1. SD Cards via 8bit IDE
I am sad to say that these are a freaking nightmare to get working properly. Even SanDisk branded SD Cards have issues - mainly the writing back of images.
This could be PC-SD_Interface-SDCard Issue. I tried a couple of USB options and the internal on the Laptop - still had write errors when installing back on the host.
I also tried a couple of different SDCard to IDE adaptors and still the same problems. All in all this solution is more hassle than its worth to be sincerely honest.
2. CF Cards
This is quite an interesting one, as there are quite a few brands that simply do not work, or develop peculiarities when plugged back into a PC
I am sure I made a list of known working brands but from the top of my head you should choose
1. SanDisk
2. SanDisk
3. SanDisk
Other than that you could try Dane-Elec, CISCO and (some) Kingston.
I have random results with PNY, Lexar and Kingstom pending size. With some simply not able to work with the spectrum (see BUSH PNY and earlier Kingston cards)
By the most annoying though is Lexar's 512MB - install it on the host - setup the partition table - plug it into a PC via USB adaptor it shunts the card into using 3.3v and when you take it back to the Spectrum host it appears unformatted.
Fortunately I had an 40 pin IDE to CF adaptor that can force 5v - by doing this the card was able to be used properly.
3. MicroDrives (not the Sinclair kind)
A while back I scored a joblot of Seagate 8GB MicroDrive's, these are the 5volt variants. While they they are a little power hungry compared to a CF card - they have the same small form factor and larger capacity. But this does come at a price...
4. Capacity and Write Times
Currently as I have not finished my reimplementation of +3e for the PC, we don't really have an 8bit Drag and Drop solution (soon... oh yes sooon!!! me and mr debian dev are getting quite friendly) - this means the better practice of creating an image of your 8bit formatted hard disk device and then using 3estrowsaw to copy filed to and from can take a while...
(Using DrvImg) I found that writing a 128/256MB memory card can be done in about 4 minutes, where as attempting to write a 512MB or 1024MB card can take nearly three times that!
This is a real pain in the proverbial when your only adding a handful of files!
I suggest small CF sizes for transfer and then perhaps a larger more fixed solution that can be copied to within the host.
And theres already a +3e rom for it. I've done the board in eagle but Im a bit skeptic about soldering the CF socket...
Sadly I built a few of these exact to specification but couldn't get them to work. I tried a multitude of CF card brands and sizes, Sadly no luck.
I redesigned the board to include a bit more arbitration for the 8bit mode for the CF Card - with thanks to Roko (fellow WoS member) sadly I have yet to try that implementation.
I have a few boards here if you would like one for your experiments - I will also send you some notes on how to adapt it to get it to work.
Perhaps an internal ZXMMC is a better option :-)... since CF cards are getting less common...
Firstly Alesandro is Awesome! my sincere thanks to him for sharing his work for the community.
I built a few of these (10) to be preciese, and I was VERY pleased when it was up and working, with a limit of 2GB (Non SDHC SD Card) it can be used natively with 3estrowsaw without having to make an image of it.
Sadly it does have a bit of a bug and its only apparent (or appears) on what I would call high-profile titles.
I was quite happily loading regular disk based filed and snapshots of Space Crusade, Laser Squad, R-Type without any issue... the interface was a little slower in testing speed compared to the 8bit IDE interface, but the truth is the testing software wasn't written for it, and the FMV movies wouldn't play.
Again this I suspect is more software than hardware. But the one fault is that the following games crash when playing within 1 minute
1. AtikAtak
2. Alien 8
3. Knights Lore
Now these files work perfectly fine on the 8bit IDE adaptor via various media either as snapshots or as disk based files - however no matter what I do they consistently crash when using the ZXMMC, no matter if its a snapshot or regular files. I suspect that a vector is not set correctly OR is being used by the MMC adaptor that interferes with the operation of the above games.
From my investigations it leads me to believe that this could be a Printer Port Bug when using the ZXMMC
I have a few of these, so you can have one of the xc9536 based ones for your tests my friend - I shall hit you up in PM sort out details.
Sadly I built a few of these exact to specification but couldn't get them to work. I tried a multitude of CF card brands and sizes, Sadly no luck.
I redesigned the board to include a bit more arbitration for the 8bit mode for the CF Card - with thanks to Roko (fellow WoS member) sadly I have yet to try that implementation.
I have a few boards here if you would like one for your experiments - I will also send you some notes on how to adapt it to get it to work.
Hello Zetr0!
Thanks for those notes; Is good to know that actually doesnt work (before ordering the boards). I was in touch with Garry (Lancaster) and he didnt know about the functionality either. I would gladly accept one of your boards to make some experiments....
Firstly Alesandro is Awesome! my sincere thanks to him for sharing his work for the community.
I built a few of these (10) to be preciese, and I was VERY pleased when it was up and working, with a limit of 2GB (Non SDHC SD Card) it can be used natively with 3estrowsaw without having to make an image of it.
Sadly it does have a bit of a bug and its only apparent (or appears) on what I would call high-profile titles.
I was quite happily loading regular disk based filed and snapshots of Space Crusade, Laser Squad, R-Type without any issue... the interface was a little slower in testing speed compared to the 8bit IDE interface, but the truth is the testing software wasn't written for it, and the FMV movies wouldn't play.
Again this I suspect is more software than hardware. But the one fault is that the following games crash when playing within 1 minute
1. AtikAtak
2. Alien 8
3. Knights Lore
Now these files work perfectly fine on the 8bit IDE adaptor via various media either as snapshots or as disk based files - however no matter what I do they consistently crash when using the ZXMMC, no matter if its a snapshot or regular files. I suspect that a vector is not set correctly OR is being used by the MMC adaptor that interferes with the operation of the above games.
From my investigations it leads me to believe that this could be a Printer Port Bug when using the ZXMMC
I have a few of these, so you can have one of the xc9536 based ones for your tests my friend - I shall hit you up in PM sort out details.
It would be awesome if I can have one of these too! Did you follow Alessandro's design 100%?
Hey, maybe we could do an exchange, would you like one of my SDI-1 (the floppy interface for the +2a)?
I also have a small parcel for our resident 'G' Mr Guesser.
I have been meaning to send this for some time but apathy keeps creeping in!!
Aha! genius idea -
If I take a picture of everything, then I HAVE to be motivated to get these out - if not our fellow WoS'ers can stone me lol.... I heard ^Pete was quite handy with a burning torch and pitch fork.
You are most welcome to a ZXMMC and a Z80CF adaptor - I also have something else I would like to send you (its a surprise ;) )
If you do have an SDI-1 spare I would love to have a play with that on my +2e =)
Of course I have one for you!:smile:
I just tried to send you a PM but your inbox is full.
Anyways, the boards Im using now are rev. 2.0, they accept two DS1 (pc) drives connected to a normal PC ribbon cable (with the twist on one end). They also have individual head-select switches (one for each drive). The only thing doesnt work yet is the READY signal simulation circuit, but theres a jumper to ground it just in case the drives output a DC signal. Send me a PM with your address and I'll send you an assembled unit next week. Cheers!
Did you see the other thread about the other "SI-1 clone", and the discussion about R76 BCH?
If you omit that you can save yourself the cost of a resistor :)
ah, yes! You remaind me I wanted to try that! :smile:
I'll include that change in the next board revision... but as I said before, Im not able to get the READY simulation to work. Im waiting for a logic analyzer to arrive so I can see whats going on there... BTW, I have some spare PCBs, would you like to have one?
ah, yes! You remaind me I wanted to try that! :smile:
I'll include that change in the next board revision... but as I said before, Im not able to get the READY simulation to work. Im waiting for a logic analyzer to arrive so I can see whats going on there... BTW, I have some spare PCBs, would you like to have one?
I've not got a +2B so have no use for one but thanks for the offer!
I'm just happy that someone else is giving the Amstrad machines some love :)
Again this I suspect is more software than hardware. But the one fault is that the following games crash when playing within 1 minute
1. AtikAtak
2. Alien 8
3. Knights Lore
Now these files work perfectly fine on the 8bit IDE adaptor via various media either as snapshots or as disk based files - however no matter what I do they consistently crash when using the ZXMMC, no matter if its a snapshot or regular files. I suspect that a vector is not set correctly OR is being used by the MMC adaptor that interferes with the operation of the above games.
Could the problems with these simply be that the game's machine code is accessing I/O ports and ether not getting the result that the program expects, or is writing to the ports used by the interface ($1F and $3F?) and somehow this is causing the crash?
! Standby alert !
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb!
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :)
OK guys, think I cracked it. Looks like the issue was it did not like the SD card method. I have now tried again with a cf card and so far formatted a 1 gig card, created several partitions and been able to access the Strowsaw no problem.
So i guess i didn't get SD cards to work, on the bright side it means I successfully created the interface. :D
Allowing the O.S. to interact with IDEDOS-formatted media would be wonderful, but I don't see it happening, ever. :/
It's not finished, but AYChip was working on a FUSE driver (the other fuse, not the emulator) so this sort of is possible on linux already. https://github.com/ec429/idedosfs
You can mount a .hdf file into the filesystem, and browse it with your regular file manager etc.
Supporting real devices would be trivial. Obviously it's a little way off being finished, and hasn't been touched for 3 years, but who knows. If people expressed and interest and did testing he might return to it... :)
I had a look at what is required to get custom filesystems on windows from scratch and it's a real pita. The two projects to provide a FUSE like API on windows are both abandoned so I can't see it being ported to windows ever.
Could the problems with these simply be that the game's machine code is accessing I/O ports and ether not getting the result that the program expects, or is writing to the ports used by the interface ($1F and $3F?) and somehow this is causing the crash?
Atic Atac certainly clumsily writes to the port that maps ram on a 128k, it does that after about a minute from first load. Wouldn't surprise me if the other Ultimate games did the same.
Had to make a slight modification to my interface to fit everything in and still close the lid. Think I'll have the cf card coming out the front, slightly forward of the show position.
Comments
http://piters.tripod.com/zxcf.htm
And theres already a +3e rom for it. I've done the board in eagle but Im a bit skeptic about soldering the CF socket...
Perhaps an internal ZXMMC is a better option :-)... since CF cards are getting less common...
Some Research Notes
1. SD Cards via 8bit IDE
I am sad to say that these are a freaking nightmare to get working properly. Even SanDisk branded SD Cards have issues - mainly the writing back of images.
This could be PC-SD_Interface-SDCard Issue. I tried a couple of USB options and the internal on the Laptop - still had write errors when installing back on the host.
I also tried a couple of different SDCard to IDE adaptors and still the same problems. All in all this solution is more hassle than its worth to be sincerely honest.
2. CF Cards
This is quite an interesting one, as there are quite a few brands that simply do not work, or develop peculiarities when plugged back into a PC
I am sure I made a list of known working brands but from the top of my head you should choose
1. SanDisk
2. SanDisk
3. SanDisk
Other than that you could try Dane-Elec, CISCO and (some) Kingston.
I have random results with PNY, Lexar and Kingstom pending size. With some simply not able to work with the spectrum (see BUSH PNY and earlier Kingston cards)
By the most annoying though is Lexar's 512MB - install it on the host - setup the partition table - plug it into a PC via USB adaptor it shunts the card into using 3.3v and when you take it back to the Spectrum host it appears unformatted.
Fortunately I had an 40 pin IDE to CF adaptor that can force 5v - by doing this the card was able to be used properly.
3. MicroDrives (not the Sinclair kind)
A while back I scored a joblot of Seagate 8GB MicroDrive's, these are the 5volt variants. While they they are a little power hungry compared to a CF card - they have the same small form factor and larger capacity. But this does come at a price...
4. Capacity and Write Times
Currently as I have not finished my reimplementation of +3e for the PC, we don't really have an 8bit Drag and Drop solution (soon... oh yes sooon!!! me and mr debian dev are getting quite friendly) - this means the better practice of creating an image of your 8bit formatted hard disk device and then using 3estrowsaw to copy filed to and from can take a while...
(Using DrvImg) I found that writing a 128/256MB memory card can be done in about 4 minutes, where as attempting to write a 512MB or 1024MB card can take nearly three times that!
This is a real pain in the proverbial when your only adding a handful of files!
I suggest small CF sizes for transfer and then perhaps a larger more fixed solution that can be copied to within the host.
Hello my friend =)
Sadly I built a few of these exact to specification but couldn't get them to work. I tried a multitude of CF card brands and sizes, Sadly no luck.
I redesigned the board to include a bit more arbitration for the 8bit mode for the CF Card - with thanks to Roko (fellow WoS member) sadly I have yet to try that implementation.
I have a few boards here if you would like one for your experiments - I will also send you some notes on how to adapt it to get it to work.
Firstly Alesandro is Awesome! my sincere thanks to him for sharing his work for the community.
I built a few of these (10) to be preciese, and I was VERY pleased when it was up and working, with a limit of 2GB (Non SDHC SD Card) it can be used natively with 3estrowsaw without having to make an image of it.
Sadly it does have a bit of a bug and its only apparent (or appears) on what I would call high-profile titles.
I was quite happily loading regular disk based filed and snapshots of Space Crusade, Laser Squad, R-Type without any issue... the interface was a little slower in testing speed compared to the 8bit IDE interface, but the truth is the testing software wasn't written for it, and the FMV movies wouldn't play.
Again this I suspect is more software than hardware. But the one fault is that the following games crash when playing within 1 minute
1. AtikAtak
2. Alien 8
3. Knights Lore
Now these files work perfectly fine on the 8bit IDE adaptor via various media either as snapshots or as disk based files - however no matter what I do they consistently crash when using the ZXMMC, no matter if its a snapshot or regular files. I suspect that a vector is not set correctly OR is being used by the MMC adaptor that interferes with the operation of the above games.
From my investigations it leads me to believe that this could be a Printer Port Bug when using the ZXMMC
I have a few of these, so you can have one of the xc9536 based ones for your tests my friend - I shall hit you up in PM sort out details.
Hello Zetr0!
Thanks for those notes; Is good to know that actually doesnt work (before ordering the boards). I was in touch with Garry (Lancaster) and he didnt know about the functionality either. I would gladly accept one of your boards to make some experiments....
It would be awesome if I can have one of these too! Did you follow Alessandro's design 100%?
Hey, maybe we could do an exchange, would you like one of my SDI-1 (the floppy interface for the +2a)?
Lets PM!
Its good to read you my friend =)
You are most welcome to a ZXMMC and a Z80CF adaptor - I also have something else I would like to send you (its a surprise ;) )
If you do have an SDI-1 spare I would love to have a play with that on my +2e =)
I have been meaning to send this for some time but apathy keeps creeping in!!
Aha! genius idea -
If I take a picture of everything, then I HAVE to be motivated to get these out - if not our fellow WoS'ers can stone me lol.... I heard ^Pete was quite handy with a burning torch and pitch fork.
He's harmless as long as you don't go trip-trapping over his bridge :lol:
Of course I have one for you!:smile:
I just tried to send you a PM but your inbox is full.
Anyways, the boards Im using now are rev. 2.0, they accept two DS1 (pc) drives connected to a normal PC ribbon cable (with the twist on one end). They also have individual head-select switches (one for each drive). The only thing doesnt work yet is the READY signal simulation circuit, but theres a jumper to ground it just in case the drives output a DC signal. Send me a PM with your address and I'll send you an assembled unit next week. Cheers!
If you omit that you can save yourself the cost of a resistor :)
I'll include that change in the next board revision... but as I said before, Im not able to get the READY simulation to work. Im waiting for a logic analyzer to arrive so I can see whats going on there... BTW, I have some spare PCBs, would you like to have one?
I've not got a +2B so have no use for one but thanks for the offer!
I'm just happy that someone else is giving the Amstrad machines some love :)
Mark
Repair Guides. Spanish Hardware site.
WoS - can't download? Info here...
former Meulie Spectrum Archive but no longer available :-(
Spectranet: the TNFS directory thread
! Standby alert !
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb!
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :)
So i guess i didn't get SD cards to work, on the bright side it means I successfully created the interface. :D
Shame you wasted time and money on the IDE-SD thing, but at least now the next time someone asks about them I can point to this thread :)
I already had the ide-sd adapter, i use it with my divide 57c.
so I guess it was only precious time. Thanks everyone for being so helpful with this. it would have been a lonely slog without your guidance.
It's not finished, but AYChip was working on a FUSE driver (the other fuse, not the emulator) so this sort of is possible on linux already. https://github.com/ec429/idedosfs
You can mount a .hdf file into the filesystem, and browse it with your regular file manager etc.
Supporting real devices would be trivial. Obviously it's a little way off being finished, and hasn't been touched for 3 years, but who knows. If people expressed and interest and did testing he might return to it... :)
I had a look at what is required to get custom filesystems on windows from scratch and it's a real pita. The two projects to provide a FUSE like API on windows are both abandoned so I can't see it being ported to windows ever.
Interesting... so either doesn't like the simple 8-bit interface, or the way it is accessed by the 8-bit ROMs.
Atic Atac certainly clumsily writes to the port that maps ram on a 128k, it does that after about a minute from first load. Wouldn't surprise me if the other Ultimate games did the same.
YEAH! why does everyone hate them so much. The +2a was my first computer. It is always loved - even if I mod it and hack it and mod it some more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRkE5swAVx8
and this one too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_0H1npLMS8
:smile::smile::smile:
Had to make a slight modification to my interface to fit everything in and still close the lid. Think I'll have the cf card coming out the front, slightly forward of the show position.
See link for images.
This looks exciting. How's this done? Would it require extra flash memory? Rom changes?
http://www.va-de-retro.com/foros/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2519&sid=7c873a2a4cb41fa1a55061c57c584a0b
Programs that use RAM page 7 while loading may crash, but 48k games shouldnt have problems.
The modification can be done to any of the +3e ROMs flavors, but for now is only available for the 8 bit IDE interface.
Just need to burn the new roms and you are set. I think it can even load TAP files from a floppy drive
http://youtu.be/rJmJBWWoRpE
great video here on the subject - done with a very cheap burner from china.
OK one last pic of the final spectrum, showing the removable CF at the front of the computer, everything closed back up and working.
I bought my roms from Gary - who burnt the image for me. available from +3e site
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/zxplus3e/p3eroms.html
Nope. Gary L. has not been involved in that project from what I can tell. I didn't know about the tap file load until after I competed my build.