+Firedawg Posted January 29, 2018 Author Share Posted January 29, 2018 Nearing the finish line with the completion of the project. I just need to mount the Mouse Select and the Sophia RevC DVI connector using one of the serial ports which will require some slight modification . 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 (edited) @Herb: The little switch on the Sparkfun board selects the power supply: 5v or 3.3v, and should be set to 3.3v. It's labelled as such on the board, and if you look at the silkscreen on the 1088XEL, you won't see a 5v pin, but you do see a 3.3v pin. But I should probably have mentioned that one yesterday... After I discovered you hadn't made the mistake I'd made with the handshaking jumper. Edited January 29, 2018 by flashjazzcat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 Finished my board, and it even seems to work! lol Had some issues programming the pics with a pickit3. Wish I'd gotten the joy2pic. Still need to update the u1mb. I plugged a cart in and I don't get anything at all though? And I'm not sure how to access the xegs slot of the u1mb either? Edit, I should say I either get a black screen with a cursor upper left, or self test. Nice work! Short the XEGS jumper on the U1MB to turn the machine into an XEGS. Carts won't work with the stock BIOS unless you turn off 'SIDE hardware'. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 But once he updates the BIOS all will be okay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 (edited) Yes, since the XEL-CF firmware forces the button bit in the config off and doesn't suppress the external cart. Edited January 29, 2018 by flashjazzcat 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 I'm happy to see that the mysterious SIO2PC vs legacy SIO conflict has been resolved. I never would have thought of that myself, because all of the SparkFun boards I've received have that VCC/3.3V switch already set to 3.3V (which is where it needs to be). DrV I'm so sorry you had to tear out your hair trying to figure out what was going on. And I was unable to help out with the troubleshooting due to being incommunicado this weekend while spending time with Mrs MytekControls. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brentarian Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 Nearing the finish line with the completion of the project. I just need to mount the Mouse Select and the Sophia RevC DVI connector using one of the serial ports which will require some slight modification . Before performing surgery on the H80 case, consider this. Mount the DVI connector elsewhere in the case. Then use a DVI to HDMI converter and then finally this... https://www.btx.com/JQMobile.aspx?page=item+detail&itemcode=CD-HDFFP 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 No worries, Michael. I got it figured out eventually by dumb luck and stubbornness, my usual modus operendi. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 Before performing surgery on the H80 case, consider this. Mount the DVI connector elsewhere in the case. Then use a DVI to HDMI converter and then finally this... https://www.btx.com/JQMobile.aspx?page=item+detail&itemcode=CD-HDFFP contentonly.jpg Also just in case people don't know, I uploaded a zipped folder on my website containing more Mini-ITX rear bezel versions, some of which incorporate the DVI (and also some with DVI and the CF Slot). So for those that are contemplating something like this, but haven't yet ordered any panels, there are options available. Also speaking of these panel designs, please keep in mind that you can customize with whatever you desire, so long as you leave the original holes for what comes standard on the 1088XEL motherboard. So if you download and install the Front Panel Designer from Front Panel Express you can simply grab items (cut'n'paste from other panels) that I've already designed and plunk then down, and move them around to customize something more to your liking. You can also choose what color and finish you want, and even do color text and graphics either as engraved paint infills or digital UV printing. All of this is very easy to do from inside the FPD app, which BTW comes in multiple flavors (Windows, MAC, and Linux). And last but not least, any of the panel designs can be easily exported into DXF, SVG, or PDF... one of which should be importable into other applications such as 3D printing. To get that updated custom parts file, go to: http://ataribits.weebly.com/1088xel.html and scroll down to the Custom Mechanical Parts & Panels section. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 I decided to check my last batch of boards I got from SparkFun around the end of last year to see where that slide switch was set to on the BOB-12731 FT232RL boards, and every single one of them was set to VCC (I bought 6 of these when they went on sale). Being curious, I decided to verify my memory and then proceeded to check the boards I had mounted in my 3 prototypes, and all of them were set to 3.3V. So apparently either my memory sucks and I switched all of these to 3.3V, or that's the way they used to come. Anyway it's good to verify that these are indeed set to 3.3V just like DrV posted recently. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 Something to note and indicate in the manual... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 Looks like the firmware's done, but I spent a bit of time this evening updating UFLASH so it shows the revision dates of the components: Everything's been briefly tested with Rapidus (on A8s and 1088XEL), so once I've finished updating the documentation and the website, then prepared all the ATRs and ROM sets, that'll be that. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 Being curious, I decided to verify my memory and then proceeded to check the boards I had mounted in my 3 prototypes, and all of them were set to 3.3V. So apparently either my memory sucks and I switched all of these to 3.3V, or that's the way they used to come. Anyway it's good to verify that these are indeed set to 3.3V just like D posted recently. I'm glad you checked and that I'm not (obviously) crazy. I dug through my own album of assembly photos and the first night I assembled the Sparkfun board and headers to the XEL motherboard, the switch was on Vcc. I then found the pic I took the night I opened the box from MacRorie and sure enough, the switch was on Vcc as well (you can just make out the position of the switch if you zoom in). Something to note and indicate in the manual... Just a single sentence in the assembly notes section of the BOM would probably have covered it. As the doofus who uncovered the "issue" (such as it was), and made a public spectacle of trying to figure it out, I'd appreciate it, lol. DISCLAIMER: I know enough about these boards from idle reading of various home-made SIO2PC type threads to know that they CAN operate off 3.3V, I just thought the convention was ~5V for compatibility with Atari stuff. And while I have looked over parts of the 1088XEL schematics, it didn't even occur to me that there would be a dedicated 3.3V line to run the interface. Live and learn! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 Something to note and indicate in the manual... Just a single sentence in the assembly notes section of the BOM would probably have covered it. As the doofus who uncovered the "issue" (such as it was), and made a public spectacle of trying to figure it out, I'd appreciate it, lol. DISCLAIMER: I know enough about these boards from idle reading of various home-made SIO2PC type threads to know that they CAN operate off 3.3V, I just thought the convention was ~5V for compatibility with Atari stuff. And while I have looked over parts of the 1088XEL schematics, it didn't even occur to me that there would be a dedicated 3.3V line to run the interface. Live and learn! Will do on the note, which is a good idea (I'll hold off on that until I've completed tests on a new DC power jack which will get added to the BOM). Not a doofus at all, because a detail as small as this, and not having anything that points out what that switch should be set to is ripe for confusion. Yep the Atari is not responsible for powering this, that comes from the USB connection, which gives us a degree of isolation between systems with only the ground being shared. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Firedawg Posted January 29, 2018 Author Share Posted January 29, 2018 Before performing surgery on the H80 case, consider this. Mount the DVI connector elsewhere in the case. Then use a DVI to HDMI converter and then finally this... https://www.btx.com/JQMobile.aspx?page=item+detail&itemcode=CD-HDFFP contentonly.jpg Thanks, but I do not want to clutter an already pretty busy case. It will be a delicate operation, but it will be fine with the proper care. The dimensions of the serial port is slightly smaller and would require lengthening the main port some on each side and to provide room for fasteners as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 Will do on the note, which is a good idea (I'll hold off on that until I've completed tests on a new DC power jack which will get added to the BOM). Not a doofus at all, because a detail as small as this, and not having anything that points out what that switch should be set to is ripe for confusion. Yep the Atari is not responsible for powering this, that comes from the USB connection, which gives us a degree of isolation between systems with only the ground being shared. I did note an interesting side effect of moving the switch the correct position: I can now only communicate with RespeQt at 3X speed (57.6kpbs). Non-standard POKEY divisors simply do not seem to work below divisor 9, which is marginally SLOWER than 3X. And I experimented by running the RespeQt delay correction setting all the way up to 900 microseconds, and there was zero difference. Dubya tee eff? However, if I move the switch back to the "wrong" position, I get up to 125K bps without a hiccup running RWTEST, with the caveat of course that I lose the ability to use a real drive concurrently. These tests are being run currently on my Alienware Win10 gaming laptop (which thanks the Intel's processor design fubar and screwed-up BIOS updates from Dell, now BSOD's with use of my GPU - thanks guys. But I digress ...). So I'd be curious if anyone can replicate my results. It would be interesting to see people's maximum SIO2PC settings through the Sparkfun board, and what OS they're running. FWIW, I can generally get divisor 0 speeds with RespeQt running on my little RPi Zero W and my 1200XL, using my standalone SIO2PC-USB. I'll be using my 1088XEL with that little board as a file server once my case is finished. Speaking of which, and perhaps to reward me for flailing about with my self-created issues lately, I think the universe must have taken pity on me; this showed up on my porch tonight, by way of a U.S.-based trans-shipper in Kentucky, despite my order straight from the AliExpress website a mere ten (10!) days ago. Sorry, Mike! (Firedawg). I know you waited a LOT longer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 Thanks, but I do not want to clutter an already pretty busy case. It will be a delicate operation, but it will be fine with the proper care. The dimensions of the serial port is slightly smaller and would require lengthening the main port some on each side and to provide room for fasteners as well. Serial-DVD Dims.JPG Looks very close in thickness, so should work fine with some careful filing. Also something to keep in mind is that the board unfortunately overhangs the edge of the connector, so it will also require some filing to make it flush. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 Looks like the firmware's done, but I spent a bit of time this evening updating UFLASH so it shows the revision dates of the components: uflash.png Everything's been briefly tested with Rapidus (on A8s and 1088XEL), so once I've finished updating the documentation and the website, then prepared all the ATRs and ROM sets, that'll be that. Donation incoming. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 I did note an interesting side effect of moving the switch the correct position: I can now only communicate with RespeQt at 3X speed (57.6kpbs). Non-standard POKEY divisors simply do not seem to work below divisor 9, which is marginally SLOWER than 3X. And I experimented by running the RespeQt delay correction setting all the way up to 900 microseconds, and there was zero difference. Dubya tee eff? However, if I move the switch back to the "wrong" position, I get up to 125K bps without a hiccup running RWTEST, with the caveat of course that I lose the ability to use a real drive concurrently. These tests are being run currently on my Alienware Win10 gaming laptop (which thanks the Intel's processor design fubar and screwed-up BIOS updates from Dell, now BSOD's with use of my GPU - thanks guys. But I digress ...). So I'd be curious if anyone can replicate my results. It would be interesting to see people's maximum SIO2PC settings through the Sparkfun board, and what OS they're running. FWIW, I can generally get divisor 0 speeds with RespeQt running on my little RPi Zero W and my 1200XL, using my standalone SIO2PC-USB. I'll be using my 1088XEL with that little board as a file server once my case is finished. I haven't run the RWTEST at Divisor Zero yet, but here's what I see just loading in a demo. Other than the small hiccup on start which I'm suspecting is RespeQt zeroing in on maximum reliable speed it appears to do fine on my Linux desktop (SparkFun set to 3.3V). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDKTyPXatMg 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 I haven't run the RWTEST at Divisor Zero yet, but here's what I see just loading in a demo. Other than the small hiccup on start which I'm suspecting is RespeQt zeroing in on maximum reliable speed it appears to do fine on my Linux desktop (SparkFun set to 3.3V). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDKTyPXatMg Cool, thanks for checking. I'm betting this is a quirk of either Win10 or RWTEST.COM itself. Once I set my board into its case, I'll bring it off the bench to where my 1200XL is setup and test if with my RPi Zero W as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 And here's it running RWTEST, once again at Divisor Zero and the SparkFun board setting at 3.3V. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-NRrFL1Vog 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Firedawg Posted January 30, 2018 Author Share Posted January 30, 2018 this showed up on my porch tonight, by way of a U.S.-based trans-shipper in Kentucky, despite my order straight from the AliExpress website a mere ten (10!) days ago. Sorry, Mike! (Firedawg). I know you waited a LOT longer. Thanks Herb!!! Well, I took the free shipping, and paid $54 and waited 35 days. The good thing we both have our cases with working 1088XEL!!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 And here's it running RWTEST, once again at Divisor Zero and the SparkFun board setting at 3.3V. Well that inspired me to go back out to my bench and run some more tests. As I was about to boot my XEL, it occurred to me that RespeQt has been running on my Winbox for a few days now, mostly just sitting there idle when Im not testing. So I shut it down completely, reopened it, set Divisor 0 and ensured that my delay setting was back at the Windows default of 300 microseconds. Then I booted up a demo and bam. I dont know if all my testing just confused poor RespeQt, or if trying to swap chip speed settings in software through multiple tests earlier left some fuzzy data in the on-chip settings in the Sparkfun board, but this time it ran perfectly. Thanks Herb!!! Well, I took the free shipping, and paid $54 and waited 35 days. The good thing we both have our cases with working 1088XEL!!! Yours is much further along though. Im going to order a cartridge tunnel, mouse select board and top panel display board this weekend. Hopefully the parts to make my joystick cables will arrive soon too. Then in a couple more week (MrsVenkman willing ) Ill be ordering custom top/back panels. Ive decided to with a rich blue: subdued but still different. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 Well that inspired me to go back out to my bench and run some more tests. As I was about to boot my XEL, it occurred to me that RespeQt has been running on my Winbox for a few days now, mostly just sitting there idle when Im not testing. So I shut it down completely, reopened it, set Divisor 0 and ensured that my delay setting was back at the Windows default of 300 microseconds. Then I booted up a demo and bam. I dont know if all my testing just confused poor RespeQt, or if trying to swap chip speed settings in software through multiple tests earlier left some fuzzy data in the on-chip settings in the Sparkfun board, but this time it ran perfectly. F1FEB623-0AB8-4FBB-AC8B-DF89CD805C68.jpeg Yours is much further along though. Im going to order a cartridge tunnel, mouse select board and top panel display board this weekend. Hopefully the parts to make my joystick cables will arrive soon too. Then in a couple more week (MrsVenkman willing ) Ill be ordering custom top/back panels. Ive decided to with a rich blue: subdued but still different. Congrats on a successful SIO2PC test I was thinking of doing my next panel set in blue as well. If you want to get a better feel for what the different finishes look like you can order sample chips for a small fee. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Firedawg Posted January 30, 2018 Author Share Posted January 30, 2018 I loved Michael's design so much I just had to replicate it, but on this next build I'm doing something custom with Dropcheck's SDriveXEL and XL/XE Cart Extender. Maybe a mini tower? Color? Hmm, not sure about that yet. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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