One chip MSX improvement project

Paragon (1483)

28-12-2012, 14:07

@caro: Itested an external floppy drive (sony hbk-30) width your latest filmware, it work's fine, my config is: all sw on 0 and the hbk-30 in the second slot, no 12v. Thank you!!!

By RetroTechie

Paragon (1563)

29-12-2012, 03:00

Still haven't bought a programming cabIe for Altera devices, and saw some really cheap mini devices on eBay recently. Just search eBay for "usb altera". Some examples:

USB Blaster Programmer Altera JTAG FPGA FPGA Dev. Board
New Mini Usb Blaster Cable For CPLD FPGA NIOS JTAG Altera Programmer
Mini Altera FPGA CPLD JTAG USB Blaster Programmer+Free Shipping

As far as I can tell, the thing to watch out for is lowest voltage (1.0V) supported for the target board (most recent FPGA devices like Cyclone IV and V). Not sure whether "Rev.C" and "down to 1.0V" is the same thing. I'm using the original 'blue box' 1chipMSX and not that it matters for that one, but I just don't want to buy another programming cable 2 years from now (after buying some other FPGA board) when it can be avoided...

Anyone got experience using a similar programming cable for reconfiguring the 1chipMSX (or Altera DE1) ? It's not the low price, just that I don't like buying stuff, waiting 2-3 weeks for shipment from China, messing with it for a day, and then find out it doesn't work.

For the time being I haven't had time to dive into 1chipMSX development, but I don't want a € 10,- programmer cable to stop me.

Also it took much research to find out that latest (free) Quartus II software that supports the original 1chipMSX, is version 11.0 SP1. Current version (12.1) supports Cyclone (I) devices, but only the paid (subscription) version. The free (Web Edition) doesn't. This is very hard to find out (comparison document free <-> subscription version shows it), finding out which exact version of the Web Edition still supports Cyclone (I) devices, is harder still. Both Google and Altera site search weren't much helpful...

Have yet to confirm all this by installing & running that Quartus software. But they're rather big downloads so I want to be sure what works & what doesn't before wasting too much time on it.

By Akul

Rookie (20)

31-12-2012, 00:17

Hi. Pardon for my English.
I have a question. The audio output in my DE1 is very weak. The volume in the TV is maximum in order to listen. Is normal? Thanks.

Lo digo es español a ver si alguien me puede ayudar. Cuando conecto el DE1, tengo que poner el volumen al máximo en mi TV o en mi ekipo para poder escuchar algo y aún así se escucha muy bajo. ¿Es algo normal? ¿Tiene tan poka potencia la salida de audio del DE1? Muchísimas gracias.

By x-nen Aivalahostia

Paragon (1483)

31-12-2012, 09:44

Hi, DE1 has a low volume, you can increase the volume pressing AV pag. key on DE1 keyboard check and put it to max...but yes DE1 have a very poor output sound.

En espanyol: la DE1 tiene poco volumen, puedes subir al maximo el volumen pulsando la tecla Av pag del teclado y ponerlo al maximo de salida.. pero la DE1 tiene poco volumen de salida.

By Akul

Rookie (20)

01-01-2013, 21:22

Muchísimas gracias por contestar. Probaré lo de la tekla a ver komo me va, aunke me imagino k mucho no kambiará la kosa. Feliz año.

Thanks.

By vanfanel

Champion (446)

14-01-2013, 17:46

@caro: Could I please have a DE1 version WITHOUT the latest sound fix?
Is this the fix you did for the broken audio 15/10/2012 version?

			if( w_112khz = '1' )then	-- fix caro
--			if( w_56khz = '1' )then

Should I disable it to go back to non-broken version?

By vanfanel

Champion (446)

14-01-2013, 23:35

I got this error when I tried to compile the Altera DE1 13/10/2012 sources myself, using Quartus 12.1 and opening EMS_TOP.qpf:

Info: *******************************************************************
Info: Running Quartus II 32-bit Analysis & Synthesis
	Info: Version 12.1 Build 177 11/07/2012 SJ Web Edition
	Info: Processing started: Mon Jan 14 23:32:34 2013
Info: Command: quartus_map --read_settings_files=on --write_settings_files=off EMSX_TOP -c emsx_top
Warning (20028): Parallel compilation is not licensed and has been disabled
Error (12007): Top-level design entity "emsx_top" is undefined
Error: Quartus II 32-bit Analysis & Synthesis was unsuccessful. 1 error, 1 warning
	Error: Peak virtual memory: 317 megabytes
	Error: Processing ended: Mon Jan 14 23:32:35 2013
	Error: Elapsed time: 00:00:01
	Error: Total CPU time (on all processors): 00:00:01
Error (293001): Quartus II Full Compilation was unsuccessful. 3 errors, 1 warning

Any idea whay could be wrong here?

By KdL

Paragon (1434)