Loci - my Oric storage emulation project

[ibisum]

I don't mind contriubtions at all! I may be spearheading things

Great .. I guess you're getting Github wiki notifications when I do it, but just to let you know I edited things again, after your new additions, and will just continue to do so to catch consistency/grammer fixes, which are easy for me to contribute.

[coco.oric]

Thanks for feedback.
If there's a new firmware on this modification (lengh of file directory), alert me to try it in prioriry.
I've a huge number of files with a long description name as i'm using tosec name convention to keep some informations from source for example

[Sodiumlightbaby]

If there's a new firmware on this modification (lengh of file directory), alert me to try it in prioriry.
I've a huge number of files with a long description name as i'm using tosec name convention to keep some informations from source for example

It will be moderate though. Current buffer is 2k, but since we now run the ROM with 16k total limit for the Oric-1 16ks out there and for the save/return feature, I can only bump it to 3k. More will require some RAM use optimisations.

[Vyper68]

I have upgraded my Loci to FW 1.30 and the Reset Button is performing the same as to Loci button and not as a straight forward Oric reset whereas FW 1.28 did.
My Oric is an Oric1 btw.
This is happening while I am in the Loci menu. Outside of that it behaves as a reset. So I don’t know if it was supposed to behave as an Oric reset button in the Loci UI screen on FW 1.28 or if this is normal.

[Dbug]

I have upgraded my Loci to FW 1.30 and the Reset Button is performing the same as to Loci button and not as a straight forward Oric reset whereas FW 1.28 did.

As far as I remember, the black reset button of the loci has never behaved like either the Oric reset or Microdisc reset, I've only been using in last case resort when I could not boot

I should probably have reported that, so shame on me /o\

[Sodiumlightbaby]

The LOCI reset button is an analogue/physical button that pulls the reset pin on the expansion port low, thus the CPU does its reset sequence and jumps to what the FFFC reset vector points to. What then starts depends on what is mapped in the ROM space.

Any difference from other devices will depend on what else the reset button does on those devices.

[Dbug]

The LOCI reset button is an analogue/physical button that pulls the reset pin on the expansion port low, thus the CPU does its reset sequence and jumps to what the FFFC reset vector points to. What then starts depends on what is mapped in the ROM space.

Any difference from other devices will depend on what else the reset button does on those devices.

In theory, pressing the (hard to access) reset button of the Atmos while on BASIC will bring you back to the BASIC prompt, and pressing the reset button of the Microdisc on the back would normally start the boot on the microdisc eprom and book again on whatever floppy you have in the drive.

I don't think Loci has been behaving that way. (I can't test right now because I did not replug the machine after I tested it at work on Friday).

[Sodiumlightbaby]

n theory, pressing the (hard to access) reset button of the Atmos while on BASIC will bring you back to the BASIC prompt, and pressing the reset button of the Microdisc on the back would nor

You mean the NMI button on the underside? Yeah that is not reset and runs a different vector at FFFA.

pressing the reset button of the Microdisc on the back would normally start the boot on the microdisc eprom and book again on whatever floppy you have in the drive.

Yes because it also resets the Microdisc. LOCI needs to run reset independent of Oric so it won't do the same. Maybe we can emulate something in the future.

[Dbug]

So the idea of the black button is to simulate the cold boot of the machine, like if you unplugged and replugged it?

[Vyper68]

The LOCI reset button is an analogue/physical button that pulls the reset pin on the expansion port low, thus the CPU does its reset sequence and jumps to what the FFFC reset vector points to. What then starts depends on what is mapped in the ROM space.

Any difference from other devices will depend on what else the reset button does on those devices.

So if I press the Black reset button when I am in the Loci UI screen the Oric should reset to Basic like it did in FW 1.28 where now it just reset to Loci UI screen?

[Sodiumlightbaby]

So the idea of the black button is to simulate the cold boot of the machine, like if you unplugged and replugged it?

It's to provide the reset button the Oric doesn't have. I have thought of it mostly as a tool to "unstick" Oric when it gets into trouble. E.g. we know the reset circuit on the Oric is pretty bad and machines may fail to boot. I did not think of trying to match the behaviour of Microdisc.

So if I press the Black reset button when I am in the Loci UI screen the Oric should reset to Basic like it did in FW 1.28 where now it just reset to Loci UI screen?

It should boot to the ROM that is currently mapped. If you are in LOCI UI, you should get a fresh boot of the LOCI UI. It is just a CPU reset, it does no magic in LOCI.

Edit: To get a poor man's Microdisc-ish reset behaviour, hit the action (red or white) button then Esc on the keyboard to boot fresh.

[Chema]

It should boot to the ROM that is currently mapped. If you are in LOCI UI, you should get a fresh boot of the LOCI UI. It is just a CPU reset, it does no magic in LOCI.

Edit: To get a poor man's Microdisc-ish reset behaviour, hit the action (red or white) button then Esc on the keyboard to boot fresh.

This is exactly what I meant when I reported the reset did not act as I expected. It is not a problem at all, simply something I found weird, as it is quite different from the real hardware.

[Sodiumlightbaby]

This is exactly what I meant when I reported the reset did not act as I expected. It is not a problem at all, simply something I found weird, as it is quite different from the real hardware.

Yeah, might need to deduct this one off my newbie quota. I've never used any of the Oric floppy devices or alternatives. Only ever had my hands on a loaned Erebus (great device), so some of the usage patterns completely escaped me

So for now, LOCI reset will behave different than Microdisc et al as it only resets the Oric.

[Sodiumlightbaby]

? Bug ?

Hello,

Making some trials, may be a bug at least some unstability on dsk

0. BUTTON menu
1. Boot sedoric 4.0
2. (but i think it doesn't matter) create mkdir and essai.com
3. load and launch essai.com (10 print "AA") and run it (happy to see the dsk updated after reboot)
4. BUTTON menu
5. select return >>> bug or select boot and the boot isn't able to run totally

I've tried also Athanor dsk. After one return to menu, or 2, going back to the soft seems not so reliable and screen remains sometimes in text instead of hires

It's a bug or two. The trap doesn't work on Athanor (need to add a CLV), and paradoxically the fixed ULA vmode snooping may be too good now and perhaps is picking up some ULA reads into the overlay RAM during VBLANK (Edit: or just buggy )

[iss]

... paradoxically the fixed ULA vmode snooping may be too good ... during VBLANK

bit offtopic: Indeed, the snooping is too good!
If we make the mode byte to be accessible through the LOCI-API we can do VSYNC hack for free