MSX OMEGA & CARNIVORE 2

The MSX OMEGA main board:

So far all I have managed to do with the OMEGA MSX board is boot to the free C-BIOS bios: 

The problem is that C-BIOS is a really minimalist bios that only allows you to start an application on a cartridge. 

Now, I find myself with two problems.

The first is that I now need to test my USB keyboard adapter on the OMEGA motherboard. However, I do not have any game cartridges. Under these conditions the system does not allow me to do anything.

As Sergey Kiselev specifies, Omega is compatible with the Sanyo PHC-23J machine. So I recreated a bios starting from the basic ROM and the extended ROM of this system. Obviously, I have no commercial rights to this ROM, but the use is strictly private and as a development resource in my case.

And voilà: 

I am now under Microsoft Basic. I will therefore be able to continue the development of my USB interface and particularly the management of signals with the OMEGA PPI.

I remember in 1988, I joined a company that still had a small microcomputer running Microsoft Basic. It was used to program the very fashionable LED display strips at the time. I had just turned on this machine and had fallen the same way directly on the Basic's screen. I don't remember if this machine was an MSX type or not. I don't remember the manufacturer either. Regardless, 33 years later, I'm here again :-)

And the question is: does the Carnivore 2 card work under this environment?

Is that enough for you as an answer?

Carnivore 2 works exactly as described in the documentation. For the moment I have not prepared a FLASH card so the list of files is empty. 

There is still a bit of work to be done before I can use my Carnivore 2 card for mass storage. Indeed, the Flash card must be prepared through the Carnivore application. Besides the fact that I will only be able to do this when my keyboard interface is working, it seems that some files must also be installed on the Flash card (auto-start mode). I don't know if this is absolutely necessary but whatever. This procedure can only be done through a floppy disk drive. I now need to acquire a floppy interface to complete my system.

It's really nice to see this system come to life step by step.

Keyboard for OMEGA MSX Computer : no 'magic' smoke :-)

Until now, I have carried out my developments on this USB keyboard interface by powering the board using a laboratory power supply. As I have pretty much finished the software embedded in the STM32 processor, it's time to see what it looks like on the OMEGA board.

This is what the final assembly looks like:

The interface LED responds well to pressing keys on the USB keyboard. It remains to be seen if this works well with the OMEGA board.

As a USB keyboard does not really take the specific keys of the MSX keyboard, I planned the use of specific keys of the USB keyboard like ALT, CTRL etc ...

Sergey Kiselev MSX OMEGA computer and... a keyboard for it.

 Sergey Kiselev developed some time ago an MSX2 compatible computer :

This is one of the boards that I buid. Building this kind of retro-computer costs a certain price, in particular because of the connectors which are also of the MSX type and are not very affordable today.

In fact, I hesitated to build the keyboard that Sergey developed for this OMEGA, thinking of using a standard and cheaper keyboard either PS / 2 or USB.

Obviously, the most common models today are of the USB type. So I developed a small USB interface on one side and parallel on the other to interface with the keyboard bus of the OMEGA board :

This interface uses a specific processor which manages the USB protocol to which I have added an STM32G0 type processor for the decoding of the USB frames intended for the OMEGA board.

The documentation of the USB management circuit being very ... light, I had some difficulties in retrieving the key code from the USB keyboard.

But here I am:

The right part of the ST IDE displays, among other things, the value of the Key variable, corresponding to the value 0x14. I actually hit the 'A' key on the keyboard, which matches well the 'Q' code on the standard keyboard. And yes, I use a French keyboard ;-)

The code is not very well written yet. All I have to do now is manage the sending protocol to the OMEGA board and I will finally be able to interact with this computer. So far I've only managed to get the init screen, which isn't bad :-)

OMEGA MSX COMPUTER : A USB keyboard converter

I am currently very busy developing the µPF--2 kit. However, I continue other development in parallel, including a USB keyboard converter for the MSX Omega computer:

More information here.

OMEGA MSX COMPUTER : FIRST START

As I mentioned in my previous post, this computer is not very difficult to assemble for those who have decent experience in this type of work. In fact, the hardest part is getting all the components. At one point, we still come to the end of this quest:

The 'only' component that is missing is the battery. But Cbios (MSX compatible) can do without it. The first start using a laboratory power supply with controlled intensity allowed me to avoid the 'magic smoke'!

And voilà :

The message is clear, the system is now waiting for an application cartridge. Note that I did not mount the keyboard proposed by the designer of this system. Standard USB keyboards are much less expensive. I intend instead to develop an interface allowing the use of a commercial keyboard on this computer.

There is therefore still a little work to be done to be able to use this MSX computer in a comfortable way, but the basic system is operational. This is a very good start. Well done to the designer of this Omega!

OMEGA MSX COMPUTER

With Covid, it's not very easy to move forward with the projects I'm working on right now. For example, I am mounting an MSX type computer board. This is Sergey Kiselev's Omega project available on Github at this address: https://github.com/skiselev/omega. The computer looks like this when mounted:

https://github.com/skiselev/omega

This computer is built from standard 'old' components but still relatively easily available. On the other hand, this implies the use of a multitude of sources of supply because it is totally impossible to find all the components from one supplier. Not that it's complicated, but it really takes a lot of time and organization. We also have to face long delivery times due to the Covid. The assembly of the board is not of great complexity but requires patience and a good practice of the soldering iron. It is definitely not a beginner's job.

My first board is almost finished: 

In fact, I have ordered components for several boards. No need to generate all these global transports for a single copy. I may offer a few mounted boards for sale. I plan to use this first one as a prototype for some future developments, because the MSX standard is still active and dynamic.

The Z80 which equips this type of equipment is definitely an excellent processor for familiarizing yourself with the architecture of computers and their programming. This is obviously a totally different approach to the 'virtual' world that is programming under Windows for example. I think that creating an application for such a machine is much more rewarding than running your first (boring) 'Hello World' application in its 'little window' ;-)

Other projects will soon be completed. I'll post on this blog when it's done ....