drpeter Posted August 12 Author Share Posted August 12 10 minutes ago, MrFish said: Information is limited, though. I wouldn't mind knowing what chip is used, so I could add the info on my site: Xetec Graphix AT I'll let you know when mine arrives! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 6 minutes ago, drpeter said: I'll let you know when mine arrives! Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 Hello guys Pancio made some new centronics interfaces a couple of years ago. Check out VIAtronics. Sincerely Mathy 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manterola Posted August 13 Share Posted August 13 @Dropcheckalso had MPP printer interface reproductions if I remember correctly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dropcheck Posted August 13 Share Posted August 13 Yea, I recreated the MPP version in an internal format. It shouldn't be a lot of effort to recreate the original. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari8guy Posted August 13 Share Posted August 13 On 8/12/2024 at 3:09 AM, pixelmischief said: I've recently connected a Star NX1000 via both the MIO and the P:R:. Funny though, I almost immediately went back to the FujiNet pushing to a Pi serving an inkjet. Kinda nice. But then how do you print your banners? j/k 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chri O. Posted August 14 Share Posted August 14 I didn't have time to test my MPP-1150 printer interface yet, I mainly need it for verification of my printer software emulator. 😷 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chri O. Posted August 14 Share Posted August 14 ALITIRRA RAW BANNER 8-9 DATA.zip 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpeter Posted August 23 Author Share Posted August 23 OK, so my Xetec Graphix AT interface arrived, and I opened it up, for the benefit of @MrFish It seems there are two versions- the older one I have, from 1985, and a revised version from 1987. A picture of the internals of both side-by-side was posted previously on AtariAge by @leech The 1985 version is based on a 6805 microprocessor with 3 logic chips and a 2764 EPROM. The 6805 has (16) on-chip IO lines, 8 of which are used to drive the parallel port, and 112 bytes of on-chip RAM. The SIO cable uses 6 lines from the SIO bus- clock out (pin 2, brown wire) data in (to computer) (pin 3, blue wire) ground (pin 4, cable shield with yellow sleeve) data out (from computer) (pin 5, white wire) command (pin 7, green wire) +5V (pin 10, red wire) The clock signal is used to drive the 6805 clock and the +5V to power the whole board. In the 1987 version, the logic chips, 6805 and ROM all seem to have been subsumed into a single custom IC, greatly simplifying the board layout, which also does away with the capacitors between the +5V rail and ground. An interesting variation between the version pictured by @leech and mine is that mine also has a regulator diode between the +5V rail and ground, just below the large 100uf electrolytic capacitor. There had been a somewhat unsuccessful effort to erase the chip ID from the EPROM on my board (mostly, it was protected by the sticker)... Xetec Graphix AT - Manual (ver2 1987).pdf Xetec Graphix AT manual (ver1 1985).pdf 3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reifsnyderb Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 (edited) Mine is the 1985 version and is identical to what @drpeter posted. However, I don't have the diode in mine. I was able to dump the ROM as an AM2764A. Here's the dump... ATver_1_2_J.BIN It looks like it's around 2.3k worth of code. Maybe somebody wants to disassemble it. 🙂 Edited August 23 by reifsnyderb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpeter Posted August 23 Author Share Posted August 23 The chief functional difference between the 1985 and 1987 versions appears to be the absence of 'Near Letter Quality' printing mode on the former. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reifsnyderb Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 Just now, drpeter said: The chief functional difference between the 1985 and 1987 versions appears to be the absence of 'Near Letter Quality' printing mode on the former. I used it with a Star NP-10 and it had "Near Letter Quality". Maybe there's some difference? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpeter Posted August 23 Author Share Posted August 23 (edited) 18 minutes ago, reifsnyderb said: It looks like it's around 2.3k worth of code. Maybe somebody wants to disassemble it. 🙂 If anyone wanted to attempt that joyful task, here's the datasheet for the 6805, including opcodes etc. IA6805E2.PDF EDIT: There do seem to be 6805 disassemblers around, although I've never used one Edited August 23 by drpeter 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reifsnyderb Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 Tutorial on the 6805. http://www.bitsavers.org/components/motorola/6805/68HC05_Tutorial.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 2 hours ago, drpeter said: OK, so my Xetec Graphix AT interface arrived, and I opened it up, for the benefit of @MrFish Thanks for the pics and other info. 2 hours ago, drpeter said: It seems there are two versions- the older one I have, from 1985, and a revised version from 1987. A picture of the internals of both side-by-side was posted previously on AtariAge by @leech Yes, quite interesting. I'm not sure how I missed everything in that thread. I could swear I recall seeing that thread before. It might have been towards the end of getting ready to launch my website, and the (available) info just slipped through the cracks. I was pretty anxious to turn the site loose and get away from the whole thing for a while, at that point. I see the manual for the first version was posted in that thread too. I'll have to make an entry for the older version too -- when I add info for this newer version. 2 hours ago, drpeter said: In the 1987 version, the logic chips, 6805 and ROM all seem to have been subsumed into a single custom IC, greatly simplifying the board layout, which also does away with the capacitors between the +5V rail and ground. Yeah, that's pretty interesting to see it'd been updated to a single custom chip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 2 hours ago, reifsnyderb said: Mine is the 1985 version and is identical to what @drpeter posted. However, I don't have the diode in mine. I was able to dump the ROM as an AM2764A. Here's the dump... ATver_1_2_J.BIN 8 kB · 2 downloads It looks like it's around 2.3k worth of code. Maybe somebody wants to disassemble it. 🙂 Nice... I'll add that to my site too. I haven't been putting any information about EPROM types with anything (although I did think about doing it from the beginning), just the ROMs themselves. Maybe I'll start adding that sometime later. I think I was initially planning to have it as part of the ROM filename; and then maybe it seemed like bit too much to lump into the filename. Can you verify the checksum for your dump? I got a CRC32 of 2F5B187D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reifsnyderb Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 15 minutes ago, MrFish said: Can you verify the checksum for your dump? I got a CRC32 of 2F5B187D. How do I do that? Xgpro shows a ChkSum of 0x0019 56DA. Nothing mentioned about CRC32. So, I don't know if it's the same type of checksum or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 6 hours ago, reifsnyderb said: How do I do that? I have a system extension for Windows that shows some hashes on a tab for any file's (or multiple files') properties. But I usually use an application called CHK Hash Tool, because it can show hashes for a bunch of files at once (for a single hash type) and provide some comparison information (as well as a more comprehensive list of hash types). You just drag your ROMs over to the window. 6 hours ago, reifsnyderb said: Xgpro shows a ChkSum of 0x0019 56DA. Nothing mentioned about CRC32. CRC32 is what we use here on the forums for ROMs. It was informally agreed upon at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 (delete me) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reifsnyderb Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 2 minutes ago, MrFish said: CRC32 is what we generally use here on the forums. It was informally agreed upon at some point. Ok. I just downloaded and checked the checksum. It matches, so your download should be valid. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 2 minutes ago, reifsnyderb said: Ok. I just downloaded and checked the checksum. It matches, so your download should be valid. Thanks. Just wanted to verify before I put the file up for download. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 33 minutes ago, reifsnyderb said: How do I do that? 15 minutes ago, MrFish said: I have a system extension for Windows that shows some hashes on a tab for any file's properties. Here's where you can get the Windows extension that I use: HashCheck (original version -- the one I'm still using) HashCheck (updated version) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DjayBee Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 3 hours ago, MrFish said: Here's where you can get the Windows extension that I use: HashCheck (original version -- the one I'm still using) HashCheck (updated version) I second that choice plus I use the later version successfully in Win 7 and Win 10 for a long time already. (Later does not mean recent. It has not been changed since 2016.) And to add: The shell extension is also able to check several files at once, either to/from files compatible with Unix' md5sum/sha256sum or to its window. The latter is not extremely clearly arranged but does its job for a few files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 3 hours ago, DjayBee said: And to add: The shell extension is also able to check several files at once, either to/from files compatible with Unix' md5sum/sha256sum or to its window. The latter is not extremely clearly arranged but does its job for a few files. Yeah, I didn't mean to make it sound like it can't provide hashes for multiple files; but CHK Hash Tool just presents it in a nice spreadsheet-type format, and highlights files with the same hash in a different color. It was real handy when I was working with tons of firmware dumps, many of which were identical files that you couldn't determine by the filenames alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reifsnyderb Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 (edited) I was just reading through the instructions and looking at the Centronics connector pinout. The instructions say to power the adapter through the printer, instead of from the PC, to do the following: 1. Cut the red wire from the SIO. 2. Solder a jumper. (This jumper goes from pin 18, of the Centronics connector, to the adapter's power supply.) The instructions also mention that pin 18 supplies 50 mA. On the Centronics connector pinout, pin 18 is a +5v pullup for up to 50 mA and pin 35 is +5 volts. While I guess this worked, it would make more sense, to me, to connect the +5 volts to pin 35. https://pinoutguide.com/ParallelPorts/Centronics_pinout.shtml Edit to add: Maybe the answer is at the bottom of the page in the above link? Maybe pin 18 always had +5v and not all manufacturers had +5 on pin 35? Edited August 23 by reifsnyderb 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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