Supersoft HR-40(b) hi res graphics board

[roadrash]

Here is the Supersoft Graphix manual and the HR40 (first type 1981). Again I cant upload this pdf manual to the forum because it says its to big so you will have to download it from my Googledrive below grab it while you can because it wont be there for ever. I dont know why the forum cant host it for others to download in the future.

Get it here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=15VHEvjBOBWeENn3C5zAxaQyg-hMSv3Jk

 

[AndyG]

Cool. Thanks mate will take a look.

The software for this high res graphics board is usually home brew stuff. I haven’t found anything that was commercially available.

The link below shows some of the stuff I have doing with the board.... including a photo and video of both the 9 inch and 12 inch PETS running the same animation.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/138413235@N02/

Andy

 

[roadrash]

Cool. Thanks mate will take a look.

The software for this high res graphics board is usually home brew stuff. I haven’t found anything that was commercially available.

The link below shows some of the stuff I have doing with the board.... including a photo and video of both the 9 inch and 12 inch PETS running the same animation.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/138413235@N02/

Andy

Your welcome Andy
Those pics are the sort of thing I wanted to try and display on my PET seeing as it has that graphics card. Is there any way you can send or upload the images in the correct formet for displaying on the PET and do you have a application you use to display them.


Jon

 

[sjgray]

I have some of the demos on my Github page:

https://github.com/sjgray/SuperSoft-HR

Andy, if you want I can post any of your demos or screens etc here.
Jon, would you mind if I include your documentation as well? That way they will be preserved and accessible to all.

Steve

 

[AndyG]

I have some of the demos on my Github page:

https://github.com/sjgray/SuperSoft-HR

Andy, if you want I can post any of your demos or screens etc here.
Jon, would you mind if I include your documentation as well? That way they will be preserved and accessible to all.

Steve

Steve, thanks that would be great!.

I will catalogue what I have done. There’s a mixture of simple saved images from the boards memory, to more complex routines and custom display/animation programs.

Jon, once you have confirmed the card initialises and clears the memory etc. Then I can send across a few images to try. Do you have a PETSD ? ie a means to get files onto your PET ?

If sys59650,c doesn’t clear the screen once the board has been initialised, then we have to look at the board more closely.

 

[AndyG]

Out of curiosity, did you get any floppy discs with the package ?

Also do you have an eprom programmer that can read 2532 EPROMs?
It would be nice to dump the graphix Rom as it seems a later version than the one on my board.

 

[roadrash]

As Steve mentioned any documentation would be great. I too have that version also now.

Try the following. First do this from a cold boot as the board doesn’t like any of the add on chips enabled as the onboard memory is mapped from $9000- $a000.

SYS59650,5 to initialise the card. Your screen should have lots of vertical solid lines and some other garbage dots displayed. This is essentially displaying the onboard memory whilst showing the native PET screen.

To clear the on board memory,type (you have to guess you are typing it correctly as the characters will be partially obscured by the lines etc.)
SYS59650,C

If it clears then your card is probably working. A quick test would be SYS59650,SL,0,0,150,150

This will draw a diagonal line.

Interestingly for your installation, you have wires soldered to the ic’s ... mine has clips.

Cheers

I tried this Andy and the sys59660,C did produce vertical lines see attached picture. However the other commands did not clear the screen or anything.

 

[AndyG]

I tried this Andy and the sys59660,C did produce vertical lines see attached picture. However the other commands did not clear the screen or anything.

Did you try SYS59650,C.... you message said 59660,c

 

[AndyG]

If your post was a typo, then the board is initialising ok but cannot clear the memory. Please check the connections as per the installation manual you posted.

Andy

 

[roadrash]

I have somebthong wrong. I noticed some chips had no labels so removed them one by one and cleaning the legs on the chips with a fibre glass pencil as they were very tarnished etc. Evertlytime i did this i turned it on and tried to get the graphix chip to work but still no joy. So ilI removed the final chip A (one with just a mitsubishi logo) but when i turned the Pet on this time all i got was a srambled moving screen. (See picture). I didnt expect this it should have improved things not make it worse. Anyone know whats happened?

 

[AndyG]

Ok the Mitsubishi chip is the modified character rom. What you are seeing is very likely due to poor connections between the supersoft board, the character rom socket and also this chip. Ensure you haven’t bent any pins in the process of cleaning and the supersoft board to securely pushed into the white socket.

You definitely need the Graphix rom present but not the others. The graphix rom is a modified Edit rom needed for the pet to run.

try to get the unit back to the way it was and then check the wiring connections, especially those to the extension port (which if I recall are the addressing lines) and also to the ic’s the try to Initialise then clear the memory.

Andy

 

[roadrash]

Ok the Mitsubishi chip is the modified character rom. What you are seeing is very likely due to poor connections between the supersoft board, the character rom socket and also this chip. Ensure you haven’t bent any pins in the process of cleaning and the supersoft board to securely pushed into the white socket.

You definitely need the Graphix rom present but not the others. The graphix rom is a modified Edit rom needed for the pet to run.

try to get the unit back to the way it was and then check the wiring connections, especially those to the extension port (which if I recall are the addressing lines) and also to the ic’s the try to Initialise then clear the memory.

Andy

Thsnks for that info Andy. I never bent any pins on the mitubishi logo chip but the whole board lifted out of the socket a little bit and i carefully pressed it back in while looking underneath and it went ok so it felt. When i turned it on the screen was wrong so turned it off and removed the board again and noticed a couple of pins slighyly bent but not severely. So i straightened them and reseated it but its still corrupted. Ive tried reseating it numerous times now and it says with a garbled screen. Its very strange. Is there any way that rom could have failed? I did notice the screen recently had been starting up garbled and then clear to the commodore message everytime i turned it on. I am sure it didnt show that garbled screen when turning it on anfew days ago. Out of interest how do i put the pet back to standard tobtest it before continuing?

 

[AndyG]

Hi Jon

OK there may be a few more things going on here but I want to be sure I understand that I am reading.

Have you checked the ribbon cable connection from the SS (Supersoft) board to the PET motherboard ensuring it is connected correctly to the EDIT ROM socket with no bent pins ?
It is usual for the 9inch PET's to boot showing what is called the "Garbage" screen which then disappears to show the Commodore prompt. This screen is usually filled with seemingly random characters that can be clearly read. If the PET hangs on this screen then there is something wrong on the motherboard (a poor connection form the SS board to the edit rom socket could cause this also).

Is that what you are seeing now or is it exactly like the photo in your post ?

Can you post a photo of what the screen looks like now after you have checked all the chips and connectors are correctly located and just powered on.

Take care to check the other ribbon cable underneath the SS board which is piggy backed onto an IC on the PET motherboard (has it moved).

To convert the PET back to standard you need the standard PET Character ROM and BASIC 2 EDIT ROM.... did they survive in the box of things you have ? (The challenge converting it back will be you have cables soldered to the legs of a few IC chips which will need to be removed. However, let's check first that you don't need to go this far.)

The Mitsubishi labelled EPROM could have failed and that is an easy fix (you are not a million miles away from me and I can check that for you).... but it could be something else so a new screen shot would be appreciated.

 

[roadrash]

Hi andy i really appreciate this help. I now think i know whats wrong. When i was checking all the conections again which all seem ok, i started lowering the pcb back into the white socket checking underneath to make sure all pins were lined up with the holes and it all seemed ok. Then i shined a small light round underneath and put on some good magnifying glasses i use for soldering tiny items, and i noticed the 2 front pair of pins had actually overlapped the front of the socket puting all pins one hole out of line. Damn that was hard to see and maybe this what happened. I kick myself now for not getting better illumination know and put some glasses on (getting old - actually am old now just dont feel it). Lol. I think there is a good possibility i may have damaged that Mitsubishi chip if this is what happened. Arrgh i am annoyed with myself. You say this isnt a problem so are they available or need reflashing? (I have rom programmers here. As the screen is moving i uploaded a video to my googledrive for you to see on the link below. What do the original roms look like or do you know the numbers on them?
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1Q0Hyh2sg_kBMb8I6nRB7k9x3-rfwsrDw

 

[AndyG]

I can send over the binary for you to burn a new EPROM 2532 if you have one (I dumped it ages ago) .... just PM me your email address.
Actually, if you can read the ROM and dump it to a BIN file I can compare with mine to see if it is the same.

Don't worry - we all have stories to regale over a pint about silly things like this

You may have damaged it but the flicker screen worries me a little as does the garbage screen. Lets see if the ROM is OK first..... the white sockets are notoriously bad so you may need to ensure the pins on the SS board are making good contact. If you press down gently at this point on the board does the image on the screen change.

The piggyback IC connects to one of the 2114 Graphics memory chips. check that hasn't moved. It seems the PET is locked at the garbage screen which is more serious and ask if you can check the ribbon cable to the edit rom socket is also good.


Zimmers.net contains firmware for various PET variants.
The character ROM is 901447-10 and the EDIT 2 ROM is 901447-24.

Andy

 

[AndyG]

Interestingly, I just removed the special character rom and turned on my PET. It gave a blank screen with a flashing cursor (things are inverted with the SS board as usually when you remove the character rom you get a white screen with flashing cursor).

Can you try the same ?

Cheers
Andy

 

[roadrash]

I just tried that on mine and i get a blocky green and white screen. See picture. I left the graphix rom is, was i meant to?

 

[AndyG]

Hi Jon.

Yes the Graphix rom needs to be installed. I think there is something that has gone bad on your motherboard. Let me see what I have in my box of stuff.

I know I have an original character rom, just want to check if have a basic 2 eprom also.

It is common for rom,ram or other ic’s to go bad ... the PET works one day then fails the next.

Andy

 

[roadrash]

Hi Andy,

Ive decided that its better to start from a clkean slate now as I have found so many bad soldering joints etc so Ive removed the SS board for the tine being and while taking it out i found all sorts of bad connections and that flat ribbon cable (motherboard end) the plastilc plug that plugs into the rom socket was so poor some of the pins litterally fell off just taking it from the socket and it looks like one pin in the corner might have been getting hot. If I can get the PET working in standard spec first then I may fit this back once I have all the connectios sorted out. check the pictures.

 

[AndyG]

Wow... that may explain the garbage screen etc.

I will check what ROMs I have. I did have a basic 2 edit rom but cannot recall if it repurposed the eprom. It’s a 2716 eprom (2k).

Andy