AtariVox software help required

[Richard H.]

As the AtariVox will soon be back in the AA store, I've been working on a new USB dev interface. It uses a FT232R USB UART chip, this allows it to power the AVox and also work with the SpeakJet dev software PhraseALator.

 

That bit works great.

 

I also have the EEPROM's SDA and SCL connected to 2 i/o's on the chip with a view to writing a utility to allow manipulation of the memory (for backup etc) (and also work with SaveKey).

 

Anyway, as I'm not good at software, I wonder if someone familar with C (and the FT232R) could help write this utility ?

 

 

 

Thanks...

[Zerosquare]

As the AtariVox will soon be back in the AA store, I've been working on a new USB dev interface. It uses a FT232R USB UART chip, this allows it to power the AVox and also work with the SpeakJet dev software PhraseALator.

 

That bit works great.

 

I also have the EEPROM's SDA and SCL connected to 2 i/o's on the chip with a view to writing a utility to allow manipulation of the memory (for backup etc) (and also work with SaveKey).

 

Anyway, as I'm not good at software, I wonder if someone familar with C (and the FT232R) could help write this utility ?

 

 

 

Thanks...

I've been working on a project using a FT232R for a few months now. I'm too busy to contribute to your software directly, but if you need help with the chip, I'll be glad to give you advice.

[Kroko]

I also have the EEPROM's SDA and SCL connected to 2 i/o's on the chip with a view to writing a utility to allow manipulation of the memory (for backup etc) (and also work with SaveKey).

Stupid question: How can you control the SpeakJet I/O Lines ? When I read through the Users Guide of the SpeakJet,

my first impression was, that these I/O Lines are controlled by writing to a EEPROM register.

 

Is there a different way to control these lines ? I mean you wouldn't want to write to the SpeakJet EEPROM each time you want to change the value of the I/O port.

 

I didn't spend much time to find out if there is a different way to control these I/Os via serial port commands. Have you found out, how this can be done ?

[djmips]

I'm very busy right at the moment but after Dec 15th I will have time and have experience with drivers, embedded controllers and apps.

 

- David

[Richard H.]

I mean you wouldn't want to write to the SpeakJet EEPROM each time you want to change the value of the I/O port.

Sorry, I meant EEPROM as in the seperate 32K (serial EEPROM) on the AVox (and SaveKey)

 

 

I'm very busy right at the moment but after Dec 15th I will have time and have experience with drivers, embedded controllers and apps.

Excellent David

 

I know this interface is going to be essential for game programmers.

 

PM me with your shipping address and I'll get one to you.

 

 

 

Thanks again !

[Richard H.]

I've been working on a project using a FT232R for a few months now. I'm too busy to contribute to your software directly, but if you need help with the chip, I'll be glad to give you advice.

Thanks for the offer !

 

BTW what are you using the chip for in your project, and in which mode (serial or bit bang) ?

[Zerosquare]

BTW what are you using the chip for in your project, and in which mode (serial or bit bang) ?

I've posted the technical details here. I've not tried bit-bang mode. One thing you need to be aware of is that everything outside of the basic serial stuff (for example, bit-bang support) requires the "native" (D2XX) drivers, not the "serial port emulation" ones. The problem is that the native drivers are closed-source and binary-only (some Linux users won't like it), and there seems to be less support on non-Windows platforms.

 

If this is a problem for you, in case you have leftover pins on the serial part (e.g. DSR, RI, etc.) and you're not concerned about speed, you could probably use them to access your EEPROM.

 

EDIT : apparently, the open-souce library libftdi supports big-bang mode under Linux. I've not tested it, though.

Edited November 24, 2006 by Zerosquare

[Richard H.]

If this is a problem for you, in case you have leftover pins on the serial part (e.g. DSR, RI, etc.) and you're not concerned about speed, you could probably use them to access your EEPROM.

I think using the CBUS pins will be better, but thats a good fall back.

 

It's a great chip, the picture shows the new (USB) and old (serial) interfaces side by side.

 

The SSOP FT232RL is tricky to solder, but definitely worth it for fewer components and no external PSU.

[djmips]

Well, here we are in February but I've been working on this now. I'm very pleased to be doing this and so far I have to say that the FTDI website has been awesome.

 

The resource section http://www.ftdichip.com/Resources/Utilities.htm has a couple of very nice tools that I wished I'd had before. The USBview tool (from MS) and the FTClean are indispensible. How many times have I had to hand wash the registry of failed USB installs!!! Now it's a piece of cake. (well more or less). So I've cleaned my system of the VID - FTDI and PID 409 (AtariVox). Then I can reinstall.

 

I have a bunch of other stale USB bad installs that I can clean up now.

 

So Richard, I was going to reverse engineer the pins for SDA and SCL but I couldn't get the darn thing apart. Is it glued? Oh well, maybe you should just tell me. I think I'm going to break it if I jimmy it any more.

[Richard H.]

So Richard, I was going to reverse engineer the pins for SDA and SCL

I don't understand what you're wanting to do ?

 

The FT232RL is already connected as follows on the PCB -

 

EEPROM FT232RL

 

SCL CBUS0

SDA CBUS1

 

CTS (inverted) is being used to detect when the AVox is ready to accept data

TXD is feeding the AVox with speech data

Edited February 14, 2007 by Richard H.

[djmips]

So Richard, I was going to reverse engineer the pins for SDA and SCL

I don't understand what you're wanting to do ?

 

The FT232RL is already connected as follows on the PCB -

 

EEPROM FT232RL

 

SCL CBUS0

SDA CBUS1

 

CTS (inverted) is being used to detect when the AVox is ready to accept data

TXD is feeding the AVox with speech data

 

That's the info I needed. The CBUS0 and CBUS1. I apologize if you'd sent it to me elsewhere.

[Richard H.]

That's the info I needed. The CBUS0 and CBUS1. I apologize if you'd sent it to me elsewhere.

No problem !

 

Thanks again for working on this

[Richard H.]

How are you getting on ?

 

( no pressure or nothing )

 

I was thinking, the software only needs to write a whole 32K file or read one. Stuff like editing could be done with a freeware hex editor.

[djmips]

It's been on the backburner for a few weekends whilst I worked on some other things. A little pressure is OK. I'll move it back up the priority list.

[kotep]

can someone please help me with how to use the atarivox....i know very little about compuiter programming....i got the atarivox, a supercharger and obviously a 2600.....

 

like in real lamens terms....like as if your talking to an idiot...(im an idiot)

 

 

thanks in advance