RomWBW system update

[djrm]

Hi everyone,

After a very long delay i have finally got a 39SF040 programmed and luckily my new 512k Ram/Rob board is now working, I have it in a pro backboard with SIO2, CPU, Dual clock. It also works with Spencer's compact flash, however I made a mistake by not rebuilding the RomWBW code with PPIDE enabled to use it with Ed's IDE interface.

I read somewhere that the system should be re-programmable live in circuit, I have managed to transfer the new binary files onto the new system. I can load  the new system into ram and it is now working with both the Compact flash, and the IDE drives too but it reverts to the flash version after a reset.

I have a tested binary which I now need to copy into the flash chip, I think the CP/M program FLASH4.COM is something to do with it but I have not found the procedure documented - yet. Does anybody know where to look for more information?

The reason I need to re-program this way is because I do not have access to a chip programmer for this device, and besides, ths would be a cool way to update.

btw, I was having trouble using the SIO2 card without handshake to transfer to the RC2014, adding the connection from USB CTS to SIO2 RTS solved the problem, transfers now work well at 115200 bps. Transfers from PC to RC2014 and console operations did not need any handshake and always worked before the handshake wire was added.

All in this looks like a very good system, I'll add the LED/Button card and try playing some music on the sound card next ...

Kind regards, David.

[Richard Deane]

Just running flash4 with no parms gives some help. Seems safe to do.
I tried flash4 to burn image, didn't work for me but I wasn't certain if I should have tried to burn a hex file instead. Not had the chance to go through those permutations yet, but I at least had the fallback of a cheap ROM programmer.
Use the latest romwbw pre4 version when you do rebuild for ide so that you get the xmodem fix.

Richard

[djrm]

Hi Richard, thanks for the info, it worked.

the flask4 program is called flash.com on the cp/m disk.

fortunately I had a good version of xmodem in my image, the problem was it didn't have the right options enabled.

Xmodem is a little easier to use if it has control of a separate serial port but the supplied version seems to be fixed onto the port used by the console. I moved the console onto the second serial port using this command:

B> stat con:=uc1: <return>

Not really necessary but I prefer it that way.

I had no luck getting files with underscores in their names to be usable on the CP/M system, so the files I copied had them removed then everyting was ok. I used the compact flash drive to hold the data. the ram version of file is copied using this command:

B> xm r rc.com <return>

then starting an xmodem transfer of rc_std.com from tera-term.

running rc.com then loads the hbios and this enables my IDE drive.

B> c:rc.com <return>

for permanent change then the full rom image needs to be copied, i used these commands

B> xm r rc.rom <return> send rc_std.rom from tera-term.

when finished pperform the flas update:

B>flash write c:rc.rom <return>

this performs a write and verify, after a reset the system is fully updated and good to go :-)

I had thought I could do a partial update of the system using the rc_std.img but this is 48k and a file size of multiples of 32k is needed for this, perhaps I could pad it to 64k but I don't know if this would work.The 512k rom file took a few minutes to transfer with xmodem.

I do have a spare ready programmed 39sf040 but I haven't needed it, perhaps I'll upgrade the spare next time.

btw, the flash chips were very inexpensive from Aliexppress, I think the ram came from CPC - cheaper then ebay in this instance.

next I'll see if I can get an IDE disk drive working, I only have a IDE compact flash card attached at present.

hth David.

[djrm]

Greetings all,

I've had a little time now to try a few things on my latest RC2014 running romWbw and I must say I'm very impressed with the quality of the distribution - full marks to Warren and everybody involved for all the work put into making this.

I have the rom flash drives and ram disk, original RC2014 compact flash drive, Ed's IDE connected to an 2.4" IDE disk, and also Ed's sound card, and digital I/O card all co-existing in my pro backplane powered by a rspberry pi power supply (broken USB connector replaced by DC barrel plug)

There is an extensive collection of software supplied with romWbw in several disk image files spread across several user directories. I have these installed now. One of the programs I'd like to try is 'VFILER', I believe its a file manager with a fancy user interface but I cannot find any instructions for it and it doesn't run. I get an error when I try and it  complains something about shell.

I have not found a description of just what is supplied on the disk drive images - I'm still exploring. does anybody know if there is a catalog of what is included?

I'm thinking I'll have to connect my old 3x4 inch LCD to the digital i/o board, the one I have can work in character and graphic modes and connects by parallel bus, it should make a simple dump terminal or even show a picture. The library I have for it is written in C++ though, so one way or another it will be a challenge to run it on the RC2014.

Kind regards, David.

[Wayne Warthen]

There is an extensive collection of software supplied with romWbw in several disk image files spread across several user directories. I have these installed now. One of the programs I'd like to try is 'VFILER', I believe its a file manager with a fancy user interface but I cannot find any instructions for it and it doesn't run. I get an error when I try and it  complains something about shell.

As you have found, RomWBW contains both ROM disk images as well as some sample floppy/hard disk images.  The ROM disk image is included in the ROM itself and all applications there work well as distributed.  However, the floppy/hard disk images are really just an example of how to use the RomWBW build process to create disk images.  The intention is that you would put your own files in the appropriate directories and let the build process create your disk images.  The existing disk images are not well organized or documented -- they are just some stuff that I was experimenting with for my own uses.  Regarding VFILER, it is an application from a CP/M variant called BPBIOS that I am working on porting to RomWBW.  So, VFILER will not run as-is on ZSDOS-based RomWBW.  I think there are a variety of CP/M apps that would provide similar functionality to VFILER and would run on any CP/M variant.  You may want to look for one of those.

I have not found a description of just what is supplied on the disk drive images - I'm still exploring. does anybody know if there is a catalog of what is included?

The floppy/hard disk images contaents on RomWBW are not documented.  It is on my todo list to clean up that whole mess, but will not be in the near future.  As I mentioned above, the idea for now was to provide a framework for folks to create images with their own content.

Thanks,

Wayne