UnoCart firmware update(s)

[+SvOlli]

2 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Have you asked for making the project open source?

I think I did and got a "no" as well. But that was a couple years ago, so I might be remembering this wrong (as well as the "direction" of the one cycle being off).

[DirtyHairy]

On 12/17/2020 at 2:57 PM, Al_Nafuur said:

 

UA bankswitching is added and tested to the PlusCart dev firmware. I copied the code to my UnoCart fork (untested), so @DirtyHairy if you like I can send a pull request:
https://github.com/Al-Nafuur/UnoCart-2600/commit/f5e3588633457e6377476385f4b476e1c8df6256

 

Sorry, I overlooked the conversation. Thanks, yeah, do a pull request, I'll integrate it.

[+Al_Nafuur]

16 minutes ago, DirtyHairy said:

Sorry, I overlooked the conversation. Thanks, yeah, do a pull request, I'll integrate it.

done

[Lordmonkus]

Can the firmware.bin update be used on any version of the UnoCart ? I have an early version bought way back when, I can't remember exactly and I don't want to brick my UnoCart.

[ronnie]

Hi guys! I'm having problems with just two games: Congo Bongo and Moonsweeper.

 

Congo Bongo: black screen 
Moonsweeper: A lot of issues that leave him unplayable. 

 

I appreciate if you can check it out.

[ZackAttack]

On 1/13/2021 at 12:14 AM, Lordmonkus said:

Can the firmware.bin update be used on any version of the UnoCart ? I have an early version bought way back when, I can't remember exactly and I don't want to brick my UnoCart.

Yeah, just make sure to leave the system powered on for a minute after running the firmware.bin or until the "update complete" screen is displayed. Whichever comes first. If your firmware is too old to support updates it won't even be able to load the firmware bin file format. Should be safe.

[Lordmonkus]

Thanks, I doubt it will update. After posting and thinking some more I seem to recall asking about this a while back in another thread and if I remember correctly my UnoCart is from before firmware updates.

[alfredtdk]

Will Circus Convoy be possible at Uno?

[+Al_Nafuur]

2 hours ago, alfredtdk said:

Will Circus Convoy be possible at Uno?

Unfortunately not with v17

 

 

[Fierodoug5]

I saw on Facebook someone playing Circus Convoy on a PlusCart, so I guess it works fine. I only ordered the standard version of the game, so no Rom for me to try.

[DFL]

Looking at the sources, the Unocart 2600 has only 96kb available for the games and Circus Convoy is 128kb. Maybe it needs some refactoring in the code?

[+Al_Nafuur]

1 hour ago, DFL said:

Looking at the sources, the Unocart 2600 has only 96kb available for the games and Circus Convoy is 128kb. Maybe it needs some refactoring in the code?

The UnoCart (and the PlusCart) load 96 KiB of the ROM into RAM and the rest of the ROM will be loaded to CCMRAM. For ROMs bigger than RAM + CCMRAM the rest will be flashed to the flash ROM, so in theory bankswitchings  up to 1 MiB can be supported.

 

Edited March 28, 2021 by Al_Nafuur

[+sramirez2008]

On 3/20/2021 at 2:42 PM, Al_Nafuur said:

Unfortunately not with v17

 

 

I can confirm that it is not working with v17. ☹️

[DirtyHairy]

On 3/28/2021 at 2:22 PM, DFL said:

Looking at the sources, the Unocart 2600 has only 96kb available for the games and Circus Convoy is 128kb. Maybe it needs some refactoring in the code?

 

On 3/28/2021 at 3:44 PM, Al_Nafuur said:

The UnoCart (and the PlusCart) load 96 KiB of the ROM into RAM and the rest of the ROM will be loaded to CCMRAM. For ROMs bigger than RAM + CCMRAM the rest will be flashed to the flash ROM, so in theory bankswitchings  up to 1 MiB can be supported.

 

What Al_Nafuur says: large ROMs are split between RAM and flash. The Uno firmware currently lacks support for the banking scheme; I'll add it if I can get my hands on a test ROM. I also still have to release a v18 with Al_Nafuur's PR for UA banking.

[+Al_Nafuur]

2 minutes ago, DirtyHairy said:

 

What Al_Nafuur says: large ROMs are split between RAM and flash. The Uno firmware currently lacks support for the banking scheme; I'll add it if I can get my hands on a test ROM. I also still have to release a v18 with Al_Nafuur's PR for UA banking.

SB is supported by the PlusCart and it is done very similar to your DF and BF support, so you can use a lot of the code here:

https://gitlab.com/firmaplus/atari-2600-pluscart/-/blob/master/source/STM32firmware/PlusCart/Src/cartridge_emulation_sb.c

 

You can find the test ROM here and I used the Prince Of Indiana ROM (Which is also SB Banking) for my tests on the PlusCart:

 

 

 

[DirtyHairy]

4 minutes ago, Al_Nafuur said:

SB is supported by the PlusCart and it is done very similar to your DF and BF support, so you can use a lot of the code here:

You can find the test ROM here and I used the Prince Of Indiana ROM (Which is also SB Banking) for my tests on the PlusCart:

Thanks, that's precisely what I was looking for.

[alfredtdk]

I wanted to take a question out of Unocart. Can I update again using the same firmware? It's on v17 and I want to use that same version over the top.
Because I am noticing some interference in the image. I haven't opened the cartridge yet to check if it has any kind of cold solder or any damaged component.

[DirtyHairy]

On 5/8/2021 at 3:31 AM, alfredtdk said:

I wanted to take a question out of Unocart. Can I update again using the same firmware? It's on v17 and I want to use that same version over the top.
Because I am noticing some interference in the image. I haven't opened the cartridge yet to check if it has any kind of cold solder or any damaged component.

You can flash any firmware you want, in any order you want, but reflashing will certainly not resolve the issues you are describing.

[pseudografx]

I just got the UnoCart and it is indeed a very nice and inexpensive piece of equipment. Is there a way to determine installed firmware version?

Also, fingers crossed for the DPC+ support to arrive soon. ?

[Fierodoug5]

Bottom of the menu screen. "R Edwards v17" is newest.

[DFL]

Is it possible to have a "reset" button to go back to the menu? Turn off and on again is not THAT bad, but it will be great if the menu returns with a tactile button on the unocart

[+SvOlli]

18 hours ago, DFL said:

Is it possible to have a "reset" button to go back to the menu?

Not in a way that's non-ugly.

There is no way to let the 2600 know about a CPU reset except for turning on. One could go with an "evil hack ROM" that has be replace the currently running with a kind of hack to trick the CPU into going into a reset-like state and also reset the state of the cartridge to go to menu again.

[+batari]

On 12/23/2021 at 10:26 AM, SvOlli said:

Not in a way that's non-ugly.

There is no way to let the 2600 know about a CPU reset except for turning on. One could go with an "evil hack ROM" that has be replace the currently running with a kind of hack to trick the CPU into going into a reset-like state and also reset the state of the cartridge to go to menu again.

That depends on how you define ugly. Positively the coding for this is a bit ugly but theoretically i believe there are heuristics where it could be done in a way that is transparent to the user and works virtually 100% of the time without modification of the ROM itself. I’ve experimented with this and had success but haven’t had time to turn it into a working model. If I do find this time to prove the concept I would of course share technical details. 

[Pob]

I'm a bit confused by the talk of unified firmware between Pluscart and Unocart.

Is it possible to use Pluscart firmware on a standard Unocart, and if so, is it just done via the update.bin?

And, would this use the same selection interface as on the Pluscart, that displays longer filenames?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I doubt it would work. The menu might look nicer, but you couldn't select anything, because the firmware want to load ROMs via Wifi and not from SD cart.