Carnivore2 : First impressions and bugs... | MSX Resource Center (페이지 8/54)

Rookie (30)

25-09-2017, 22:37

Dear All,
I really love this new piece of hardware, I was just wondering if someone could help me in make 4GB memory cards work on my device.
I tried both an Hama 4GB CF and a type I CF2SD adapter (with both a samsung 4GB SDHC or a Kingston SDHC): the call fdisk stuck on the second screen:
in the first one I'm able to correctly select "Sunrise IDE v0.1.5" device, but as soon as I get the second screen I just have the "Sunrise IDE on slot 2-1" sign on the screen with no way to select the device and go on.
This happen on both my NMS 8280 and my sanyo wavy 70FD.
If I use a 2GB SD card in my SD2CF adapter I can actually go trough the whole process and enjoy the functionality of the Carnivore2.

Thank you and good night

By blackmsx

Expert (77)

26-09-2017, 11:12

stefA wrote:

Dear All,
I really love this new piece of hardware, I was just wondering if someone could help me in make 4GB memory cards work on my device.
I tried both an Hama 4GB CF and a type I CF2SD adapter (with both a samsung 4GB SDHC or a Kingston SDHC): the call fdisk stuck on the second screen:
in the first one I'm able to correctly select "Sunrise IDE v0.1.5" device, but as soon as I get the second screen I just have the "Sunrise IDE on slot 2-1" sign on the screen with no way to select the device and go on.
This happen on both my NMS 8280 and my sanyo wavy 70FD.
If I use a 2GB SD card in my SD2CF adapter I can actually go trough the whole process and enjoy the functionality of the Carnivore2.

Thank you and good night

You dont need to set up your card on the MSX. You can do this on a Windows PC, wipe the card and then format it as FAT16. After that you copy the necessary Nextor boot files to it.

By isaiasmalaga

Champion (357)

26-09-2017, 21:57

Hello Alexey:

Please help me to know if my USB programmer is valid.
The steps in the Readme.txt file I don´t understand well and then I put photos of my PCB Carnivore 2, USB Altera programmer and program Quartus II wev version to make some queries:

Photo 1-Carnivore 2 Back C1
http://es.tinypic.com/r/28lw7pe/9

Photo 2-Carnivore 2 Front 5V GND
http://es.tinypic.com/r/1znpd9v/9

Photo 3-Carnivore 2 Front JTAG
http://es.tinypic.com/r/2niqz41/9

Photo 4-USB Blaster - Carnivore 2 Front
http://es.tinypic.com/r/2aik084/9

Photo 5-USB Blaster internal 3
http://es.tinypic.com/r/2pyte7p/9

Photo 6-USB Blaster running
http://es.tinypic.com/r/5dkmye/9

Photo 7-Quartus II Web version
http://es.tinypic.com/r/b8lf94/9

Photo 8-Device Family
http://es.tinypic.com/r/243repg/9

The steps in the readme.txt file to update the firmware are these:

Before uploading the firmware please make sure the CF card is not inserted!

1. Solder jumper pins to the "+ 5v" and "GND" soldering points (or solder wires to both sides of C1 capacitor)
2. Prepare the ByteBlaster 2 programmer, open the Quartus II software
3. In the Quartus user interface select "Active Serial" mode for your ByteBlaster 2
4. Use "Add Device" button to add a new device and select "EPCS4" device
5. Rightclick on the added device's string and select "Change File"
6. Select the .POF file from the "Firmware" directory
7. Enable the checkboxes: "Program / Configure", "Verify" and "Blank Check"
8. Supply 5v power to the cartridge board (mind the correct polarity!)
9. Connect the ByteBlaster's cable to the AS socket of the cartridge (make sure you connect the cable correctly!)
10. Click "Start" and monitor the programming and verification process

If the programming completed successfully, disconnect the ByteBlaster's cable and 5v power from the board.

My questions are these:

A) In step 1 do I have to join soldiers the GND points and + 5V in the yellow circle of photo 2? (2-Carnivore 2 Front 5V GND)
Or do I have to connect these 2 points in any way with the capacitor C1 that is inside the yellow circle of photo 1? (1-Carnivore 2 Back C1)

B) Point 2 talks about Byteblaster 2. Is my USB Blaster (Photo 5-USB Blaster internal 3) compatible to make the Firmware update for Carnivore 2?
My USB Blaster has been correctly installed with your specific drivers on my Windows 10 computer. When USB Blaster is connected to the computer, the 2 LEDs are properly turned on and the computer recognizes the hardware properly.

C) In point 3, in the Quartus program I can´t find: "user interface select", "Active Serial". "In Photo 7 (7-Quartus II Web version) I don´t know where to find this option.
So I select the top window "Tool" and then the option "Programmer"
I enter in a new window where I select "Hardware setup" (Photo 8-Device Family)
In this way I have the same window "Device Family" as when I select "Add device". Of the 2 ways Quartus asks to select a family (Step 4 of instructions list)

D) In the family selection window that Quartus offers me (Photo 8-Device Family), I can not find "EPCS4" device.
So far I wanted to ask you how to do all the steps correctly without breaking Carnivore 2 PCB or USB Blaster programmer unit.
I also need to know if the 10-pin USB Blaster connection strip (Photo 5-USB Blaster internal 3) has to be connected to the "JTAG" connector inside the yellow circle of the Carnivore 2 PCB (Photo 3-Carnivore 2 Front JTAG)

I'm sorry for the inconvenience, I hope you can guide me a little in the steps. Thank you very much!!

By Wierzbowsky

Guardian (3609)

27-09-2017, 00:20

Ufff, I hope you know what you are doing. Below are the replies to your questions.

A) Your board has +5 and GND pins soldered already, so you don't need to do anything with the C1 capacitor. Just connect 2 wires to those pins on picture 2. Mind the polarity!

B) The Byte Blaster is a parallel port based programmer for Altera. The USB Blaster is a USB port based programmer for Altera. Both of them are able to program the chip

C) I am not familiar with the Web version of that software. I am using the v15 of the standalone Quartus Programmer software. The file is called "QuartusProgrammerSetup-15.0.0.145-windows.exe". The options to select "Active Serial" is in the "Mode" drop-down menu of that software:

You need to connect the cable from USB Blaster to "AS" connector, not to "JTAG". If you are still unsure what to do, send the cartridge to 8bits4ever and they can update the firmware safely.

By stefA

Rookie (30)

27-09-2017, 22:29

blackmsx wrote:

stefA wrote:

Dear All,
I really love this new piece of hardware, I was just wondering if someone could help me in make 4GB memory cards work on my device.
I tried both an Hama 4GB CF and a type I CF2SD adapter (with both a samsung 4GB SDHC or a Kingston SDHC): the call fdisk stuck on the second screen:
in the first one I'm able to correctly select "Sunrise IDE v0.1.5" device, but as soon as I get the second screen I just have the "Sunrise IDE on slot 2-1" sign on the screen with no way to select the device and go on.
This happen on both my NMS 8280 and my sanyo wavy 70FD.
If I use a 2GB SD card in my SD2CF adapter I can actually go trough the whole process and enjoy the functionality of the Carnivore2.

Thank you and good night

You dont need to set up your card on the MSX. You can do this on a Windows PC, wipe the card and then format it as FAT16. After that you copy the necessary Nextor boot files to it.

This is what I already did actually...
I formatted the 4GB CF in FAT16 using windows 10 and copied the files on carnivore.rar archive but no way: the drive is not recognized.
If I do the same with the 2GB SD card (in my SD2CF adapter) I works like a charm..
I also tried to partition the CF into two 2GB large patitions (formatted in FAT16) but no way... if I run "files" it respond "Bad drive name".
During the boot the system correctly shows "Master device...... CF Card". But it seems unable to use it...
It seems like a CF (or SD)compatibility problem, isn't it?

By isaiasmalaga

Champion (357)

27-09-2017, 23:46

Hi stefA:
I had the same problem and the only solution I found was to use a 2-slot MSX CF-ATA IDE cartridge (with both Master and Slave slots), like the original MSX cartridges: Sunrise ATA-IDE, or the French FUN-RICE. All of them updated with the Nextor version compatible with FAT16.

In the first slorttt (Master) I started with a CF with the MSX DOS and the system of boot of CF ATA IDE, and in the second slot (Slave) I put the new big capacity card Compact flash to format it from fdisk.
Once the process is finished, I inserted this CF of 4GB, or 8GB for example in Carnivore and with call fdisk from msx basic recognized either the CF formatting 1 or several partitions, and then in this new partitioned CF, I proceed to record from the PC computer the files Uncompressed from carnivore.rar
And with this working perfectl

By isaiasmalaga

Champion (357)

28-09-2017, 13:59

Hello Alexey:
Thank you for your suggestions. Your answer has resolved my doubts well. With your help, and also thanks to the help of user pablibiris I have been able to go ahead and program Carnivore 2.The 8bits4ever team just answered me to send them the Carnivore 2 to schedule them. 8bits4ever has never offered me information after buying on their website and I have been without support information until then.In Spain pablibiris also mounts Carnivore 2 cartridges and has offered me good information and support, just like you. Thank you both for the help!

By stefA

Rookie (30)

28-09-2017, 19:34

isaiasmalaga wrote:

Hi stefA:
I had the same problem and the only solution I found was to use a 2-slot MSX CF-ATA IDE cartridge (with both Master and Slave slots), like the original MSX cartridges: Sunrise ATA-IDE, or the French FUN-RICE. All of them updated with the Nextor version compatible with FAT16.

In the first slorttt (Master) I started with a CF with the MSX DOS and the system of boot of CF ATA IDE, and in the second slot (Slave) I put the new big capacity card Compact flash to format it from fdisk.
Once the process is finished, I inserted this CF of 4GB, or 8GB for example in Carnivore and with call fdisk from msx basic recognized either the CF formatting 1 or several partitions, and then in this new partitioned CF, I proceed to record from the PC computer the files Uncompressed from carnivore.rar
And with this working perfectl

Wow! Many thanks!
With my MegaFlashRomSCC+ in slot 1 I was able to use fdisk and initialize my CF card on my carnivore (which was on slot2). That's weird. But cool.
Really really lovely piece of hardware...

Cheers

By MP83

Master (232)

28-09-2017, 20:07

I've been using my Carnivore2 cartridge for a while now. It's a lovely device for sure. The SCC+ functionality works great, even on SD Snatcher (which wasn't mentioned in the readme file as of now). There's a couple of games, such as Eggerland 2 and Quinpl, that won't work for me, but it's nothing that RCP preset files probably couldn't fix -- except that I don't know how to make one. There's also the possibility of me using bad dumps, but how am I supposed to know this being the case? In any case, I don't regret getting a Carnivore2 cartridge. Thanks to RBSC and 8bits4ever for making/selling it.

By Wierzbowsky

Guardian (3609)

29-09-2017, 00:31

The readme file of Carnivore mentions the workaround for formatting CF cards with Nextor using _fdisk command. But this requires creating a configuration entry with only IDE device enabled and non-expanded slot. Such entry can be created using the c2man utility. Once this entry is created, you can boot from Carnivore and select this "IDE only" configuration entry. After Basic has been started, you can use _fdisk command to enter Nextor and start formatting the card.