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Thanks for the pictures, I guess now even I can do this 😉 Will try to do so tomorrow.
Also thanks for the warnings. I still recall that I was quite nervous when I calibrated the CRTs of some consoles while the devices were running…
The warm-up experiment did not work 🙁 I let the trouble maker run Minestorm for half an hour and then tried Vectorblade. Same crash as before.
Ok, being the dummy 🙂 that I am:
PB6 is a pin of the 6522 VIA?
How difficult is exchanding it? I am not really good at soldering, haven’t done it for ages. I have opened and cleaned all my consoles, even recalibrated the crts of some, but so far I have never exchanged any parts. Opening a console is not the problem, and I also have another non-working one with a damaged casing which I keep for spare parts. I could take the VIA out of that one and try it.
I will do what you suggested. Switch on the trouble maker and let it warm up a bit, and then try Vectorblade again.
EDIT: Btw, did the stupid2 sequence tell you anything?
Ran the stupid2.bin on the trouble maker:
After the “Beta 10” screen, the word “Calibration” briefly flashes up. Then:
00, 1F
00, 20
00, 21
00, 22
00, 23
00, 24
00, 25
Then freeze / blank screen.Some findings which might shed some light on this:
no-buzz home console:
———————
MB version, checksum 7adb
RAM checker did not find any errors
Randomly selected original cartridges all work fine
Sean Kelly Multicart 3.0 works perfectly fine
Richard Hutchinson VecFlash in Dev-Mode (1 binary without menu) works perfectly fine
Richard Hutchinson VecFlash in Multi-Mode (n binaries with menu) works perfectly fine
Richard Hutchinson VecMulti (n binaries with menu) works perfectly fine
Vectorblade pcb works perfectly fineno-buzz lab console (the trouble maker):
—————————————-
MB version, checksum 7adb
RAM checker did not find any errors
Randomly selected original cartridges all work fine
Sean Kelly Multicart 3.0 works perfectly fine
Richard Hutchinson VecFlash in Dev-Mode (1 binary without menu) works perfectly fine
Richard Hutchinson VecFlash in Multi-Mode (n binaries with menu) does not work!
Menu comes up fine, but as soon as a selection is made, the console freezes / crashes
Richard Hutchinson VecMulti (n binaries with menu) does not work!
Menu comes up fine, but as soon as a selection is made, the console freezes / crashes
Vectorblade pcb freezes if initial calibration has to be done, or when going from title screen to desktopthoughts:
———
I do not know enough of the details. As far as I understand, multi-carts and the Vectorblade pcb do certain magic tricks to achieve some sort of bank switching. Let us refer to such techniques as the “multi-thing”. On my no-buzz home console, all “multi-things” work. On my no-buzz lab console, the Sean Kelly “multi-thing” works, but the Richard Hutchinson “multi-thing” and the Vectorblade “multi-thing” do not work.questions:
———-
a) Do the Richard Hutchinson “multi-thing” and the Vectorblade “multi-thing” have anything in common (technology wise)?
b) What is the difference between the Sean Kelly “multi-thing” and the other “multi-things”?
(both questions are somehow related)theories:
———
c) There is some hardware defect on my lab console. The defect seems to “only” cause the Richard Hutchinson “multi-thing” and the Vectorblade “multi-thing” not to work, but seems not to affect any game play of either the original games or my own creations. Any idea what this could be? Some pins / wirings in the cartridge slot which are only used for “multi-things”?
d) There exists a no-buzz console version that has a hardware manufacturing configuration on which the Richard Hutchinson “multi-thing” and the Vectorblade “multi-thing” do not work. This is only likely if we find evidence of some other no-buzz console(s) that show the same behavior.EDIT: Had not seen your recent post when I was writing this, will try the stupid2 test right away.
Just to keep you informed. The TestRev4 catridge runs fine on the trouble maker machine and does not show anything suspicious. I also wrote a RAM checker that does some of the standard RAM tests I know from embedded systems. Did not report any errors. There are some more RAM checking algorithms I want to try, but so far the RAM chip seems to work fine. So, the mystery still remains. I will put the machine under some more stress later, testing more of the original catridges I have.
Btw, the system checksum is the same as on my other no-buzz machine (both 7adb, MB). Does the serial number possibly give any more information about the specific Vectrex model or production version?
Agreed, you should definitely give this no priority.
I will try Release tomorrow. And no, I do not have any of those other games 🙁
I will run more tests on that machine. More original games, and I will also probably write my own RAM checker. I would be happy for you if it turns out that this has nothing to do with Vectorblade, but at the same time I hope that the machine is fine as I am relying on it in class. I always thought of it as the one of my consoles which is in best condition. 🙁
Ok, I did the stupid test on that stupid machine. It gets a bit weirder, but probably also a bit clearer.
This time, after flashing the pcb, my first test was on the trouble maker. All the other times I had tested on one of the other machines before going over to the trouble maker. Meaning, all the other times the very first mandatory initial calibration was done on one of the other machines. This time, this calibration should have happend on the trouble maker. But:
Power on machine, Vectrex square logo comes up, Vectorblade Beta 9 cartridge header screen comes up, then for a split-second the word “calibration” flashes up on the screen, then the machine resets and goes back to the Vectorblade Beta 9 cartridge header screen. This continues. Also when pressing the reset button by hand. Calibration is not possible.
Switched the machine off, then calibrated the pcb on one of the other machines, and went back to the trouble maker. Now, as in the previous experiments, all goes well until the 01,02,03 sequence. However, this time, after the 03, I experienced different behaviors. In the first go, I had a blank screen and freeze after the 03. Reset by hand. In the second go, the machine reset by itself after the 03. In the third go, after the 03, “some vectors” briefly flashed up, before the screen again went blank and everything froze. Reset by hand. Now I got the Vectorblade Beta 9 cartridge header screen, but strangely bright and with one extra horizontal vector line drawn in the upper part of the screen. At that point I switched off the machine as this looked really strange and I did not want to damage anything.
Does the “no initial calibration” issue tell you anything? Or is this a ghost chose, and everything happens due to some hardware defect on my machine?
The value of register a is zero. What is the effect of:
sta <VIA_shift_reg
right before the:
JSR Wait_Recal
Ok, I do not understand all the details. I take it that PRINT_NUMBERS_D_AT prints the respective number and waits for a button to be pressed (and released?).
After displaying number 3, there are two calls RANDOM and RANDOM_A2. I guess it from the comments that these procedures in some way also wait for a button to be pressed (and released?).
Are we sure that the calls to the random functions return?
Tested MoreSteps on all machines. The other three all go:
01,02,03,04,05,06,07, then in broader font 09,0A,0B,0C,0D, then again in normal font 14, from here on the sequence goes back to 04 and seems to loop.
The no-buzz lab machines goes:
01,02,03, and then freezes with a dark screen.
QuadBankTest behaves identical on all four machines: If button n is pressed, then “Bank n” is shown on the screen (n = 0,1,2,3).
buzz home: T1TimerTest works fine
no-buzz home: T1TimerTest works fine
buzz lab: T1TimerTest works fine
no-buzz lab: T1TimerTest freezes when going from title to desktopOk, my mistake. I had indeed mistaken one buzz console for the other. Sorry for that. I reran the stepper test on all four machines. These are the results:
buzz home: regular game works fine, stepper test goes 01-02-03-05 as described above
no-buzz home: regular game works fine, stepper test goes 01-02-03-05 as described above
buzz lab: regular game works fine, stepper test goes 01-02-03-05 as described above
no-buzz lab: regular game freezes when going from title to desktop, stepper test goes 01-02-03, then same freeze as regular gameDoes this already help?
Getting bored? What does that mean? I don’t know that word?
I have twins! For the past years there has not been a single second of boredom in my life 😉
Ok, just tested the stepper.bin on said machine. This is what happens:
“00,01” – pressed button 1
“00,02” – pressed button 1
“00,03” – pressed button 1
brief flicker of desktop, then immediately
“00,05” – pressed button 1
bra -2 (meaning, from here on it loops, brief flicker of desktop, then “00,05” again)Never saw a “00,04”. Have to go now, but will also test this on the other machines later. Hope this helps!
