************** Cat 3 Top 3 ************** Topic 3 Sun Aug 23, 1987 M.SWEENEY [cougar] at 17:38 PDT Sub: Promenade Prom Blower whom and how to use this piece of hardware. Trials and tribulations welcome.*s 6 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 3, Topic 3 Message 1 Sun Aug 23, 1987 M.SWEENEY [cougar] at 17:45 PDT Here I go starting something different. Am I the only one out here using the Promenade Prom Blower? If not I would like to hear from u and maybe we can help one another. I have found it be a very interesting piece of hardware but diffcult to use. Right now I am trying to place a terminal program on eprom and have run into a few problems, i.e. it wont run correctly Its a BLITZed basic program and when I run it( auto ) it will crash on some commands. Almost like not all of it made to ram. Any suggestions? By the way, I do have CSM's Eprom hand book. Mike a.k.a Cougar ------------ Category 3, Topic 3 Message 2 Mon Sep 28, 1987 AIRCRAFT [Browe] at 21:59 EDT Mike, I also have a Promenade, and am quite impressed. Do you have the Promenade program that is in the libraries here? It is quite good if you want to create a menu for a four or 8 chip board. What program are you trying to burn? If I have it I will give it a try. What else have you been doing with it? I modified the kernal using the fil that comes with the CSM book, adding the wedge with a seq. file reader and screen dump. Brian Rowe ------------ Category 3, Topic 3 Message 3 Sun Jul 29, 1990 K.CARROLL1 [Will C.] at 15:04 CDT Is the Promenade still available? I have been looking for a product like this and have come up short so far. Any help would be appreciated. What distinguished the Promenade from your standard prom burner? I know that it was able to copy a memory resident program to PROM/EPROM but I am not clear on how it did/does this. Is it a special controller IC or the software that allowed it to do this? Could I adapt a standard Commodore driven burner to work with the software? Again any thing you might add to this topic would be appreciated. Thanks. ------------ Category 3, Topic 3 Message 4 Fri Aug 03, 1990 H.HERMAN1 at 05:22 EDT Unless you are planning to do a lot of EPROMing, it probably would be simpler, and a lot less expensive to just get any of the QBB's (Quick Brown Boxes), which now are configured up to 256k of battery backed RAM. The pricing on all of them has just been reduced to reflect the reduced price of chips. Howie ------------ Category 3, Topic 3 Message 5 Sat Aug 04, 1990 ED.BELL at 02:50 EDT A company caalled DATEL sells an EPROM burner for $69, a special board that accepts up to 8 chips (256K), erasers, etc. I ordered one, but cancelled when they told me they had it in stock but then later said it was back-ordered. It does look like a VERY nice package. George Hug made his own, and as I recall, there were plans in an old transactor for making one. ------------ Category 3, Topic 3 Message 6 Sun Aug 05, 1990 K.CARROLL1 [Will C.] at 17:38 CDT Thanks Ed. I'll give Datel a holler. I tried them a while back and they said they were in the middle of getting setup with a new supplier. Maybe they're now in business. Question, how do you deal with the contention for memory spacing between a ROM chip and internal RAM. Is it a matter of loading the ROM's contents into RAM or can the ROM be directly accessed? Can the ROM be treated as a 64K bank of memory? Any one who is up on this please lend me a hand. Much thanks for any help. ------------ ************** Cat 3 Top 5 ************** Topic 5 Sun Mar 05, 1989 S.WOOD3 at 01:37 PST Sub: CS-DOS Is CS alive and well? 17 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 3, Topic 5 Message 1 Sun Mar 05, 1989 S.WOOD3 at 01:51 PST More and more I learn about CS-DOS... this is really a great product. I just thought to add EP's Disknoser v2.0 (to replace v1.5) and it works flawlessly. So while I was at it I thought maybe I could replace the sorry file copier that CS provided (sorry Chris) with EP's Nerdcopy... and VIOLA! That works great too! The real question now is.... Is Chris Smeets still alive... and is he well? I've attempted numerous times in the past several months to connect with his BBS and no joy. The phone rings but no one's home so to speak. He mentioned v1.4 was the prelude to v2.0--has anyone seen v2.0? Geez... the way I see it CS-DOS is the only thing that makes this white elephant, er... 128... on my desk worth keeping around for awhile longer. I'd sure hate to see things end just as they got off the ground. ------------ Category 3, Topic 5 Message 2 Sun Mar 05, 1989 HORO [-SysOp-] at 10:25 EST Chris is alive and well, and in fact was at our Telecommunications Conference a few weeks back (The transcript's in the libraries -- I'll dig up the file number and put it in a later post (If no one else does) -- his BB is a different story his hard drive (on his MS.DOS machine - ) failed, and the BB is not up. I'm not sure he plans to revive it. I'd love to see CS-DOS on a ROM -- I'd use it all the time! ------------ Category 3, Topic 5 Message 3 Mon May 29, 1989 QBB.B [QBB.BARB] at 00:48 EDT How big is CS DOS? If it can load into a 64K Quick Brown Box it should be pretty much like having it in a ROM. I'd like to see it. Ed Parry of "NERD" fame, not to mention EBBS, seems to like CS DOS, too Barb ------------ Category 3, Topic 5 Message 4 Mon May 29, 1989 HORO [] at 08:25 EDT I love CS-DOS too, and would love to see it replace the existing operating system in the machine. ------------ Category 3, Topic 5 Message 5 Sun Feb 25, 1990 STANLEYB at 08:30 EST I too think CS_DOS is great but I just spent an hour downloading it from Genie and cannot get ARC128 to work at all. For every ARC/x command entered all I get is SYNTAX ERROR?. Is anyone else having this problem or is it just me? Did I just get a bad download or is CS pulling a fast one on us and ARC128 is not really there, only a figment of my imagination. I need some clarification on this one. ------------ Category 3, Topic 5 Message 6 Sun Feb 25, 1990 C128-BILL [SYSOP] at 11:58 EST Stanley, a couple of questions: 1. Did you 'INSTALL' ARC128? 2. Is ARC128 on your disk, after SDA'ing? 3. If 1. is no, and 2 is yes, then type 'A:ARC128', and the commands should be displayed. Type A:ARC128/x or A:ARC128/e with CSDOS in drive 8, along with the proper drive and file name of the arc you want to dissolve, or.... 4. If 1 is no, then read the doc files about install, 'cause ARC128 does not come installed per the autoexec. Use the Type command to read the docs. ARC128 is disk based, if not installed in RAM. ------------ Category 3, Topic 5 Message 7 Mon Feb 26, 1990 STANLEYB at 19:14 EST Yes to both questions. I did install ARC128 into the REU and after typing in ARC/X all I got for a response was ?syntax error and then READY. This was of course after I got the menu for ARC. This seemed to be AOK but could get no response from the ARC program. Then tried to load ARC128 directly from the disk into core but this gave a [D [Ddifferent problem... the program would not even load. Got a systeerror trying to load the program like it could not recognize it as a program at all. I tried downloading the whole thing again thinking maybe I had a bad download but got the same results the second time. Has anyone else had a problem with this or is it just me? ------------ Category 3, Topic 5 Message 8 Mon Feb 26, 1990 C128-BILL [SYSOP] at 22:38 EST If I could make a suggestion, go back to the original SDA file (which would be file #7799, CS-DOS15.SFX) and after formatting a brand new disk, load the file into the 128, and dissolve it to this fresh disk. Do not place any other files on this disk. Now RUN"SHELL and type in the commands from my previous message. Make sure that you do not have any fast loaders (such as Jiffy-dos, etc) installed. Just on a side bet, have you checked your '71 drive alignment recently, and checked the REU? ------------ Category 3, Topic 5 Message 9 Wed Feb 28, 1990 STANLEYB at 20:05 EST Both the REU and '71 check out AOK. but still can't get ARC to respond. I think I have tried every conceivable combination of commands. What now? Is any one else having this problem? ------------ Category 3, Topic 5 Message 10 Thu Mar 01, 1990 STANLEYB at 21:08 EST Problem with ARC128 is solved and it works like a champ. It was all a missunderstanding of the information given in the DOCs file. You do not just type in ARC/n, You have to enter the full name ARC128/n. The documentation does not make that distinction and it is a little confusing (at least to me it was). To eliminate this problem, I renamed ARC128 to just plain ARC. Now there will be no more confusion. Thank you Chris Smeets, my donation is on it's way. ------------ Category 3, Topic 5 Message 14 Sun Mar 11, 1990 N.L.WILLIAMS [Cpt Nathan] at 21:05 CST Thanks, I was just wondering...Was begining to think I was seeing things. Another quick question. Is there anyway to extract using CSXARC just one file from a ARC. Or a ability to extract a a MS-DOS arc on more then one disk. I Have a arc that is larger then a disk when dearced. Can't get all the files as I run out of room. Cpt Nathan ------------ Category 3, Topic 5 Message 15 Mon Mar 26, 1990 H.YOUNG1 at 21:48 CST cs-dos -- more confussion I am glad I read through the messages on CS-DOS here. The documentation did not give a very good accounting of the command structure and I was having the SAME problem getting it to run. Thanks for clearing that up for me. Now, another problem arises. I am using a 1700 (128K) REU. It installs OK with the existing AUTOEXEC file as far as a ramdisk for the shell commands. I would like to run LHA, which requires room on an REU. I have not been able to figure out how to set up room for it on the 1700. I am n (oops) new at this, so bear with me. I have tried the "poke 7120, 1*16+2" command, thinking this would set aside bank 1 of the REU for an LHA area. Oh, yea, I previously did a "setram 16,1" to put the ramdisk in bank 0. This doesn't work. When I run LHA, it send back the message that the REU is in use. Anyone have any ideas on how to get the LHA prg to run using a bank of the 1700 REU? ANY help would be appreciated. ------------ Category 3, Topic 5 Message 16 Tue Mar 27, 1990 C.SMEETS at 21:35 EST Mr Young, CS-DOS currently uses the 1700/1750 for three things. The first is the RAMdisk where it stores CS-DOS commands. Since you said setram 16,1 That allocates all of the 1700's bank 0 for the RAMdisk. The second use is CSARC1750 and LHA's work buffer. To tell these programs what area of the 17xx they are free to use, you say poke 7119,start*16+end where start is the lowest bank (in your case 1), and end is the highest bank plus one (in your case 2) The third use is for the terminal's capture buffer (the terminal is still under construction) To tell CS-DOS where the capture buffer is, you say poke 7120,start*16+end So the only thing you were doing wrong is POKE'ing 7120 instead of 7119. CS ------------ Category 3, Topic 5 Message 17 Wed Mar 28, 1990 H.YOUNG1 at 20:29 CST Thank you for clearing up my problem. I was getting cross-eyed reading the docs looking for the answer. Part of the problem was I did not have enough knowledge to figure out the proper poke. I am learning as I go, however, and am starting to experiment with crating my own exec files. I have only had the program working right for two days and I'm already impressed. Thanks again. ------------ ************ Cat 3 Top 7 ************ Topic 7 Wed Mar 02, 1988 H.HERMAN1 at 05:03 EST Sub: Misc. Questions For general type questions. 15 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 3, Topic 7 Message 1 Wed Mar 02, 1988 H.HERMAN1 at 05:07 EST Okey! I have two general type questions: [1] Can a C64 be connected to an RGB monitor? If so, what would pin outs look like? [2] Are there any utilities that will give a programs ending address? There are tons of stuff to give start address....that's not what is wanted.... Thanks, Howie P.S. If anyone can help me with the fast loader prob posted in 128 Parallel......would be eternally grateful!! ------------ Category 3, Topic 7 Message 2 Thu Mar 03, 1988 GRAFIX.M [GFX *SysOp*] at 20:16 EST A C64 cannot be used with a RGB monitor (digital or analog). The only thing a 64 puts out is a luminance/chroma video signal and a RF modulated signal for use with a TV set. You CAN use a standard video monitor, tho one with seperate CHROMA/LUMA will give you a much better picture. For the end address program, you could check thru Library #4, the Disk and File Toolkit. Try browsing with the keyword, ADDRESS and/or END. Some of the disk directory label programs give you that option. \\GFX// ------------ Category 3, Topic 7 Message 3 Fri Mar 18, 1988 DEB [*SysOp*] at 00:38 EST Also, after any LOAD from BASIC, you can get the 64 to spit up and divulge the end of the program, too! ------------ Category 3, Topic 7 Message 5 Sat Jun 24, 1989 K.PETERSON1 [ken] at 00:17 EDT Compute!'s "Mapping the Commodore 64" has been a great help in using the KERNAL on the commodore 64. I am now working on a project using a Vic 20 and I need similar information on that. The programmer's Reference Guide doesn't give sufficient information about the vic 20 KERNAL. Does anybody know if there is such a book as "Mapping the Vic 20" and if so, where I can obtain it? ------------ Category 3, Topic 7 Message 6 Fri Jun 23, 1989 DIGITAL.DOC [Digital Doc] at 22:22 PDT Ken, Sorry, but to the best of my knowledge, the programer's reference guide is the best reference available. If you have specific questions, I'll try to give you a hand, but no guarentees on this one. ------------ Category 3, Topic 7 Message 7 Mon Jun 26, 1989 DO-RAE-MI at 22:53 EDT Hmmm. I don't know that there was a Memory map for the Vic 20, but if one was produced, Compute! probably published it. I hazily recall they published some opus on the Kernal or Machine Language for the Vic 20, but the only place I recall it was a year or 2 ago in what looked like a "let's sell out the old books" cut rate advertisement in a magazine. Compute's phone number is 1- 919/275-9809, for orders it's 1-800-345-1214. All you are out is your time & phone charge to call & ask if they have the kind of book you want---if not a memory map, then a book on ML or the Kernal in the Vic 20. They are located in N. Carolina, where I believe the 800 number is not good. Sorry I can't be of more assistance. Ted ------------ Category 3, Topic 7 Message 8 Tue Jun 27, 1989 DIGITAL.DOC [Digital Doc] at 22:57 PDT Why, Ted, I'm surprized at you!!!! The Vic 20 Programmers guide is fust chock full of memory map info! 7 pages of it as a matter of fact! The title of the book is "VIC 20 Programmer's Reference Guide" from Commodore volume VM110. Before I attempt to upload 7 pages, let's see if yon friend can find a copy of this book. Otherwise, it will be the weekend before I can get to it (hopefully) (Gotcha) ------------ Category 3, Topic 7 Message 9 Sat Jul 01, 1989 DO-RAE-MI at 01:57 EDT Hmm. The programmer's guide was not on my local bookdealer's shelves, but something by Compute! used to be. They had a number of little volumes that covered both the Vic 20 & the C64. ted ------------ Category 3, Topic 7 Message 10 Sat Jul 01, 1989 DIGITAL.DOC at 04:16 PDT You won't find the Vic 20 programmers Reference Guide in Print any more. ------------ Category 3, Topic 7 Message 11 Sat Jul 01, 1989 DO-RAE-MI at 22:25 EDT You might try finding someone in your area that searches out used and out of print books though. A substantial local new or used book shop should be able to point you in the right direction. & seeing the book was about a year ago. Ted ------------ Category 3, Topic 7 Message 12 Thu Aug 31, 1989 E.G.BELL at 23:41 EDT How about some feed on 2 of the questions posed here. First, Compute! publications published a great utility called Metabasic, then upgraded it to Metabasic+. Included is an 'END' command to divulge the end address of a program. Micromon, at least the version I got with Symbol Master, has a function to reveal the start and end addresses of a program. And as someone else suggested, you can find the end of your program after a load whether BASIC or ML, by calculating the addresses in 174/175. [peek(174)+peek(175)*256]. If you are working on a BASIC program and need to know the end address during progress, use the same technique, but addresses 45/46. And finally, for the VIC 20, you may find some cross-references in books written for the C64. A good example is Programming the Commodore 64 by Raeto Collin West. This is IMHO the best reference book available for the C64 and does some cross- referencing to the VIC. egb ------------ Category 3, Topic 7 Message 13 Sun Jan 07, 1990 K.REID2 at 20:50 EST I need help on selecting the best type of printer for my c64. Is a full carriage printer good (I have GEOS) or would a standard Epson-type be the best? PLEASE HELP MEEEEEE!!!! :) ------------ Category 3, Topic 7 Message 14 Sun Jan 07, 1990 HORO [ SysOp ] at 21:15 EST What do you mean by a "full carriage printer"? I have a Panasonic KX-P 1091i, which works fine with GEOS (I use the Epson Emulation mode ... it also has IBM emulation). I think the model has been replaced (perhaps with the 1190?), but have found all the Panasonic printers (we use an 1124 at work) to be reasonably priced and quite reliable. ------------ Category 3, Topic 7 Message 15 Wed Jan 31, 1990 K.REID2 at 20:37 EST I've been seriously concidering the Panasonic 1180. I've heard that some people have problems with Print Shop and the like. I'm tired of only printing 2/3 of my geoPaint files. ------------ ************ Cat 3 Top 8 ************ Topic 8 Thu Aug 11, 1988 S.WOOD3 at 21:31 PDT Sub: CARDCO G+ dip switches How does one make this gadget work anyway? 3 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 3, Topic 8 Message 1 Thu Aug 11, 1988 S.WOOD3 at 21:36 PDT I'm trying to help a friend out here... he's got a Tandy-type printer he wants to hook up to his C-64. (I suppose even that's better than no printer!) I came up wiyth a slightly used but not abused Cardco G+ interface for him but it doesn't quite do all the tricks... I noticed 8 dip switches inside the box. Can anyone pleeeeze help me out here... what are each of those switches for? ------------ Category 3, Topic 8 Message 2 Thu Aug 11, 1988 CHARRINGTON [Courtney] at 22:42 PDT Okay. Here it is right from the manual: Switch: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Epson on off on X on off X X Prowriter on on off X off on X X Okidata off off on X on on X X Siekosha off on off X off on X X All Else on on on X on on X X Notes: Switch #4: Device number select. ON sets printer to #4, OFF to #5 Switch #7: ASCII correction. ON allows software correction of ASCII. OFF is none. Switch #8: Auto Line Feed. ON allows soft- ware select of auto line feed. OFF is none. One more thing...when Switch #7 is OFF, the interface is locked in the transparent mode. ASCII is sent to the printer with no correection. What is sent, is what it gets. I don't know what the tandy is, but my best guess is it would fall under "other" with everythinng set ON. Give it shot. EMAIL me if you need more help. Cheers, Courtney ------------ Category 3, Topic 8 Message 3 Sun Aug 14, 1988 S.WOOD3 [SCOTT] at 00:49 PDT Thanks alot... that is just what I'm looking for - but it didn't help much - the printer is a DMP-110, old and slow and it doesn't seem to like Digital Solutions very much - I can't find a driver that will work with any of the configurations I set the interface up with. Funny thing though, it works okay from basic as long I set the translation (s7) on, so it sorta acts like a 1525 but the driver won't work, the closest one is the okidata 120... figure that one out! . I recommend he buy a Star printer! ------------ ************ Cat 3 Top 9 ************ Topic 9 Sat Feb 11, 1989 M.WHITE1 at 15:59 PST Sub: Deblitz for the 128? blitz,deblitz,128,cbm 2 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 3, Topic 9 Message 1 Sat Feb 11, 1989 M.WHITE1 at 16:02 PST Help has anyone seen deblitz for the C= 128. Is it PD, or commercial? If it is commercial who sell it?I would like to get a copy of it. But I am stuck up in Alaska, and we don't get very good support up here. So if anyone knows of the whereabouts of a deblitz 128 program please leave a message. , croll, uit ?s0 ------------ Category 3, Topic 9 Message 2 Sat Feb 11, 1989 B.KEHOE at 19:46 EST I haven't seen a copy of deblitz for the 128 (yet)...but while we're on the same subject, is there ANY way to restore a file compiled with BASIC-128 from Abacus back into its original form? I've lost count on the # of programs that I've written, accidentally erased the source code, and been stuck with an impossible job of trying to remember everything that I did in the program.. Brendan ------------ ************ Cat 3 Top 10 ************ Topic 10 Sun Mar 05, 1989 WMR (Forwarded) Sub: READ IBM FORMATTED DISKS I'D LIKE TO KNOW HOW TO DO THIS SO I CAN XFER FILES TO A COMMODORE 8 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 3, Topic 10 Message 1 Sun Mar 05, 1989 HORO [-SysOp-] (Forwarded) There's a program called Big Blue Reader, which does just that --It's a commercial program, distributed by S.O.G.W.A.P. software -- check the magazine ads ... ------------ Category 3, Topic 10 Message 2 Sun Mar 05, 1989 DO-RAE-MI (Forwarded) But in order to use Big Blue Reader you MUST have a 1581 or a 1571 drive. It works with the c64 & the c128 (different versions), but it doesn't work with a 1541. Also, if you live in a city of some size, you may find there is a company that will translate between formats. These people cost money, but the national based ones do have the capacity to move commodore to IBM etc. One can also use the null modem, compatible software & transfer from one machine to another method. One requires a piece of hardware, the null modem, terminal software for the two computers (both speak xmodem protocol by means of the the software), the disks to transfer to & from in the respective machine's dirives. Ted ------------ Category 3, Topic 10 Message 3 Sun Mar 05, 1989 HORO [-SysOp-] (Forwarded) (Oh yeah, if you have terminal programs for each, and one of them has a 'remote' mode, you can call one from the other, and transfer with Xmodem protocol ... Or, if you have term programs on each, you can Email the file to yourself via GEnie! -- This is if the two computers are not in the same place, and a null modem isn't practical) ------------ Category 3, Topic 10 Message 4 Sun Mar 05, 1989 C128.CPM [Bill] (Forwarded) Big Blue Reader is 'had' by: SOGWAP Software 115 Bellmont Rd. Decatur, In. 46733 Phone: 219-724-3900 $44.95 (no credit card purchases) ------------ Category 3, Topic 10 Message 5 Sun Mar 19, 1989 WC.COLEMAN [GeoOp] at 03:01 EST The April issue of RUN has just what you are looking for! Works great too. Took me about 2 hrs to type it in and it was worth every minute of it. -WC ------------ Category 3, Topic 10 Message 6 Wed May 17, 1989 LLOYD at 22:51 EDT There's a couple of prgs like Xlink, crosslink, & Translate which transfer IBM files to CBM. I'M afraid that missed the RUN issue mentioned. (Lloyd) ------------ Category 3, Topic 10 Message 7 Thu Jul 13, 1989 C128-BILL [SYSOP] at 09:40 EDT PLU*PURFECT has a CP/M Program (for the 128) that 'reads' directly to and from an IBM MSDOS disk. Info at page 685;1 Category 8. ------------ Category 3, Topic 10 Message 8 Sat Oct 28, 1989 POWERSOFT at 16:24 EDT FORMAT EXECUTIVE V4.0 from Powersoft will enable you to read/write and format over 150 3.5 and 5.25 disk formats with a C128. Will do MSDOS to CBM to CP/M file conversions. Simply the most powerful file conversion program ever written for Commodore computers. Type 'cpm' then go to cat 17 in CP/M BB area for more info! ------------ ************ Cat 3 Top 12 ************ Topic 12 Sun Sep 10, 1989 WILKERSON.S at 15:15 EDT Sub: 128 Wedge Converting 64 DOS Wedge to 128 system. Anyone tried this yet? 3 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 3, Topic 12 Message 1 Sun Sep 10, 1989 WILKERSON.S at 15:17 EDT Like I said above, Anyone tried this? Reason I'm asking is I have some programs on the 64 that use the wedge, and I'd like to use them on the 128 to keep from trying to find another program that does what I have now. Any help or ideas are greatly appreciated. Scott ------------ , croll, uit ?s0 Category 3, Topic 12 Message 2 Thu Sep 21, 1989 E.G.BELL at 18:40 EDT I thought that a wedge came on the disk with the 128. Does that mean you don't have a 1571 [I meant the 1571, not the 81] or that I'm just in the wrong ballpark. If not, have you looked into MetaBasic from Gazette or a very similar utility here on GEnie called PRGAID or SUPERAID or something like that. It provides the wedge commands and several useful utilities lik FFIND, CHANGE, MERGE, etc. ------------ Category 3, Topic 12 Message 3 Sat Sep 30, 1989 WILKERSON.S at 16:37 EDT I've got 2 1571s, but my program uses the wedge commands, like "@$", and the wedge commands like that. I tried transferring the wedge to a different memory location but it just locks me up. The 128 disk commands will work on part of it, but I'd like to use the program like it is written instead of a rewrite on part of it. ************ Cat 3 Top 13 ************ Topic 13 Mon Nov 13, 1989 MGUIDRY at 09:36 EST Sub: Need Pinouts Pinouts for the C64 12 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 3, Topic 13 Message 1 Mon Nov 13, 1989 MGUIDRY at 09:38 EST I am currently working on using my C-64 for a robotics project. What I need is the voltages off of the power supply, and what pin they are coming from. Please list them in COUNTER Clockwise order, starting from the bottom-most LEFT one. Thanx! , croll, uit ?s0 ------------ Category 3, Topic 13 Message 2 Mon Nov 13, 1989 DIGITAL.DOC at 22:05 PST Ok, MG, Here they are... u 7 6 1 3 4 5 2 This is looking at the connector from the open end. You may not have all the pins listed. The normal ones are 2,5, 6, and 7. Here's the pin out: 2 is ground 5 is +5VDC 6 and 7 should be 9VAC If they exist, pins 1 and 3 are also ground If it exists, pin 4 is also +5VDC. Hope that helps... ------------ Category 3, Topic 13 Message 3 Thu Nov 16, 1989 SHIPS-CAT [ Sheri Lynn ] at 19:11 EST Are the pinouts listed in the instruction manuals? Are they the same for all Commodores? ------------ Category 3, Topic 13 Message 4 Fri Aug 03, 1990 C.GAMLOWSKI1 [Gamlowski] at 18:32 PDT I am thinking of building a Cartridge switcher for my Sega Genesis game Machine, like the Aprosand C64, but with more cartridge slots. Can anyone help me. I've been told, but do not understand the following: If the cartridges are digital you could do it by using a tri-state, non- inverting buffer on each pin of the cartridge. It would probably take eight IC's as I think they come eight on a chip, there are 64 pins per cartridge. Tie the 64 enables for each cartridge together and connect to a selector switch. Put all the outputs onto a bus going to the Genesis and shazam, you select which cartridge you want by turning on the "enable" switch for the cartridge you desire. Later on he continues.... If you can't find which pin is the power, you only other choice is to disable all 64 pins when you want to take the cartridge offline. This is certainly not the best (cheapest) alternative but it would do the job. This also what I was talking about in my other message - a buffer on each pin would do the trick. You can hookup as many cartridges as you want, just put them all in series on the same cable that runs to the Genesis. Keep the cable short as possible to help keep down any noise the cable might pick up. Run the power line (assuming you can find it) from the Genesis to center pole of a rotary switch. Run a power line from the output of each switch position to each single cartridge. Now, by turning the selector switch, you turn on the power to cartridge it is connected to. The other cartridges are still connected to the Genesis by the cable, but since they don't have power going to them they (hopefully) won't affect the game. Here are the part numbers I found, everything should be common enough for any electronics shop to have them or something similiar: Selector switch - Grayhill single pole, 10 position rotary #19001- 10UL Ribbon cable - Beldon 64 conductor #9R228064 The 64 pin doesn't seem to be a common size, so you will have to go with a bigger connectors and make them fit. They make little "keys" that fit into unused pins. Where can I get 64 pin connectors (me writing)? From the latest message... The buffer you would want to use is 74HC244 - should be common anywhere for about a dollar each. There are 8 buffers per IC with two enables (running four buffers each). If you end up using them, I can give you specific pin-outs on how to wire them. Okay now I'm writing.... With all said, does anyone have a step-by-step English translation of how to build this gizmo? Appreciated, Paul David Gamlowski ------------ Category 3, Topic 13 Message 5 Fri Aug 03, 1990 DIGITAL.DOC at 23:16 PDT Paul, I'll try to answer all your questions in the next few days! ------------ Category 3, Topic 13 Message 6 Mon Aug 06, 1990 C.GAMLOWSKI1 [Gamlowski] at 22:38 PDT I found there is just One position (two contacts) with 5+ volts when metering the Genesis cartridge port. So I guess I found the power... But still the rest needs to be answered, ie. purchasing 64 pin (32 position female, male , and ribbon connectors), how to hook this up properly, and possibly putting in a fuse like the Aprosand etc. Please help me Doc... Highly appreciated, Paul David Gamlowski P.S. I know this isn't a Commdore Machine, but actually in a way it is since the Genesis's games are programmed on an Amiga and the Sega Master System and Power Base Converter for the Genesis is similiar (from what I hear) to the C- 64, especially in their ability to use sprites. Again Highly appreciated.... ------------ Category 3, Topic 13 Message 7 Tue Aug 07, 1990 DIGITAL.DOC at 21:15 PDT Ok Paul, I'm back with a little help anyway ! (You sure do come up with tough questions!) Let me answer one of the last questions first: the fuse. The fuse goes in the 5 volt line between the computer and the expansion ports. The value of the fuse (amperage) I'm not sure of since I'm not really familiar with the Genesis equipment. If I remember right, the C64 would prefer it if the cartridges did not draw over approx one half amp total. Tougher questions next.... You asked for an english interpretation of the material you posted earlier. I'm not real sure I can do that, but let me give it a try and you can ask questions about the explanation, if need be. Let's try the tri-state buffers first. For starters, look at the buffers as if they were switches. They do a lot more than that, but lets start slowly. The "enables" that were talked about are like the handles of a light switch: in on position, the switch is on and the light operates. In the other, the switch is off and the light doesn't operate. The fact that the other side of the switch always has power is irrelevent. In the light switch analogy, we provide a physical action (flipping the switch up or down) to enable or disable the light (enable = on). With the buffers, we provide an electrical signal to do the same job When the appropriate voltage is applied to the enable inputs on the buffer chip (either +5 or ground), the chip "turns on" allowing the computer and selected cartridge to talk. When the opposite voltage is applied to the enable inputs of the buffer, the computer can not tell that the cartridge is even there. To use this method, you would have to buffer each pin of each cartridge you wanted to have connected to the expansion device. This leads to the explanation of the term "Tri-state". The first two states are the ones everyone thinks of when talking about computers: Ones (usually +5 volts in this kind of equipment) and Zeros (usually 0 volts or ground in this kind of equipment). The third state is the one alluded to in the previous paragraph: Not there. It is the electrical equivalent of disconnected. Normally, the inputs to computer chips draw a small amount of current from the device feeding them. Connect enough of these together to a single output device, and you will overload it causing premature failure. Output pins normally attempt to be either +5 volts or ground. On the common bus lines of most computers, (address and data, mostly) many outputs and inputs are connected to each other. If one chip was trying to output a ground, and another chip was trying to output +5 volts, we have a severe problem! Hence the development of the tri-state buffer. These devices do one of two things: When enabled, they are virtually invisable to the devices connected to the input and the output...like a light switch in the "on" position. When disabled, the inputs and the outputs can not see each other at all....like a light switch in the "off" position. This prevents loading down the source (usually the computer). This is a better situation than just shutting off the power to the cartridge, because the internal circuitry - even when powered down - can place a load on the line. The ideal situation is a switch that both enables a set of tri-state buffers on the pins of the cartridge and applies power to the cartridge at the same time. ------------ Category 3, Topic 13 Message 8 Tue Aug 07, 1990 DIGITAL.DOC at 21:29 PDT Had to send the last, it was getting long and I didn't want to take a chance on a glitch losing it all since I'm typing "Live"! Keeping the cable short: Most computer type equipment operates around other electronic equipment which works at relatively high frequencies. (ie TV's, Monitor's, disk drives, etc) Every piece of wire acts like an antenna. It picks up some "interference". The amount of this interference is directly proportional to the length of the wire. Therefore, shorter wires are better wires! 64 pin connectors: Can't help you a lot in this area. I haven't run across any lately either. However, if you can get the address to the Beldon Corp, they are a very likely source. They are the major producer of wire and connectors and have a wide stock. Sorry I don't have an address handy. The remaining info that will be needed before this device can be built is: A pin out of the Genesis' connector being used. A source of the connectors. A better idea of your skill with soldering, etc. Perhaps other GEnie users can come up with the first two! The answer to the third will be a big factor in deciding whether the device can be built or not. Hopefully, I answered all your questions, Paul. If there's something I missed, let me know, and I'll try to get the answer. Looking forward to hearing from you..... ------------ Category 3, Topic 13 Message 9 Fri Aug 10, 1990 C.GAMLOWSKI1 [Gamlowski] at 23:07 PDT Thanks Doc, this is greatly appreciated. What happens if I use a meter to test what contacts are hot and grounds? Is this safe or unsafe? Also I didn't think I would need to know the pinouts of the Genesis, since buffers would be used. My dad works at General Motors at Delco Electronics, he just recently took a new class on sophisticated soldering, so there shouldn't be any problem their. And finally I may find the connectors at Electronic Parts Supermart in Santa Maria, California, just about 35 miles from where I live (being Lompoc). Thanks again, Paul David Gamlowski ------------ Category 3, Topic 13 Message 10 Sat Aug 25, 1990 DIGITAL.DOC at 20:39 PDT Paul, Sorry for taking so long to get back with the answers to your questions. I've been a little tied up lately. Yes, you may use a meter to test the contacts for power and ground. However, this is not a fool-proof method. Some pins are normally held at specific levels by the equipment either as a signal to the cartridge or just because they're inputs and are waiting for a signal from the cartidge. I would expect that you will find a number of lines that appear to be power lines, but are not. It is typical for pins awaiting inputs to be held at approximately the power supply voltage. ------------ Category 3, Topic 13 Message 11 Sat Sep 01, 1990 C.GAMLOWSKI1 [Gamlowski] at 17:31 PDT Thanks for help Doc. But I found it to be too expensive if not bulk manufactured. Oh well, maybe some with the $$$ will market such a thing as for me I'm just the average joe middle class man. Thanks anyway, Paul David Gamlowski ------------ Category 3, Topic 13 Message 12 Wed Sep 05, 1990 DIGITAL.DOC at 20:10 PDT OK Paul, Such is the problem sometimes with good ideas! Always glad to help when I can. Later, Doc. ------------ ************ Cat 3 Top 15 ************ Topic 15 Mon May 14, 1990 H.HERMAN1 at 04:08 EDT Sub: Hints and Tips! RUN will be publishing readers "hints and tips" for getting more from productivity oftware and hardware. So that GEnie users will not have to wait, post your "hints and tips" here, as well as sending them to RUN. 4 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 3, Topic 15 Message 1 Mon May 14, 1990 H.HERMAN1 at 04:10 EDT I'll start out with a few items to get things started. More to follow: QBB and the C128: ================= For those using the QBB's file boot option, use the following one line program as your "boot program" in drive #8. Whenever you exit a program with a soft reset, or do a hard reset, this routine will call the selected boot program from the QBB: 10 poke2560,110:poke2561,10:poke768,123:poke769,10:poke56832,0 :poke2756,17:slow:sys63591:end Running multi-programs on the C128, without having to do a re-set: ================================================================== Often after exiting a program, the C128 will not properly load another for running, without first doing a hard re-set. This often happens with CS/DOS, Basic8, and other popular programs. The hard re-set is, in fact, not necessary! Just run the following routine. Have it end up calling a menu selection, or just call another program, and it will load and run properly. Depending upon what the routine finds, it will do any number of required soft re-sets. This routine is used as the booting program on a QBB, but it can also be run as the boot routine from a disk drive, although it may be somewhat slower. It is fascinating to watch this run from a QBB. It may take 2-4 seconds as it cycles. It is certainly a nicer way than doing a hard re-set. Especially, when the user runs a lot of different programs, one after the other, on the 128: 5 ifpeek(2744)+peek(2742)+peek(2757)=765goto10:else7 7 gosub40:poke2744,255:poke2742,255:poke2757,255:sys57344 10 ifpeek(6000)=0goto20:elsegosub40:poke6000,0:poke7,1:sys16390:sys16384 20 ifpeek(6)+peek(7)+peek(8)=255orpeek(6)+peek(7)+peek(8)=0thengoto30 :else gosub40:sys65341 30 poke2560,110:poke2561,10:poke768,123:poke769,10:poke56832,0: poke2756,17 :slow:*h1:end 40 printchr$(14)chr$(31)chr$(18)"resetting HAL...":printchr$(159):return Curing the "HOT" disk drive problem: ==================================== Here's an idea that works! Just purchase any one of the standard stereo "boxer" style 4" to 5" square rotor fans. They are silent, and will run just about forever. They come with pre-drilled screw holes that can be used for hooks to attach an air conditioner's foam sponge type filter. Just aim the air, from the rear, at about 20-30 degrees from the side alignment of the drives. I've had this set-up keeping a very hot running Avatex2400, on top of two stacked fairly warm running #1571's, for a few years. Seems to keep them all cool to the touch. Since the air is blowing from the rear/side, no air is entering the area where the drive heads and mechanism are located, keeping the mechanics dust free. Just like an A/C filter, be sure to peridically clean the filter for better air flow, and more frequently for those of us who still may be smokers, such as myself... As an aside, it seems that there is no limit to stacking #1581's, one atop the other, and no need for any cooling, other than a comfortable room temperature. [I like that idea of seperated hot running power supplies!] ============================================== Well, that's it for now. Anyone else with some tips? As soon as some others have a chance to post their ideas, I'll post a few more describing how Pocket Writer3 can do unattended macros of 1,000 keystrokes (250 for the 64 version), before requiring one more keypress to do 1,000 more. [PW2, as released will accept up to 255 keystrokes per single macro.] And, how to format a buffer download full of data (current stock prices, for example), into a format that Pocket Filer2 will accept with one keystroke, using its "update" command. Depending upon how often, and how many records are updated, this can save a lot of keyboard entries. Later! Howie ------------ Category 3, Topic 15 Message 4 Mon Jul 02, 1990 K.CARROLL1 [Will Carroll] at 20:50 CDT Heres some pokes and sys calls I use a lot. Peek(65408) will give you Kernal Ver. poke 56325 0-255 change the cursor blink speed poke 53265 w/ 11 blanks the screen poke 808 w/ 239 disable stop key poke 808 w/ 237 to restore it sys 64738 for a basic cold start sys 65126 for a warm start poke 649 w/ 0 to disable keyboard poke 649 w/ 10 to restore it from with in a program of course. I'll see what else I can add later on. ------------ ************ Cat 3 Top 17 ************ Topic 17 Sun Jul 08, 1990 H.HERMAN1 at 02:46 EDT Sub: Relative file types. t ? ************ Topic 17 Sun Jul 08, 1990 H.HERMAN1 at 02:46 EDT Sub: Relative file types. Questions (and hopefully, answers) about this. 5 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 3, Topic 17 Message 1 Sun Jul 08, 1990 H.HERMAN1 at 02:47 EDT Can someone recommend a fast 128 mode program/utility that can read data from a REL file, and write/create a second SEQ file duplicating the contents, leaving the original REL file unchanged? Changing the file type doesn't allow any of the program/utilities that I have tried, so far, to access the data. Howie ------------ Category 3, Topic 17 Message 2 Sun Jul 08, 1990 ED.BELL [* sysop *] at 13:37 EDT Do you know the record format? That is, how many and how big each record is. If you know that, seems the rest should be easy. ------------ Category 3, Topic 17 Message 3 Tue Jul 10, 1990 H.HERMAN1 at 03:31 EDT Easy? Okey, I'll bite. :) The files are from PPM128, and the manual gives the record size, for example one REL is 145 characters, and the file's size is available from within the program, and if I remember right, constantly changes. As background: I had given up on PPM128, as just too slow running, even from a #1750 with ramdos, and having limited report capability. Instead, I've been using BTP's macros to auto request, buffer, and save to disk the data, PW3 macros to re-format, and a "jury rigged" Pocket Filer2 report module to auto enter all the stuff. It works! And, offers complex reporting capability, and is fast. The negative part: user intervention is needed along the way. Well, I just got TAS128, and from the manual it looks interesting. So, I'd like to give a try at running the two in combo, importing data to a dBASE application for the more complex report print outs. I couldn't find any record size info in the TAS manual, but can probbly get that from Abacus. Isn't there perhaps an already existing utility that can do it all? If record and file size are needed, can't a utility read this from the file on disk, and write the SEQ? Howie ------------ Category 3, Topic 17 Message 4 Tue Jul 10, 1990 ED.BELL [* sysop *] at 18:23 EDT I was suggesting you write a crude little REL reader that input each record and wrote it back to the SEQ file. You would be better to know the record length because REL records don't necessarily end with carriage returns, meaning you would have to use GET# to read the file, and the easiest way to tell how many to read would be to know how many were written. Once you find the specs on 1 record, they will all be the same. Oh, and you would have to know how many there are. DOS has that info somewhere, but I don't know off the top of my head what you read to get it. But in case I haven't been clear, you would have to open a REL file and read it as such, incrementing through each record, reading each record in and writing it to an already opened SEQ file. I have worked with REL files in both ML and BASIC, but usually of my own creation. That is why I'm not sure about gleaning the info from the file as it is on disk. ------------ Category 3, Topic 17 Message 5 Tue Jul 10, 1990 G.VANGELDER at 20:05 EDT There are 2 files in the library that I know of that read a REL file and then create a SEQ file of that data. One of them is simply called REL-SEQ CONVERT or something like that. The other one is called CAJUN RELISH. I have tried them both in the past and they seem to work fine. Take one of these apart to see how it's done. The best book I have found on the subject of CBM REL files is called "Comodore 64 Data Files" written by David Miller and published by Prentice-Hall ( ISBN 0-8359-0791-0 ) ------------ ************ Cat 3 Top 8 ************ Topic 18 Sun Jul 29, 1990 D.LARIVEE at 20:52 PDT Sub: CS/DOS 128 Questions I have a few questions that I hope someone will be able to help me with in using CS/DOS (see first post) 4 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 3, Topic 18 Message 1 Sun Jul 29, 1990 D.LARIVEE at 20:52 PDT The documentation that comes with CS/DOS tells you how to do ARC's for everything except for creating Self Disolving Arcs (.SDA). Could someone tell me how to create a SDA? Also, I have noticed some files are showing up on GEnie with .SFX on the end lately. They seem to be the same as the old .SDA filetypes. Can someone tell me what the difference is? One more question. Can you make a SDA/SFX using CS/DOS128 that a 64 user would be able to self disolve (assuming you are creating something for the 64 of course)? ------------ Category 3, Topic 18 Message 3 Mon Jul 30, 1990 W.ROBERSON at 22:51 EDT The difference between SDAs and SFXs, is the ability to be disolved in either the 64 mode or the 128 mode. The SFXs will disolve either mode. The 64 mode SDAs will not disolve in the 128 mode. CS-DOS with an add-on can make LHARCs, which are compatable with other types of systems (IBM, AMIGA). The LHA command appends to the LHA and in fact will create the LHA. If you use the command LHA -S filename.sfx, you will create an SFX file which can be self disolved from either 64 or 128 modes. You need to have a REU to use the LHA command, and you have to command the setup using a POKE before using the LHA command. The specifics can be found in the LHA docs. 8) Bill 8) ------------ Category 3, Topic 18 Message 4 Mon Jul 30, 1990 WC.COLEMAN [*Sysop*] at 23:57 EDT .SFX files are also smaller than their .SDA equivalents. BTW you don't need to include the suffix in the filename: LHA -s filename will work just fine. -WC ------------