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Re: EPROM Programming Shopping List

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 6:35 pm
by zephyr
zephyr wrote:The awesome GQ-4X programmer arrived early this morning, and it works like a charm (less than 4 seconds to burn and verify 16K on a 27C128). I am now the proud owner of a Dragon 64 with HD63C09E processor and Steve Woolham's Enhanced Dragon 64 ROMs v3.0. 8-) I can now verify that the v3.0 ROMs work perfectly under real Dragon 64 hardware, and are a joy to work with. I am now looking forward to experimenting with Steve Woolham's DragonCoCo ROMs.

Thanks Ken! :D
If anyone is planning of doing the same upgrade, please note that the Dragon64's IC18 is the "32 mode" ROM, and IC17 the "64 mode" ROM. The GQ-4X programmer is very easy to use, and there are several instructional videos available on YouTube. I picked mine up from a source in the UK for just over £70 brand new. I decided to use a 1.5 amp power supply (output set at 9 volts DC) to power my GQ-4X because I was worried that it would draw too much current from the USB port power supply, and over time cause damage my PC's motherboard.

Regards,
Steve

Re: EPROM Programming Shopping List

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 11:27 pm
by KenH
zephyr wrote: I am now the proud owner of a Dragon 64 with HD63C09E processor and Steve Woolham's Enhanced Dragon 64 ROMs v3.0. 8-) I can now verify that the v3.0 ROMs work perfectly under real Dragon 64 hardware, and are a joy to work with. I am now looking forward to experimenting with Steve Woolham's DragonCoCo ROMs.

Thanks Ken! :D
You will enjoy the dual Dragon-Coco roms even more as they really let you have the best of two worlds.
The thanks goes to you and Steve Woolham for creating and sharing these roms :)

BTW, the Rainbow magazine featured a column by Marty Goodman's Rainbow about a similar rom (although without the dual boot feature):

"For a while some companies (such as Super Choc in Canada) sold CoCo
ROMs modified for the Dragon, and the Los Angeles Users Group had a
number of members running Dragons with modified CoCo EPROMs in them.
These modifications resulted in a Dragon that thought it was a CoCo,
would print out through the parallel port, but could access the serial
port via a PRINT #-3. Because the Dragon was now pretty nearly a CoCo
from both hardware and software points of view, it could even work fine
with a normal CoCo disk controller plugged in."

Ken

Re: EPROM Programming Shopping List

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:04 pm
by zephyr
KenH wrote: BTW, the Rainbow magazine featured a column by Marty Goodman's Rainbow about a similar rom (although without the dual boot feature):

"For a while some companies (such as Super Choc in Canada) sold CoCo
ROMs modified for the Dragon, and the Los Angeles Users Group had a
number of members running Dragons with modified CoCo EPROMs in them.
These modifications resulted in a Dragon that thought it was a CoCo,
would print out through the parallel port, but could access the serial
port via a PRINT #-3. Because the Dragon was now pretty nearly a CoCo
from both hardware and software points of view, it could even work fine
with a normal CoCo disk controller plugged in."
Which issues of Rainbow Magazine?

Re: EPROM Programming Shopping List

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:24 pm
by KenH
Rainbow March 1987, page 151

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