Problems with ROM files on Alpine Board Options

[tempest2000]

I recently bought a developers kit (Stub Jag and Alpine). I can't seem to get .ROM files to do anything but load. WDB shows the files loaded to the Alpine but nothing on the screen. Also having problems with some .COF files. Some of the 3rd party COF's like "Native" and "badcoder" work fine. But even the demo files like Jagmand and testrgb don't seem to work. Any suggestions?

[belboz]

Well there is no one answer since it all depends on what your loading. Is it RAM based, ROM based, does it have a header, etc.

Lets take the tiny toons sample ROM you gave as an example in another thread.

It is a 2,088,960 byte file which means it is a 2MB ROM image with the header stripped. A 2MB ROM image with the header would be 2,097,152 bytes long.

So to load it we would do the following.

Boot your Jag and fire up wdb.

Do an

fread tt1028.rom 802000

Make sure there were no answers.

When it finishes you should be able to do a

g 802000

And it should run.

Now if it doesn't some things to check.

Make sure you don't have the write protect switch on the alpine on. It should have the red LED on when in right protect mode, but just make sure it is off.

Another thing to check is to see if the data is being loaded into ROM correctly.

Do an

d 802000 (thats an lower case L on this line).

You should see some data similar to this. I am just using a hex editor dump for the below and adding in the memory addresses, but you should get similar output from WDB and you want these values to be identical.

Frequently I have seen cases where an Alpine has the odd addresses correct, but not the even. Or all values are off, but a bit off. Someone also had a jumper on their Alpine wrong, and until we fixed that it wouldn't write to the ROM space at all.

CODE

802000 23 FC 00 07 00 07 00 F0 21 0C 23 FC 00 07 00 07
802010 00 F1 A1 0C 23 FC 00 00 00 00 00 F0 21 14 23 FC
802020 00 00 00 00 00 F0 21 00 23 FC 00 00 00 00 00 F1
802030 A1 14 23 FC 00 00 00 00 00 F1 A1 00 43 F9 00 F0
802040 22 00 45 F9 00 F0 22 38 76 00 22 C3 B5 C9 66 FA
802050 22 FC 00 00 00 80 45 F9 00 F0 22 9C 22 C3 B5 C9
802060 66 FA 2E 7C 00 01 75 70 33 FC FF FF 00 F0 00 4E
802070 4E B9 00 80 32 78 4E B9 00 80 33 C0 4E B9 00 80
802080 34 76 4E B9 00 80 4D 20 4E B9 00 80 45 CE 4E B9
802090 00 80 4C 50 30 3C 00 00 4E B9 00 80 4E 04 4E B9
8020A0 00 80 45 E0 4E F9 00 80 AE 18 00 00 00 00 00 00
8020B0 42 B9 00 01 00 3C 23 FC 00 00 00 01 00 01 3C 58
8020C0 23 FC 00 00 00 01 00 01 00 40 41 F9 00 80 25 50
8020D0 43 F9 00 01 00 0C 4E B9 00 80 4B 90 41 F9 00 01
8020E0 14 08 42 98 20 FC 00 00 00 04 42 58 20 FC 00 22
8020F0 81 00 30 39 00 01 09 42 E7 48 80 7C 80 03 30 C0

If the data doesn't match up, post here what you are seeing.

You can also try the slower read to alpine memory by doing a

read tt1028.rom 802000

Sometimes the higher speed fread can be problematic until you figure out the best speed setting and configure that in the rc file.

This post has been edited by belboz: Mar 28 2009, 11:56 AM

[tempest2000]

Thanks for the reply. Ive been trying several variations of loading and the fread will send the file with no errors. However, when I look at memory it's not the same as yours.

802000 07 07 07 07 F0 F0 F0 F0 FC FC FC FC 07 07 070 07
802010 0C 0C 0C 0C 00 00 00 00 F0 F0 F0 F0 FC FC FC FC

This is how it starts. Typing "g 802000" gives me the "waiting blah blah press ^c blah etc. but does nothing on the screen.

This post has been edited by tempest2000: Mar 28 2009, 03:00 PM

[belboz]

Looks like it is writing the least significant byte to all four bytes of each long word it writes.

For example. Your data shows four 07's four F0's four FC's and four 07's.

If you look at my example you see every fourth byte is what you have above (I will highlight below to make it more clear)

802000 23 FC 00 07 00 07 00 F0 21 0C 23 FC 00 07 00 07

So I am betting you have a jumper or two wrong or missing. Not sure if there is any documentation online, but if you take a good enough snapshot of your jumper settings we can probably iron it out.

[tempest2000]

Looking at the Alpine with the battery in the lower left corner there are 2 jumper pads near the right side of the cartridge. The first one has 8 jumpers from JP7 to JP13. JP9 on the top. I'll say the jumper positions as left and right on the pins.

JP9 = right
JP10 = right
JP11 = right
JP12 = right
JP13 = right
JP8 = left
JP7 = left

To the right of that is is JP2 JP3 and JP4 with 4 pins per jumper pad. JP4 = not jumpered JP2= 2 right pins jumpered up and down JP3not jumpered.

Further right is JP1 with top 2 pins jumpered.

JP6 top 2 pins jumpered.

JP5 near the battery is jumpered.

This post has been edited by tempest2000: Mar 28 2009, 04:58 PM

[belboz]

I don't have a 2MB Alpine so I can't confirm those settings, but I did google and found some images of 2MB Alpine boards. Those jumper settings look fine.

Do you have a JagCD attached too? If so unplug the JagCD and just use the Alpine and Jag unit. I have seen problems with with getting a snug fit when the JagCD is added to the mix.

Also check to make sure those jumpers are snug. When I first got my Alpine one of the jumpers was really loose and wasn't making a connection. I pulled it off and bent the pins a little further apart so it would make a good connection.



This post has been edited by belboz: Mar 28 2009, 05:56 PM

[tempest2000]

I'm shipping it back Monday anyway. Hopefully I'll hve a different one by the end of the week.

Thanks for the help.

[tempest2000]

Also, when I boot the stub in DRAM mode (holding the A) and then fread the ROM file, I get more data but each 2nd bit is wrong.

yours= 23 FC 00 07 00 07 00 F0 21 0C 23 FC 00 07 00 07

mine= 23 24 00 07 00 07 00 F0 21 04 23 FC 00 07 00 07

[tempest2000]

I have my name on the list to get one.