Quote from: quarkx on December 11, 2009, 02:15 AM
Just an update: I have the unit open, so I have checked the ROMS. U32 is 1984 (I suspect this is the C64 ROM by the date). U33-U35 are 1985. How do I get upgrades?

ROM upgrades are easy if you know someone with an EPROM burner and a stash of blanks EPROMS.
The actually binaries can be obtained from Zimmers site http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/firmware/computers/c128/index.html

I upgraded my machine ... not sure how much difference it makes mind :-)

If you can't find anyone local to help out with the EPROM burning drop me a message.

Mark

Is this a brand new website ?  If so it might explain why I get this :

Network Error (tcp_error)


A communication error occurred: "Operation timed out" 
The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time. 

For assistance, contact your network support team. 


Wonder if it has trickled through the various DNS servers yet.

Or is it just buggered ? :-)

Mark

Just resurrecting this thread ... seems all of the posts by Megabit have gone ?!?

Where can you buy these ROM adapters ?

Mark

Just a minor warning about the Micromys .. it doesn't physically fit on port 1 of the flat C128s :-(

Apart from that it works great and does everything it says it does! Once I find a suitable small D9 connector I'll try and swap the big black D9 on the Micromys.

Oh the only other "issue" is that modern mice have a much higher sensitivity than the old 1351, which means if you move them to fast on a C64/128 strange things happen to the mouse pointer, tries to loop back on itself or appears in random locations .. guess the modern mice send data faster than a CBM is expecting :-)

Mark

The talk of mice in another thread reminded me of a link I came across on Zimmers.net

http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/documents/projects/interfaces/mouse/Mouse.html

Might be of interest to people.

Mark

Hi there,

Isn't the C128 kernal 16Kbytes in size ?  Which means you'd only get 2 images into a 27256.  And you'll want to use 27c256s as well they use less power.

From memory for  a 27c256 you want to connect A14 to Vcc via a pull up resistor (4.7K ?), and connect A14 to GND via a switch.  when the switch is off you get 1 bank when it is on you get the other.

I've a nice schematic somewhere that has all this, when I get home I'll hunt for it.

I think you might be wanting to use a 27c512 and then use a rotary switch + resistors to choose the kernal you want.

Mark

Quote from: RobertB on November 23, 2009, 04:03 PM

Quote from: Mark Smith on November 22, 2009, 10:49 AM...the Chameleon which doesn't exist for us mortals yet...

Unless you are talking about Chameleon, written by Basic 8 authors, David Darus and Louis Wallace. 

:-)  Not that one .. this one : http://www.vesalia.de/e_chameleon.htm

Mark

Quote from: cbmguy on November 23, 2009, 03:15 PM
Thanks for the info, pplz.  It's the REC that I need & access to it thru ml.  I'm on my psp at the moment so I'm going to make this one short.  I thought the 1541u was a c64 cart. does it look & access the same to the 128 as an REU?

Yup works with a C128 .. the REU works great, however the freezer (which is required to swap disks on the virtual 1541) does not work so great on the C128 (being looked at apparently).

Mark

Hi there,

I've a 512K 17xx which I am just about to put up on TradeMe (NZ equivalent of ebay) I'm looking to get NZ$120 for it.   It's in excellent condition and even comes in it's box (though the box being cardboard has suffered a bit), I've added in a socket for the option ROM though I've not gotten around to adding some jumper points for the ROM select holes, simple job just not got any suitable pins to hand to do it with.

US/Canadian dollar would be in your favor if you want it .. quite happy to pack and ship overseas.

A real CMB REU is about as compatible as you can get.  Other options around are the 1541U .. but that is a few more $$$$, the Chameleon which doesn't exist for us mortals yet, or there are are a few RAM expansion upgrades you can make that do not have a REC and only allow swapping RAM in and out through a small I/O window via the control port (ala Action Replay, Retro Replay, RAMcart etc) ... a real REU with REC has DMA and can transfer pretty fast (for a 8bit).

Regards

Mark

hiya,

Yup the SID does have an input, but it's not an input you can sample from it just gets passed through and output along with the other sounds the SID makes.

If you want to sample, you are better of building a ADC on the userport, not that hard to be honest!  If you search the forum you will find a kind soul (I started doing it but he obviously had more time than me and finished it :-) has scanned a book titled "Electronics Projects for your Commodore 64 and 128" .. in that book is a simple project to record audio via the userport.

Regards

Mark

If you want to build your own light pen ...

http://www.classiccmp.org/cini/pdf/re/C64%20Light%20Pen%20(0685).pdf

Has a couple of example BASIC programs which I'm sure would be useful.

Have fun!

Mark

The next thing to look at would be an i2c for the clock port, which is more and more C64 devices come from Jens these days.
He implemented one on the MP3@64 for the MMC64 clock port.

And there are schematics for making clock port only cartridges available, should be possible to make one of those that does not interfere with other carts in a cartridge expander (like the Fotios FB-3XP)

Hmmm ... maybe we could bribe Fotios into making us a FB-3XP with clock port and i2c interface on board ?   I've a bag of sweeties to add to the kitty .... ;-)

Mark

So why not skip doing a BBS and do a webserver ?   They are after all the modern day BBSs :-)

Could always use GEOS for the platform as it gives you the basic APIs for disk, REU, screen etc.
Develop in C using CC65 and you can "easily" (he says in an off hand manner) use uIP for the network access, ASM could then be used to optimise areas as required once the main framework is built.
Once the basics are in addressing the problem of more storage would be a case of doing a GEOS driver for the uiec or any of he other SD-card products (like MMC64/MMCReply, 1541U and so on) .. apparently there is a proof of concept driver in existence http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/sd2iec_(firmware)#Is_GEOS_supported.3F

Just a thought.

Mark

I was so tempted .. but just couldn't bring myself to click Buy Now :-)

Again looking at the pictures .. that wire seems to only go to pin 28 on U34 .. which is "Vcc" which is just power isn't it ?

Can you control that pin on the C128 ?  Toggle it on and off ?  Maybe it does do some sort of bankswitch on the VDC RAM board ?

Someone go buy one so we can solve this puzzle once and for all!!! :-)

Mark

Is there a diagnostics kit for the C128 similar to this one that's for the C64:

http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~schepers/diagnostic.html

Quite a nice website, has the schematics of it all as well as a ROM dump.

Mark

It sure is possible .. have a looksie at : http://www.64hdd.com/ rather a good application :-)

The only bummer is that is is DOS based .. not sure how well it behaves with Windows XP/Vista/7

There is a Linux equivalent as well, I just can't remember the name of the toolset cbm-something I think :-)

Mark

EErrrk!!!!  You guys aren't talking english!!!!  :-)

Polywhatsits ?!? .. you can see I'm real good at math! hehe

Mark

Ahhhh .. so it is simply a 64k RAM upgrade!

But then the article says that there are 2 new versions that let you use 256 out of 3000 colours ... wonder how that is done ?  FLI for VDC ?  OR actual real hardware to do it ?

Mark

Squinting at the picture there is a little wire leading off to some where near the ROM socket .. wonder if he has loaded more that 64K onto the VDC and then doing some sort of bank switching with 64k being the odd lines and the other 64k for even lines ?

Be nice if someone had one of these and took it apart for us :-)

Mark

I dared to press the "RGB -> Composite" select button :-(

POP! SQWEEEEEEeeeeeemmmmmm ..... was the noise basically.

Think the LOPT has gone on this one as well ... makes 3 in a year now!  And there are pitifully few repair places around anymore.

Mark

Nifty little widget!  I suppose the place to start would be to create an SPI or i2C interface for the Commodore on the userport, from there you could talk to the maths chip.

Be an interesting thing to read up about .. should only take someone like me about 10 years to figure it out ;-)

Mark

Quote from: Hydrophilic on October 02, 2009, 04:31 PM

If you don't mind I'll steal this :-)  Just saved me some faffing around as it's nicer than the one I came up with.

I got hold of a cheap RGB to component converter, all it requires is RGB + composite for inputs, your schematic gets me the nice RGB and the C128 outputs the composite over the RGBI connector anyway :-)

Off to Jarcar I go to get bits, be interesting to see if the LCD will accept the feed.

Thanks

Mark

My 3rd 1084s just blew up!

:-(

Fine see if I care!  I'll just junk you and get that stupid RGBI converter finished!

Bah!

Go looksie here :

http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/crossplatform/transfer/datassette/index.html

The VOC <-> TAP is what you might be after, though you would have to convert MP3 to VOC (or WAV) beforehand .. or adjust the source code :-)

Mark