need help with BJL modded jaguar

[+cubanismo]

Note even if your cable tests fine for continuity, it could still have problems. It needs to be well shielded, and ideally use the shortest possible cable to minimize interference.

 

BJL is extremely fussy. I have two essentially identical BJL adapters (DB-15->centronics whatever) that I use. I built them both myself from the same parts at the same time. One works reliably, one only works ~50% of the time.

 

For the -8 upload, you can mess with the -w parameter as well to tweak the timing. Try -w 2, -w 3, etc. up to 10 or so. When the value gets up to high, it won't really be any faster than the default 4 bit mode though. Also, if your ultimate goal is dumping cartridges, this isn't going to be much help.

 

If you get small uploads working reliably, my BJL stress test is usually uploading Gem Race by @DrTypo. That's nearly 2mb, and of course, I always enjoy playing a game or two to celebrate after it loads correctly 😁

 

 

[Zerosquare]

1 hour ago, cubanismo said:

Note even if your cable tests fine for continuity, it could still have problems. It needs to be well shielded, and ideally use the shortest possible cable to minimize interference.

Good advice. I'd recommend keeping the cable length below 1 meter (~3 feet) if you can, and definitely not go above 2 meters (~6 feet).

[john_q_atari]

1 hour ago, Zerosquare said:

Good advice. I'd recommend keeping the cable length below 1 meter (~3 feet) if you can, and definitely not go above 2 meters (~6 feet).

My current cable is about 5 feet. If I stick the Jaguar directly on top of the PC tower case I could probably get away with an 18 inch cable... maybe that will be this afternoon's project...

[john_q_atari]

Total and complete success!

 

Win98, (not XP), motherboard with built in parallel port set to EPP 378h, less than 18 inch long BJL cable.

 

I was able to dump 2 different carts and play the images in BigPemu.

 

Many thanks to Zerosquare, Cubanismo, Walter_J64bit, and 42bs! You people are awesome.

 

Just out of curiosity, can bjl_dump dump anything larger than 4MB?

 

[42bs]

3 hours ago, john_q_atari said:

Just out of curiosity, can bjl_dump dump anything larger than 4MB

Check the source. 

[Zerosquare]

It's not been tested with larger than 4 MB carts, but it should work fine up to 6 MB, possibly by setting the cartridge size manually (see the included readme.txt file for details).

 

It will not work as-is for carts larger than 6 MB, but the only ones that exist are a few homebrews games, and the Skunkboard/JagGD (which have a USB port anyways, so no need to use BJL).

[walter_J64bit]

9 hours ago, Zerosquare said:

It's not been tested with larger than 4 MB carts, but it should work fine up to 6 MB, possibly by setting the cartridge size manually (see the included readme.txt file for details).

 

It will not work as-is for carts larger than 6 MB, but the only ones that exist are a few homebrews games, and the Skunkboard/JagGD (which have a USB port anyways, so no need to use BJL).

Good to know!