+Larry Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 Can Phaeron's XEP80 drivers be used with an original XEP80? Is there any advantage in doing so, if possible? I have a couple of the original devices, but they are not usuable due to overscan. (I get about 78 columns and 23 lines.) Basically I'm asking if there are any improvements that I can make to my original XEP80's to make them usable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 Definitely, that was the main reason for such drivers. I believe it's his NTSC driver that will allow a full display without overscan. IIRC, it breaks compatibility with some of the graphics functions but I'm not aware of anything besides a demo that used them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari8guy Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 I use them with XEP-80, they are better than the originals. My only monitor that I use though, never had overscan issues, so I can't add anything about that. But the drivers do work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share Posted December 23, 2022 Could someone post them or a link? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 (edited) If you have Altira the drivers might be on the additions extras disk. Yup, they are there in the additions.atr Edited December 23, 2022 by _The Doctor__ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 Yup, all drivers go on that disk.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share Posted December 23, 2022 Thanks, I'll check it out. I'm not well versed in Altirra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeron Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 You don't need to use the alternate driver, you can also use XEPVHOLD.COM on the same Additions disk with the original XEP80 driver. It just reprograms the timing chain on the device using the standard Atari-defined XIO commands. It won't work with the stock SpartaDOS X XEP80 driver, though, as that driver doesn't support the custom command XIO. Note that there are some compromises with using XEPVHOLD, as the default font is too tall for 24 visible lines without truncating the characters a bit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted January 12, 2023 Author Share Posted January 12, 2023 I got out my XEP80 today, and it won't sync with my All-In-Wonder composite input. The result is shown below. It actually looks far worse than this capture photo. It is a rolling, smeared mess. I tried Phaeron's XEPVHOLD.COM program and substituted several other drivers for the boot disk AUTORUN.SYS, but they had no effect. So I'm thinking about purchasing a Composite to HDMI adapter. I'd appreciate suggestions or alternatives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted January 12, 2023 Author Share Posted January 12, 2023 What a difference! I remembered that my computer LCD TV does have a dedicated composite input. And it syncs great. Using XEPVHOLD, I can get 24 full lines. But I can only get 78 columns so far. Do any of Phaeron's .SYS files affect horizontal spacing? At Hpos 0, I have a screen margin of maybe an inch. So my screen is shifted to the right about 1/2"-3/4". Now, is it possible to get the screen shifted left or compressed horizontally to get all 80 columns? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted January 12, 2023 Share Posted January 12, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, Larry said: But I can only get 78 columns so far. Do you still have the left margin at the default of 2, I believe this affects 40 and 80 column modes, this could explain why you only have a 78 column text display Find current left margin: ?PEEK(82) Set left margin to 0: Poke 82,0 Edited January 12, 2023 by BillC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted January 13, 2023 Author Share Posted January 13, 2023 Thanks. Yep, at HPOS 0, I get 78 columns. At HPOS 2, 76. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted January 13, 2023 Author Share Posted January 13, 2023 Still no success, this time using the new drivers. There are 3 drivers on the ADDITIONS.ATR. I've tried all 3, and I still end up with 78 columns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 looks like 79 with the television cutting it off on the right hand side, I had to use position controls on my samsung to make bottom and right visible on the old drivers. have you compared old and new drivers and firmwares? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikerbob Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 Funny that this is going.. I just plugged my XEP in for the first time today (new in box) Looks great on my screen - have not looked into drivers or anything.. I am using XEP80.sys from Spartados 4.49 So is there something better to use?? LOVE this look. James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 (edited) POKE 82,0 then see how far across and down it goes for comparison with larry's screen Edited January 13, 2023 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikerbob Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 13 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said: POKE 82,0 then see how far across and down it goes for comparison with larry's screen So the Poke did not move the margin, and I am getting 78 x 23 - So.. can I make this better?? My monitor does not have image controls for AV (composite) in. James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted January 13, 2023 Author Share Posted January 13, 2023 @_The Doctor__ I don't believe there are any user controls to move the picture on this TV. It can be adjusted in PC mode, but not in A/V. Where is the new firmware -- from MyTek? Are there docs for it? @Bikerbob -- can you get 80 columns X 24 lines? (Oops, you've already answered that.) This is THE problem that so many folks have with this device. For a few, it works, for most others, it only comes close. You may be able to get 24 lines by using Phaeron's XEPVHOLD.COM file. Look above for some discussion about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 (edited) $40E0 on, 13 bytes which the XEP is initialized: $D9 Cursor always on $D4 Use ATASCII characterset $DE Bright characters on dark background $D3 Burst mode, no cursor data is send back $60 Left Margin 0 low nibble $70 Left Margin 0 Hi nibble $AF Right Margin low nibble 15 + 4*16 Hi nibble = 79 $B4 Right Margin hi nibble $00 Horizontal cursor position = 0 $80 vertical cursor position = 0 $D0 Erase List flag $C5 Fill RAM with SPACE-characters $DC Set Scroll window to X-cursor position I think this is bobterm xep driver though... there are a few drivers floating around. Edited January 13, 2023 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikerbob Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 (edited) 9 minutes ago, Larry said: @_The Doctor__ I don't believe there are any user controls to move the picture on this TV. It can be adjusted in PC mode, but not in A/V. Where is the new firmware -- from MyTek? Are there docs for it? @Bikerbob -- can you get 80 columns X 24 lines? (Oops, you've already answered that.) This is THE problem that so many folks have with this device. For a few, it works, for most others, it only comes close. Now being a ST guy, I have a bunch of mono monitors around - that I cant really sell for anything for an ST.. but could I convert the input of the monitor to work with the XEP80? Never mind read another thread, the 124 is a no go.. and 1224 is not worth the bother either. SO - guess this is a pita eh? James Edited January 13, 2023 by Bikerbob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted January 13, 2023 Author Share Posted January 13, 2023 Can you provide a link where you got this info? I'm looking for some added discussion as to what that all means. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 (edited) Maybe someone has TurboWord and Turboword + it may have a driver set up for proper 80 by 24 ----- Original Message -----From: "Steve Thornton" <steve@micromiser.com>Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bitSent: Tuesday, July 02, 2002 8:37 PMSubject: Ben Poehland v. Micromiser Software> Hi ....>> I can't believe you guys are still using those 8-bits including these> Micromiser programs. But of course that's great!>> Besides the 8-bit programs Turbobase, Turbofile, Turboword being> completely in the public domain, this also applies to a program> for the ST called Ultrabase. Do anything you want with these> programs, disks, etc.>> .........>> Steve Thornton> Micromiser Software It is public domain and should be everywhere, if ABBUC still maintains a PD library it should be available to everyone, members and non members alike. Such things used to be the case. It would be in the early low number PD disks of ABBUC if they kept it all, or it should be in the archive of the OLD ABBUC that was decommissioned. Edited January 13, 2023 by _The Doctor__ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 (edited) took a moment to look https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=XEP80 wiki has some stuff and links, there are atari's drivers and disks, there are bobterms drivers and disks, don't know what all is on Atari Writer 80 and TurboWord disks, if those drivers are special in some way mathy's page has some stuff but it's prolly turned 50 hz and 60 hz may be forgotten. Phaeron did some work on it and has a group of drivers maybe a round up of all drivers is in order, and then they would be fixed up / made into 50hz and 60hz versions https://www.atarimagazines.com/v7n6/xep80slideshow.html edit: ABBUC PD disk 707 may have a turboword on it, don't know if it's the correct one, but this series sold well enough and was released to the public domain, it should turn up somewhere. Edited January 13, 2023 by _The Doctor__ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 Turboword 80 is available here: https://ataribits.weebly.com/xep80-ii.html 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 (edited) heh, My apologies, I thought I only had the manual... the .atr was in the same zip. so it's on archive.org as well... we still don't have all the other Turbo stuff and that would be excellent if it were all rounded up. lesson for me today, even if it says manual, check the compressed file contents, it may well have the disk too Edited January 15, 2023 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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