Search found 68 matches

by Julian
Sun Apr 05, 2026 9:16 am
Forum: Dragon General
Topic: Dragon MMU solutions ...
Replies: 9
Views: 6880

Re: Dragon MMU solutions ...

Can I throw my interpretation in the mix then? Not *just* MMU, this is a replacement for SAM, RAM, ROM and VDG Using the SAMx8 as a starting point I have the usable RAM expanded to 2MB using 8K page sizes. The pages are allocated against 4 "tasks", a supervisor, two operational tasks and the video s...
by Julian
Wed Jun 04, 2025 12:24 pm
Forum: Dragon Hardware
Topic: Building up a Dragon in ATX form
Replies: 6
Views: 209180

Re: Building up a Dragon in ATX form

Update on progress - the ATX machine is running, I have everything except the cartridge port, real time clock and expanded audio built and working. The keyboard interface is waiting on a single chip to arrive (basically an Arduino performing the translation of a PS2 keyboard's serial data into somet...
by Julian
Thu May 22, 2025 9:56 pm
Forum: Dragon Hardware
Topic: 6551 oscillator
Replies: 2
Views: 74342

Re: 6551 oscillator

The crystal is just a tuned chunk of quartz inside that can, and it just a matter of packaging as to what size is needed and there are variations but fundamentally they are all much the same. An oscillator is a different kettle of fish and should produce a stronger logic level signal, these normally...
by Julian
Tue May 20, 2025 10:44 am
Forum: Dragon Hardware
Topic: Dragon 32 black and white output
Replies: 12
Views: 131089

Re: Dragon 32 black and white output

Easier to find but I'd hoped for a nice cheap option... ;)

It does give me a viable price cap on the replacement device
by Julian
Mon May 19, 2025 2:10 pm
Forum: Dragon Hardware
Topic: Dragon 32 black and white output
Replies: 12
Views: 131089

Re: Dragon 32 black and white output

Did you get anywhere with this? Just looking at the board it looks like there is a fair bit of tarnish on the chip legs in places, especially where they are in sockets. This *will* stop things from working properly although I do note you've swapped out the socket and chip for the LM1889 with no impr...
by Julian
Mon May 19, 2025 1:35 pm
Forum: Dragon Hardware
Topic: Building up a Dragon in ATX form
Replies: 6
Views: 209180

Re: Building up a Dragon in ATX form

Pretty much ready to spin this up for real - I have CPU, SAM, PIAs, RAM, ROM and VDG all hooked up. The LA board is a bunch of spaghetti and a tiny bit too wide to fit nicely... and certainly doesn't fit in the ATX case (again I didn't think this through and I need to make a different arrangement of...
by Julian
Mon May 19, 2025 12:33 pm
Forum: Dragon Hardware
Topic: PAL to NTSC conversion
Replies: 0
Views: 84762

PAL to NTSC conversion

I'm pretty sure this has been discussed before (can't imagine it hasn't) but I'm trying to detail a minimal method of converting a Dragon 32 PAL machine to output NTSC. I've (sort of) done this on my reproduction boards but want to check the theory of the process with the collective Step 1 - Rewire ...
by Julian
Sat May 03, 2025 1:44 pm
Forum: Dragon Hardware
Topic: Building up a Dragon in ATX form
Replies: 6
Views: 209180

Re: Building up a Dragon in ATX form

All of that would be great if I'd order 32 pin connectors... too much on my mind - that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it
by Julian
Sat May 03, 2025 1:11 pm
Forum: Dragon Hardware
Topic: Building up a Dragon in ATX form
Replies: 6
Views: 209180

Re: Building up a Dragon in ATX form

The IO and VDG cards only made it as far as Hillingdon (Heathrow for those that don't know London) so no more build this weekend The 40-pin connectors for the logic analyser board have turned up this morning though so I have a fighting chance of actually doing some real testing of the built-up compo...
by Julian
Sun Apr 27, 2025 10:03 am
Forum: Dragon Hardware
Topic: Building up a Dragon in ATX form
Replies: 6
Views: 209180

Re: Building up a Dragon in ATX form

So here's my plan - write $AA to every byte in the lower 32K to initialise. Then loop through the same memory, read each byte and test for $AA then changing $AA to $55. Do the same again swapping the two values. Any errors (ie reading an unexpected value will result in the upper byte of the test add...