (in which case mine's empty hehe) or something else?

[Thunderbird]

Changing subject a tiny bit, but... what is the little red led for? Is it a battery indicator (in which case mine's empty hehe) or something else?

 

 

Ummm.... it's the "write protect" indicator.

[Tyrant]

I really should get round to learning assembly, but I've so much else to do. I bought my Alpine with the intention of coding for the Jag, but alas time being the evil thing it is, I have only ever used it to upload a few bjl programs. One question tho... does the led get power from the battery or the jag itself? I've never seen it on, dispite changing the position of the write protect switch a few times. Also why does it need an indicator? being a toggle switch surely the switch is its own indicator... oh well, guess the designers wanted to put lights on it hehe (who dosnt like putting lights on things :-)

[Thunderbird]

I really should get round to learning assembly, but I've so much else to do. I bought my Alpine with the intention of coding for the Jag, but alas time being the evil thing it is, I have only ever used it to upload a few bjl programs. One question tho... does the led get power from the battery or the jag itself? I've never seen it on, dispite changing the position of the write protect switch a few times. Also why does it need an indicator? being a toggle switch surely the switch is its own indicator... oh well, guess the designers wanted to put lights on it hehe (who dosnt like putting lights on things :-)

 

If it doesn't come on when you write protect the cart, then you have a defective Alpine board. Plug it in and try it to make sure it's really not working.

[Alex Czarnowski]

Thanks for help. I will try with Mega ST and TT. Meanwhile maybe someone could diagnose if the alpine is fine from my sessions. Here are some postings from PC (PI 170Mhz) running Linux. I can not imagine hardware failure that would produce such strange effects. Anyway here is it. I would be grateful for your further help guys

 

Note that read command was used just for testing purposes.

 

Db: read JAGMAND.COF

Sending file JAGMAND.COF: ... time=1.71 sec, rate=34.858 Kb/sec.

Done, start=$802000, size=$8B5A

Db: aread JAGMAND.COF

Sending COFF program JAGMAND.COF:

NAME START SIZE END

.text 802000 5C0 8025BF time=0.07 sec, rate=20.548 Kb/sec.

.data 8025C0 4A00 806FBF

Error while sending fast ($A1D16781!=$22007800) (type=0).

time=0.54 sec, rate=34.265 Kb/sec.

.bss 4000 B0 40AF

Loaded 527 symbols from COFF program JAGMAND.COF, skipping 527 duplicate symbols.

PC: 00802000 SSP: 00000DD2 USP: 7FFF7FDF SR: 2100 SU IPL=1 XC PL NZ VC CC

D 80150014 0080F000 0000000B 0000FFFF 00000000 00000001 FFFF1865 7CFF0008

A 0080198A 008006F2 00000E46 00001FFA 00F14000 008015E8 00F00000 00000DD2

stub communication error: can't send the slave a command

Db: reset

Db: wait

JAGUAR stub ( 2-Nov-'94) ready & running in ROMULATOR, (NTSC)

Communications check

+- increase/decrease inter-packet delay by .05 s

>< increase/decrease send-packet size by factor of 2

., increase/decrease read-packet size by factor of 2

? display test info

q quit

Db: l 802000

00802000| |move.l #$70007,G_END

0080200A| |move.l #$70007,D_END

00802014| |move.w #$FFFF,VI

0080201C| |movea.l #INITSTACK,a7

00802022| |jsr InitVideo

00802028| |jsr InitLister

0080202E| |jsr InitVBint

00802034| |move.l #$0,$4020

0080203E| |move.l #$C,$4024

00802048| |move.l d0,USERRAM

Db: read JAGMAND.COF

Sending file JAGMAND.COF: ... time=1.72 sec, rate=34.858 Kb/sec.

Done, start=$802000, size=$8B5A

Db: l 802000

00802000| |bchg.b d0,(a0)

Db: aread JAGMAND.COF

Sending COFF program JAGMAND.COF:

NAME START SIZE END

.text 802000 5C0 8025BF time=0.07 sec, rate=20.548 Kb/sec.

.data 8025C0 4A00 806FBF time=0.90 sec, rate=20.568 Kb/sec.

.bss 4000 B0 40AF

Loaded 527 symbols from COFF program JAGMAND.COF, skipping 527 duplicate symbols.

PC: 00802000 SSP: 00000DD2 USP: 7FFF7FDF SR: 2100 SU IPL=1 XC PL NZ VC CC

D 80150014 0080F000 0000000B 0000FFFF 00000000 00000001 FFFF1865 7CFF0008

A 0080198A 008006F2 00000E46 00001FFA 00F14000 008015E8 00F00000 00000DD2

00802000| >|move.l #$70007,G_END