Todd, The firmware outputs to both the 8250 UART port 0 on board (I/O 20h) and to the Console I/O board at I/O 00h. It will also accept any input from either console. If you connect them both, then you'll see a duplicate. I was thinking of writing a seek and employee routine that would send messages to a range of I/O address and scan them all for a response ie, "Press <CR> to continue", but the variations were endless and such programming would take too much time. So I just hard coded support for the CONSOLE IO to the routines that already work with the on board uart.
Cheers, Josh > Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2015 19:54:21 -0600 > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [N8VEM-S100:6381] Re: IMSAI 8080A CPU board help. > > Josh, > > Yes it will be blind tonight. For the life of me > I can't find my serial stuff. All I need is a F-F > gender changer. I'll stop by Radio Shack and buy a > cable or stuff to make my own. > > Just curious, your firmware looks for any COM port > that will answer and then 'talk to it' by default ? > > When I set up my first Imsai to boot with North Star DOS; > I had to boot from DOS blind and go to a certain location > and read/set the bits to my COM port and I/O status bit's > so the terminal would work. > > Todd > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Crusty OMO" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Friday, February 20, 2015 6:03:54 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central > Subject: RE: [N8VEM-S100:6372] Re: IMSAI 8080A CPU board help. > > > Todd, > > It doesn't have to be blind, the firmware was designed to first talk to the > UART on the 8080 board. > I would even suggest trying to run the board stand alone with the front > panel. > Connect a terminal at 9600 baud to the serial port. > > Regards, > Josh > > > > > Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 12:39:23 -0600 > > From: [email protected] > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: RE: [N8VEM-S100:6350] Re: IMSAI 8080A CPU board help. > > > > Thanks Josh, > > > > Now I know what to expect. > > > > I did try a different CPU and reburned v2.3 Rom, still > > had the same results. I even burned the v1.2 Rom and was > > able to see the SD led come on for a bit. This of course > > was in the blind as the Prop I/O displayed nothing. > > > > I'll look at the memory circuits tonight if I get a chance. > > > > Todd > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: Crusty OMO <[email protected]> > > To: [email protected] > > Sent: Wed, 18 Feb 2015 21:41:52 -0600 (CST) > > Subject: RE: [N8VEM-S100:6346] Re: IMSAI 8080A CPU board help. > > > > Hi Todd, > > > > If you press nothing, then after 5 dots, the SD LED should light while it's > > initializing the SD Card to read fat files. > > It will then load the default "BIOS.HEX" file and execute it at the first > > loaded address of the file. This will load the Monitor/BIOS file that was > > put into the earlier version 1.2 EPROM. On my screen picture, I then > > pressed a lower case 'c' to "Boot CP/M". > > > > But you are not getting anywhere near this. The D command should INIT the > > SD card then dump a list of files... as shown in pic 2, it lists all the > > files, then you can enter any file name you want (I am entering 'bios.hex', > > since it's the only hex file there). The R command (pic 3) should run a ram > > test on the system RAM at F000-FFFF, then load BIOS.HEX (with View Load > > flagged). View Load only sets a flag that will display the hex file as it's > > loading. This will let you see the hex file as it's loading, incase there's > > any issues. It's not very helpful with the Console IO board, but if you use > > the serial port on the 8080 board, you will be able to capture the hex file > > and compare it with the original. > > > > I suspect you have RAM issues... I don't know why your RAM test fails, then > > reports an address outside the testing range... maybe on the weekend, I'll > > have a chance to look at the source code. > > > > But at least you can see what it should be doing... you should see less > > dust on your monitor :) > > > > Regards, > > Josh > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2015 19:11:21 -0600 > > > From: [email protected] > > > To: [email protected] > > > Subject: Re: [N8VEM-S100:6342] Re: IMSAI 8080A CPU board help. > > > > > > As a general question to those that have built this board, > > > > > > What is "normal operations ?" > > > > > > IE: > > > > > > You boot it up and get the menu/prompt. > > > > > > Then it displays five dots and a space and starts over. (mine repeats > > > forever) > > > > > > Is it polling for a input of D, R or V from keyboard or trying to load > > > the SD card? > > > > > > Is this normal for others ? I have yet to see the SD LED Flash. > > > > > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > > From: "Crusty OMO" <[email protected]> > > > To: [email protected] > > > Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2015 7:40:17 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada > > > Central > > > Subject: RE: [N8VEM-S100:6340] Re: IMSAI 8080A CPU board help. > > > > > > > > > Todd, > > > > > > Looks like you've found a bug in my RAM test routine. When it errors, it > > > should report the location of the error, since it's only testing > > > F000-FFFF, then it shouldn't report 042A. But since it is giving an > > > error, and this doesn't happen on my board (I better recheck it tonight > > > after work), then I would think there's something wrong with the RAM > > > circuit. Perhaps their could be a problem with some types of RAM? Maybe > > > even the CPU chip might be causing the trouble? > > > > > > Well, time to run to work.... > > > > > > Cheers, > > > Josh > > > > > > > > > > > > Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 19:48:45 -0800 > > > From: [email protected] > > > To: [email protected] > > > Subject: [N8VEM-S100:6340] Re: IMSAI 8080A CPU board help. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Thanks, My Prop was similar except this > > > was how I had it strapped for my setup; > > > > > > P77 P76 > > > x-x x-x > > > x-x x-x > > > > > > I changed it to your setup and now it displays key-press > > > except, it only responds to 'R' key-press. > > > > > > > . . r > > > Testing SYSTEM RAM @F000-FFFF > > > RAM PAGE MARCH . > > > FAILED AT:042A - SYSTEM HALTED > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > When does it try to boot to the SD card ? > > > If you have time, how is your CPU board strapped ? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Monday, February 16, 2015 at 1:45:14 PM UTC-6, Todd Miller wrote: > > > > > > > > > Booting up Crusty's 8080 CPU board with ver 1 of > > > the Prop I/O card. The Boot loader flys off the screen > > > like a key is being held down. I can see the message; > > > > > > Altair/Imsai <banner> > > > > > > <D> Directory > > > <R> Ram Test > > > <V> View Load > > > > > > > > > > > > > First few boots I missed it, too busy looking > > > at the SMB, but then caught it out the corner > > > of my eye. Rebooted and stopped the CPU after > > > I saw the menu. > > > > > > I'm guessing I don't have the Prop I/O set up > > > for the correct "status bits" for KEYBOARD > > > in/out. I recall dealing with this to match > > > it up to my ver Dos. > > > > > > What should it be set to ? > > > > > > > > > JP8/JP9 all jumpered > > > JP10 no jumpers, don't understand... > > > > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > > "N8VEM-S100" group. > > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > > > email to [email protected] . > > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout . > > > > > > > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > > "N8VEM-S100" group. > > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > > > email to [email protected] . > > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout . > > > > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > > "N8VEM-S100" group. > > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > > > email to [email protected]. > > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "N8VEM-S100" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > > email to [email protected]. > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "N8VEM-S100" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > > email to [email protected]. > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "N8VEM-S100" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout . > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "N8VEM-S100" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "N8VEM-S100" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
