documentation is available on the Alien Flash Wiki.

Anyone interested in writing applications for USB transfer, it could well be worth your while getting in contact with e5frog.

e5frog wrote:

If anyone has experience in writing applications for Windows, I don't mind (and probably noone else either) if you give it a try. Perhaps we can e-mail code back and forth and get it done together.

Nice ideas e5frog, maybe possibly even some kind of collaboration?

e5frog wrote:

Maybe I'll put the Windows-application on the shelf for now and try a console-version first, that will skip one problem and I'll cut right to the .dll interfacing..

Console version is a good idea I think, and then the console version could be used as something to base a windows version on later.

Best of luck putting together all your Pac-Man and Fairchild Channel F, multi-carts. We all know how busy you are and all your work is very much appreciated.

For anyone who really can't wait for an USB application to come out, e5frog has written a program for converting BIN files to be used with a terminal program. However, using a terminal program (besides being slow) for the Alien Flash is not very user friendly and not the simplest thing to do, however if you are feeling hard core and like a challenge, there is a Terminal Transfer pack now available on the Wiki page.

Mines arrives today. How nice and well done are the card and the box !!!!!
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Wonderful documentation in this PDF files, very fine, thank you Stingray.


I have copied and translated it into the german wiki page.
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Transfer D64 images between PC and C64 to your hearts content.

Sorry about the dodgy camera


Link


Link


Link

Visit the Wiki page for info on setting up the terminal software.

help!!

i plugged in the easyflash via USB and win 7 installed device drivers as normal. Ran FT_PROG.exe and followed the video. and flashed with (ALIEN FLASH FT232R SETTINGS (MODIFIED-VCP) 22042011.xml) flash complete.

unplugged USB and plugged back in, win 7 installed the appropriate device drivers.

but am not able to set up the com port because i dont have Ports(COM & LPT) in my device manager.

and i cannot find out what COM port it is using. i cannot find those settings on my version of win 7

I am using window 7 ultimate 64 which is whats probably making the difference. and why the settings are not the same.
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silly me, i missed something in the video, sorted now, com port is now there,
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Got mine Wednesday, haven't had time to play around with it 'till today.

I successfully transferred Action Replay rom into the AlienFlash, works great!

Is there a way to copy files from AF to PC, such as the Alien Tools in bank 0 or maybe a download so they can be copied back in if I happen to muck things up?

You sure can copy the ROM SLOTS from Alien Flash back to PC.
I have sent an email with the required files.

BTW, that's great that you are using the AR mode on your Alien Flash!

Just wondering, have you transferred any D64 files with the Alien Flash?

i have transferred a few and they worked fine

Is there going to be an update for the EasyProg in the cart menu?

I like using it, since it's easier than the terminal... Slower to program the cart, but alot less steps...

Skoe has released a newer version that has a fastloader...

Another thing that needs to be fixed is the flash memory error (since it's not detecting the 29F040's)....

EasyProg

Version 1.5.1 - 27.04.2011
- Driver for AMD Am29F040 also supports ST M29F040
- Changed color scheme to make it more readable

Version 1.5.0 - 02.02.2011
- Fast loader for 1541, 1581, sd2iec and uIEC and compatible drives
- Some speed optimizations
- EAPI code for all EasyFlash variants integrated
- Minor UI improvements
- Detailed error reports, e.g. when flash memory is write protected


Thanks,

-Mike

That's a good idea and the latest version of EasyProg with Fastloader are very nice programs but they don't recognise the Am29F032B ROMs and won't even try right to ROMS that they don't recognise.

Hopefully Skoe will mod the next version to recognise the Am29F032B ROMs, and if he does I will ask him if it's OK for us to use it for an update of the Alien Flash Tools.

BTW, do you still have EasyFlash cartridges for sale Mike? I maybe interested in buying a few some time soon.

Good news, no more transferring with terminal software for Alien Flash Hannu Nuotio has released "afapack v1.0 - tools for Alien Flash".



Hannu has released a win32 executable of the GUI along with a command line version. Source codes and other files can also be downloaded.

NOTE: USB tranfer uses VCP mode, your Alien Flash must be set to VCP mode (via FT_Prog), this is the same as was needed to use the terminal software.

Thanks to Hannu, programming the Alien Flash via USB and transferring D64 images is now a whole lot easier.

A very nice replacement for Alien Flash Tools "Alien Flash minitools v1.0" has also been released as part of "afapack v1.0 - tools for Alien Flash".

It can be downloaded as part of the Alien Flash GUI download that was mentioned in the above post. Source code can also be downloaded.

Looks great!

It's missing a nice icon though.

Maybe I'll be able to try that new Airborne Ranger release later today.

I run WinXP and I thought this was just going to be a plug and play experience but...

It says in the readme:

Quote:

- win32 * Needs VCP mode and FTDI drivers.

... before I got it going I had to download the VCP package from the FTDI page:
http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

I selected the executable, ran that, then entered control panel, activated the VCP alternative on the USB device "USB Serial Device" then I got a new COM-port called COM5 and then "Set Paramater" in the "afgui v1.0" to 5 - THEN I got a connection.

Is there an easier way, there's only win32 and dummy driver to choose from AFAICS so... ?

ftdi looks like it will only work on linux.


Anyway, I tried adding Airborne Ranger to slot 3...
"Inject" or "Send"? Tried inject, selected a CRT, nothing seemed to happen, LED on or anything. Alien Flash was warm though. Slot 3 on the list turned green however...


Read the instructions...

Starts with a bunch of command line options, not something you use in a GUI, right...
In "Basics" there's some tiny picture with arrows going here and there.

Seems "Inject" gets stuff from harddrive and puts it in the program, then I need to use "Send" to send it to the cart.


2.3 Image contents explains that grey areas are empty - so my entire cart is empty except slot 3 now - I think not. I guess it only checks what has gone through the program.


So if I want to backup the entire A.F. I seem to have to "Receive" all slots and then "save image".

Tried "Receive" on Slot 0, Log says "Sending to Alien Flash done, status: 0." and pointer turned to a sandglass. For quite a while, don't know what happens, no indications anywhere... Don't know about the log - if it's accurate - since I can't clear it...

Will interrupt it, restart and try again.

Wonderful, nice program, terminal was ok too but this is much better.
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It took a while but Slot 0 was finally changed to green.

Quit the program and restarted, no settings I had made was saved... *sigh*

Had to set the parameter again and find my way to the directory with the crt.


Injected Airborne Ranger to Slot 3 again, then "Send", no message and no indications but the hourglass, Slot-choosing window turned all gray though.

After maybe 30s it was done, I got a log message that data was sent and received - so I guess I should be able to play Airborne Ranger from slot 3 now...


One more question though, I removed the jumper when programming, is that needed or is it only needed when running the Easy Flash software.


EDIT:
Yes, Airborne Ranger works!
However the Ranger selection screen bugs, also on Easy Flash and on my other three C64s that I tried just to make sure it was a software related error.

Got one - pretty cool. Still using the GUI to load everything up which is indeed time consuming. A "send all configured slots" option would rock. I tried custom but it just crashes.

Silly question, what on earth does the jumper do?
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If you remove the jumper it will not autoboot and you'll start with a plain screen, IIRC you need it removed when programming with EasyProg...

If we could sort out the faster transfer mode (than Virtual Com Port) it would save some time.

Programmer told me that the slot option "Alien Flash" means the entire cart, but it's not tested...
So Send/CRT/Alien Flash is supposed to send all slots to the cart.

I got some problems with a slot when trying to program the A.F. from my other computer - AF as standalone. Slot seemed trashed and I wasn't able to program it, an entire half of the cart image memory was zereoed out basically. When finally running it again on my old laptop it programmed just fine. I heard it's meant to be connected to a C64 when being programmed.

So go ahead and try it, would be good to get some feedback on it.

I did get it working and I never pulled the jumper out when programming. Most of the stuff I moved over worked just fine. I need to make a "post it" of what's in each slot now because I get lost for sure. Is there any way to invoke the AF with that jumper out or is that just a convenient way to disable it without removing it from the expansion port?
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If afgui could save slot titles somewhere - that would be really neat, so you could get a list of what was on the cart. Maybe do a "fetch directory" from the attached cart and get a list with your own saved titles.

Good to see you still have some of your EasyFlash cartridges available Mike, don't keep any aside for me though in case I don't end up buying any as I'm not 100% sure yet, I will wait and see after our Brisbane C64 night

Skoe did write the EasyProg, the early versions will still write to the Flash ROM even if it doesn't recognize the ID, however, the latter versions refuse to write to the ROM when the ID is not recognized. If Skoe adds support for Am29F032B ROMs in a new version and gives us permission to use it in Alien Flash Tools I will add it to an updated release.