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Parallax S-100 Console I/O testing.

L

litterbox99

Experienced Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2010
Messages
103
Hey all...

I have the board build and I'm in the
early testing phase... I have a question
about this phrase;

Next add U49 (a 74LS125) ...... Temporally tie U9 pin 9 to ground.
The input should change to FFh.

There is no U9, if you meant U49, that would be the buzzer circuit.
Without grounding U9, a DB at 15h gives me FFh

???
Next add U49 (a 74LS125). Install jumpers P77 1-3 & 2-4. Temporally tie U9 pin 9 to ground. The input sho
Next add U49 (a 74LS125). Install jumpers P77 1-3 & 2-4. Temporally tie U9 pin 9 to ground. The input should change to FFH. Insert a (RED) LED, D16, test and solder. Remove the U9 jumper
uld change to FFH. Insert a (RED) LED, D16, test and solder. Remove the U9 jumper
nstall jumpers P77 1-3 & 2-4. Temporally tie U9 pin 9 to ground. The input should change to FFH. Insert a (RED) LED, D16, test and solder. Remove the U9 jumperdd U49 (a 74LS125). Install jumpers P77 1-3 & 2-4. Temporally tie U9 pin 9 to ground. The input Next add U49 (a 74LS125). Install jumpers P77 1-3 & 2-4. Temporally tie U9 pin 9 to ground. The input Next add U49 (a 74LS125). Install jumpers P77 1-3 & 2-4. Temporally tie U9 pin 9 to ground. The input should change to FFH. Insert a (RED) LED, D16, test and solder. Remove the U9 jumper.

should change to FFH. Insert a (RED) LED, D16, test and solder. Remove the U9 jumper.

should change to FFH. Insert a (RED) LED, D16, test and solder. Remove the U9 jumper.
 
I'm at the point where I'm trying to program
the Propeller chip, but I receive an error;

No Propeller chip found on any serial ports.

I've download the drivers and installed with no issues.
When I plug in the Prop Plug into the USB port, the
red & blue LED's flicker a bit and stop. When I try
to identify hardware the Prop Plug LED flickers blue
and thats where I get the error. :-(

I have 3.3 vdc at the chip and have looked for obvious
soldering issues and what not. Even tried several USB
ports. I went to Parallax's forum, their solution(s) were driver
issues & no power to the circuit, but I have verified that.

I didn't expect this as a road block !
 
Found the problem !

The Prop Plug pinout is different on the one I purchased.

My Plug, the one I bought from Jamco, is pinned (left to right w/led
facing away) VSS, RX, TX, RES/

Where as, with your Prop Plug, is pinned (left to right w/led
facing away) VSS, RES/, TX, RX

I haven't tried programing the Propeller yet (I'll have to make
a jumper cable) But I did tie RX & TX together and opened
the Parallax Serial Terminal program and was able to echo
chars with echo off.

I hope this helps others working on this project.
 
Hey All !

This board ROCK'S !

Tonight I finally finished the board !

Much better than booting up the laptop...
running ProComm.... and waiting for a
connection.


A quick power on console :)

Here's a pic of the board;

http://home.mchsi.com/~litterbox99/temp/console%20IO.JPG

Here's my kbrd & vga conn;

http://home.mchsi.com/~litterbox99/temp/vgakey.JPG

and...

My current set up, soon to change !

http://home.mchsi.com/~litterbox99/temp/New Imsai.jpg

The only thing I want to do next, is to change the color to
an amber/yellow screen on black.

You guys are Super, to anyone reading this thread....
Do Not Hesitate to buy these board's

Anyone may use any pic's I post to use as you wish.

Todd
 
Thanks Todd! I appreciate the kind words! I hope you enjoy your restored IMSAI! That's a great looking system!

I'll look into the Prop Plug connector issue. It is possible that's messed up since there were a lot of changes in the area.

However, I recall John had it working so maybe there are other jumpers that need to be changed?

All the S-100 Console IO boards have gone to their builders so if others want more boards please let me know and I'll add you to the waiting list for the next batch.

This is a relatively simple board but I think very useful. John did a masterful job with it!

The next step is to take the rest of the previous design and add it to the S-100 Propeller Prototyping board (ethernet, microSD, etc).

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
 
Glad to see it worked out. I'm not sure about the PropPlug connection. I actually got mine from Parallax a ~ 4 months ago. I demonstrate it in the video on the relevant web page:-
http://s100computers.com/My System Pages/Console IO Board/Console IO Board.htm
So they may be different types.
What this board desperately need is an experienced Parallax programmer to finish the software;-
It needs the following:-
Recognize keyboard control characters directly from their scan codes. For example CTRL+C (^C) is not currently recognized. (I use F1 key).
Display the raw scan code on the first two hex displays.
What would be really nice would be to increase the screen resolution to greater than 80X24. The (now) fully dedicated 8 Propeller COG’s are capable of way more than this.
Sorry I just don’t have the experience to do this. Could somebody else look into this and/or put it up on one of the Parallax forums.
 
I'm super happy with this board!

The PropPlug pinout variance was no big deal, I just made a pigtail.

I was so excited about getting the board up and running, I had a bit
of tunnel vision, thinking it was an assembly error or a bad Parallax
chip. It wasn't until I took a breath and relaxed... I was looking at
my plug and noticed the silk screen on the solder side.... then I looked
up at my PC monitor and saw your pic of the plug (you have a color decal
with the propeller hat and mine does not).

I saw the pinout was different.

Here's a scan of my PropPlug;

http://home.mchsi.com/~litterbox99/temp/plug.jpg


Who would have figured ?

I'd like to have an amber/yellow on black display, I studied the
code, but I'm not familiar with RGB values, to generate the color.

If someone would help me ;-)

Todd
 
Last edited:
Look at the VGA_1024 .spin module. The color/background is in the CON section at the start as a Word. The first two bytes set the background (00=black), the second 2, the text color. Colors are the same as for the old IBM-PC VGA color adaptor.
 
Hi! I think you are using a USB2SER connector instead of a PropPlug. Their connections are slightly different which would explain the situation. Here is a thread on it at Parallax.com forums

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?100734-USB2SER-or-Prop-Plug

However, since you made an adapter and got it to work it would seem the S-100 Console IO board is also compatible with the USB2SER device as well. Maybe for the next revision we'll add some jumpers so builders can use either one.

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch

PS, BTW the Propeller is completely programmable so this board could do other things in addition to acting as a terminal replacement. I believe there are spare cogs left over so I think other things are possible.
 
OK, so I don't want to seem to be a bit daft... but
I've been googling VGA color tables and palettes for
over and hour or so and all that I can find is reference
to RRR,GGG,BBB + intensity bits.

I guess my question is how many colors does this
board support ?

I understand that 00 is white and FF is black, but I can't
find a table that converts X color to a 0-255 decimal.

Back in the day, I have had experience with graphics programming
in DOS using Turbo Pascal, but I'm just drawing a blank here...

Todd
 
Todd, you should do some web searches for VGA graphic display. I don't offhand have a table. Alternatively you can modify the spin code to rotate through all colors on a black background. Would be a nice Spin program excercise. I used to use green on black but now find that white on black is best. The characters are just better defined with all 3 "guns".


John
 
litterbox99 said:
I guess my question is how many colors does this
board support ?
Click to expand...

Hi! The S-100 Console IO uses a VGA video circuit similar to the Propeller Demo Board which has 2 bit per gun color or 64 colors.

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
 
Today I tried a few different values for the text color, you are correct, White on Black nets the best
display. Currently I'm running Green on Black. It's a bit dim and I'd rather not change out the resistors
to bring up the intensity as I will go back to White on Black anyway.

I tried Green text so it would match my "clock" that I made out of an AVR board and an old Tek
604 X-Y monitor. You guys may already be familiar with SparkFun's site.

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9306

Here's my console and clock. I'm running a Basic Biorhythm program under N* Dos.
It's a good program to exercise the CPU and I/O board.

http://home.mchsi.com/~litterbox99/temp/con1.jpg
http://home.mchsi.com/~litterbox99/temp/con2.jpg

I wish I had more time for a 'new' hobby, this Parallax stuff
looks very cool to play with.
 
Hi Todd! Thanks! That's great! I am very happy your system is working!

Great photos and please post more. I never tire of seeing working home brew computer systems!

Enjoy your home brew computer and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
 
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