Virtual keyboard on C64 DTV

Bombus · Newbie Joined: 14 Apr 2012 Posts: 5 Location: Sweden

I made a new .bin file with some new games and DTVSlimintro and flashed it, but I am now thinking of building it into a new casing along with a uIEC/SD and would need the virtual keyboard back.
Is it still in there, how do I start it in that case?

My plan is to build it into a casing with a NiMh battery pack, all the connectors and power/charger jack. I want it to be as portable as possible and don´t want to bring a keyboard to be able to browse the uIEC.

I guess I have to flash it again without the Slimintro?

nojoopa · Groupie in Training Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 50

Bombus wrote:

I made a new .bin file with some new games and DTVSlimintro and flashed it, but I am now thinking of building it into a new casing along with a uIEC/SD and would need the virtual keyboard back.
Is it still in there, how do I start it in that case?

I can't remember where exactly it is, but I'm quite sure it's in either the original INTRO program or something it loads. The real question is: do you really want to type OPEN8,..."CD:...":CLOSE on a virtual keyboard?

Quote:

I want it to be as portable as possible and don´t want to bring a keyboard to be able to browse the uIEC.

This is why I started tinkering with browsers; to have a (DTV-)joystick controllable program for loading/browsing files on a SD card device.

Quote:

I guess I have to flash it again without the Slimintro?

Nah. How about starting a browser via Slimintro? Here's (roughly) how:

1. grab CBM FileBrowser
2. take fb64dtv.prg from it
3. create a file index.txt with the content

Code:

fb64dtv.prg,BLAH,,2061,PRG

(...supplying a better name than "BLAH")
4. create fb64dtv_dtv.zip containing fb64dtv.prg and index.txt
5. add that _dtv.zip to your current Flash image (.bin)
6. test on emulator
7. reflash and hope it uses the correct device number (if not, you may need to reassemble fb64dtv with a hardcoded device number)

Never tried this with CBM FileBrowser myself, but worked fine on the project it is based on. Good luck.

Bombus · Newbie Joined: 14 Apr 2012 Posts: 5 Location: Sweden

Well this was much more interesting than CBMcommander that I tried earlier.
I don´t think it supports joystick browsing.

Do you know if it´s possible to put .PRG files as well as .D64 files on the SD card? In that case there are a lot of one file games that most likely would run easily on a DTV.

But I still have to reflash the DTV to put the program in the list in Slimintro.

I´m waiting for a Arduino Duemilanove that I hope will make it easier to reflash the DTV, there are some games I would like to replace.
Meanwhile I will do some testing in VICE to make a as perfect .bin file as possible in my opinion.

When I have built my DTV in another casing I will connect a PS2 keyboard and change the device number for the uIEC to #8.
If I understood it correctly it´s possible to make the change permanent.

Thanks for the good and understandable answer!

nojoopa · Groupie in Training Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 50

Bombus wrote:

Do you know if it´s possible to put .PRG files as well as .D64 files on the SD card? In that case there are a lot of one file games that most likely would run easily on a DTV.

Yes, it does. You may also notice that many of the DTV fixed games are actually a single .PRG under 202 blocks in size and hence don't need to be flashed. As for a randomly picked one file game: chances are that it uses a key not provided by the DTV buttons and thus needs a keyboard.

Quote:

But I still have to reflash the DTV to put the program in the list in Slimintro.

Not for testing, assuming you have a PS/2 keyboard wired up and have a method to boot to BASIC (DTVMON, dummy entry, ...). Just put fb64dtv.prg on the SD card, load it, "POKE186,1" to simulate loading the browser from Flash and RUNning it. If it shows the content of the SD card then it should work from Flash as well.

Quote:

I´m waiting for a Arduino Duemilanove that I hope will make it easier to reflash the DTV, there are some games I would like to replace.

For dtv2ser+usb, I assume. If so: yes indeed.

Quote:

When I have built my DTV in another casing I will connect a PS2 keyboard and change the device number for the uIEC to #8.

This change may not be strictly necessary, given the results of the above test.

None of this addresses the original question/topic, though. I'd suggest the PETSCII forums for random DTV discussions, but it's quite dead.

Bombus · Newbie Joined: 14 Apr 2012 Posts: 5 Location: Sweden

It indeed seems dead, I registered there couple of days ago and I´m still waiting for moderator to accept.
_________________

Be patient, I´m from Sweden and my English is no good.

Bombus · Newbie Joined: 14 Apr 2012 Posts: 5 Location: Sweden

nojoopa wrote:

Quote:

I´m waiting for a Arduino Duemilanove that I hope will make it easier to reflash the DTV, there are some games I would like to replace.

For dtv2ser+usb, I assume. If so: yes indeed.

Ok I´ve got the Arduino and flashed it and made the mods to use it as a dtv2ser device, but I don´t understand how to use it. I´ve downloaded the dtv2ser-0.5.zip but shouldn´t there be a .exe file?
_________________

Be patient, I´m from Sweden and my English is no good.

nbla000 · Newbie Joined: 04 May 2007 Posts: 4 Location: Italy

nojoopa wrote:

1. grab CBM FileBrowser
2. take fb64dtv.prg from it
3. create a file index.txt with the content

Code:

fb64dtv.prg,BLAH,,2061,PRG

(...supplying a better name than "BLAH")
4. create fb64dtv_dtv.zip containing fb64dtv.prg and index.txt
5. add that _dtv.zip to your current Flash image (.bin)
6. test on emulator
7. reflash and hope it uses the correct device number (if not, you may need to reassemble fb64dtv with a hardcoded device number)

Never tried this with CBM FileBrowser myself, but worked fine on the project it is based on. Good luck.

Hi, I'm nbla000 the current mantainer of the cbm-filebrowser project, thanks for your suggestions, i will put this fb64dtv_dtv.zip in the next version, for the moment you may use the last 1.3 version with some nice addition, sort button "C" and change drive button "D" (you may use any drive # not just 8 ).

I'm planning to use the jiffydtv soft kernal for the next version.
I'm doing some tests but basically you need to flash the JIFFYDTV.PRG file (name JIFFYDTV) that you get here and cbm-filebrowser will recognize and use it if exists.

Bombus · Newbie Joined: 14 Apr 2012 Posts: 5 Location: Sweden

Sorry for not replying, I forgot.

The mod is finished and I have flashed it once again with FILEBROWSER as first program in the file list.
And it works perfectly!
When Filebrowser starts it loads the content of the SD card as it was unit#8

However I haven´t made any progress with the dtv2sertrans, actually I haven´t tried to figure out how it works, think I have downloaded all necessary files though.

I have also put jiffydtv in the flashmemory and it works just fine too.

Made another complete flash from SD card with JIFFYDOS installed and it took about 20 min instaed of about 1 hour.
_________________

Be patient, I´m from Sweden and my English is no good.