Posts by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
(DIR) Post #AQGXk6L6jlC0eBFQgq by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2022-12-04T14:02:39Z
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Ok! Took a break last night to make dinner and clean the kitchen. The dog got me up early today, so figured I might as well just make some coffee and talk about the keyboard protocol, so here we go!
(DIR) Post #AQGXk7CHY3j9J67tZY by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2022-12-04T14:06:01Z
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The 6803 in the keyboard performs quite a bit of processing, offloading the main CPU from dealing with these tasks. Specifically, all of the switch debouncing is performed in the keyboard, and it tracks some state so that it only interrupts the main CPU when something has changed.
(DIR) Post #AQGXk8gS1NSBuxFVEe by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2022-12-04T14:09:25Z
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The keyboard simply sends ASCII to the main CPU, for the most part. Key repeat is handled by the 6803 and there are no separate "key down" or "key up" events for most keys.
(DIR) Post #AQGXk9RxAlS2IHTRHE by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2022-12-04T14:13:31Z
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There are exceptions, tho, for special function keys (which do not auto-repeat): the arrow keys, the pagination keys (<||| and |||>), YES, NO, SYM, PAUSE, and TV/NABU. Those have separate "down" and "up" events.
(DIR) Post #AQGXkAtdnJC0mRR44W by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2022-12-04T14:16:06Z
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SHIFT, CAPS, and CTRL are handled by the keyboard. The main CPU never sees those keypresses. SHIFT does the expected thing (capital letter, or upper key symbol), CAPS only does capital letters, and CTRL strips the upper 2 bits off the normal code for that key.
(DIR) Post #AQGXkBq8HpyrhqnmF6 by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2022-12-04T14:20:33Z
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After the normal ASCII range is where the interesting stuff starts. 0x90-0x95 are keyboard error codes (E1-E6). E1 is "multiple keys depressed" error, E2 and E3 report bad RAM/ROM self-check, E4's "illegal ISR" presumably means "firmware bug" 😂 . E5 is a heartbeat that is sent every 3.7 seconds (maybe only when idle?), and E6 indicates keyboard power-on reset (or hardware watchdog-generated keyboard reboot).
(DIR) Post #AQGXkCjQyEDUTMfwRM by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2022-12-04T14:23:48Z
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0xE0 - 0xFF is where the special key-up/key-down codes live for the special keys.
(DIR) Post #AQGXkEJH6STpMoS4wa by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2022-12-04T14:28:46Z
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Now, joystick data! Codes 0x80 - 0x81 and 0xA0 - 0xBF encode joystick data. Joystick data comes as a 2-byte packet: the first byte indicates the controller number (0x80 - 0, or 0x81 - 1), and the next byte tells you the new state of the joystick like so: 101FURDLSo, 0xA0 is "joystick returned to resting state", 0xA1 is "joystick engaged left", 0xB4 is "joystick engaged right and fire button pressed".
(DIR) Post #AQGYBKDLG7xdUub3wG by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2022-12-04T14:35:46Z
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@publius heh, yah, I always forget that’s the NTSC colorburst freq … I assume it was used here because the parts were plentiful and thus cheap … no other reason to use that weird freq in the keyboard 😂
(DIR) Post #AQomBc5on8HbgDkMiW by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2022-12-21T02:27:24Z
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Ok, modulo the copper pours for the ground plane, I think I'm ready to make the Gerbers to send off to the fabricator. #nabu #retrocomputing
(DIR) Post #AR2pQPbYWYE7MsmM7M by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2022-12-27T21:14:40Z
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First rev of boards for the #nabu keyboard USB adapters have arrived! #retrocomputing
(DIR) Post #AR9LdW5s4bM16HR596 by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2022-12-30T21:23:55Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
Hey folks! First get-it-out-there "release" of my #nabu server is now available on GitHub. Pretty basic as of yet, but more is coming! I'm using it to serve my NABU from #netbsd!https://github.com/thorpej/nabudHave fun! #retrocomputing
(DIR) Post #ASMDvrnLQSoOpJ6eNk by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2023-02-05T03:13:18Z
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#NABU enthusiasts! My NABU server is now 1.0 releases old! Runs on the BSDs, macOS, and Linux! Give it a whirl and let me know what you think! More improvements coming (mainly for people writing NABU programs), so watch this space! #retrocomputing #z80https://github.com/thorpej/nabud
(DIR) Post #ATmVUta1I0Q66Tp9n6 by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2023-02-11T22:05:13Z
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Hey there #NABU enthusiasts! Version 1.1 of my NABU server is up! There are a lot of internal improvements, but the big new thing is support for the RetroNet storage extensions, meaning you can use nabud to boot the RetroNet Cloud CP/M.As always, please give it a try and let me know what you think! #retrocomputing #z80 https://github.com/thorpej/nabud
(DIR) Post #AU5ErnX6nO77uFUMQS by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2022-12-27T00:37:06Z
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Happy Boxing Day, folks! I'm celebrating by testing the nascent #nabu Adaptor emulator I wrote over the last couple of days. Written in pretty vanilla C using mostly bog standard POSIX interfaces, and should be portable to practically every modern Unix system. #retrocomputing
(DIR) Post #AU5Erom2BNeBkpTnKS by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2022-12-28T19:47:49Z
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Alright! My #nabu server running on #netbsd is working! I was driving myself nuts debugging — communication mostly worked, but the NABU didn’t like the streamed bytes when downloading images — until I changed the USB RS422 adapter to use 2 stop bits (even at the NABU-native 111,000 baud). Once I did that, it Just Worked! I guess the UART really needs that extra bit time of idle to avoid missing the next start bit.
(DIR) Post #AVafsv8wmCfE67MRRA by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2023-05-12T20:56:46Z
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@SDF @netbsd Be sure to let me know if any of those are suddenly taking up too much storage space. I get up to the PNW a few times a year.
(DIR) Post #AVkR3hhteuxRCS6oeu by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2023-05-17T12:39:30Z
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Hey #NABU fans! Small bug fix update of nabud is available that fixes an issue in the NHACP storage protocol that will soon be used by Ishkur CP/M. #retrocomputing #z80 https://github.com/thorpej/nabud
(DIR) Post #AdZoEWsdkHrUYoHKoy by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2024-01-06T17:43:51Z
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Woot! NetBSD/virt68k boots the installer from a command-line specified RAM disk.
(DIR) Post #AdZsqycPSnYnPTH9EG by thorpej@mastodon.sdf.org
2024-01-06T18:23:17Z
1 likes, 2 repeats
Ok, folks, here's NetBSD/virt68k booting multi-user after running through the installer (but not configuring anything because this was just a smoke test).https://www.netbsd.org/~thorpej/virt68k-boot.txtThis was a fun Christmas holiday project 🙂 #NetBSD #m68k #mc68040