Archive

Author Archive

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player Firmware update v1.18

January 31st, 2022 No comments

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player by xAD/Nightfall & Gianluca Renzi (RetroBit Lab)

Based on the Project and Hardware Schematic by Markus Gritsch released in the years 2011-2015 on the forum dangerousprototypes. Thanks Markus.

Changelog:

v1.18 – 28/1/2022

Fixed:

  • When you are in Manual mode of playing SID the timeout timer wrongly are also increased into a variable but this timer works only for the modes: auto/random/intro.
  • Wrong STATIC variable for the debug via serial. the serial debug don’t works correctly in some part of the code. %-)
  • Wrong variable for the Timeout check if the time is longer then 99 seconds. %-)

Updated:

  • Freed and remapped to another destination the MCU pins of PAUSE and FFWD buttons to use them with the CS for the SID #2 and R/W because we needed 2 MCU pins 5v tolerant and there aren’t many left :/
  • Described some parts of the source code.
  • Added new parameters to the configuration file (config.ini).
    • Playback timeout in seconds of the .SID files for AUTO/RANDOM and INTRO modes.
    • Configure the best baudrate for the debug via Serial.
    • Disable or Enable the visualization of the VU-METER for the 3 sid voices.

Below is an excerpt from the “config.ini” file.

# Serial Debug Baudrate – default: 115200
SERIAL_BAUDRATE=115200
# Set the Timeout in Seconds for the AUTO/RANDOM playing mode – default: 2 minutes
AUTORND_TIMEOUT=120
# Set the Timeout in Seconds for the INTRO playing mode – default: 15 seconds
INTRO_TIMEOUT=15
# Write 0 if you want to disable the visualization of the vu-meter for the 3 x sid voices.
# Default: 1
SID_VUMETER=1

Kung Fu Flash Cartridge Firmware Update v1.34

January 30th, 2022 No comments

A new version of the firmware for the Kung Fu Flash Cartridge by Kim Jørgensen is released.

Changelog from version v1.21 to 1.34:

  • Fix broken mount D64 file option (since v1.33)
  • Improve disk drive emulation to support Sidplay64. Thanks Actarus, Fabuseta, mwedmark, and Seni1ix
  • Support basic SD2IEC commands.
  • Optimized code to make it all fit in flash.
    • In this version the following cartridge types will not require the firmware file on the SD card:
    • Normal cartridge (8k, 16k, Ultimax)
    • Fun Play, Power Play
    • Super Games
    • Ocean type 1
    • Epyx Fastload
    • C64 Game System, System 3
    • Dinamic
    • Zaxxon, Super Zaxxon
    • Magic Desk, Domark, HES Australia
    • EasyFlash
    • Prophet64
    • RGCD, Hucky
    • Drean
    • C128 Normal Cartridge (external function ROM)
  • Combined PAL and NTSC firmware.
  • T64 support (normal tape files only). Thanks Matthias.
    • The firmware has been extended to support both PAL and NTSC and this requires the KungFuFlash_v1.30.upd file to be kept in the root directory of the SD card.
    • Older firmware will not support this extended format so KungFuFlash_v1.30_upgrade.upd must be used first. This file is not needed after the upgrade process has been completed.
  • Fix broken EasyFlash VIC-II/C128 mode. Thanks mrr19121970.
  • Improve detection of C64 clock signal.
  • Add simple diagnostic tool.
    • The diagnostic tool is started by pressing the menu button for 2 seconds (until the LED turns off) and is intended to help debug stability problems on some C64 models.
    • The tool can also be started in a USB only mode if Kung Fu Flash refuses to start at all. In this mode debug data is send via USB only and the C64 should start normally (boot to Basic). This mode is started by pressing both the special and menu button for 2 seconds, then releasing the menu button followed by the special button.
    • For reference the phi2 clock frequency should be around 985248 Hz for PAL and around 1022727 Hz for NTSC.
  • Add support for Drean cartridges. Thanks beatmaster13.
  • Add support for C128 normal cartridge. Thanks phako.
  • Fix unstable EF3 USB. Thanks dikdom.
  • Add support for Super Games cartridge.
  • Add support for Prophet64 cartridge.
  • Fix broken Fun Play/Power Play cartridge support (since v1.16)
  • Add support for RGCD and Hucky cartridges. Thanks Konstantin19.
  • Load extensionless files as PRG.
  • Add support for WarpSpeed by SvOlli. Thank you.
  • Add support for Freeze Frame/Freeze Machine. Thanks gold11-carca.
  • Fix bug reading UPD file using FAT16. Thanks cosmo6128.

Download:

source: github.com/KimJorgensen/KungFuFlash

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

January 30th, 2022 Comments off

January 30th, 2022 1 comment
Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player Firmware update v1.17

January 5th, 2022 No comments

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player by xAD/Nightfall & Gianluca Renzi (RetroBit Lab)

Based on the Project and Hardware Schematic by Markus Gritsch released in the years 2011-2015 on the forum dangerousprototypes. Thanks Markus.

Changelog:

v1.17 – 31/12/2021

Added:

  • Change visualization status of the LED for Socket #1 and Socket #2 available on the Olimex Development Board and the SID Player PCB.
  • A configuration file (config.ini) for some important settings of the SID Player. The file will be loaded during the boot and must be present in the ROOT of the filesystem of the USB key.If the file is not found, the player will configure itself with the default values. Thanks to Gianluca Renzi (RetroBit Lab) for his lite INI file parser.

Below is an excerpt from the “config.ini” file.

# Select the Sid model for the Tune played by the SID Player on the Socket #1 or Socket #2.
# Specify the socket which you want to play the sid tunes (example for SID_8580_SOCKET write
# the number 2 if you want it to be played with the SID 8580 installed on socket #2)
# This configuration makes the use very dynamic for everyone. – default: socket #1,#1,#2,#2
TUNE_UNKNOWN_SOCKET=1
TUNE_6581_SOCKET=1
TUNE_8580_SOCKET=2
TUNE_BOTH_SOCKET=2
# Use Armsid with Auto Switching (0:Disabled – 1:Socket #1 – 2:Socket #2) – default: 0
# Note: When you use the auto detection and switching of the SID model with the ARMSID this can be
# used only in one of the two sockets, the other socket is completely ignored and can remain empty.
ARMSID_SOCKET=0
# Brightness of the OLED. (0 … 255) – default: 127
OLED_BRIGHTNESS=127
# Brightness of the OLED in IDLE mode. (0 … 255) – default: 10
OLED_BRIGHTNESS_IDLE=10
# Enable the serial DEBUG. (1 Enable | 0 Disabled) – default: 0
SERIAL_DEBUG=0

December 24th, 2021 Comments off

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

December 24th, 2021 No comments

December 22nd, 2021 1 comment

December 17th, 2021 Comments off

ARMSiD by Nobomi New Firmware v2.13

December 8th, 2021 No comments

A new firmware update for the ARMSiD has been released by Nobomi.

News features and fixes in FW 2.13:

  • Further optimization of code speed and size. Also bus operations are faster, finally “paddles” are successfully read on NTSC machines even with the oldest HW versions of ARMSID (with components on top) !
  • ARMSID start is also faster. Instead of hundreds of milliseconds, ARMSID is fully functional in less than 15 milliseconds after power-up !
  • Added the possibility to “fix” the so-called ADSR bug, i.e. a bug in the envelope generator, which is inherent to the original chips and is reproduced in ARMSID too. This is not needed in the C64 for compatibility reasons, but if you use ARMSID in synthesizers, you might be interested in this feature.
  • Slightly modified quality (Q) of filter circuits for even more faithful reproduction of MOS8580.

Download: ARMSiD v2.13 (641)

source: nobomi.cz

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

December 5th, 2021 Comments off

December 4th, 2021 Comments off

November 29th, 2021 Comments off

November 21st, 2021 Comments off

November 20th, 2021 Comments off