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[Lisa2]

I know this is a Lisa site but..
For fun, I tested a ESPROFILE with my Apple ///.  Unfortunately it did not work.   Good news it that no magic smoke was let out!
Using a blank 5M profile image,  I tried to format the ESPROFILE with the SOS system utilities, but it throws an error and will not initialize.  Then using BLU on the Lisa, I copied a known good A3 profile to the ESPROFILE.  BLU was able to copy the data fine, but that also did not work on the A3.  Also tried A3 CP/M but no bueno...
The A3 profile card does not use the VIA chip like Lisa has, I am guessing there is some sort of interface incompatibility.   My X/Profile works perfectly on the A3.

If anyone has any luck with ESPROFILE on a A3 let me know.
Rick

[AlexTheCat123]

Yeah, I've been waiting for someone to say something one way or the other about Apple /// compatibility. My Apple /// isn't with me right now, so I haven't been able to test it on one yet and I can't do any Apple /// debugging at the moment, but I'd like to look into that once I get my hands on it again.

The Apple /// sends faster strobe pulses than the Lisa because it uses DMA to transfer data to and from the ProFile, so it's basically the worst case in terms of emulator compatibility. I've never actually measured them, but I believe the strobe frequency is about 1MHz. I'm 99% sure that's what the problem is, but the only way to know for sure is to hook up a logic analyzer and start messing around!

[AlexTheCat123]

Just a quick update: I noticed an issue where I would sometimes experience some weirdness when using ESProFile with parallel cards under certain OS's in certain configurations, and I was able to trace it down to a simple issue involving the timing of the BSY signal. The parallel card just expects it to be asserted much more quickly than the built-in port. And I have now fixed that problem, along with adding a couple SD card-related optimizations to improve disk access speed.


If you've had any problems with using ESProFile on a parallel card, go back and download the latest firmware, and you should be good to go. I actually fixed this problem about a week ago, but I just wanted to make an annoucement since people probably didn't notice!

[ried]

Alex, your ESProFile is becoming famous!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwdE017c7yw

[AlexTheCat123]

Yeah, I saw that this morning! He was originally planning on making an ArduinoFile, but I reached out to him in December and sent him a prototype of ESProFile instead since it's so much better and more reliable.



It's a shame that he's having some problems installing LOS, but I emailed him about it and hopefully we can get it figured out. I'm pretty sure that something's wrong with his Lisa as opposed to his ESProFile because I tested that board in a 2/10 before I sent it to him and everything was working fine. Plus, I know of plenty of other people using them in 2/10s without issue. But I'll definitely let everybody know if we end up finding and fixing some kind of weird bug that only shows up under really specific circumstances!

[bmwcyclist]

Thank you so much for making the ESProFile. It has been a fantastic help with my LISA restoration and usage.

[AlexTheCat123]

Thank you so much for making the ESProFile. It has been a fantastic help with my LISA restoration and usage.

I'm really glad you've been enjoying it!

[Verault]

Thank you as well! Heres to hoping someday soon someone makes some new software for the old girl.

[AlexTheCat123]

Heres to hoping someday soon someone makes some new software for the old girl.

It's nothing super impressive, but I'm working on something in 68K assembly right now. It's not an LOS app or anything, but it's still something that people will hopefully find pretty neat!

[Verault]

Anything is far better than the vast nothingness that has been LISA development.

[stepleton]

So, this opinion is one you've expressed on vcfed for a few years now. If you want some Lisa apps, why not make them yourself? The tools are out there:
https://bitsavers.org/bits/Apple/Lisa/workshop_3.0/
https://bitsavers.org/bits/Apple/Lisa/toolkit_3.0/
and so is the documentation:
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/apple/lisa/workshop_3.0/
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/apple/lisa/toolkit_3.0/Package_2_Examples/

[Verault]

And that was the exact thing you said to me there..............



I really have no clue how my wishing there was new Lisa software is so upsetting to you.. But it obviously is.

[JaDaveIII]

Just a quick update: I noticed an issue where I would sometimes experience some weirdness when using ESProFile with parallel cards ...

Speaking of the parallel card, I came across this for the connecting cable. I think it should work. While I know the parts from Digikey are listed on the github site, just figured that some people might not want to make their own.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S8WN57B/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1THAZDOWP300U&psc=1

[Verault]

Just a quick update: I noticed an issue where I would sometimes experience some weirdness when using ESProFile with parallel cards ...

Speaking of the parallel card, I came across this for the connecting cable. I think it should work. While I know the parts from Digikey are listed on the github site, just figured that some people might not want to make their own.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S8WN57B/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1THAZDOWP300U&psc=1

Neat! So this should work on the external ESP device? Thats great.

[AlexTheCat123]

Neat! So this should work on the external ESP device? Thats great.

Yeah, that should work fine. It can be a pain to squish those connectors onto the ends of a ribbon cable, so a ready-made solution like this is really nice! I might add it to the readme next time I update it.