Month: July 2015

I was on vacation last week but managed to clean up the Arduino code a lot, added the last major functions needed, and got the documentation into decent shape.

Upon return, there were a pile of really nice PC boards just waiting to get components soldered on.

However, there is still one unfinished utility that must be done before this is really usable, and that’s getting all my attention right now.  I’m hoping a few more nights should get the NEWDISK utility done and then it’s time to build some production quality boards.

 

I’m still using prototype boards, but real production quality versions of the parallel card and SD/RTC shield have been ordered.  Next week I’m on the road, but all the blank boards should be in by the 25th and I’ll start soldering boards together and testing.

Software is coming along and it’s probably good enough for people to use now, although a few key utilities are not complete.  The utilities to set/get the clock are done.  Right now I’m working on the MOUNT utility to see mounted drives, unmount, mount, etc.

One other utility that has to be finished is NEWDISK.  Without that, the only way to get a new disk is to take an existing one and delete all the files.

The good thing about missing code is that everything can be downloaded.  One of the DSK files has the source code and binaries for all of the utilities, and a library to make working with the SD system easier.

Okay, it’s time to get back to writing MOUNT…

 

Tonight I worked a bit on speeding up the SD card by removing lots of debug code.  From the time the ‘B’ key is pressed until the FLEX 2.0 message appears is about three seconds.  How long does it take to load the OS on your desktop computer?

The SD card needs some utilities to make it easier to manage and I got most of the first one done.  It allows you to see which drives have which DSK files mounted, as well as mounting and un-mounting drives.

With the previously mentioned speed-ups, the system is quite nice for FLEX software development.  About the only thing really missing is a full screen editor, so maybe that will be added to my “things to write” list.