Cumulus Preorder Thread

In this forum you can write about anything that does not fit in other forums.
This includes generic Oric talkings and things that are totaly unrelated but want to share with people here :)
markerror
Private
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Dec 05, 2013 1:20 pm

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by markerror »

Hi,

This project seems so promising I can't not buy this piece of hardware :-) So you can add one card ! (EDIT: DONE)

Markerror
User avatar
ibisum
Wing Commander
Posts: 1646
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:56 am
Location: Vienna, Austria
Contact:

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by ibisum »

Is it just me, or has this thread prompted a lot of Oric-1/Atmos owners to come out of the woodworks?

;)
User avatar
Dbug
Site Admin
Posts: 4444
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:00 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by Dbug »

ibisum wrote:Is it just me, or has this thread prompted a lot of Oric-1/Atmos owners to come out of the woodworks?

;)
Don't imagine that the Defence Force forums are the only place where you can find active Oric Users :)

We have people from different circles, which may or may not overlap:
- Defence Force forum
- comp.sys.oric
- The original Retromaster blog
- People who followed Boris's blog
- Club Europe Oric
- The people who saw and shared the 30years anniversary page on Facebook and associated site
- Demoscene people (pouet.net and co)
- Some hardware museum/conservatory people

Plus a bunch of places where we posted messages such as:
- Retrogamer magazine
- Mo5.com association
- WDA
- Silicium forums
- Gameopat
- and half a dozen of blogs and forums who had references to Oric/Cumulus/Microdisc...

Sorry for the ones I forgot, but the bottom line is: There's much Oric activity around that you may have expected.
Random example: http://forum.system-cfg.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=4853 this guy has written an entire new adventure game, multiplatform, so it's not Oric specific, will be released soon :)
JonB
Officer Cadet
Posts: 38
Joined: Tue May 14, 2013 9:02 pm

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by JonB »

Is there a price established yet?

Would love to play Space:1999 on my Atmos!
User avatar
tingo
Pilot Officer
Posts: 68
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 11:30 am
Location: Oslo, Norway

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by tingo »

Put me down for 1 (one) unit. Cheers! (EDIT: DONE)
Torfinn
User avatar
Dbug
Site Admin
Posts: 4444
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:00 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by Dbug »

Hello everybody, the price for Cumulus is now known: 70 euros, including the red and black case.

So the status from now one:
- Boris is still busy soldering the units
- the actual payment/expedition will start when he receives the fully debugged version of the bootloader.

This bootloader is what goes into the PIC component, it will allow for updates of the Cumulus firmware from the SD Card. This relies on the bootloader so it is important that this part works reliably 100% of the time.
Ibisum received some of the early units and is helping in the debugging (No pressure here, no pressure :) )
coolman66
Flying Officer
Posts: 244
Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:37 pm
Location: lancashire GB
Contact:

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by coolman66 »

Please put me down for one of these,any idea of time line for production. And method of payment preferred. (EDIT: DONE)
User avatar
Dbug
Site Admin
Posts: 4444
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:00 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by Dbug »

coolman66 wrote:any idea of time line for production. And method of payment preferred.
The production of the hardware has already started some time ago, the delivery will start after the units have been 'flashed' with a reliable boostrap firmware. Boris said he was fine with either bank transfer or Paypal for payment.
User avatar
ibisum
Wing Commander
Posts: 1646
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:56 am
Location: Vienna, Austria
Contact:

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by ibisum »

So my current status is that I'm trying to track down a local PICKit2 that I can use to debug the firmware/bootloader issues - and as soon as I have this, and have been able to build a firmware/bootloader image, I can get stuck into debugging it. However this will take me a couple more days yet - the PICKit2 that I'm hoping to borrow needs to be found in the metalab.at environment, somehow .. as soon as I have it, I can get stuck into debugging things.. although Boris does seem to have made a little more progress, it may also be a matter of just getting the Linker file set up properly with the appropriate memory locations for the firmware blob, and the bootloader blob, such that they don't overlap with each other.

Boris: I'd suggest we start a public thread about it. There are plenty of experts here whose eyes on the code might provide a lot of insight - and as soon as I get the ability to burn the new images to the devices you've sent me, I can start testing any suggestions that come up. How about starting a technical thread on the subject, and maybe point us to the Linker files you've tried so far, source-wise? (I know the SVN location - but maybe you've made some progress since the last checkin?)

EDIT: in case you other guys want to look, here is the URL for the sources we're using: http://miniserve.defence-force.org/svn/ ... e/cumulus/
JonB
Officer Cadet
Posts: 38
Joined: Tue May 14, 2013 9:02 pm

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by JonB »

I'll take one, please! (EDIT: DONE)

Space:1999 here we come!!! :D
User avatar
Dbug
Site Admin
Posts: 4444
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:00 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by Dbug »

ibisum wrote:So my current status is that I'm trying to track down a local PICKit2 that I can use to debug the firmware/bootloader issues - and as soon as I have this, and have been able to build a firmware/bootloader image, I can get stuck into debugging it. However this will take me a couple more days yet - the PICKit2 that I'm hoping to borrow needs to be found in the metalab.at environment, somehow .. as soon as I have it, I can get stuck into debugging things.. although Boris does seem to have made a little more progress, it may also be a matter of just getting the Linker file set up properly with the appropriate memory locations for the firmware blob, and the bootloader blob, such that they don't overlap with each other.
Indeed, overlapping changes is not a good idea.
ibisum wrote:Boris: I'd suggest we start a public thread about it. There are plenty of experts here whose eyes on the code might provide a lot of insight - and as soon as I get the ability to burn the new images to the devices you've sent me, I can start testing any suggestions that come up. How about starting a technical thread on the subject, and maybe point us to the Linker files you've tried so far, source-wise? (I know the SVN location - but maybe you've made some progress since the last checkin?)
A new thread just for the bootloader discussion makes sense to me. I will just read it because I don't know anything about pic programming. As far as I see it looks like normal C language but there's a lot of things about ports and signals and whatnot, and that I have no idea on how it work so I would be useless on it :)

I will update the SVN server as soon as I get updated versions of the data - or you can ask me and I will give you access - :)
User avatar
Atlantis
1st Star Corporal
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Mar 11, 2013 9:36 pm
Location: France - Seine et Marne
Contact:

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by Atlantis »

Hello Mike, It's Eric again.. (EDIT: DONE)

I'll take one, please!
Athanor is watching you.. :D
User avatar
Slator
Private
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Dec 18, 2013 10:45 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by Slator »

thanks to dbug for pointing me directly to this forum :-D

please count me in for one of those beauties :-D (EDIT: DONE)
AndyGarton
2nd Star Corporal
Posts: 19
Joined: Sat Jun 15, 2013 1:51 pm

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by AndyGarton »

I'd like one please. (EDIT: DONE)

Thanks,
Andy
User avatar
Dbug
Site Admin
Posts: 4444
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:00 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

Re: Cumulus Preorder Thread

Post by Dbug »

Looks like Boris found the final firmware update bug, so as far as I know the last blocker before he can send the cards has been solved :)

Stay tuned for more updates.
Locked