New SIDE3 Loader Testing and Development Thread

[tuf]

On 4/6/2023 at 6:55 PM, rensoup said:

Just put it back, your contributions will not be missed.

That's the most inaccurate statement on the entire internet.  Congrats!

[chevymad]

On 4/7/2023 at 12:44 PM, Ricky Spanish said:

Looks like I need to get a side3 for my 1200xl ! Nice work @flashjazzcat !!

 

EDIT;

Seems I can't find the SIDE3 anywhere

Did you try going directly to the source? It's never taken very long for me to recieve items from lotharek here in the states. https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=143

[Ricky Spanish]

31 minutes ago, chevymad said:

Did you try going directly to the source? It's never taken very long for me to recieve items from lotharek here in the states. https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=143

what'd you pay in shipping ?

[Atari8guy]

As a fellow Western Canadian, let me tell you ordering from Lotharek can be painfully slow....the stuff always arrives, but the candies are often expired!!!

[Ricky Spanish]

29 minutes ago, Atari8guy said:

As a fellow Western Canadian, let me tell you ordering from Lotharek can be painfully slow....the stuff always arrives, but the candies are often expired!!!

What'd you pay for shipping ?

[rensoup]

On 4/7/2023 at 1:36 PM, flashjazzcat said:

I have no desire to perpetuate these stupid quarrels

I have nothing to add until your next relapse.

[chevymad]

1 hour ago, Ricky Spanish said:

What'd you pay for shipping ?

It's $16.30 to Washington state. 

[Ricky Spanish]

38 minutes ago, chevymad said:

It's $16.30 to Washington state. 

Well that's pretty good. How long did it take ? And thanks.

[chevymad]

That all depends on customs.. This has nothing to do with the thread topic though. So I suggest we lay off. More questions you should start a new thread maybe. 

[flashjazzcat]

12 hours ago, rensoup said:

I have nothing to add until your next relapse.

Given what constitutes a relapse in your eyes, I expect we'll hear a lot from you.

 

[flashjazzcat]

9 hours ago, chevymad said:

This has nothing to do with the thread topic though. So I suggest we lay off. More questions you should start a new thread maybe. 

It's OK: Derailment happened long before the brief exchange about availability and shipping.

Edited April 9, 2023 by flashjazzcat

[Atari8guy]

22 hours ago, Ricky Spanish said:

What'd you pay for shipping ?

$45 Canadian....but I ordered 3 things....

[chevymad]

April 8 to April 24 for a side3 to arrive from Lotharek to Washington state. 

[Jacques]

Yesterday I updated my SIDE3 (not 3.1), thank you @flashjazzcat.

On this occasion, I tested Bomb Jake .bin image but since it didn't work, I guess Corina cartridges are not supported yet?

[flashjazzcat]

35 minutes ago, Jacques said:

I guess Corina cartridges are not supported yet

IIRC, they're not and there are no plans to support them in the future owing to the complexity of the hardware.

[Jacques]

Understood, thanks

[Atlan_Roland]

Unfortunately I managed to brick my SIDE3 3.0 while doing a firmware update with s3loader.xex  -  the program stopped with a corrupted screen while in the process.

SIDE3 loader is not accessible anymore.

 

But when I boot SDX from U1MB, and load s3loader.xex (v0.69) from a virtual disk attached by RespeQt, the cartridge still gets recognized, but the s3loader.xex stops with - i guess - some kind of ‘security check’ message:

Remove cartridge or enable SIDE3 rom!

(Yes, I would like to enable SIDE3 rom by flashing it  )

Question: Is there a way to override this?

 

[Beeblebrox]

Can you post an image of your u1mb bios screen showing the plug in you have installed? It should have s3 in the mix. 

 

I've never had a problem flashing the side3 loader firmware itself. Were you flashing from the side's root directory? 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Beeblebrox

[Atlan_Roland]

dont know why it screwed up.

 

got the SOS3P2 pluign on that maschine (the other one i tested with has VXS3P2).

 

yes, was flashing from the root directory, also did the process couple of times before; never had any problem neither.

 

 

i guess this SIDE3 cart. will only be recoverable if there would be a possibility to let the upgrade process run despite s3loader.xex not recogizing it properly ..and i guess i would need a special build by @flashjazzcat for that..
 

[flashjazzcat]

13 hours ago, Atlan_Roland said:

But when I boot SDX from U1MB, and load s3loader.xex (v0.69) from a virtual disk attached by RespeQt, the cartridge still gets recognized, but the s3loader.xex stops with - i guess - some kind of ‘security check’ message:

Remove cartridge or enable SIDE3 rom!

Run it with the 'X' command; I believe this is written in the readme somewhere, but if it isn't, my apologies. So:

 

X S3LOADER.XEX

 

The error message is quite pragmatic, and is asking you to remove the cartridge ROM that's in the way of the SIDE3 ROM (which the program has no way of doing since it could be one of a number of things). The cartridge ROM that's in the way in this case is SDX on the U1MB.

 

Another method which works with RespeQt is to select 'Boot Atari Executable', point to S3LOADER.XEX, then type 'COLD /N' at the SDX prompt. This will boot the flasher with SDX disabled.

Edited April 30, 2023 by flashjazzcat

[Atlan_Roland]

Thank you very much!

 

I did the recommended "RespeQt -Boot Atari Executable" method after disabling U1MB SDX

and was very happy to see that screen & prompt presented:

 

The following flash was successful and now i've got a working SIDE3 again!

 

FJC, you are the Best!

😀

 

 

 

[wildstar87]

Saw the warning about upgrading to JED 1.3, I did update to 0.69, seems to be working ok.  Some questions, is there a compelling reason to go to 1.3?  Is there a method to tilt the odds more to success on updating?  I bought my SIDE3 from Vintage Computer Center, which sadly is no more.  If I do have problems, I don't seem to have the vendor I purchased from, to talk to regarding this.  Who would I talk to about getting the JED updated, if it is inadvertently bricked?  Brewing Academy?

[flashjazzcat]

4 hours ago, wildstar87 said:

is there a compelling reason to go to 1.3?

Not on the original (SIDE 3.0) hardware, unless you have stability problems to begin with. Other than stability enhancements, JED 1.3 simply enables use of the 4MB/8MB of SRAM on the 3.1 (and now 3.2) hardware (no SIDE 3.0 having more than 2MB), and a few other forward-looking improvements.

4 hours ago, wildstar87 said:

If I do have problems, I don't seem to have the vendor I purchased from, to talk to regarding this.  Who would I talk to about getting the JED updated, if it is inadvertently bricked?

That's a good question. Right now, it appears to be Lotharek or me, no third-party (aside from one in Germany who may not wish to be a first point of contact for bricked SIDE3s, for all I know) being permitted to have their hands on any SIDE3 JED (and that includes people who actually sell the thing). Aside from hampering the recovery of bricked devices, this hardly suggests extensive field-testing of timing fixes, but what would I know.

Edited June 24, 2023 by flashjazzcat

[Wilheim]

Hi! I have a SIDE3 cartridge, but I have a lot of CAR images that doesn't work. I supposed to have the JED updated to version 1.3 and SIDE3 loader 0.69

 

Many Atarimax images goes to the memory test routine and others simply crashs.

 

I have a U1MB with FJC firmware, with the 74LS08 glue logic chip replaced with 74F08 installed.

 

What troubleshooting should I do?

[flashjazzcat]

If you already have JED 1.3 and Loader 0.69, we can be sure that any loader and JED bugs concerning AtariMax images are fixed. I guess post some of the problem images here so that I can check them, and if they work, then you have further stability or data transfer issues to troubleshoot.

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by flashjazzcat