Imperious Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 Thought I might share my experience with building and programming my own Finalgrom99. Got the boards made from PCBWay and parts ordered, soldered everything no problems. Initially I used a Pickit 2 programmer with AVRDUDE in windows, it said everything went ok and verified. No LED blinking. Next tried Raspberry PI 3 and the same deal, no blinking LED. After quite a bit of head scratching and testing with my multimeter not proving anything, well eventually I realised I had saved the HEX, AVR, and PLD files from the GITHUB page by doing "save link as" which results in a very large and incorrect file. I figured this out as accidentally I looked at the file sizes in the ZIP file which are much smaller. So I reprogrammed the correct HEX file with my Raspberry PI and all good, LED blinking once a second. The Next problem was no matter what SD card or formatting I did it would not load the UPDATE.AVR file. I just got a fast flashing LED which never stopped until the TI was turned off. No idea why even now but figuring the successfully programmed HEX file was likely already at 1.3 version I tried UPDATE.PLD and it worked perfectly. My TI99/4a with Finalgrom99 and NanoPeb is now working perfectly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dhe Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 48 minutes ago, Imperious said: >>I had saved the HEX, AVR, and PLD files from the GITHUB page by doing "save link as" which results in a very large and incorrect file. So the correct path, is to always click on the download button? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted December 12, 2021 Author Share Posted December 12, 2021 4 minutes ago, dhe said: So the correct path, is to always click on the download button? This might work in most cases, but to be on the safe side, view the file in GitHub, and then either select Raw and save the file, or select View Raw (if the file has no actual preview). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imperious Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 (edited) I have no idea why, but the HEX file ends up as 438kb. The thing is I should have realised the file sizes were enormous. Avrdude didn't complain at all when programming. Just go to code and download the Zip file. Edited December 12, 2021 by Imperious add more text 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dhe Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 I git bit by that... Save link as.. about 80% of the time, I'm fine.. The other 20% - js code, html code, etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightengale Posted December 29, 2021 Share Posted December 29, 2021 Greeting 99ers, I have scrubbed around looking on the forum, FAQs, alas left needing direction. Used multiple SD cards, took FG out of case; have not checked caps, power voltage levels, cleaned connectors yet or tried another console. My FG works great, with one file; if there is more than one game, tool, or file on the SD card(s) only: 1. TI Basic shows up on boot. FlashROM no issues. Black/Silver. Any other recommendations? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOME AUTOMATION Posted December 29, 2021 Share Posted December 29, 2021 Could you be using a QI TI-99/4a? ...check the side port fingers! ...Sounds like it could still be an SD card issue. What software version does your FG99 show? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted December 29, 2021 Share Posted December 29, 2021 Could you be using a QI TI-99/4a? ...check the side port fingers! ...Sounds like it could still be an SD card issue. What software version does your FG99 show?Flashrom shouldn't work in a qiSent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightengale Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 Rog, I've used the FR99 for a few years now really great, brass fingers, just re-checked in case I was going kookoo ?. S/W version no clue, got it and the FR from TBA, but, I will buy the SD card from TBA and see if that does anything, probably SD card. BTW I'm just copying the FG99 zip from here and putting on the SD card. https://ftp.whtech.com/Cartridges/FinalGROM99/ Still could be a myriad of things, I know AS talks about cleaning the slot connectors a lot but if one file works, shouldn't all of them, maybe not... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 Rog, I've used the FR99 for a few years now really great, brass fingers, just re-checked in case I was going kookoo [emoji2960]. S/W version no clue, got it and the FR from TBA, but, I will buy the SD card from TBA and see if that does anything, probably SD card. BTW I'm just copying the FG99 zip from here and putting on the SD card. https://ftp.whtech.com/Cartridges/FinalGROM99/ Still could be a myriad of things, I know AS talks about cleaning the slot connectors a lot but if one file works, shouldn't all of them, maybe not...Did you put the files on the card or the zip.. it doesn't read zipsSent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOME AUTOMATION Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 7 minutes ago, Nightengale said: S/W version no clue, ...It should be displayed at the top of the menu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightengale Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 (edited) HA-no menu sry can't asnwer that one. AS rog, extracting then copying. Of interest, when more than one file on the SD card, on boot/power on the LED blinks one short like a mircrosecond pretty fast, then goes out, and only TI Basic on menu Also beyond power up, pressing FG reset, same LED behavior. When only one file on the SD card, upon power up, long LED lit, then menu displays TI Basic and the one file name, and that file can be executed, interesting. If I put two files on the SD card say pitfall and fshark, then it doesn't work. But, if I put say fshark and the iamge-list/txt file on there, it does work. I think the SD cards I have are too fast, but hard to tell, I don't know what FG versin S/W it's using. Edited December 30, 2021 by Nightengale spelling/clarification Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightengale Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 Heck, at this rate, I can have 100 SD cards, each with its own program - what would 1983 us have thought of these very small 'cartridges' ? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOME AUTOMATION Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 Do you know what type of filesystem/format the SD card is setup for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOME AUTOMATION Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 I believe I'm using FAT, with 32k allocation units. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightengale Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 Hi HA, I was using FAT 32 rog. On a whim, I ordered these puppies: https://www.amazon.com/Memory-Digital-Memory4You-Microfiber-Cleaning/dp/B07DVQC85N/ref=sr_1_4?crid=6GB3JWLNLDBM&keywords=256mb+sd+card&qid=1640826332&sprefix=256+mb+sd+card%2Caps%2C299&sr=8-4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOME AUTOMATION Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 have you been here... https://github.com/endlos99/finalgrom99/blob/master/doc/MANUAL.md Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightengale Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 Yes I tried 1.3 update avr, didn't work. While I'm waiting for the 256 mb cheapo SD cards I'm going through this procedure: http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/minimem/cart_fix.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOME AUTOMATION Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 Have you tried reformatting the SD card, seems like that fixes some issues at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightengale Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 Yes, but on my mac. I will try on a windows machine if that helps any maybe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOME AUTOMATION Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 Sounds wise... rog/wilco... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightengale Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 26 minutes ago, HOME AUTOMATION said: rog/wilco... hehe you got me there ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDMike Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 1 hour ago, Nightengale said: Yes, but on my mac. I will try on a windows machine if that helps any maybe Hopefully. I also need to get me a fg 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reciprocating Bill Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 I found that one brand new Sandisk caddy/adapter worked between my FG and SD card while another didn't (although the FG acted as though there was no card present when it was non-functional). So there's a variable to test. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 I buy the cheapest smallest cards I can find and they work fine. Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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