Hi George, I just watched all your 6502 based videos and think you've done the most amazing stuff I've ever seen with the 6502! Really impressive! In 2020 I got the Ben Eater kit along with the video card kit and ended up putting them together. I decided to take it all apart a few days ago and start fresh so I've been reviewing my assembly coding skills and browsing methodologies before going into creating my own design and eventually PCB. One thing that was a big flaw with the eater 6502 was not enough VRAM to display to the whole screen, since he used every (6502 sized) pixel for every memory address and having to pause the CPU to allow the video card to access VRAM. After watching all your videos and techniques I was amazed of what could be improved on, and I also came across how the NES did it using a PPU and only 2KB of VRAM, so now I have no idea where I should really start. My main goal is to have a 256x240 screen resolution just like the NES, sprite capability, 64 colors (or less if necessary) and maybe extra memory banks using the VIA if necessary. I think it would be cool to have a kernel like Wozmon on it that is interactive over serial, so I can interface a keyboard, and launch programs with some games I've developed, or use a midi interface to write/play some 8-BIT music. I think the hardest thing to sort out is the video interfacing, and sprites, and what would be the most sensible way of dealing with it. I would greatly appreciate your input. Thank you.
I wish I could say it was carefully planned - but I was making it up as I went along! Somehow I managed to fluke exactly the right kind of bug in the code, it was a pleasant surprise!
I've used the FX2 with PulseView under Windows. Can confirm it works great on 8MHz 65C02. But next time I'll be trying the software you showed here, thanks.
Yes, I think it's cheap because it doesn't have much on-board storage so it has to stream over USB, and the speed of the USB connection seems to end up being the bottleneck, with the PC also needing to be able to keep up.
Woah... I've got an fx2 board... I've always assumed it would be too slow for this sort of thing... thanks for the contradiction. I think I've only ever read it with sigrok too... I should have a look at fx2pipe too... That was fascinating... what ace debugging software... and there's useful stuff here even for those of us not playing with 6502s
Yes they are quite capable. They seem to be quite programmable too and I wonder whether you could use it to make some kind of alternative to serial comms for two-way communication with a PC - things like file serving for example.
@@GeorgeFootoh yeah... I've assumed (again) it's only one-way communication... I haven't touched mine in ages... I'm going to have to, at least, re-read the datasheet again now.
@@GeorgeFootI just had a very quick look at fx2pipe. It looks (relatively) simple and probably has all you would need for the fx2 bits of your file server... maybe?
Nice logic analyzer for the price! I wonder if it works with Saleae Logic as well? Also appreciated your last video - looks like you’re turning into a lean mean content making machine 🎉😊
Thanks Anders :) I have a Salae clone, I don't know how it compares with official ones. Mine supports 8-bit sampling at up to 48MHz, it seems; however - crucially - it doesn't support an external clock, which means you end up having to oversample the signal (maybe by 8x) in order to be sure you get a good sample at the right point, around the falling edge of PHI2. Also, obviously, with only 8 channels, it still can't sample the clock in that case! So it's not very useful for this. I found ways to make do, but the FX2 is so cheap, it's a bit of a no-brainer really!
@@GeorgeFoot Absolutely on my shopping list. I was just wondering if we’re so lucky we can use Salae’s software with it since that’s super convenient - but I guess we’re not that lucky 🍀 The CLI tools look manageable too
Yes the CLI is nice enough - note that fx2pipe is third party though, not from Cypress, and it is unmaintained, except that David Banks has bundled a copy of it with the decoder (plus a minor modification). There's also support for it in sigrok (Pulseview), maybe also through a third-party driver. So it is well-supported at least! I believe Dominic Beasley has made a C# app to allow Windows users to get the same sort of functionality as fx2pipe provides, but I haven't tried it.
George, what a great episode! I had never heard of that decoder program but now I can't wait to try it out on my SBC project.
Hi George, I just watched all your 6502 based videos and think you've done the most amazing stuff I've ever seen with the 6502! Really impressive! In 2020 I got the Ben Eater kit along with the video card kit and ended up putting them together. I decided to take it all apart a few days ago and start fresh so I've been reviewing my assembly coding skills and browsing methodologies before going into creating my own design and eventually PCB. One thing that was a big flaw with the eater 6502 was not enough VRAM to display to the whole screen, since he used every (6502 sized) pixel for every memory address and having to pause the CPU to allow the video card to access VRAM. After watching all your videos and techniques I was amazed of what could be improved on, and I also came across how the NES did it using a PPU and only 2KB of VRAM, so now I have no idea where I should really start.
My main goal is to have a 256x240 screen resolution just like the NES, sprite capability, 64 colors (or less if necessary) and maybe extra memory banks using the VIA if necessary. I think it would be cool to have a kernel like Wozmon on it that is interactive over serial, so I can interface a keyboard, and launch programs with some games I've developed, or use a midi interface to write/play some 8-BIT music. I think the hardest thing to sort out is the video interfacing, and sprites, and what would be the most sensible way of dealing with it. I would greatly appreciate your input.
Thank you.
This was fantastic - thanks for showing this cool stuff.
You're doing a great job designing and presenting your material.
I wish I could say it was carefully planned - but I was making it up as I went along! Somehow I managed to fluke exactly the right kind of bug in the code, it was a pleasant surprise!
Great info George never saw that decoder is a great tool!
I've used the FX2 with PulseView under Windows. Can confirm it works great on 8MHz 65C02. But next time I'll be trying the software you showed here, thanks.
Hi George, I have enjoyed this video so much , did not realise how inexpensive it is to purchase a simple analyser.
George, thanks for this video. I wasn't aware that there was a logic analyzer that is that fast for that little money.
Yes, I think it's cheap because it doesn't have much on-board storage so it has to stream over USB, and the speed of the USB connection seems to end up being the bottleneck, with the PC also needing to be able to keep up.
Woah... I've got an fx2 board... I've always assumed it would be too slow for this sort of thing... thanks for the contradiction. I think I've only ever read it with sigrok too... I should have a look at fx2pipe too... That was fascinating... what ace debugging software... and there's useful stuff here even for those of us not playing with 6502s
Yes they are quite capable. They seem to be quite programmable too and I wonder whether you could use it to make some kind of alternative to serial comms for two-way communication with a PC - things like file serving for example.
@@GeorgeFootoh yeah... I've assumed (again) it's only one-way communication... I haven't touched mine in ages... I'm going to have to, at least, re-read the datasheet again now.
@@GeorgeFootI just had a very quick look at fx2pipe. It looks (relatively) simple and probably has all you would need for the fx2 bits of your file server... maybe?
Neat! I'll have to try this myself.
Nice logic analyzer for the price! I wonder if it works with Saleae Logic as well?
Also appreciated your last video - looks like you’re turning into a lean mean content making machine 🎉😊
Thanks Anders :)
I have a Salae clone, I don't know how it compares with official ones. Mine supports 8-bit sampling at up to 48MHz, it seems; however - crucially - it doesn't support an external clock, which means you end up having to oversample the signal (maybe by 8x) in order to be sure you get a good sample at the right point, around the falling edge of PHI2. Also, obviously, with only 8 channels, it still can't sample the clock in that case! So it's not very useful for this. I found ways to make do, but the FX2 is so cheap, it's a bit of a no-brainer really!
@@GeorgeFoot Absolutely on my shopping list. I was just wondering if we’re so lucky we can use Salae’s software with it since that’s super convenient - but I guess we’re not that lucky 🍀
The CLI tools look manageable too
Yes the CLI is nice enough - note that fx2pipe is third party though, not from Cypress, and it is unmaintained, except that David Banks has bundled a copy of it with the decoder (plus a minor modification). There's also support for it in sigrok (Pulseview), maybe also through a third-party driver. So it is well-supported at least!
I believe Dominic Beasley has made a C# app to allow Windows users to get the same sort of functionality as fx2pipe provides, but I haven't tried it.
Hi, are you planning to finnish the floppy controler by adding it's ability to write to floppy's?
PLZZZZ post PCB design files. I'm DYING to get my hands on your cute little board.
Good point, I'd been meaning to do that! I've uploaded all the source code and design files to github: github.com/gfoot/fastpdip6502
😀 "Promo sm"