Re: [Ql-Users] QL-SD Card Interface
El 11/01/2014 15:08, Adrian Ives escribió: Sorry, Miguel. This has all been my fault. I was really too busy to > take on porting the drivers at the time, then when I tried to kick the > project off I had one hardware problem after the other. Possibly my QLs > have had a good 30 years and need to be retired. I will return the card to you. I assume the address is the same as on the packet? Yes, it is. Don't worry about the drivers. I completely understand your position :) In fact, now that the drivers are available in source code (are they?) I can try porting them. I haven't got much experience with 68K assembly, but even so, if the heavy part (dealing with QDOS and the filesystem) is already done and all that is needed is to provide a low level layer for basic functions, I think I can deal with it :) Anyway, thank you very much! -- Miguel Angel @zxprojects | www.zxprojects.com ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL-SD Card Interface
El 09/01/2014 20:35, Rich Mellor (RWAP) escribió: The first QL-SD Card Interface based on Peter Graf's design, and with drivers written in part by Adrian Ives is now available on SellMyRetro - http://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/QL-SD-internal-SDHC-Card-Interface-for-QL-3596 May I guess that Adrian won't work in the drivers for the QLSD interface I sent to him last year? I've had no news from both of you since then. -- Miguel Angel @zxprojects | www.zxprojects.com ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL-SD What is it?
I have no idea about the zxprojects device on youtube. It's a device that is plugged into the expansion ROM connector. It offers a SD inteface and a 16K ROM with firmware. It is able to perform fast reads by using MOVE.L instruction that can read 4 bytes from the SD card in one instruction. I designed the hardware and ran some tests, which is what you have seen on Youtube (Family Guy opening and so on) For the firmware, Rich Mellor contacted me and told me that Adrian Ives was going to write / adapt a suitable firmware. I sent the prototype I built to Adrian, plus some documentation and the core routines for low level access, so I assume he's working with the interface right now. -- Miguel Angel @zxprojects | www.zxprojects.com ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Withdrawing from the QL Market
Unfortunately yes. There is no abstraction layer between hardware and file system. Well... that's not necessarily bad news. That means that I can implement FAT and thus, easing file sharing between PC and QL :) ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Withdrawing from the QL Market
Interestingly it looks as though the driver is only 4K !! Well. That is not the driver. That is a simple proof-of-concept program to demonstrate the speed achieved with MOVE.L reads from the card. More details (spanish, but Google traslate is your friend) here: http://www.speccy.org/foro/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2281&start=30#p23561 A proper QDOS driver is still needed. That remainds me of a thing I'd like to know and it's not very clear in the documentation I've read: for a directory device driver, I see that I have to implement high level file routines (OPEN, CLOSE, READ, WRITE, FORMAT, etc). Does it mean that I have to implement the filesystem as well? If that's the case, I might choose FAT16 or FAT32 as filesystem and then, transplarently use the SD card both in PC and QL environments. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Raspberry Pi - starts
El 19/04/2012 12:00, Bryan Horstmann escribió: I've had a look at Python too, Malcolm, and found "Python Languages & Syntax Cheat Sheet". Under basic arithmetic it says "i=a%b e.g. 11%3 > 2" I cannot make sense of that. That's the modulus operator, as in C language. The binary operator a%b returns the remainder of the integer division between "a" and "b". It's equivalent to the MOD function in SBASIC. For example, 11%3 returns 2 because 11 divided by 3 gives 3 and remainder 2. It's a very powerfull operator to perform modular aritmethic. For example, imagine that you want to calculate fast sine functions, and to to that, you have set up a table with 360 numbers, indexed from 0 to 359. Element with index "i" will contain the sine of "i" (with "i" expressed in degrees). Then, for an arbitrary (positive integer) angle, you can do something like: sineofi = sinetable[i%360]; The index expression inside the brackets will wrap around 360, giving you 0,1,2,...,358,359,0,1, ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Which is the last issue of Quanta Magazine?
El 22/05/2011 16:24, Dilwyn Jones escribió: Volume 28, Issue 2, March 2011. Another issue is in preparation at the moment. Dilwyn Jones Thanks! How can I know if my suscription is ended, and how can I order previous issues? ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Which is the last issue of Quanta Magazine?
As I haven't received any new issues from February, I can't remember if my suscription just ended, or it's just that there haven't been any new issues since then. The last issue I have is VOLUME 28, ISSUE 1, FEBRUARY 2011. The Quanta website shows it's in maintenance mode, so I cannot check this there. Thanks! ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Hello, anybody home?
El 21/05/2011 17:15, Tobias Fröschle escribió: - How is the communication designed (especially, how did you implement write access) to the ROM port? It's a very old trick: I use 256 memory mapped ports: from $FE00 to $FEFF. When i want to write byte XX to the SPI interface, I make a read to the port $FEXX and discard the result. - You seem to be planning to use a larger CPLD, could you add some select lines to implement more than one device on SPI? It's in my plans to make the SPI interface available to be used for other purposes. Not now, because all my tests are being carried with the current interface hardware, whose CPLD has no free pins. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Hello, anybody home?
El 20/05/2011 19:37, Urs Koenig (QL) escribió: @Miguel (Angel Rodriguez Jodar): Any news? Hi! I've made some improvements to the SPI code, so it works very reliable for all SD cards (not SD-HC) I've got at home. Currently I'm studing the inners of QDOS and learning how to write a directory device driver (I'm new to the QDOS/SMSQ world). Using the Retro-X software ans dome custom C code, I've been able to make longer "QL movies". Some days ago I copied a whole Big Bang Theory episode into an SD card and replayed from my QL :) In the meantime, I've received a batch of more than 50 small flash EPROM chips (PLCC32). Half the size of a regular DIP EPROM, flash, not UV, and 128K size. Being flash means that I can offer an option to let the user burn a new firmware version. As they are 128K insize (eight times the size I really need), I can have a "fail safe" option, suitable for recover from broken firmware. My roadmap is: - To have a design that let me operate a SD/MMC card from the ROM port (done!) - To have a reliable and consistent set of low level routines for SPI operations (done!) - Write a small device driver (not a directory device driver) to train myself. This device driver will use the SD card as a charactger device (in progress). - Continue learning about QDOS/SMSQ and directory device drivers (I have the source code of QUBIDE driver to assist me, and a book recomended by Rich Melchor) - Hopefully, have a firmware that let me use the SD card as drive MMC1, MMC2, etc. - Improve the design to acommodate a flash EPROM. Add the necesary logic into the CPLD to let the user burn new firmware inside this flash. - As this will mean I have to use a bigger CPLD (the current one is a XC9572XL-PLCC44, with all pins used), I probably add logic into it to control the SPI clock speed, so the initialization sequence will be consistent to the SD specification. I'm thinking of connecting the rest of the SD pins so it would be possible in a future to use the SD native mode transfer (4x faster) and support SD-HC cards. Currently, the speed obtained is fast enough to serve data to a MC68008 at its maximum speed (is there anything faster than 128 instructions move.l (a1),(a0)+ to copy 512 bytes from the SD card to memory? ) - Betatesting phase. - Available to the public There's an open discussion thread (spanish) about the inner workings of the interface (including some logic analyzer screenshots) here: http://www.speccy.org/foro/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2281 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] screen detection
El 09/05/2011 22:12, Lee Privett escribió: I think I asked this question earlier this year but after dropping my laptop and losing everything of the hard drive I have lost the emails, can anyone tell me if there is a way of detecting the colour of a single pixel on the QL screen? For MODE 4, it could be something like: 1000 DEF FN getpixel(x,y) 1010 bitpos = x MOD 8 1020 bitmask = (2^bitpos) 1030 pixel = PEEK_W(131072+y*128+(x/8) 1040 pixelmasked1 = pixel && (bitmask+bitmask*256) 1050 pixelmasked2 = pixelmasked1 1060 colour = pixelmasked1/bitmask || pixelmasked2/(bitmask*128) 1070 RETURN colour 1080 END DEF Assumning that pixel (0,0) is located at the top left corner (in the normally not visible area) ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QLSD (WIP): ROM board featuring a SD socket to allow the QL to use SD/MMC cards
El 28/04/2011 19:29, Petri Pellinen escribió: That is very, very impressive. Was that QL running a GoldCard? Thanks! No. It's the plain good old 68008. The only expansion it has (not necessary for the interface to work) is a tiny internal 512KB RAM board i made for it some months ago. Is Minerva a requirement or will this thing support QDOS? No, it's not. And yes, will support (hopefully, when I learn how to write directory drivers) QDOS. The demo uses raw accesses to the SD card, there's not a filesystem in it yet. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] QLSD (WIP): ROM board featuring a SD socket to allow the QL to use SD/MMC cards
Hi! I've working on it the last two weeks. The hardware is almost finished (I may be switching to another, more capable, CPLD if the current one doesn't fit all my needs). It's an external ROM board, with EPROM for firmware (to be written), CPLD configured to act as an SPI interface, and a SD/MMC socket. Miscellaneous electronics include an integrated oscillator (50MHz at present), and a 3.3V LDO regulator. I'm finishing low-level routines so once they are well tested, I will move on to the next software level (filesystem, driver access, etc). Until now, I present to you a demo of the read speed achieved with a white-brand SD card, and a 640KB (should work on an unexpanded too) QL with Minerva 1.98 . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78xtsEKW4Lw This video is the last one uploaded to Youtube up to now. Previously I have uploaded two more videos showing basic read tests using different speeds, and comparing the results with the one obtained using a regular floppy drive. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0XvKy8wb-g -- McLeod_IdeaFix (www.zxprojects.com) ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Android
El 30/01/2011 1:27, Timothy Swenson escribió: A little Google searching and it looks like the answer is No. No X windows, no standard GNU libraries, etc. Looks like most of the apps are java-based. But if it has a hackable kernel, and you can use (or add) console frame buffer support, you might be able to build and run a static executable app, so no need for GNU libs. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Ethernet adapter for QL ?
El 26/09/2010 17:42, Petri Pellinen escribió: Hello, am studying if it would be feasible to use the EPROM slot and create a module with something like Microchip ENC28J60 Ethernet controller and Maybe you want to take a look at the Spectranet project: an Ethernet controller for the ZX Spectrum, by Dylan Smith. Dylan uses an integrated ethernet controller, the WIZnet W5100, which offers a high level socket-oriented interface to the host. http://spectrum.alioth.net/doc/index.php/Main_Page ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Ethernet adapter for QL ?
El 26/09/2010 19:40, Petri Pellinen escribió: Hi Dilwyn, on the ROM connector. My initial assumption was that a manner of memory mapped I/O would be possible through the slot. Of course, but you mast take into account that: - The ROMOEH signal goes active only with read bus cycles, not write cycles. - There's no R/W signal on the ROM expansion connector (although it would be possible to wire that signal on one of the unused pads). If you would decide to forget about the ROMOEH to perform true writes, you would find that there's no AS or DS signals available too, so you would only rely on the value of address lines to know when your device is being addressed. Besides, there's no way to signal the end of the bus cycle, as DTACK is not available too. So there's no way (AFAIK) a card plugged into the ROM expansion would know when a write bus cycle is about to happen. This is because odd techniques must be applied to perform a write using reads. One of them is, as explained, to reserve a region of the ROM address space (0C000-0) which will hold your device hardware registers. That region cannot be the last 512 bytes, i.e. 0FE00 - 0, because that region will be reserved for our write scheme. Let's assume you will need at most 256 hardware registers for your device (surely you will need far less than this). Let's say you want to put a value "dd" (8 bits) into the register numbered "aa" (8 bits). You first make a read bus cycle from address FEaa (and discard the result). Your device captures the LSB of that address from the CPU address lines and store it in an internal 8 bit "address" latch. Then, you make a read from address FFdd (and again, discard the result). Your device will take the LSB of the CPU address (actually the data you're going to write) and will write it into the device register pointed by the "address" register. Something like (not sure if this is correct assembly for 68000): move.l #$FEaa,a0 ; Where "aa" is the register number we want to write into. move.b (a0),d0; Discard the result in D0. move.l #$FFdd,a0 ; Where "dd" is the 8-bit value we want to write move.b (a0),d0; Discard the result in D0. ; Value "dd" has been writeen into register "aa". For normal reads, we'd just use a standard approach. Let's say your hardware registers are mapped into addresses 0FD00-0FDFF . So, this will do the job: move.l #$FDaa,a0 ; We are going to read from register "aa" move.b (a0),d0; Read it and store the result in D0. If someone has any h/w designs lying around I would be happy to colllaborate and pitch in on the dreaded driver side of things. I can I've some ideas but I lack experience on writting 68k assembler and writting directory drivers. I've just bought the "Advanced QL User Guide", and hope to have enough time to read it carefully and start making experiments. but, bitten by the retrocomputing bug, I would love to implement something on the original hardware. I have three original QL's, and no "modern" QL's, so if I do something, it will be for the original hardware. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Connecting a QL to a VGA Monitor
El 16/09/2010 9:49, Peter escribió: Hi Miguel, Thank you. It seems that part of the screen is cut off :-( This is because the PS/1 monitor doesn't have hor/ver adjustment pots. Also the picture seems noisy. By the way, that's why Thierry's statement And this is because the signal comes from the composite video output from the QL, not the RGB output. I said this is not the test I did with my RGB-to-VGA converter. This was another test I did, and it happened that I had the pictures I made for this test with me at the time I wrote the post. I have to take pictures of the QL with the RGB-to-VGA adapter. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Connecting a QL to a VGA Monitor
El 15/09/2010 14:17, Peter escribió: On the other way, I've managed to work it out using a RGB-to-VGA converter, as used for connecting JAMMA boards to VGA monitors. Did you have to use the QL in TV mode or did full 512x256 work? Which QL did you use? I've just rememebered I did another test using an old video-to-VGA converter. It uses the composite video output on the QL, so the video quality is not the best you can achieve. The monitor used was a PS/1 VGA one, and I did take a photo (phone camera) of the thing connected to a standard QL running in MODE 4. This is what I saw: http://www.atc.us.es/~rodriguj/ql_composite_to_vga.jpg ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Connecting a QL to a VGA Monitor
El 15/09/2010 14:17, Peter escribió: Miguel Angel Rodriguez Jodar wrote: On the other way, I've managed to work it out using a RGB-to-VGA converter, as used for connecting JAMMA boards to VGA monitors. Did you have to use the QL in TV mode or did full 512x256 work? Mmmm... I cannot remember... will try again this weekend, and will tell you. Which QL did you use? A standard QL, english keyboard, Minerva 1.98. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 512KB memory upgrade and thanks for the information about writting a directory device for the QL
El 10/09/2010 15:48, Urs Koenig (QL) escribió: Well done! Congratulations! Thanks! :) BTW: What is the WINBOND Chip in one of the ROM sockets and the small PCB in the other ROM socket? Is the WINBOND a PROM and the small PCB a switch for two or more OS? It's a simple way of having Minerva and Toolkit MKII in one chip. The Winbond chip is a 64Kx8 EEPROM, placed in one of the original ROM sockets. Some pins are bended out and wired to a small decoder built on the small PCB, that uses the original signals to generate proper enable signals to the EEPROM. The jumper you see closed enables the Toolkit MKII. If you want to use the external ROM expansion, open that jumper and you will able to plug another expansion ROM. This is a modification of a Minerva replacement PCB designed and built by Jose Leandro Novellon. http://trastero.speccy.org/cosas/JL/ROM-EPROM_QL/ROM-EPROM-QL.html His design needs low profile sockets, more pins, and does not offer the ability to use the remaining 16K memory offered by a 64K device. On the other hand, it's a plug'n'play option. My option is a bit rough, with wires coming from one place to another, but the PCB is far easier to do, and there's no need for low profile sockets, as long as you don't mind soldering the 74LS00 directly to the PCB. You can read a full description of this design here (spanish). You can even built it with a breadboard PCB, as you can see in the first post of the thread. A few posts later, you will find the updated design, as you have seen. http://www.speccy.org/foro/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2000 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Merge Sort
El 05/09/2010 18:31, Dilwyn Jones escribió: (This is a Quanta helpline query!) Does anyone have a handy little merge sort routine (in s*basic), to merge two sorted lists (plain text word lists), maintaining the sorted order in the output file. That is, merge file A and file B (both already sorted) and output as file C (also sorted, containing both files A and B merged). It's a very common routine. This is not SuperBASIC, but it may help you: Open file A input Open file B input Open file C output Read line from A into L1 Read line from B into L2 Repeat If L1http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Connecting a QL to a VGA Monitor
El 04/09/2010 9:51, Rich Mellor escribió: Does anyone have any thoughts as to whether this would work - and could it be used to connect to a more modern SVGA? I'm afraid it won't work at all. It's a real pity modern SVGA's don't do multisync as in the good old days :( On the other way, I've managed to work it out using a RGB-to-VGA converter, as used for connecting JAMMA boards to VGA monitors. I wrote a review (spanish, but with a lot of pictures, so even without translation you'll get an idea) about it here: http://www.zonadepruebas.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1225 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] 512KB memory upgrade and thanks for the information about writting a directory device for the QL
Hi! This is to inform you that I've just finished a little DIY about internally upgrading the QL memory to the official maximum of 640KB. The thread where I explain the details (spanish): http://www.speccy.org/foro/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2056 The quick and dirty Google translation into english (very dirty, but enough to "catch the essence") http://translate.google.es/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.speccy.org%2Fforo%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ff%3D15%26t%3D2056&sl=es&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8 On the other hand, I've just received the book "QL Advanced user guide" as some of you told me. It's a very interesting reading! Thanks for all your information! ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Writting a directoy device driver
Hi! For a interface I'm developing, I need to write a directory device driver. The only piece of information I have found about this, is the QL Technical Guide, but I feel there are a lot of things to be considered when writting such programs. Are any source code example available to study? (or better yet, a QL version of the book "Linux Device Drivers" :D ) Thanks! ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
