Re: ZVG firmware / the future of ZVG

 From what I found out, if you want a PCI sound card to work in DOS, it
has to be a Soundblaster Live! Now that said, i paid like $12.00
shipped for one on eBay.

-Al-

On 4/16/2012 7:26 PM, Jamesjonhagen wrote:
> Not all PCs of the PIII P4 era work well with sound cards in DOS.
> Having a parallel port is just half the battle. That's good that
> you can spread the word of a model that works Al.
>
> James Hagen
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Apr 16, 2012, at 7:22 PM, Al Warner <alw@alsarcade.com
> <mailto:alw@alsarcade.com>> wrote:
>
>> I used a Pentium 4 Gateway to build mine - still real easy to buy
>> cheap on eBay. Video of the details at:
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL51665B28C8D84DA5&feature=plcp
>>
>> Just sayin'
>>
>> -Al-
>>
>> On 4/16/2012 7:04 PM, Gary McTaggart wrote:
>>> I'm not too deep on this, but I've heard from coworkers that have
>>> done some general latency testing (not related to ZVG) that USB can
>>> introduce quite a bit of latency compared to even an add-on parallel
>>> port, although a lot of the newer add-on parallel ports can be
>>> terrible too. They takeaway they had from these tests is that
>>> anyone that really wants low latency should buy an ancient PC. :(
>>>
>>> Gary
>>>
>>> On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 3:59 PM, Jeremy Abel <jeremyabel@gmail.com
>>> <mailto:jeremyabel@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Well crap, there goes that idea. I'm going to call Zonn, see if
>>> he's into me redesigning and recoding the zvg for usb. That's
>>> pretty much the only option at this point, assuming he set the
>>> lock bits (although I never have for any of my projects...)
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 6:39 PM, GamingDevices
>>> <gamingdevices@tx.rr.com <mailto:gamingdevices@tx.rr.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> The Atmel ATmega16 & ATtiny2313 devices used in the ZVG have
>>> lock bits, so I doubt that you can just read the part.
>>>
>>> Mike
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 4/16/2012 4:59 PM, Jeremy Abel wrote:
>>>> Hello all!
>>>>
>>>> So, I've got my vector monitor (or at least the post office
>>>> does; I have to go pick it up), and I've been investigating
>>>> ways to control it. So far, the ZVG seems like the best /
>>>> only option. However, they seem to be hard to come by, and
>>>> a bit out of my price range, not to mention the fact that
>>>> they just aren't being made anymore. Making it even more
>>>> complicated, I don't even have a PC with a parallel port
>>>> (only a macbook). Instead, I've come up with several other
>>>> options, which I will talk about below.
>>>>
>>>> Using the schematic that's available online, I've managed
>>>> to re-enter the whole thing into EagleCAD, and have begun
>>>> to design my own board for it, using only through-hole
>>>> parts (because I don't have the patience / skill to solder
>>>> SMDs). So far, only the power supply area is done, because
>>>> I don't want to put too much effort into it before getting
>>>> some more information about the whole thing. I'm doing this
>>>> only because it would cost me $100 to print the board, and
>>>> then $50 in parts, which is about $100 less than I'd end up
>>>> paying for an original ZVG. There is one snag though:
>>>> basically, I need the firmware that goes on the two Atmel
>>>> chips. Without that, I might as well not even bother. So,
>>>> I've come up with some solutions to that problem. Here's
>>>> what I've been thinking:
>>>>
>>>> *Option 1: *I somehow manage to get ahold of Zonn (no luck
>>>> with that so far), and somehow convince him to open-source
>>>> the firmware (something he talked about here
>>>> <http://www.ukvac.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=328991&PID=752487&SID=5dbcd2zb-da95-5c822ae9-cezbbae5-3z84c2e1&title=zektor-zvg-limited-run-hurry#752487>,
>>>> about a year ago). With access to the actual code, I could
>>>> pretty easily convert it to communicate over USB. With
>>>> Zonn's permission, I would then open source the entire
>>>> thing, and thus you all would have a lovely new open-source
>>>> USB-enabled ZVG. This, I think, is the best option, as I
>>>> don't need anyone to dump the firmware for me, I don't need
>>>> to logic probe the thing and figure out what's being sent
>>>> over the parallel port, and I don't need to program an
>>>> interpreter to convert the thing into USB.
>>>>
>>>> *Option 2*: Someone with a ZVG solders up headers to J5 and
>>>> J6, and uses an AVR programmer to read off the firmware and
>>>> sends it to me as a hex file. I can then use this to
>>>> program my own atmel chips, and proceed. However, this will
>>>> make it difficult for me to get around the parallel port
>>>> problem without a large amount of logic-probing and then
>>>> adding another microcontroller to convert the signals being
>>>> sent to the parallel port into signals I can send over USB.
>>>> In order to keep Zonn's IP safe, I'd keep the whole thing
>>>> to myself. Still, this feels shady.
>>>>
>>>> *Option 3: *I buy a ZVG from someone, dump the firmware
>>>> myself, then sell it back to someone else. This feels just
>>>> as shady, maybe more, than option 2.
>>>>
>>>> What do you all think about all of this? I'd love to get
>>>> the ball rolling on this, preferably on option 1 if anyone
>>>> knows how to get ahold of Zonn.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> ~Jeremy
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
** Unsubscribe, subscribe, or view the archives at http://www.vectorlist.org
** Please direct other questions, comments, or problems to chris@westnet.com
Received on Mon Apr 16 19:59:57 2012