Building Up the Oak ZAltair 8800c Computer ...

[Walt Perko]

Hi,   

Okay, filling up another Oak cabinet and having some difficulties:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOJ5qxFIUM

Altair 8800c Front Panel board and Interface board

FarmTek FlexRAM board 

SW1 = 11111111 ... SW2 = 11111111 ... SW3 = 00000000 ... SW4 = 00000011
SW5 = 1111 ... SW6 = 0000 ... SW7 = 1000 ... SW8 = 00000011

Solid State Music CB2 Z80 CPU board SSM CB2  2MHz

DeltecEnterprise 882SIOR1   

SW1 = 1111 ... SW2= 0000
SW3 = 00001000 ... SW4 = 00000010
SW5 = 00000000 ... SW6 = 00000000 ... SW7 = 00100000

Addresses 10h/11h and 12h/13h
Port 0 = 9600 BAUD 8N1 No Flow Control and Port 1 = 300 BAUD 8N1Set for Control I/O  

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[Mike Douglas]

Repeat the video but raise Examine instead of doing a Deposit for the LSB set to 063 and then to 607. This will narrow down where the problem is occurring.

On the FLEX board you have RAM and EPROM both enabled at F800-FFFF, though this is not the cause of the problem shown in the video.

Mike D

[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

Okay, I think I got the test done better:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvp0u9nde3A  

Yes, on this computer the FlexRAM board has both RAM and ROM enabled.  

The whole setup is on my documentation page:  https://www.brainless.org/Altair/OakZAltair8800c/

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[Mike Douglas]

Walt,

Please read this all again:

Repeat the video (first video) but raise Examine INSTEAD of doing a Deposit for the LSB set to 063 and then to 607. This will narrow down where the problem is occurring.

On the FLEX board you have RAM and EPROM both enabled at F800-FFFF (YOU CAN’T HAVE BOTH RAM AND EPROM ENABLED AT THE SAME ADDRESS), though this is not the cause of the problem shown in the video. 

Mike D

[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

In the documentation I had it wrong ... the photo shows the correct DIP switch settings:  

SW1 = 11111111 ... SW2 = 11111100 ... SW3 = 00000000 ... SW4 = 00000011 ... SW5 = 1111 ... SW6 = 0000 ... SW7 = 1000 ... SW8 = 00000011

My understanding is that SW2  is turning OFF from F800 to FFFF

OTOH, EXAMING 063 and 607 ?   I don't know what that resolves?   That is a two byte program to set zero into RAM from about address 4-FFFF ... 

The next video test ... I think I see what you're looking for:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE6_dq9077I

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[Joseph Corda]

Walt
Have you confirmed you have the FP Molex to CPU DIP cable connected correctly, and not reversed ? I sometimes look at the back of the CPU board to see what pins are supposed to go where.
I've had odd happenings like this before and it was always the position of the connector or needing to create another cable to get the pins correct.

Recently I have started to use Patrick's FP adapter which helps with getting the connection right between the FP and  CPU board.
If you like I can show you the board in our next Zoom meeting and if you think it will help I can send you a couple blank boards.

Joe

Joe

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[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

I'm 99.9% sure I have PIN 1 going to PIN 1 correctly.  Somebody else had made the cable and I guess I should do a continuity test to verify the cable is correct.  Visually, it looks correct as it uses colored twisted wires.  

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[Patrick Linstruth]

Walt, verify that you have the following DISABLED on the Z80 CB2:

- On board memory

- Vector Jump

- MWRITE 

- NMI

-Refresh

Verify you have the following ENABLED on the Z80 CB2:

- SSW DSBL

- 8080 Configuration

If you have not downloaded and read through the manual. I highly recommend doing so.

As the manual states, “There are a large number of user-selectable options on the CB2 Z-80 board”.

Not all of these options are compatible with a front panel.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/Altair-8800/a256527a-05ba-4005-b35a-b15dec86cf55n%40googlegroups.com.

[Mike Douglas]

The deposit experiment and the examine experiment both read the data switches, but display them in two different places. The deposit experiment displays the value on the data lights as read from RAM. The examine experiment displays the value of the data switches on the address lights without depending on RAM. Differences in these results helps narrow down the problem. 

With just the two data values you’ve entered, it appears that the center four bits are cross-wired in the connector from the CPU board to the FP board. More values could narrow things down further, but a check of that wiring harness should be the next step anyway. Bits 5, 4, 3, 2 appear to be wired to bits 3, 2, 5, 4

Mike D

[Walt Perko]

Hi,  

Yup, the cable was connected incorrectly ... but I pulled out all the MOLEX connectors and reset them in the proper order, now I'm getting the AltMon prompt ... 

Now I need to find the best BAUD rate to communicate between the Deltecent ESP32 FDC+ WiFi and the Deltecent 88-2SIOR1 Port 1 

I only see a solution for connecting direct to a FDC+ board:  Connecting to the FDC+

https://github.com/deltecent/fdc-sds-esp32/wiki/2-%E2%80%90-Initial-Setup

I think there should also be a "Connecting to the 88-2SIOR1"

Is 76,800 the best choice?  

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[Patrick Linstruth]

The “best" choice is probably the fastest speed your system will handle, which in your case is 76.8K.

I assume you’re using Mike’s Serial CP/M. Instructions for connecting Serial CP/M to a 2SIO-type interface is in the README file on his web site with the other Serial CP/M files.

https://deramp.com/downloads/altair/software/8_inch_floppy/CPM/CPM%202.2/Serial%20Disk%20CPM%202.2%20(thru%2088-2SIO)/

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/Altair-8800/66eeb5de-a267-428d-9875-0d91fb751ef2n%40googlegroups.com.

[Walt Perko]

Hi,  

I'm getting the AltMon prompt on the console, but setting the ESP32 FDC+ WiFi module to 76800  AND  setting the 88-2SIOR1  Port 1 to 76800 I'm not getting a BOOT yet.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh2XVeRFCpw

Next step is try a different .DSK for the BOOT.  

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[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

BTW, this is how I setup my DIP DATA Cable connectors:  

I take a strip of tape, fold it in half to fit between the DIP PINs and holding it in place I can plug the connector onto the circuit board and this gives me an easy way to gently pull the DIP connector off the circuit board when needed.  

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[Walt Perko]

Hi,  

One more problem with the computer ... Although I can do a DIR on all four .DSK's ... LS doesn't seem to work ???  I just see a blinking cursor after I hit <ENTER> ... 

ALTMON 1.3
*R

56K CP/M 2.2 v1.1
For SERIAL Altair 8" Floppy

A>DIR
A: L80      COM : LADDER   COM : ED       COM : ASM      COM
A: DUMP     COM : XSUB     COM : LS       COM : SUBMIT   COM
A: LOAD     COM : SURVEY   COM : VIEW     COM : M80      COM
A: MAC      COM : MBASIC   COM : PIP      COM : STAT     COM
A: DDT      COM : IOBYTE   TXT : OTHELLO  COM : STARTRK  BAS
A: TICTAK   BAS : WM       COM : WM       HLP : CRC      COM
A: DEMO     ASM : MOVCPM2S COM : STARINS  BAS
A>

A>
A>DIR D:
D: -CATALOG 035 : ABSTRACT 035 : BEE#     FEX : BEE      FAS
D: CHECKOU& FEX : CHECKOUT FAS : CLEAR    ASM : CREATE   ASM
D: DISPONOF ASM : DISTEST& FEX : DISTEST  FAS : DISTPLUS ASM
D: EXEC     OBJ : EXECPLUS ASM : EXECSAFE ASM : FANCY#   FEX
D: FASM     COM : FCBMOV   ASM : FCBNEW   ASM : FELIX    ASM
D: GETF     ASM : GETW     ASM : HEXOUT   ASM : LOADBACK COM
D: LOADOB   COM : LOADPROG ASM : LOADPROG COM : MUSTANG& FEX
D: MUSTANG  FAS : NUMBER   ASM : OBJECT   ASM : OBJNULL  ASM
D: PAINTER& FEX : PAINTER  FEX : PARM     ASM : PATH     ASM
D: POSIT    ASM : PUTF     ASM : PUTW     ASM : RESCALE  ASM
D: ROTATE   ASM : SAPD     COM : SAVEBACK COM : SAVEOB   COM
D: TRACE    ASM : TRACE    COM : XTRA     ASM : README   TXT
A>
A>LS

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[Walt Perko]

Hi,  

Found another problem ... the  Serial CPM56K.dsk  doesn't have a PCGET or PCPUT ??? 

.

[Joseph Corda]

Walt 

Look to see if CP/M has W.com and R.com

Those can be used to move files back and forth between cp/m and PC

I found it was best to use submit.com and script the copying of files 

For example I would edit file on my Linux system. Then run submit asm.sub file which would copy to cpm and assemble it for me 

Another option is to find a dsk with pcget/put   Mount as another dsk B:  and then just copied the files over to the dsk A:?  you need them in

Hope this helps 

Joe 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/Altair-8800/d2ee38d0-8338-4f4c-bbd5-d21b7e885e0dn%40googlegroups.com.

[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

Seems I can't BOOT to an 8MB CP/M .dsk being the problem.  The file I was BOOTing was a 360KB floppy which doesn't work with the ESP32 FDC+ WiFi module.  

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