Cartridge User Manual (550kb, PDF)
Contents
1. 64HDD Speed Up Cartridges Turbo XE Pwr CART Pwr Link User Manual 64HDD Speed Up Cartridges www 64hdd com ncoplin lycos com FEATURES e Simple to use plug in cartridge e Compatible with stock C64 or C128 in 64 mode computer as well as systems using SuperCPU RAMLINK and JiffyDOS enhancements e Three entry level cartridge types are available each customisable with a range of options Each includes 64BOS in ROM a smart and unique Boot Operating System 8x serial soeed up from 64HDD for Turbo XE version 30 50x speed up from 64HDD for Pwr Cart and Pwr Link versions Speeds up 64HDD file loading operations including multi part loads INTRODUCTION Since 64HDD is a serial device emulator its number 1 strength is its out of the box compatibility with a huge range software written for the C64 Unlike many other cartridge based storage devices programs run without the need to patch them However high compatibility with Commodore s IEC protocol came at the price of the traditional slow 1541 speed that we all grew to hate KERNAL ROM upgrades are one solution to overcome slow speed and a range of PwrLoad ROMs and cables have been available for the C64 128 for several years now However ROM upgrades are not easy for non die hard hackers Some don t want to build or buy a second cable To overcome these issues 64HDD speed enhancements are now available in a plug in cartridge form including a new Turbo XE se2. The primary shortcuts F1 through F8 are presented on the first page when 64BOS starts You can scroll through to see the additional shortcuts using the left right cursor keys COPLIN 2005 5 of 13 v1 00 64HDD Speed Up Cartridges www 64hdd com ncoplin lycos com To edit the configuration file using 64BOS 1 Select the option from the main screen 2 Use the cursor keys to move to a slot that needs editing or press I to insert a new slot 3 Pressing RETURN puts you into edit mode and you can type the appropriate information Refer below for details on what each field means Pressing RETURN moves to the next field aborts edits and moves to the next field 4 Additional options are available to D delete a slot P preview a partition assignment and W write the changes in the configuration file to disk will overwrite current definitions 5 Save your changes to the 64BOS SEQ file Don t forget to update the 64HDD partition table file with any changes you can use a text editor 64XPLOR or 64GUI to do this To edit the 64BOS file manually using a text editor 1 Open 64B0S SEQ using EDIT for MSDOS or any other C64 or PC based text editor 2 Each shortcut definition takes up one line with the format key partition displayed label filename device a key is the shortcut key that corresponds to what would need to be pressed on the C64 keyboard to activate that
3. 1700 1 750 1 764 RAM Expansion Unit REU or other device using the DFxx area move the switch to the position DExx before powering on or resetting your C64 128 COPLIN 2005 9 of 13 v1 00 64HDD Speed Up Cartridges www 64hdd com ncoplin lycos com The standard 64HDD speed up cartridge has only one ROM slot The optional four position switch selects which bank of the cartridge s EPROM is in view Slots 1 and 2 usually contain ah Otre Turbo XE and Pwr Cart respectively ty Qe Se whilst slots 3 and 4 can be pre at ae ee eee programmed at time of ordering with any le een Sa ee 8k program or utility you requested 4 Position ROM Selection Switch 7 The Pwr Link cart has a pass through port and XE interface built in The pass through port connects as shown EA ere The pass through port can be optionally installed on all 64HDD Speed up a cartridges so as to enable extra features wre to be added see below pees m a i N 4 a J tothe other arives Cartridges with a pass through port can gt have optional LEDs and control buttons gt a The red LED shows any activity on the EAN serial bus This is usually off unless z one of the drives is sending receiving data The green LED shows activity under the control of the cartridge s ROM This indicates whether Turbo XE or PwrLoad is active The outside control button is a serial bus reset and will reset devices on the bus Pressing
4. THE 64HDD SPEED UP ROUTINES The user does not need to know anything about programming to make use of the 64HDD speed up routines as their operations are transparent The only change visible to the user is that filenames in system messages will have a two character prefix for example P filename or T filename The speed up routines are activated automatically by booting 64BOS though there is an option within 64BOS to disable the routines up arrow key The 64HDD speed up routines change the ILOAD vector to point to the special cartridge code The cartridge also modifies the NMI vector so that RUN STOP COPLIN 2005 8 of 13 v1 00 64HDD Speed Up Cartridges www 64hdd com ncoplin lycos com RESTORE does not reset the ILOAD pointers Modifying the ILOAD and NMI vectors is a technique used by most super cartridges such as the Epyx FASTLOAD The Final Cartridge TFC the IEEE488 and IDE64 interfaces and many more As long as the vectors are left intact and most programs do not change the ILOAD vector then every subsequent LOAD command will scrutinised by the 64HDD cartridge and a decision made about whether the LOAD Is from a 64HDD device The speed up is only for 64HDD data transfers and does not interfere with LOADing from non 64HDD devices On occasions you may encounter a program that temporarily overwrites the ILOAD and or NMI vectors If this does occur the 64HDD cartridge does give you two options that may help yo
5. both control buttons will also Ep 7E r reset the C64 on certain motherboards With Pwr Link these buttons are configured as 64HDD reset and disk flip unless otherwise requested TECHNICAL DETAILS The 64HDD speed up cartridges work by vectoring the ILOAD and NMI vectors toa piece of special code stored in what normally is reserved for I O devices This method of hooking into the operating system of a C64 is tried and proven by most COPLIN 2005 10 of 13 v1 00 64HDD Speed Up Cartridges www 64hdd com ncoplin lycos com other super cartridges such as the Epyx FASTLOAD The Final Cartridge the IEEE488 and IDE64 interfaces and many more To reduce the amount of additional circuitry within these cartridges and therefore cost hardware bank switching is not used All the LOAD and NMI code is contained ina single 256byte window By default this window is at DFOO DFFF but can be configured to DExx with the appropriate optional hardware on some cartridges Regardless of which code window is used the code is read only and will not be affected by writes to these locations Pwr Link has its data port at DEOO DEFF This 8 bit port is also read only The Pwr Link cartridge can be used with GEOS XP but 8 bit writes are not supported and so the appropriate driver must be used The cartridge s installation code appears in ROM at 8000 only when the activation button is pressed The EXROM memory scheme is used
6. keys defined Keys can be in any order and will be displayed in the order entered except for F1 F8 which will be displayed on the opening page automatically Examples F1 22 64HDD FILE EXPLORER 64XPLOR O F3 22 MULTIPLE FILE COPIER FILECOPY 0 F5 40 GEOS 64 XP VERSION 9 END 3 Save your changes to the 64BOS SEQ file Don t forget to update the 64HDD partition table file with any changes you can use a text editor 64XPLOR or 64GUI to do this 64BOS Operation 64BOS Is very easy to use and most operations will seem natural and straight forward needing no explanation The following screenshots will give you an overview of the basics Once 64BOS is loaded from the cartridge it pauses first before performing a device check The 2second pause Is to allow some of the slower devices on the serial bus that may not have yet powered up to do so B4HDOD B0 G4B05 Ui 64BOS will search for all devices from 8 through 30 and interrogate them for their hardwired number Upon finding At anytime the pause search can be the first 64HDD device the cancelled and BASIC booted 64BOS configuration file is immediately by pressing to install the loaded If you have a SuperCPU speed up wedge or Ctrl not to 64BOS will identify it COPLIN 2005 7 of 13 v1 00 64HDD Speed Up Cartridges www 64hdd com ncoplin lycos com This is an example of what your 64BOS screen may look like By default the fu
7. primary application automatically or you can select one of the other options or functions You can also choose to boot to BASIC with without installing the soeed up wedge 64BOS OPERATION SETUP AND CONFIGURATION GUIDE 64BOS harnesses the power of your 64HDD system to allow launching of your favourite programs with the press of a single key Once configured you will be able to run your favourite programs easily from wherever they are stored on your 64HDD system 64BOS is a Boot Operating System for the C64 Normally when your C64 boots it goes straight to the familiar blue screen No programs are loaded unless the user enters appropriate commands This inaction is what separates the C64 from modern computers that allow scripting or GUIs to be loaded Normally doing nothing is fine as it lets us decide what to do but if you regularly do a similar thing wouldn t it be easier if you could LOAD RUN programs either automatically or at the press of a single key 64BOS Configuration Up to 100 user defined shortcuts keys can be setup for your system In order to get this modern PC functionality you will need to do some configuration work on your 64HDD system It is not difficult in fact all the management is done through 64BOS or by directly editing the simple text configuration file which is saved in the 64hdd system directory The configuration file has the name 64B0S SEQ anda sample is included with the support files
8. Pwr Link work with both freeware and Professional versions of 64HDD COPLIN 2005 2 of 13 v1 00 64HDD Speed Up Cartridges www 64hdd com ncoplin lycos com CARTRIDGE VARIANTS All 64HDD cartridges come with 64BOS and can be ordered with the following optional extras Not all options are mutually compatible See notes or check with us before placing your order if you are unsure Turbo XE Features This is for users who have just the regular XE1541 or X1541 serial cable This cartridge offers up to 8x speed improvement 64BOS Adds 3 extra 8k cartridge program slots to the ROM You get to choose which of your favourite 8k utilities or games you want to have installed You can even chose to have the PwrLoad ROM installed Pass through port with LEDs and push button drive C64 reset Switchable DExx option standard cartridge uses DFxx Mainly for compatibility with REU cartridges Pwr Cart Features This is for users who have a Pwr XE or compatible parallel cable connected between your C64 s userport and 64HDD Box This cable option allows for bi direction parallel transfers for use with DriveGhost and GEOS XP This cartridge offers between 30x to 50x speed improvement 64BOS A Adds 3 extra 8k cartridge programs slots to the ROM You get to choose which of your favourite 8k utilities or games you want to have installed ka Pass through port with LEDs and push button drive C64 reset Switchable DExx option
9. e connected in line with the cables going to your drives Connect one end to the C64 128 and connect the other end to the serial cable leading to your other drives or XE1541 cable if you have no other drives then it is Ok to leave this end disconnected To the other drives One or two system files have to be added to your 64hdd system directory in order to take advantage of the speed up functions e For Turbo XE users TXE MINI PRG needs to be installed e For Pwr Link and Pwr Cart users PWR MINI PRG needs to be installed On power up if no action is taken your Commodore will boot as normal with the cartridge features disabled and completely transparent to your system There will be ROM visible in the I O area but this should not affect program operation COPLIN 2005 4 of 13 v1 00 64HDD Speed Up Cartridges www 64hdd com ncoplin lycos com By holding the activation button on the cartridge during power up the screen or screen border only will display red signifying that the cartridge is booting Do not release the activation button until the screen border changes to black Releasing the activation button is not harmful it just may result in the failure of the software to properly install Pressing the activation button on a C128 will automatically select the C64 mode during system reset Once the cartridge has completely booted 64BOS will be running A count down timer will start your
10. e by returning the device to 64HDD s developer gt gt Why is there no 64HDD click sound for each block transferred with Turbo XE The PC is so busy sending data or watching for the requests from the C64 it doesn t have enough time to generate a click COPLIN 2005 12 of 13 v1 00 64HDD Speed Up Cartridges www 64hdd com ncoplin lycos com gt gt Why is 64BOS the only cartridge software included The philosophy has been to provide a single and robust tool that will give users access to all the files and utilities stored on their 64HDD system rather than provide lots of little tools that may not do what USers Walla gt gt What sort of programs can be installed in the optional ROM slots Any 8k EXROM based cartridge utility homebrew or commercial can be programmed into these optional slots It is also possible to convert small programs written in BASIC or loadable as BASIC files provided that they are less than about 7 5k in size Options include BASIC extensions machine language monitors games etc Discuss with us what you would like to have pre installed to see what possible gt gt Will the C64 reset function work on my C64 Many versions of the C64 circuit board were made and not all allow resetting from the serial port and or the userport The only real way to check is to ground the appropriate reset pin consult your C64 user guide or schematic On the C128 the cartridge reset will be non funct
11. ional but the C128 comes with its own reset anyway gt gt How are the 64HDD cartridges manufactured The 64HDD cartridges are made using quality recycled genuine CBM cartridges This works out most cost effective for low volume production and allows the hardware specification of each cartridge to be customised to user requests Alternative casings can be ordered from a number of C64 websites including www go64 de gt gt Can 64HDD speed ups fail There are two main situations when the speed up may fail to take effect and the C64 program will revert to the normal serial load speed The first is if the program overwrites the ILOAD vector The second is if the program uses its own coding for reading data from the drive and so bypasses the KERNAL s load function Most programs are careful not to change the load vectors but if they do there are some techniques to restore these COPLIN 2005 13 of 13 v1 00
12. nction key definitions are shown first You may scroll through the other definitions using the left right cursor keys Any keys used by 64BOS for software control are listed in the window and include 8 9 and so on A countdown timer will give you 10 seconds before booting the program defined by F1 If F1 is not defined 64BOS will wait indefinitely for a valid key press several device type functions are built into 64BOS such as device 8 and 9 renumbering softwiring to alternate numbers so you can assign them to 644HDD temporarily The info panel at the bottom of the screen identifies the type of wedge which will be installed current date and time as read from 64HDD and other device information When a program selection is made 64BOS will end and the LOAD message will appear B DOr aude ATIAG SYSTEM Beth TH JARE 505 LOPLI W G64HDD EXPLOR FILE COPY UTILITY XAP VERSION AUTO BOOT IHG FIRST DEVICE DEFAULT BADD HEDGE TYPE MONDAY 34 JAN 2003 DEY HO DEY HO B4HDD BOOT OPERATING 64B05 Ui T i SYSTEM COP IN HAS your selected application will be LOADed and then RUN If you happen to have no 64HDD devices available 64BOS will not run and will return to the READY prompt with all wedge vectors fFHIAG FOR 6425P GADING SEE RABOS H pee rae cee DEVICE SEDANS TRER PEE KG 7 SYSTEM TE n H IC oF l IH a a Aa en left at the default C64 values USING
13. option For example A means press A Use F1 for function 1 etc key is either a single character or F1 etc Note that because of the ASCII to PETASCII translations key might not be exactly what you expect Uppercase ASCII works the easiest with these being the C64 s default unshifted character set Lowercase ASCII is shifted characters for PETASCII You may need to copy paste from a character map for special codes As always you can use Shift Commodore for swapping character sets b partition is the partition number where the program file lives 64BOS will move to this partition before LOADing and RUNning the program c display label is the label which will be displayed in the 64BOS menu Note It is better to use double quotes around the text so that errors do not occur Uppercase works the best as noted above d filename this is the actual name of the C64 file to be LOADed and RUN The file type is assumed to be BASIC COPLIN 2005 6 of 13 v1 00 64HDD Speed Up Cartridges www 64hdd com ncoplin lycos com e device allows you to specify which device number is used By default a 0 is put here signifying that the first default 64HDD device is to be used If your program must run from a specific device number then put its number there for example 8 Each key must be defined on its own line The last line of the file must contain the word END to tell 64BOS that there are no more
14. rial soeed up and the traditional PwrLoad options These cartridges are also designed to work with system add ons like CMD s SuperCPU and RAMLINK for which upgrade ROMs were not a viable option All 64HDD Speed up cartridges come with 64BOS in ROM a novel Boot Operating System Rather than the cartridge only containing a handful of tools and utilities 64BOS is a single interface that lets you link to your preferred tools and programs to wherever they are stored on 64HDD and where they can be easily maintained The entry level cartridges can be further customised with a number of optional features at the time of ordering Introducing Turbo XE Turbo XE is the new 8x serial speed up for the standard XE1541 or X1541 transfer cable Turbo XE is only available in cartridge format and once activated at power up will wedge itself into the C64 s operating system allowing subsequent disk loads from a 64HDD device to be made at up to 8 times the regular transfer speed Turbo XE is completely in ROM and so takes up no user RAM from the C64 Turbo XE works with both freeware and Professional versions of 64HDD Proven PwrLoad data transfer PwrLoad is 64HDD s parallel transfer scheme For years it has been available as a cable linking the XE1541 interface to the C64 userport Runtime drivers or ROM upgrades have unleashed speed ups of between 30 50 times compared to the slow 1541 disk drive The same code is now available in a cartridge Pwr Cart and
15. ributed without being licensed from the author or official reseller Although all care has been taken in the development of the hardware and software the fitness of the hardware and or software to perform the prescribed functions should be verified by the end user No warranties implied or expressed COPLIN 2005 11 of 13 v1 00 64HDD Speed Up Cartridges www 64hdd com ncoplin lycos com FAQ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS gt gt Are the 64HDD Speed Cartridges compatible with CMD s SuperCPU and RAMLINK Yes this range of cartridges has been designed to work with both these hardware expansions 64BOS is designed to leave CMD s DOS wedge active upon exit gt gt What specification PC do need for Turbo XE As the serial data transmission is synchronised at the start of each data burst you will need a PC with sufficient speed to keep up A 100MHz Pentium has been found to be more than adequate and anything faster will likewise work Slower clock speed 386 486 class machines will not normally work gt gt Can l test if Turbo XE will work on my PC The Turbo XE routines are a development of those used in the 64HDD GEOS driver You can test the 64HDD GEOS driver to confirm that your PC 1S compatible gt gt Will Turbo XE work with the SuperCPU in Turbo mode All the 64HDD cartridges are designed to work with both the 1MHz and 20MHz SuperCPU modes even with a RAMLINK installed Turbo XE will Switch down to 1MHz for transfe
16. rs and so Turbo XE s 8x Speed up is still the maximum limit The slowdown is needed because event the fastest PCs cannot keep up with a 20MHz C64 gt gt Will Pwr Cart and Pwr LINK work with the SuperCPU in Turbo mode All the 64HDD cartridges are designed to work with both the 1MHz and 20MHz SCPU modes even with a RAMLINK installed The PwrLoad routines make full use of the 20MHz mode making transfers even faster with the turbo active than on a regular 1MHz machine gt gt Will the 64HDD Speed up cartridges cause problems with my other drives Not normally Most Commodore compatible drives will ignore the prefix sent in the filename by 64HDD and will continue loading using normal routines gt gt Which is better a PwrLoad Kernal ROM or Cartridge File LOAD times are the same for Cartridge and KERNAL ROM versions of PwrLoad vl x However upgrading the KERNAL ROM is better than using an external Cartridge when it comes to compatibility as the ROM vectors cannot be overwritten The PwrLoad KERNAL ROM can also speed up byte by byte transmissions and be ordered with a DOS wedge However KERNAL ROM upgrades are not suitable for everyone so that s why there s now a Cartridge available gt gt Can the cartridges be upgraded in the future The EPROM inside the cartridge is socketted and if it needs to be upgraded it can be replaced re programmed The wiring in the cartridge should also be able to be upgraded though this is better don
17. standard cartridge uses DFxx Mainly for compatibility with REU cartridges Pwr Link Features This is for users who want a combined interface and parallel cable or have their C64 s userport tied up doing other things The interface includes both XE1541 and PwrLoad read only mode functionality This cartridge offers between 30x to 50x speed improvement Standard 64BOS A LEDs and push button drive C64 reset and or disk flip Built in functions PwrLoad port and XE cable QUICK START GUIDE TO USING THE CARTRIDGE The 64HDD cartridge installs in the expansion cartridge port on the back of your C64 or C128 As with the installation of other cartridges power to your Commodore COPLIN 2005 3 of 13 v1 00 64HDD Speed Up Cartridges www 64hdd com ncoplin lycos com should be switched off before inserting The cartridges install label side up If you have a SuperCPU and or RAMLINK install the cartridge in their pass through expansion ports Other cartridge port expanders may also work If you have a Pwr Link cartridge you will also need to connect the DB25 cable to the LPT parallel port of your PC configured to run 64HDD If the cartridge cable is not long enough for your setup it can be extended with any commercial DB25 to DB25 extension cable used for PCs these may also be available from the 64HDD Shop just send us a request If you have a serial pass through port on your cartridge then that needs to b
18. to boot 64BOS and install the new system vectors Pressing the activation key whilst other programs are running may cause them or the system to crash particularly if they are running code in the 8000 9FFF region Pressing the activation button on a C128 will automatically select the C64 mode during system reset The Turbo XE serial transfer routines use a clocked 1 bit scheme The C64 128 is the master and the 64HDD system must be running on a PC with sufficient speed to keep up see FAQ Only the start of the data transmission is synchronised The parallel transfer routines are based on the stable and proven PwrLoad code The speed up is achieved by sending whole bytes between the 64HDD system and the C64 128 Handshaking is used on all bytes so PC speed is not an issue if using a parallel cable There are some other minor differences between the two speed up schemes The Pwr Cart and Pwr Link cartridges offer the ability to by pass the fastloader if you prefix the file name with a colon whereas this feature is not available on Turbo XE Also Pwr Cart and Pwr Link cartridges are compatible with JiffyDOS s ML Load RUN wedge command Copyright Trademarks and Warranties PwrLoad Pwr Cart Pwr Link Turbo XE 64HDD CMD MSDOS are trademarks of their respective owners 64HDD PwrLoad Pwr Cart Pwr Link and Turbo XE are copyright COPLIN 1999 2005 Pwr Cart Pwr Link and Turbo XE is licensed software and cannot be used or dist
19. u re install vector changes without rebooting e lf the vectors are overwritten by a program that returns to BASIC then type SYS32768 9 RETURN whilst holding the cartridge activation button e lf the vectors are overwritten by any other program then try hitting the RESTORE key whilst holding the cartridge activation button Providing the program and the cartridge are not in the same memory space and presuming that NMIs have not been disabled by trick CIA coding the vectors should be restored to 64HDD cartridge values The above techniques can also be used to install the soeed up functions if you have decided to no activate 64BOS on boot up Unlike other cartridge drives if the program you are running by passes the KERNAL operating system altogether and uses direct IO or routines such as TALK LISTEN data transfers will still function but using the regular serial protocol This is only possible because 64HDD s standard serial mode is left active in the background to deal with such situations USING THE OPTIONAL FEATURES ON YOUR 64HDD CARTRIDGE If you have equipped your 64HDD cartridge with some of the available options then you will be able to do more things Here s how Feature CS Location of Switch Indicators By default all soeed up cartridges mirror some of their special ROM code to the DFOO DFFF memory location in the I O region To select the alternate DE00 address for compatibility with a
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