Need your opinion regarding GR8NET capabilities | MSX Resource Center (Pagina 48/58)

Van ToriHino

Paladin (858)

14-04-2018, 13:35

Nice feature, works very well!

Van MSX4ever

Master (254)

15-04-2018, 16:10

The GR8NET capabilities are really amazing with the new update to see the Telnet BBS in nice colors !!

There are still enough BBS present (some are no longer operational) :
http://telnetbbsguide.com/bbs/bates-motel-bbs/
(included the HispaMSX BBS)

Van Eugeny_Brychkov

Paragon (1232)

24-04-2018, 19:56

Requesting review of this KB0018 article called "GR8blaster device for MSX".

Just finished designing and making the device and software for it. It took about 3 days to make it from the start to completion.

Formally it can be used to active-serial flash any Altera EPCS device in any design, but at this stage I target GR8NET EPCS16 device only.

Van msxholder

Champion (399)

24-04-2018, 22:13

If i see it correct the 74hc367 is at vcc level 3,3V.
Nice piece of HW and SW again .

Van Eugeny_Brychkov

Paragon (1232)

24-04-2018, 22:36

msxholder wrote:

If i see it correct the 74hc367 is at vcc level 3,3V.

Yes, 5V pin of joystick connector is not connected anywhere. Chip is powered from GR8NET so that its output levels within specifications for FPGA/EPCS16 chips.

Van karloch

Prophet (2159)

24-04-2018, 22:42

Many USB Blaster clones are unreliable and this piece of DIY hardware can save the day. Great work as usual Eugeny!

Van Eugeny_Brychkov

Paragon (1232)

07-05-2018, 21:40

I uploaded new regular FPGA firmware, and new flash chip firmware. FPGA is having two fixes - one for MSX-Audio, and one for SCC/SCC+ implementation. Flash chip has some minor changes, for example now you can see SCC/+ mode GR8NET currently running in using _NETSTAT. New manual was also uploaded - change log is at the end of the manual.

Van Eugeny_Brychkov

Paragon (1232)

19-07-2018, 23:35

Batch 8 is finally ready. Several people have already got their new GR8NET This time the manufacturing and testing was harder than usual - at the end of testing phase I found out that networking piece of most carts does not work to my standards of the reliability, and, together with WIZnet Technology we have found out the cause of the issue and I had to replace W5100 chips on almost all the carts (and make some other minor modifications). Relatively significant cost, but my position is that I would better invest more and get positive people around me rather than save on quality and then get angry reviews. To those who already got their carts of batch 8 - no worries, your carts are tested up to standards!

Edit: there was not such issue for the previous batches, so existing users do not worry.

Van DarkSchneider

Paladin (1022)

20-07-2018, 08:47

Hi, I am not much updated and the forum has no "search within thread" feature, so I'd ask about something here.

The last time I saw a GR8NET I remeber you have to set the mapper config each time. There is some way for it to store and remember it?. I know that on FPGA cannot be saved.

Maybe it could be stored on the flash card, then on boot the GR8NET software could read it and apply. For "safe boot", if a key is pressed, it could ignore the config and boot in default configuration.
This would imply to boot by default with the SD mounted, read the config, and apply rebooting again if required (2 boots, not much).
If could be stored internally better, but for that internal flash is required, and I think it hasn't (correct me if wrong).

Another option could be to set a preferred mapper mode when flashing the cart, that would be set to boot as default in the firmware. So each one could custom their GR8NET to the most used mapper mode.

Van Eugeny_Brychkov

Paragon (1232)

20-07-2018, 10:33

DarkSchneider wrote:

Maybe it could be stored on the flash card, then on boot the GR8NET software could read it and apply.

It is called target mapper. ^F on the manual to read the details.

DarkSchneider wrote:

For "safe boot", if a key is pressed, it could ignore the config and boot in default configuration.

It is implemented at firmware level.

DarkSchneider wrote:

If could be stored internally better, but for that internal flash is required, and I think it hasn't (correct me if wrong).

Yes, stored in the card's flash chip.

DarkSchneider wrote:

Another option could be to set a preferred mapper mode when flashing the cart, that would be set to boot as default in the firmware. So each one could custom their GR8NET to the most used mapper mode.

I think target mapper is one of the items on the _NETCFG list.