Search found 553 matches

by Smonson
Thu Mar 14, 2024 5:05 am
Forum: HARDWARE DISCUSSIONS
Topic: Smonson's untitled simple harddisk project
Replies: 45
Views: 19715

Re: Smonson's untitled simple harddisk project

I'm not sure what the go was with that MSense thing, but it went away after a bit of refactoring and hasn't come back. Actually I've had this running for a few nights playing Monkey Island, Civilization, and Quest for Glory 1, and just copying files around, without any data errors. So I think this t...
by Smonson
Tue Mar 12, 2024 6:11 am
Forum: NOOB QUESTIONS
Topic: Best VGA adapter - STE to a VGA CRT 31khz
Replies: 3
Views: 91

Re: Best VGA adapter - STE to a VGA CRT 31khz

The way to do this would be to use a scandoubler or similar device. Your main options are the newer and better OSSC (open source scan converter), and the older, cheaper, GBS-8220 devices. The GBS-8220 works by sampling the whole image at the native frequency, but playing it back at a different frame...
by Smonson
Tue Mar 12, 2024 12:28 am
Forum: HARDWARE DISCUSSIONS
Topic: Sidequest: VGA scan doubler
Replies: 222
Views: 91284

Re: Sidequest: VGA scan doubler

Might indeed be a bug, but not necessarily so. It might as well be just a timing issue. At least you're adding a mux into a (probably already timing critical) combinational circuit that might cause that bit of delay that makes the signal missing the next register (probably an I/O cell?) in time (La...
by Smonson
Tue Mar 12, 2024 12:21 am
Forum: HARDWARE DISCUSSIONS
Topic: Sidequest: VGA scan doubler
Replies: 222
Views: 91284

Re: Sidequest: VGA scan doubler

It is impossible to work with tools that you don't trust. Might be the compiler or might be not, but you have to use known good, reliable, tools. I understand from what you are saying that you usually develop on Linux and compiling on Windows might be a bit problematic for you. Use a VM to run Wind...
by Smonson
Mon Mar 11, 2024 12:16 pm
Forum: HARDWARE DISCUSSIONS
Topic: Sidequest: VGA scan doubler
Replies: 222
Views: 91284

Re: Sidequest: VGA scan doubler

There isn't some stupid "optimisation" settings for the compiler is there ? I've had compilers make "innocent" changes and screw things up before. I have to compile with no optimsations with my SEC booster for example. But 99% of the time, it's fine to optimise. There are thousa...
by Smonson
Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:49 am
Forum: HARDWARE DISCUSSIONS
Topic: Sidequest: VGA scan doubler
Replies: 222
Views: 91284

Re: Sidequest: VGA scan doubler

So, is the unit actually running any "code" internally, such as a state machine? I say this as this looks awfully like a memory corruption error due to off-by-one or similar array bounds issues, especially if minor changes of the code breaks things. This is a classic writing to the wrong ...
by Smonson
Mon Mar 11, 2024 9:52 am
Forum: HARDWARE DISCUSSIONS
Topic: Sidequest: VGA scan doubler
Replies: 222
Views: 91284

Re: Sidequest: VGA scan doubler

I did get the counter to begin remaining stable, just by randomly changing things until it worked. But only at the expense of disabling the boot-up logo. I assume you're resetting the lines every VBL? If so there's no long running counter that could be affected by "warm up over time". I co...
by Smonson
Mon Mar 11, 2024 5:17 am
Forum: HARDWARE DISCUSSIONS
Topic: Sidequest: VGA scan doubler
Replies: 222
Views: 91284

Re: Sidequest: VGA scan doubler

OK so I got this version 0.7 board stuck together now, in exciting purple this time. IMG20240311154854.jpg It basically works when I first power it up, but then gets more glitchy over time as it warms up. That is exactly the same as the previous board, which I assumed was because it had marginal tim...
by Smonson
Thu Mar 07, 2024 12:47 am
Forum: HARDWARE ISSUES
Topic: No clock signal to the Shifter
Replies: 21
Views: 483

Re: No clock signal to the Shifter

Ijor is of course totally correct. If you are seeing output pulses from the shifter (that being, the 9 RGB pins plus MONO), then the system clock is functioning and quite a lot of other stuff is also working. You are probably even running some ROM code from the beginning of TOS, because the palette ...
by Smonson
Tue Mar 05, 2024 12:59 pm
Forum: HARDWARE ISSUES
Topic: No clock signal to the Shifter
Replies: 21
Views: 483

Re: No clock signal to the Shifter

Hullo, just wanted to put my 2c in. The 32MHz clock going into the shifter is very weak and it can be hard to detect it if your scope is too low impedance. A better test is the 16MHz coming out on a different pin, which is buffered. The shifter also plays an integral role in generating the clock wit...

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