LessNick Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 Hello there o/ Firstly, I want to express my deep gratitude to the author of the project. Thanks to A8PicoCart, I was able to view not only 16 and 32k cartridges, but also run 128k, it’s amazing! But unfortunately, not all versions of modern type are supported. I really want to play Bomb Jake or Yie Another Kung-Fu on real hardware, but this requires a Corina card to run them. Is there at least a minimal chance to expect support for this type of cartridge in the future? Once again thank you so much for your work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daze Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 I just bought the A8PicoCart from eBay. It has issues while copying files to it, and crashes to the boot loader location. I then flash it with the UF2 file, and can see the Atari drive again. Not sure if the board the seller used came with bad flash... Is there a limit on the size of the files being loaded? For example, if I load a GAMES ATR file which is approx. 180K, the drive crashes, and I have to flash again, and even have to do a file scan and repair in Windows. I know there is limited ATR support, but we're talking about loading file content, but not even the loading part yet. Are there any file system restrictions here I should be aware of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 1 hour ago, Daze said: I just bought the A8PicoCart from eBay. It has issues while copying files to it, and crashes to the boot loader location. I then flash it with the UF2 file, and can see the Atari drive again. Not sure if the board the seller used came with bad flash... Is there a limit on the size of the files being loaded? For example, if I load a GAMES ATR file which is approx. 180K, the drive crashes, and I have to flash again, and even have to do a file scan and repair in Windows. I know there is limited ATR support, but we're talking about loading file content, but not even the loading part yet. Are there any file system restrictions here I should be aware of it? I'm pretty sure you are limited to 128K files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daze Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 6 minutes ago, mytek said: I'm pretty sure you are limited to 128K files. Makes sense. Didn't find it in any docs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darwinmac Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 1 hour ago, Daze said: Makes sense. Didn't find it in any docs. If you download the manual from Electrotrains GitHub site, the 128k limit confirmed at the beginning of the manual. Bob C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panther Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 Looking at the manual, the 128KB limit applies to ROM/CAR files, but he's using ATR files which can be up to 15MB according to the manual. Something does sound amiss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peri Noid Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 (edited) 5 hours ago, Daze said: Didn't find it in any docs. I'm quite confident that it's written somewhere that A8Pico is able to execute software/images only up to 1Mbit in size, so 128KB. By the way, it's not a limit of a file size to be stored on this cart. Mine accepts larger files. But it refuses to execute them. Edited June 17 by Peri Noid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DjayBee Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 3 hours ago, Peri Noid said: I'm quite confident that it's written somewhere that A8Pico is able to execute software/images only up to 1Mbit in size, so 128KB. By the way, it's not a limit of a file size to be stored on this cart. Mine accepts larger files. But it refuses to execute them. Yep for carts because they need to be in the Pico's RAM which is only 256K and half of it occupied by the OS. Flash is not fast enought to deliver the cart's data at bus speed. ATRs on the other hand have no speed issues and can be fed directly from flash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peri Noid Posted Tuesday at 09:28 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 09:28 PM On 6/17/2024 at 11:08 AM, DjayBee said: ATRs on the other hand have no speed issues and can be fed directly from flash. But are they? My experience says, it is not - it's also loaded to memory, hence the limit. Or at least I was not able to use larger ATRs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted Tuesday at 09:51 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 09:51 PM No, ATRs are opened from the file-system and accessed by reading the requested sector from the appropriate offset (i.e. multiplied by sector size) and then passed 128 bytes at a time via the $D5xx area to the Atari's sector buffer. So the ATR size versus RAM size is not a limiting factor. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peri Noid Posted Wednesday at 06:09 AM Share Posted Wednesday at 06:09 AM So I must have made a different mistake somewhere. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandviewCoin Posted Wednesday at 04:10 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 04:10 PM So I received the A8PicoCart in the mail. Normally I like to build my things, but decided to go a pre-made route this time.. But, there's a problem. Anytime I try to add files to the cart it goes to a bout 17% of what I am copying then stalls and errors out, then windows ejects the cart from the system. When this happens all I can do is re-plug it in and the file directory has been wiped and set to a RP1-RP2 label. I then have to use the UF2 file to get it back to normal. What are the limitations to transferring files? Whats the work around for this. What does get n there works great. Only issue is with transferring files? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madness77 Posted Wednesday at 04:38 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 04:38 PM 26 minutes ago, GrandviewCoin said: [...] But, there's a problem. Anytime I try to add files to the cart it goes to a bout 17% of what I am copying then stalls and errors out, then windows ejects the cart from the system. [...] This sounds like a defective Pico Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XL Freak Posted Wednesday at 04:47 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 04:47 PM 6 minutes ago, madness77 said: This sounds like a defective Pico yes it does. I've loaded a couple of dozen CAR files on mine and I use it every day. and it's never even hiccuped once. but I built mine. I don't have any pcb's or kits left or I'd send ya one. good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SenorRossie Posted Wednesday at 05:42 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 05:42 PM Could also be an issue with the usb-c cable. The fact that it partially works (and every time you reinsert the cart/cable I expect) sounds like a cable issue. A high speed charging cable should work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted Wednesday at 05:57 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 05:57 PM dodgy cable my suspicion too. but this is another report so was it the same seller? dodgy batch of pico's (are these 'clones' not offical?). Are cables direct to the PC or via a usb-hub? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madness77 Posted Wednesday at 06:12 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 06:12 PM (edited) 25 minutes ago, Wrathchild said: dodgy cable my suspicion too. but this is another report so was it the same seller? dodgy batch of pico's (are these 'clones' not offical?). Are cables direct to the PC or via a usb-hub? "Official" Pico have too few I/O pins. Out of five purple clones from Ali, I had one with similar symptoms. That's why it's worth checking, loading 15MB of files at a time before soldering to the PCB. Take a good cable (not for charging, but for data transfer). Connect directly to the PC. If it doesn't work, complain to the "manufacturer" or buy a new pico and solder it on ($3 and 5 minutes of work). Edited Wednesday at 06:22 PM by madness77 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandviewCoin Posted Wednesday at 07:44 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 07:44 PM 1 hour ago, madness77 said: "Official" Pico have too few I/O pins. Out of five purple clones from Ali, I had one with similar symptoms. That's why it's worth checking, loading 15MB of files at a time before soldering to the PCB. Take a good cable (not for charging, but for data transfer). Connect directly to the PC. If it doesn't work, complain to the "manufacturer" or buy a new pico and solder it on ($3 and 5 minutes of work). Thats all good advice... the shell and eveything else looks good. 1 hour ago, madness77 said: "Official" Pico have too few I/O pins. Out of five purple clones from Ali, I had one with similar symptoms. That's why it's worth checking, loading 15MB of files at a time before soldering to the PCB. Take a good cable (not for charging, but for data transfer). Connect directly to the PC. If it doesn't work, complain to the "manufacturer" or buy a new pico and solder it on ($3 and 5 minutes of work). I already talked to the Ebay Seller and they said this happens frequently and a replacement won't solve it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandviewCoin Posted Wednesday at 07:47 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 07:47 PM 2 hours ago, SenorRossie said: Could also be an issue with the usb-c cable. The fact that it partially works (and every time you reinsert the cart/cable I expect) sounds like a cable issue. A high speed charging cable should work. Its seeing the cart every time I plug it in just fine. Its transferring files. It starts off fine then that data flow just reduces to zero, then it freezes and boots the device out of windows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggj Posted Friday at 04:35 PM Share Posted Friday at 04:35 PM Anyone had success running A8PicoCart on a machine with Ultimate 1MB ? No luck here on my 800XL. firmware on U1MB seems to think I got Side3! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted Friday at 04:57 PM Share Posted Friday at 04:57 PM (edited) 23 minutes ago, greggj said: Anyone had success running A8PicoCart on a machine with Ultimate 1MB ? No luck here on my 800XL. firmware on U1MB seems to think I got Side3! No, the U1MB simply failed to detect a SIDE3 (since none is present) and defaulted to running the SIDE Loader (for SIDE and SIDE2) built into the firmware ROM. That's perfectly normal behaviour if you attempt to invoke the loader without a SIDE cart attached (or if you have 'Boot to Loader' enabled). Make sure the PBI HDD is set to 'Disabled' and turn off the U1MB's built-in SpartaDOS X. The A8PicoCart will then start up when you turn the machine on. Edited Friday at 04:59 PM by flashjazzcat 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madness77 Posted Friday at 05:21 PM Share Posted Friday at 05:21 PM 43 minutes ago, greggj said: Anyone had success running A8PicoCart on a machine with Ultimate 1MB ? It works perfectly: u1mb-a8pico.mp4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggj Posted Friday at 08:46 PM Share Posted Friday at 08:46 PM Fixed per FJC instructions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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