SDCard browser for Pluggy Reloaded:

Using, learning, programming and modding the Gigatron and anything related.
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at67
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Posts: 647
Joined: 14 May 2018, 08:29

SDCard browser for Pluggy Reloaded:

Post by at67 »

I've created an SDCard browser for those of you in the possession of Norgate's excellent Pluggy Reloaded interface card.

Here's a video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozaQTK0C2vM


Building:
Copy the contents of the folder you downloaded into a BabelFish folder and use the BabelFish.ino to launch whatever Arduino IDE you use to program your Promicro, make sure to select the Release version, the Debug version will not fit!

Make sure your IDE settings look like this, (original image courtesy of Marcel).
Arduino IDE.png
Arduino IDE.png (130.97 KiB) Viewed 5544 times

General Info:
There is a maximum number of entries, (files and folders), per folder of 100, anymore than that will be ignored. The number of nested folders is only limited by the Arduino's RAM.

"SDCARD_ERROR" will appear if no SDCard is present or if you change SDCards, click on it once you have inserted your new SDCard and the browser will happily start from the new SDCard's root directory.

*Note:1* If you notice a slight flicker in your monitor as the SDCard browser queries BabelFish and the SDCard, that is completely normal. That is the browser sending data to BabelFish through Marcel's VSync/Hsync modulation Sys function.

*Note:2* Comms between the browser and the SDCard can be variable, especially with long directories or slow SDCard's, be patient.

There are two possible ways of using this utility, pick one of them, (NO_ROM or ROM).


NO_ROM version:
- You need to own a Pluggy Reloaded interface card.
- You need to be able to program and upload to the Arduino micro on the Pluggy Reloaded interface card.

BabelFish:
- Should work with ALL versions from ROMv2 onward, it does NOT work with ROMv1.
- There is no room for any extra utilities.

Launching:
- There is no need to start the Loader first anymore, use the Left button + B button on the controller or CTRL+F2 on the keyboard to automatically launch the SDCard browser.

Usage:
- Down/Up buttons or Cursor keys move the highlight down/up the list.
- Left/Right buttons or Cursor keys page down/up the list.
- Button A or Enter key launches the file or enters the folder.
- Parent folder if one exists is accessible through the '..' entry.

Files:
Click on the 'DOWNLOAD' button in the top right hand corner when viewing the BabelFish folder, this will download a zip file containing the folder's contents: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d8v284j9j41b ... WuCUa?dl=0


ROM version:
- You need to own a Pluggy Reloaded interface card.
- You need to be able to program and upload to the Arduino micro on the Pluggy Reloaded interface card.
- You need to be able to re-program your Gigatron's EPROM/EEPROM, (if this does not compute, then head back to the NO_ROM version), also there is a thread here for more EPROM programming info: https://forum.gigatron.io/viewtopic.php?p=1528#p1528

ROM:
- This ROM, (SDCARD ROM), is a DEVROM based ROM with SDCard support and thus has full support for all of the ROMv5a feature set without the ROMv5a audio bug.
- The romType version number is 0xF0.

BabelFish:
- Should work with all ROM versions, but has been explicitly built for the SDCARD ROM's feature set and thus is fairly pointless to use with other ROM's.
- Had room left over for the Blinky, Terminal and WozMon .gt1 files.
- Bricks has been dropped in the latest version to make room.

Launching:
- No need to start Loader, head straight to the SDCard menu option, (if you want to access the built in .gt1 files, then start Loader and press CTRL+F1 for help).

Usage:
- Down/Up buttons or Cursor keys move the highlight down/up the list.
- Left/Right buttons or Cursor keys page down/up the list.
- Button A or Enter key launches the file or enters the folder.
- Parent folder if one exists is accessible through the '..' entry.

Files:
Click on the 'DOWNLOAD' button in the top right hand corner when viewing the BabelFish folder, this will download a zip file containing the folder's contents: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sw0etxvv6z54 ... 1NEsa?dl=0


P.S. I'll edit in a full description of how it all works when I have time.
Last edited by at67 on 03 Feb 2021, 12:08, edited 11 times in total.
norgate
Posts: 50
Joined: 20 Oct 2019, 16:50

Re: SDCard browser for Pluggy Reloaded:

Post by norgate »

Thanks for this amazing work! Works flawlessly!
at67
Site Admin
Posts: 647
Joined: 14 May 2018, 08:29

Re: SDCard browser for Pluggy Reloaded:

Post by at67 »

Thanks for testing, I was a little worried, (and still am), that the couple of synchronising wait delays I have in the code would be specific to individual SDCards; the more testing with varied SDCards, the better.
at67
Site Admin
Posts: 647
Joined: 14 May 2018, 08:29

Re: SDCard browser for Pluggy Reloaded:

Post by at67 »

New versions are up at the same links with the following additions:

Code: Select all

- You can now use controller button A as well as the keyboard Enter key to navigate folders and execute .gt1 files,
(this allows for a keyboard-less mode of operation), for both ROM and NON_ROM versions.
- Added controller button B + controller left button as well as CTRL+F2 as a shortcut to start the SDCard browser on
the NON_ROM version; this means you do NOT have to start the Loader first if using these shortcuts, (only applicable
to the NON_ROM version).
- Some bug fixes with respect to non used buttons and keys causing glitches.

TODO:
- Spamming keys and controller buttons can break the entire communications process, requiring a Gigatron and/or
Pluggy Reloaded reboot to allow re-synchronisation between the Gigatron and BabelFish.
Last edited by at67 on 02 Feb 2021, 10:52, edited 2 times in total.
at67
Site Admin
Posts: 647
Joined: 14 May 2018, 08:29

Re: SDCard browser for Pluggy Reloaded:

Post by at67 »

There's an update to the SDCard browser for both NO-ROM and ROM versions, code and files are at the same Dropbox links, (I've added the gtBASIC browser source code to the corresponding directories as well):

Code: Select all

- The browser should be more tolerant of random input events, (i.e. user button/keyboard spam), but it is not guaranteed
to keep a life support system running.
- The browser and BabelFish should be more tolerant of de-sync issues, once again not guaranteed; if they do de-sync then
hit the reset button on Pluggy Reloaded and wait around 10 seconds.
- The browser can now handle SDCard eject events, an "SDCARD_ERROR" will appear, click on it after you have re-inserted your
SDCard.
- The browser can handle different SDCard's, after a new SDCard is inserted, click on "SDCARD_ERROR" and the browser will
reset to the new SDCard's root directory automatically.
at67
Site Admin
Posts: 647
Joined: 14 May 2018, 08:29

Re: SDCard browser for Pluggy Reloaded:

Post by at67 »

There's an update of BabelFish.ino for both ROM and NO_ROM, squashed an unsigned int bug and a reduction in size for NO_ROM by 50 bytes, which should help it compile on different versions of the Arduino compiler.
bmwtcu
Posts: 145
Joined: 01 Nov 2018, 12:02

Re: SDCard browser for Pluggy Reloaded:

Post by bmwtcu »

Key things to watch out for
1) Install the SD card library (which you can do through Tools>Manage Libraries in the Arduino IDE)
2) Install the Pro Micro Board Addon for the Arduino IDE (https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/pr ... boardaddon)
3) When programming the Arduino, the "Board" and "Processor" settings under "Tools" should be set to "SparkFun Pro Micro" and ATmega32U4 (5V, 16 MHz). The 5V bit is particularly important.
4) Make sure to install the correct version of BabelFish based on which ROM you are using
a) ROMv2/3/4, use https://github.com/kervinck/gigatron-ro ... /BabelFish or https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d8v284j9j41b ... WuCUa?dl=0 if you want at67's SDCard Browser support (highly recommended!)
b) SDROM, use ROM BabelFish from at67's SDCard Browser post
5) Format your SDCard as FAT16/32 with official SDCard Formatter (https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/)
phxmark
Posts: 3
Joined: 14 Nov 2020, 18:39

Re: SDCard browser for Pluggy Reloaded:

Post by phxmark »

Hi bmwtcu. Can you PM me. I ordered a Pluggy Reloaded from Paul, but it was lost in transit. He told me that you have them for sale.
giobbi
Posts: 38
Joined: 11 Jul 2021, 22:12

Re: SDCard browser for Pluggy Reloaded:

Post by giobbi »

Recently I got a Pluggy Reloaded and I mounted it on my first Gigatron using the NO_ROM option (I will use the ROM option on the 2nd Gigatron as soon as the missing 74hct will arrive from Aliexpress and eBay).

As usual at67 did an awesome work on that, not to load the programs is like a breeze.

I was wondering it there isn't a way to emulate an FDD or tape from inside Tinybasic (and maybe from every program that could require a save/load command), improving the SAVE and LOAD command, in order to save and load to .bas programs onto the SDcard. Any idea?
at67
Site Admin
Posts: 647
Joined: 14 May 2018, 08:29

Re: SDCard browser for Pluggy Reloaded:

Post by at67 »

An external floppy port or tape drive in/out as an add on for the expansion card would be be the best bet, maybe post in one of the expansion card threads?

I've wanted a tape drive interface for the Gigatron from day one, would be trivial to support in HW and SW and could be driven from just about any device, e.g. ye ole cassette deck, mobile phone, laptop, PC, etc. But I fear it's too late, there are now too many different ways of getting data into and out of the Gigatron, so we will never have a truly retro standard for data access, aaaah well.
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