Posted By
indi
on 2005-11-29
07:59:51
|  Plus4 downloader
Hiya peeps...
I was raking around in the loft and found an old Plus/4 to PC cable (userport->Parallel), so I knocked up a quick download program which lets you squirt stuff over to the plus4.
Would anyone (other than me) ever use this? If so...I can probably get a wiring diagram etc. for folk.
I did this in passing, but it was nice playing games on the Plus4 again, so I thought I'd ask.
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Posted By
SVS
on 2005-11-29
08:10:18
 | Re: Plus4 downloader
Yes it shoud be interesting, since the serial cable allows a low speed under modern PC' ports.
What software are you using for parallel transfers?
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Posted By
Luca
on 2005-11-29
08:20:27
 | Re: Plus4 downloader
First of all, nice to see you again on this forum, Mike! 
Well, I'm quite interested too.
OT: if you collect spare time, well, THAT project still awaits for you! Apropo, its hp URL is gone, could you plz tell me who to pay in order to buy it again?
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Posted By
Gaia
on 2005-11-29
08:37:30
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Mike: nice to see you over here! Is that cable the same than the one that was used for the 1551.exe program that emulates a 1551 for the plus/4? If so, it'd be great to have the scematics, actually it could be the ultimate cable for the plus/4... If the pinout is known we could port the transfer program to Windows (or better said: write one).
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Posted By
siz
on 2005-11-29
08:42:07
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Gaia!
Here are the contents of "hardware.txt" from OS96_9b archive, downloaded from Solder/Synergy's homepage.
Pinbelegung für das Datentransferkabel Plus/4-PC:
Cable Plus/4 to pc:
Plus/4 PC
--------------------
P0 (B) Error (15)
P1 (K) SLCT (13)
P2 (4) PE (12)
P3 (5) ACK (10)
P4 (6) D0 (2)
P5 (7) D1 (3)
P6 (J) D2 (4)
P7 (F) D3 (5)
DCD (H) D4 (6)
DSR (L) D5 (7)
RTS (D) Busy (11)
GND (1) GND (19)
Hardware-Erweiterung zur Ansteuerung des high-Teils:
hardware-expansion to control the 64k-EPROM
1/2 74LS74
┌──┬────┬──┐
1│ │ FF │ │5
Pin12 LS138 1) ───┤R │ │ Q├─── A15 of 27512
2│ │ │ │
┌───┤D │ │ │
_____ ┴ 3│ │ │ │
RESET 3) ───┤T │ │ │
4│ │ │ _│6
Pin11 LS138 2) ───┤S │ │ Q├─
│ │ │ │
└──┴────┴──┘
1) gemeint ist der '138 der 256kB-Erweiterung auf U4, Adresse $fd13
this means the '138 of the 256kb-expansion at U4, adress $fd13
2) gemeint ist der '138 der 256kB-Erweiterung auf U4, Adresse $fd14
this means the '138 of the 256kb-expansion at U4, adress $fd14
3) linke Seite von R21 unterhalb U7.
left side from resistor R21 under U7.
Die Eingangspins (13, 12, 11, 10) des zweiten Teils des LS74
sind auf H (+5V) zu legen. +5V an Pin 14, Masse (GND) an Pin 7.
Connect the input-pins (13, 12, 11, 10) from the second flip-flop in LS74
with H-signal (+5V). Connect +5V with pin 14 and GND with pin 7.
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Posted By
siz
on 2005-11-29
08:45:50
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Oops. Should be viewed with fixed font set.
Original location: http://www.solder-synergy.net/plus4/software.htm
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Posted By
indi
on 2005-11-29
14:35:30
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Yeah, good to be back....although I don't know how long!
I think the cable was designed and built by Solder for me years ago, since he sent I got the source to OS96 at the same time, so its probably the same pinout - which saves me the trouble!! :D
Its not a "disk" cable though, it plugs into the Plus/4's userport, and transfers via my own mini program (PC "dos" command and a tiny Plus/4 recieve program). But it saves having to have stacks of floppys when you want to have a quick look at something. OS96 would be better over all as it replaces the tape and will allow multiloads. This is single PRG files only.
I use it on window XP Pro, and it currently transfers at around 6000 a second. It would be quicker, but the plus4 can only transfer "nibbles" rather than whole bytes.
Unles that is....someone knows of a data-direction port like the C64 has that allows full bytes to be sent?
I'm playing with the idea of doing a full "devkit" with a remote debugger, allowing you to single step on the actual machine. This means you "boot" from a floppy, then use the PC to compile, build and debug everything. I actually want to do it for the C64, but since I had this cable, I thought I'd play with the Plus/4 first..The 6502 side will be virtually identical, and the PC side won't care.
The file transfer program is just a side effect, since the first thing I needed to do was be able to squirt down updated transfer code!
Luca: Yeah...I know...I know... The URL was pinched by some domain squatter, so it'd be easier/cheaper thinking up a new name.
I think I may do a C64 game first though....I was looking through my old disks and found the source to Blood Money. Hardware sprites add a lot... 
But...it may never come to pass, as you know me...little or no time. I also have a new "toy" comming to play with over Christmas (www.xgamestation.com), which will keep me busy Im sure... Still. I love writing monitors/debuggers so I may finish this first.
I'll try and set up a page for the programs and upload them for everyone. You will have to either use StarCommander to transfer the C64 one, or type in the HEX. Its only around 245 bytes, so its not too bad.
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Posted By
indi
on 2005-12-03
16:59:21
| Re: Plus4 downloader
I've added this to the downloads section on my minus4 site, get it it you care
The downloaded is around 270 bytes in size, and if your going to type in the HEX on the P4, then remember to skip the first 2 bytes and start at $1001
Enjoy.
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Posted By
indi
on 2005-12-04
16:29:22
| Re: Plus4 downloader
For those that wish to build this cable, you can find the Plus4 side connector here:
http://www.digikey.com
Item
S5124-ND
Although I can't find an enclosure for it.... any one else know where I can source these?
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Posted By
Ulysses777
on 2005-12-04
17:58:54
| Re: Plus4 downloader
AFAIK, they don't have 'proper' enclosures, as they're designed to be panel-mounted.
As a substitute, I believe 37-way D-Sub enclosures are used instead.
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Posted By
Ulysses777
on 2005-12-10
08:04:02
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Ok, I've built the cable (which hopefully works ) and have the BOOT prg running on the Plus/4, so how is stuff sent from the PC side?
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Posted By
indi
on 2005-12-10
15:39:52
| Re: Plus4 downloader
The "upload.exe" program takes the name of a ".PRG" file, which is then sent over to the P4.
There should be a DLL included with the zip, copy that into your windows directory.
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Posted By
indi
on 2005-12-10
15:44:34
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Okay.... just noticed I was stupid and added SNASM to the zip, and not the uploader.
This is now fixed, grab the zip again....
Note to Santa: need a brain.
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Posted By
Crown
on 2005-12-10
16:44:37
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Wow SNASM... ) I used to work with a SNASM 68k downloader on the Sega Genesis, one like this
http://shiggsy.gbadev.org/gfx/snes-68kadaptor.jpg
It was pretty cool, you basically replace the CPU with it, and can debug single step and everything from the PC...
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Posted By
indi
on 2005-12-11
15:25:05
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Yeah, I used to uses it to do Lemmings 2 on the SNES as well. I actually have a stack of SNASM kits, mostly SNES, but 1 Megadrive one.
I only have 1 PC board through!
Anyway, its not "that" SNASM. Its my assembler which started life a a SNes ASseMbler on the Amiga. It's what I now use to do all my 6502 stuff.
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Posted By
indi
on 2005-12-12
03:08:46
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Yeah... very neat. Did they ever get any code in to remove stuff from the background? Coz from what I can tell there would be some horrible colour clash once they did.
C64 got round that by using sprits as an effective dual playfield, and it also doubled the rendering performance since they didnt have to save/restore background tiles.
I found an old demo of it we got sent before they got approval to write it.
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Posted By
Luca
on 2005-12-12
06:23:15
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Oh well, what we'd seen during 4ever03 party could be remembered as...more than 40 sprites moving with no colour clash, due to the use of a double screen, as you can imagine. Tamas talked about (if my mnd won't cheat me) 52k of graphics stuff moved/copied/ANDded/managed someways. One of those pictures contains my face silly f.l.a.s.h.e.d. cause my surprise about what I was watching in front of me!
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Posted By
indi
on 2005-12-14
09:28:27
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Ulysses777: Have you tried it again? How did you get on?
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Posted By
Ulysses777
on 2005-12-14
14:27:32
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Works fine, thanks
What command line options are available with upload.exe?
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Posted By
indi
on 2005-12-14
19:02:29
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Great! Good to know that WAS the cable !
Theres a new version that allows you to autorun programs. It should also work with more progams as I now fill in the start and end of BASIC. Many decrunchers rely on these addresses being set.
The P4 side has also shrunk by 13 bytes! Although, once you HAVE a download program, this doesn't matter much....but if you have to type it in, this does help.
The new readme has details of the new options.
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Posted By
Ulysses777
on 2005-12-15
09:57:06
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Nice job, POD now works, for starters
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Posted By
indi
on 2005-12-15
15:11:39
| Re: Plus4 downloader
Yeah, the only reason I knew about it was I debugged quite a few of them early in Minus4's histoey.
The autorun's cool as well.
It has failed once on a VERY large program, where BASIC ran out of memory. So I had to go into the monitor to run it anyway. Ran fine though.
I really do prefer running them on the real thing for some reason..
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