Dragon-MMC

A place to discuss everything Dragon related that doesn't fall into the other categories.
tjewell
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Dragon-MMC

Post by tjewell »

I was thinking about this project today - and how much I'd still love one! Anyone know how far it got? Phil, wasn't it your baby?
jedie
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Re: Dragon-MMC

Post by jedie »

you mean: http://archive.worldofdragon.org/index. ... y-Smith%29 ?

Now we have DWLOAD... That's more flexible, isn't it?
... too many ideas and too little time ... Related stuff written in Python:
Dragon 32 emulator / PyDC - Python Dragon 32 converter: https://github.com/jedie/DragonPy
DWLOAD server / Dragon-Lib and other stuff: https://github.com/6809
tjewell
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Re: Dragon-MMC

Post by tjewell »

Maybe! I'm currently using a Dragon Dos controller with an HxC floppy emulator, and that works just fine for disk images. What I liked about this product was that I could use .cas images and rom images too, without having to convert them for use on disk. Now, I'll admit I haven't played with drivewire yet (I like the standalone nature of my HxC solution - or Dragon MMC), but if it can do the same I'll certainly look into it!
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tormod
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Re: Dragon-MMC

Post by tormod »

You can use DWLOAD in combination with Pere's "LROM" dweeb to load cartridge ROM files into RAM. Of course, this requires a Dragon 64 (or a Dragon 32 with RAM extension).

The uDW is a standalone DriveWire solution and as I have hinted about the firmware can be enhanced to replay CAS files, if that would be a popular feature... For now I have provided a separate, simple CAS to DECB converter.

The Dragon-MMC uses the cartridge port so it might run at higher transfer speed, but for normal loading of programs DriveWire seems fast enough (at standard speed 57600 baud pretty much as fast as floppy). The uDW also leaves the cartridge port free for other things.

Anyway it would be nice to know more about the Dragon-MMC. More alternatives and ideas are always fun.
tjewell
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Re: Dragon-MMC

Post by tjewell »

Thanks Tormod!

I doubt that me asking for the CAS feature on uDW would be enough to make you consider it 'popular', but that would be a neat feature. In the meantime, maybe it's time for me to take the plunge into drivewire. I like your uDW, as that's standalone. My Dragon is a proud beast, and there's something about it requiring a permanent connection to a modern PC that doesn't quite feel right to me!
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tormod
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Re: Dragon-MMC

Post by tormod »

Thinking about it, loading a CAS file can also be a nice application for a dweeb. See one result here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4968&p=13706#p13706

Converting CAS to sound on a uDW might work better for "difficult" CAS files, but the dweeb approach has the advantage of fast loading speed.
tjewell
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Re: Dragon-MMC

Post by tjewell »

Tormod, that's wonderful, thank you! I have a Sharp MZ80K with a broken keyboard that needs fixing, but once that's done, it's back to the world of Dragons and time to get drivewire running!
admin
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Re: Dragon-MMC

Post by admin »

I'll reach out to Phill and see if he can pop back on here and maybe open source his schematics and code - or move forwards with the project..
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robcfg
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Re: Dragon-MMC

Post by robcfg »

That would be very nice, thank you!
prime
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Re: Dragon-MMC

Post by prime »

Hi all,

Sorry I haven't been round here much lately......

Anyway, here's the files for DragonMMC as far as it got.
DragonMMC 2015-09-01.zip
Dragon MMC project files.
(1.95 MiB) Downloaded 184 times
Included is :

Eagle board layouts (probably need Eagle V6.x or V7.x).
Source project for the CPLD on the board, needs Xilinx Webpack 14.x.
AVR GCC (WinAVR), soucrces for the AVR microcontroller, these should be pretty portable, and where initially ported from SirMorris' AtoMMC sources for the PIC.
6809 Source for the Dragon ROM, these should be assembled with Mamou from the CoCo Toolshed project.

If someone does take the project further, one thing that they will need to do is to change the CPLD on the board as the XC9572 series of devices are no longer available, neither are PLCC packaged Xilinx devices. My suggestion would be to use either an XC9572XL-VQ100 or a XC95144XL-VQ100, as this would allow the use of the the same Verilog code for the new device. Also the code in the AVR is setup to be able to re-program the CPLD from a file on the MMC.

Cheers.

Phill.
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