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24Jun/167

Commodore 64: Fixing RS-232 Serial Limitations

This is going to be a bit of a rant, so I apologise in advance. I have just spent a good 75 hours getting the C64 to talk to an Arduino via RS-232 and each step of the way has been painful. Initially, communications were sorted and data made it across to the Arduino. All wasn't as it should be as I realised that the character mappings (PETSCII vs ASCII) meant that the data had to be translated. Once that was sorted, it was a matter of sending data back. Again, character mappings were required. Past this, I then wanted to send 64-bits of raw data. Not characters, but 8-bits-to-a-byte raw data as I wanted up to 64 sensors and therefore only 8 bytes to transmit this. Turns out that the C64 is hard-coded to transmute the serial value zero to something else...

Diagnosing the issue

I'd already built up a large-ish application on the C64 for controlling the trains. There was also a large amount of code on the Arduino side. Due to this, any support libraries or includes or other interrupt-hacking routines could've been interjecting and mangling data. After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, compiling on windows and switching to SD card... I got jack of the speed of which I was able to debug on real hardware.

Fortunately, VICE came to my rescue. Not only does it have a debugger, but it also emulates the RS-232 User Port Serial and shit... it even reproduced the error! Let me show you how to set that up...

Configuring VICE's User Port Serial

rs232-userport-settingsOpen VICE and choose Settings -> Catridge/IO Settings -> RS232 userport settings.... Enable the RS232 userport emulation, leave it as device 1 and set the baud rate to 2400. Hit OK.

rs232-settingsBack to Settings -> RS232 settings.... We want to edit RS232 device 1. Fill in the text box with the relevant IP and port of the machine you wish to communicate with. If you're going to use my TCP server below, then enter 127.0.0.1:25232.

Close VICE. Next time you open it, VICE will attempt to connect to a TCP Server listening on your localhost IP on port 25232. You can configure this to whatever you want, but we are going to use the default. VICE will then treat the connection as RS-232 and provide any data received to the internal C64 user port. It will also send out any data sent to the user port via this channel.

Now that we're done with the settings, we need to give it something to connect to.

TCP Server in C#

Download the code here. I've rigged up a very simple C# TCP server for VICE to connect to. The TCP server must always be loaded first, otherwise VICE will continue silently and never send out any data. The code is also overly-primitive and, upon closing VICE, the TCP server will need to be restarted prior to starting another instance of VICE.

simple-tcp-console

Once running, you can use the 1-8 keys to set the bits of the byte to be sent. Alternatively, pressing any keys of the alphabet will set the byte to that letter in ASCII.

Finally, hitting Enter will transmit the byte.

C64 RS-232 Serial Test Program

Grab the Serial Test Application here that I wrote to test the RS-232 serial port on the C64 using Johan's driver. There's a batch file in there that you can use to run the program. Just make sure it knows where VICE is.

Make sure the TCP Server is loaded first, then run the batch program. It's set to auto-start the binary. If this doesn't work, then you can open VICE and via Settings -> Peripheral Settings... configure the directory where the binary is. You can then LOAD it as per usual.

peripheral-settings

Once loaded, you'll be in the app. It's pretty straightforward and will just print out the data that has been received.

c64-serial-app

Make sure that the TCP Server has shown that the connection has been established. You can now press the keys as per the instructions above on the TCP Server and send data. At the bottom is a timer and a number of bytes received. As each byte comes in, it'll be displayed up the top. It'll also be numerically represented down below, next to in:, above the clock.

At this point, type random letters from the alphabet and send them to the C64. You'll note that lowercase get translated to uppercase thanks to the ASCII to PETSCII translation. Tinker with the 1-8 keys to set the relevant bits in the byte to send and then hit enter. Watch that 1 = 1, 2 = 2, etc... until you try to send a raw zero... bugger.

Debugging the problem

Ok, we've now worked out that, even in the land of emulation, sending a zero to the RS-232 serial port on the C64 produces an 0x0d. This rules out the 'client'... both the Arduino and my TCP Server send raw zeroes and both VICE and a real C64 render the wrong character once received. From here, it could be the custom driver, the cc65 support libraries or something much more evil.

Debugging on real hardware is something I'm scared of... I'm so used to multiple windows and multi-tasking that I'd like to do it in a more comfortable environment. Thankfully VICE has a monitor that can help us. Open this up via the File menu and prepare to delve into the land of assembler! Note that, when open, the C64 emulation is paused.

vice-monitor

Once the emulator and application are loaded, choose View -> Disassembly Window. You'll get a little window showing the entire memory of the emulated C64, disassembled. This means that VICE, with it's knowledge of C64 6502 CPU op-codes, has translated the raw memory into known commands. Fortunately, it also has information on the mapping of the memory and therefore does a very good job of this translation. Unfortunately, there is no search command... so we will need to scour over this to find what we are looking for.

What are we looking for?

The million-dollar question. The serial test app that we've compiled for the C64 (and executed in VICE) is based on the sample code by Johan. It also includes his 2400-baud serial driver. Looking at his source code, we can see the routines that are called when we call the ser_get function from our main loop. If you browse over to his source, you'll find the relevant lines in driver/c64-up2400.s.

GET:   
        ldx #2
        jsr CHKIN
        jsr rshavedata
        beq GET_NO_DATA
        jsr BASIN
        ldx #$00
        sta (ptr1,x)
        jsr CLRCH 
        lda #<SER_ERR_OK
        tax 
        rts

vice-disassemblyThe snippet above was copied on the 24th of June, 2016. This code has hopefully been updated by now, but what you see above is the function, as it was back at that time, which reads data in from the RS-232 Serial port. I can't fully explain each line, but what we can do is find this chunk of code in the disassembly window. Unfortunately, we'll be doing this by hand as I don't know a better method to search for it.

After a lot of scrolling... this code has been found in memory location $238A. ldx #2 is seen as LDX #$02. The further jumps are visible, but their happy names are gone. Instead we see the memory addresses of each of those functions. You can see that I've also clicked the row in question. This sets a breakpoint, represented as a red highlight on the row.

Triggering the debugger

From here, we can actually close the debugger. Make sure that the red row is set prior to closing the main Monitor window. If you just did this, then you'll find that the debugger window popped back up straight away and now our red breakpoint is a lovely shade of teal. Teal? What happened to Red? In the disassembly list, a blue line indicates the location of the next line to be executed. Ours is teal because it's a set breakpoint AND it's the next line to execute. If you're bored, click the line and it'll turn blue. Click it again and it should return to teal.

Ok, we've triggered it... but why? No data was sent down the channel! It turns out that, if you look at the source above, there's a hint on the line with GET_NO_DATA. The ser_get is called from our code on each program loop; it returns a SER_ERR_NO_DATA when there is no data... so this line we've broken on is too early in the driver code. We really want to set a breakpoint at the first line executed when there is data.

So step through the code. To do this, press the 8th button on the toolbar in the Monitor window. Press it a few more times and watch the execution. We're currently 'stepping over' functions; the two JSRs might well send the program counter off into other parts of memory and execute code, but we don't care. Once you're on the BEQ GET_NO_DATA line, press it again. Note that we now jump down to the location of GET_NO_DATA and exit out. We can assume that this jump is the significant point where, when data exists, the execution continues straight through and does not jump.

debugger-at-char-received

Now that we know where this junction is, we want to clear our previous breakpoint and set one on the line directly after BEQ. Set the breakpoint and close the Monitor. It should not pop back up this time.

Viewing the data coming in via Serial

Ok, we've set our breakpoint in the driver and it hasn't triggered yet; let's hope it does when data is received. To test this theory, we'll need to use the TCP Server from above. If it's not already running, close VICE first and then start the Server. You need to have the TCP Server running prior to VICE for the connection to be correctly established. Once everything is running, ensure that the server has reported that the connection is established. Confirm your breakpoint is still in place; VICE doesn't save these, so you'll need to go hunting again if you lost the position. Once everything is configured, make sure you close the Monitor window to allow the C64 emulation to proceed. When the Monitor window is open, the CPU emulation is halted!

Once ready, focus on the TCP Server window and press the a key. Make sure it reports back that the byte is set to 97, which is ASCII. Press the enter key and you should trigger the breakpoint in VICE.

Ok, we've got it, our breakpoint was hit and we presumably have data somewhere? Our breakpoint is actually on a JSR through to the address $FFCF. At this point in time, this address is unfamiliar. All our previous driver code has been around the $2300 mark. Due to this, we're going to step over it. The next call is an LDA which uses a pointer + offset to load a value into register A. Stepping over this, we see the following in the Monitor window:

(C:$2394) n
.C:2397  A2 00       LDX #$00       - A:61 X:03 Y:00 SP:f2 ..-.....    6728381

Interesting... A:61 hey? That's the ASCII HEX value for a lower-case a! So there it is, the value has come through and we can see it in memory. You can close the debugger now and play around with data on the TCP server to see how it arrives on the C64.

Note that as soon as you try to send a zero from the TCP Server, it'll appear as an 0x0d. At this point, we've honed in on the location where the char is read in, but we don't know what code is hosted up in the $FF00 range?

C64 Memory Mapping

Time to go deeper. Thank god we're working on a seriously old system that has been thoroughly documented. You'll find the memory map of the Commodore 64 here. If you scroll down the page, you'll find that the area in question contains the Kernal (Kernel?). At this point... we might as well retire.

Retire? Yes. The KERNAL is ROM, you know... READ-ONLY MEMORY. It's the raw system code burnt onto chips on the motherboard and it is a fixed entity. Those bytes can't be hacked... anything we try to do will require reproduction of kernal commands in the 'user' area. Should we try this? Sure... but first it'd be nice to know what's going on.

C64 Kernal Disassembly

Again, thanks to the age of this system, there's a full disassembly of the C64 Kernal here. We know that we're jumping in to location $FFCF, so browse down to that area.

FFCF   6C 24 03   JMP ($0324)   ; (F157) input char on current device

Oh look, it's just another JMP. Fortunately it's commented and we know to browse through to $F157. Now we are in murky waters... not many comments here. We get a heading of ; input a character, but then not much else. The assembly, to the naked eye, looks like a switch statement. It seems to be going through checking which device to read from. In our case, we can actually step through it in the debugger. If you step into the JSR #$FFCF then you'll be able to watch it jump as you send in characters from the TCP Server.

The basic trail jumps through: $FFCF -> $F157 -> $F166 -> $F173 -> $F1B8 (a.k.a. read a byte from RS-232 bus) via F177. At $F1BD, there's a comparison of the incoming byte to 0x00. If there's no match, then the code jumps out to $F1B3 and returns the value. If there is a zero, then the following occurs:

F1C1   AD 97 02   LDA $0297
F1C4   29 60      AND #$60
F1C6   D0 E9      BNE $F1B1

If the AND fails to compare, then the jump happens at $F1C6 to $F1B1. Looking at $F1B1 made me cry. The code implicitly inserts an 0x0d, overwriting the byte that was read into the buffer and then returns it.

I don't quite know what the LDA from $0297 is and why it is AND'd with #$60. I'm sure there's some RFC or some prehistoric rule back in the late 1980s that said if a modem or other serial device returned a zero, then it actually meant it to be a carriage return. Maybe it was a BBS thing? I'll continue digging and attempt to comment this area of code, but for now... we know that it's futile. The KERNAL ROM is fighting us and thinks it knows better!

A valid workaround

Righto... what do we do here? I initially thought it was a complete loss and gave up. Further Sapporo made me realise that this call was made from our custom driver. What if we specifically mention that our custom driver is built to handle 'zero' byte data and implement a work-around? If we copy out the code from the Kernal and re-produce it in the driver, then we can effectively resolve this (I wont say bug, I'm sure they had their reasons!) issue.

So, the trick here is to grab the portion of code from the full disassembly of the C64 Kernal and build it into a function in Johan's driver.

We know the entry point is $FFCF. This is a JMP to the switch statement which chooses the device. We know that this is the RS-232 driver, so we can skip that part and copy the code from $F1B8 to $F1C8. I've pasted this in below.

; read a byte from RS-232 bus

F1B8   20 4E F1   JSR $F14E
F1BB   B0 F7      BCS $F1B4
F1BD   C9 00      CMP #$00
F1BF   D0 F2      BNE $F1B3
F1C1   AD 97 02   LDA $0297
F1C4   29 60      AND #$60
F1C6   D0 E9      BNE $F1B1
F1C8   F0 EE      BEQ $F1B8

That CMP #$00 is the pain. Let's just jump to $F1B3 all the time. Actually... $F1B3 is just CLC and RTS. Let's just write that. We also can't directly BCS to $F1B4, so we'll need to JSR to a closer function and then call JMP. If we JMP directly then we'll lose our position in the stack.

F1B8   20 4E F1   JSR $F14E
F1BB   B0 F7      BCS $F1B4   ;re-write this to a BCS and JMP
...    ...        CLC
...    ...        RTS

With my patch above, I've removed (what seems to be) a re-try loop in the code. If it falls all the way through to $F1C8 then it returns to $F1B8 and tries to read a character again. I haven't seen this state occur in real life, but I'll keep an eye out and try and work out when this actually occurs. It seems that the AND #$60 must check for an error state which I'm yet to encounter.

I don't actually know the assembled opcodes off-hand. We will write this as standard assembly into the c64-up2400.S driver source file and then it'll write the opcodes on compilation. So, from line 139 we slap in:

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------
; OTHERFUNC: Shortcut to Kernal code
;

OTHERFUNC:
		jmp $F1B4
		
;----------------------------------------------------------------------------
; OURBASIN: This is a minimised call to get the character from the buffer.
; The Kernal code does not allow zero bytes (0x00)... this does.
;

OURBASIN:
		jsr $F14E
		bcs OTHERFUNC
		clc
		rts
		
;----------------------------------------------------------------------------
; GET: Will fetch a character from the receive buffer and store it into the
; variable pointer to by ptr1. If no data is available, SER_ERR_NO_DATA is
; return.
;

GET:   
        ldx #2
        jsr CHKIN
        jsr rshavedata
        beq GET_NO_DATA
        jsr OURBASIN
        ldx #$00
        sta (ptr1,x)
        jsr CLRCH 
        lda #<SER_ERR_OK
        tax 
        rts

I'll give the kernal function a real name soon. Right now the basic point is that we write our own BASIN function that is just a tiny subset of the greater procedure and then skip the part where it inserts that shitty little 0x0d.

it-worked

Either way... compiling this (see notes on that here) saw the bloody thing work! I'm going to get in touch with Johan now and determine what needs to be tidied up to get this trick included in the trunk.

That was fun!

22Jun/160

Serial Train Controller (C64+Arduino)

I'd previously attempted to use the parallel port for train control but have now switched to the Serial port for communications. I've also slapped an Arduino in between the layout and the controlling (Terminal) device. The Arduino will be programmed to understand data coming in from the Serial port, which can be fed from any device which is capable of outputting an RS-232 signal. For the example below, I'll be doing this from a Commodore 64. See this article to learn how to build a Serial Port for your C64.

Designing a communication language

Since we'll be using the RS-232 standard, we're able to define a language that any Terminal can speak to control the Arduino. This will be based on ASCII for command verbs and then raw byte data where targets and values are required. For instance, we could set throttle number 1 to 150 or point number 4 to left. Without being too tricky, 3 bytes is adequate to communicate these commands: C|T|V. If we wanted the data messages to be 'human readable' (so you can print them straight out to a file or other serial line), then we should send through 7 bytes C|TTT|VVV, where the target and value are padded out with zeroes. Fortunately, we only need these two to be 8-bit values, which is the definition of a byte. We'll simply have to convert them to ASCII if we ever want to print or display them.

Next, we'll need a command separator. I've chosen the exclamation mark '!'. Hence, when sending commands, our messages will be 4 bytes long. The recipients will need to wait data, ensure there is at least a full 4-byte message with a terminator and then start processing.

Important Note: As is described down below, I found out the hard way that not all text is equal. I've naively mentioned 'ASCII' two paragraphs above and jumped straight onto the C64, compiling strings and sending them down the wire. For some reason, although I full-well knew that I was coding in PETSCII, I neglected to think that it would actually send it down the line! Long-story-short, when the C64 sends a capital A, it actually sends a character that does not map to ASCII. Also, when it sends a lower-case A, it is actually seen in ASCII as an upper-case A!

Moral of the story? Make sure you understand what character set each device is transmitting and receiving!

Talking back to the Terminal

Although everything written above indicates that most of the communication will be one-directional; this won't always be the case! Some of the commands in the table below will actually be asking for data from the layout. This will be in the form of sensor blocks, where optical or occupation sensors will exist on the layout and be wired to binary input data. The Arduino will be hooked up to shift registers which, when daisy-chained, will be capable of 'watching' up to 64 inputs.

To get this data back to the terminal, we'll send through a message of 10 bytes. This will start with the letter S and be followed by 8 bytes of binary data indicating the state of all connected sensors. Finally a '\0' will be appended to indicate the end of the message. The Arduino wont expect a response to this; if the Terminal has failed to receive, then it can simply request the data again.

The Command Table

Now that we have our expectation of 3 data bytes and one terminator per message, we can start to define all of the commands expect to send.

Command Target Data
T

Set Throttle

1 or 2

The Arduino will have two separate PWM throttles.

0 to 255

The throttles will supply 12v DC PWM. The wave-cycle will be dependent on the value from 0-255. This maps to 0-12v. Hence 128 should be roughly ~6v.

D

Set Direction

1 or 2

Each throttle has it's own direction.

F or R

Forward or Reverse.

P

Toggle Point

1 to 8

8 separate points will be connected.

L or R

We'll use ASCII here to make life easier. Left or Right can be specified.

S

Read Sensors

0

We don't need to specify a block... we'll get the whole 8 bytes back regardless.

0

No value required here. We'll send a zero for padding.

Code for the Arduino

The Arduino will need to keep an eye on the serial port and act on commands when they appear on the channel. Data from the serial port will come in as singular bytes, so they'll need to be written into a buffer and processed once a whole message is found. In case the Arduino struggles, it'll need to be able to understand what a whole message is and discard anything that looks incomplete.

I'll skip the bits on PWM throttles, reading sensors and LED Matrices here... I'll describe all that in another article. Currently you can find individual articles on each of these topics on this site if you need the information straight away.

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
SoftwareSerial mySerial(8,9); // RX, TX

void setup() {
	// set the data rate for the SoftwareSerial port
	mySerial.begin(2400);
}

...

void processCommand() {
	int x = 0;
	switch (serial_buff[0])	{
		case 'T':
			setThrottle(serial_buff[1], serial_buff[2]);
			break;
		case 'D':
			changeDir(serial_buff[1], serial_buff[2]);
			break;
		case 'P':
			//adjust point
			break;	
		case 'S':
			//read sensors and return the data.
			break;
						
	}
	
	for (int x = 0; x < SERIAL_MAX; x++) serial_buff[x] = '\0';
	last_pos = 0;
}

...

void loop() {
	//if there's data and we've not read the end of the current message.
	if (mySerial.available() && (last_pos == 0 || last_char != '!')) {
		last_char = mySerial.read();
		serial_buff[last_pos] = last_char;
		last_pos++;
		if (last_pos > SERIAL_MAX) {
			//then we need to do something drastic
		}
		if (last_char == '!') processCommand();
	}
}

The snippet above checks if there's data and if we don't already have data. If the buffer is empty, then it'll read a character into it. If that character happens to be '\0' then it'll prevent further reading and process the message.

Controlling with a Commodore 64

cc65 has all the libraries we need to get the serial interface up and running; see more on that here. We'll use a text-based interface and control everything with the keyboard. At a later date I'll write a GEOS-based GUI.

I attempted to use the Tiny Graphics Interface libraries that cc65 provides. Unfortunately, that would've also meant writing a text renderer or graphical font library as the basic 'text out' for TGI isn't implemented on the C64. Staying with text-mode was to be easier and PETSCII has enough cool symbols to draw throttles and the like.

c64-trainctl2

The screen displays the throttle, just one for now, and the direction. It also provides a clock and a schedule. The user can add and edit items in the schedule and, when in run mode, these will be executed accordingly.

void sendCommand(unsigned char c, unsigned char t, unsigned char v) {
	ser_put(c);
	ser_put(t);
	ser_put(v);
	ser_put(33);
}

...

void main() {
	...
	sendCommand('d', 1, current_direction);
	sendCommand('t', 1, current_throttle);
	...
}

I've left out most of the guff ... I'll include the full source soon. For the meantime, you'll see that I've put individual characters to the serial channel for reading at the Ardunio end. Specifically they are lower-case! You'll also note that I write 33 instead of the literal character !. The reason is, of course, that the exclamation mark in PETSCII is not the same as ASCII.

What's Next?

This works. The train happily moves back and forth using the signals sent from the C64! It's overly boring though and based on the clock. I want sensors read back to be able to trigger events... so I'll hook up the multiplexing and post again shortly.

19Jun/1620

Commodore 64: Serial Interface to Arduino

So, in my previous post, I was heading towards building an archaic circuit to control trains with the User Port. This would've worked, had I spent a lot more time and built a very complex circuit. Instead I've now chosen a new path... let's hook the C64 up to an Arduino and do most of the work there. The C64 can be the display and input/output for controlling the trains.

Interfacing both components

The C64 User Port has both a 'parallel port' with 8 i/o pins and a serial port. I initially wanted to use the parallel pins, but came to the conclusion that I'd have to write my own language on both sides and deal with the data transfer timings and clock synchronisation. Instead, it'll be easier to use industry-standard RS-232!

I suppose this is a bit of a cop-out. I wanted to build something that was dated to the level of technology that existed back when these machines were in their prime... unfortunately my electronic knowledge isn't up to scratch... so getting to a variable 12v output wasn't overly easy. It also would not have been PWM. Due to all this, including the Arduino into the mix isn't such a bad idea. Plus, everyone I'd asked for help told me to do this... even sending me links to my own blog posts :)

DTE vs. DCE

Serial plugs have a single channel, with each end having one transmit (TX) and one receive (RX) pin. Each end will send data down the cable via the TX pin and expect to receive data on the RX pin. Standard serial cables are 'straight through', meaning that the TX pin is connected to the TX pin and likewise with RX. Doesn't quite make sense, does it? How are two separate devices meant to eachother if they are both transmitting down the same singular TX wire and hearing silence on the RX?

This all becomes clear once you realise that devices fit into two categories: DTE (data terminal equipment) and DCE (data circuit-terminating equipment, also known as data communication equipment.) In the end, these two devices boil down to one being the master (the DTE) and one being the slave (the DCE.)

Of course, you can purchase 'cross-over' cables for serial connections. These are known as null-modem cables and allow you to hook two DTEs together. Say, for example, you want to transfer a file from your PC to your Amiga, or somesuch!

In my previous serial project, when I connected the IBM receipt printer to the Arduino, I needed the Arduino to be the master, and so I hacked around until I had correctly configured it as a DTE. This time around we want the Arduino to be the DCE. Due to this, be careful to follow the pinouts and wiring from the serial port to the MAX232 in the circuits below!

Note: For further reading/wiring on RS-232, there's a good article at avr Programmers and another at Advantech.

C64 Serial Port

The User Port on the C64 also has serial connections. These are TTL and so need to be brought up to the RS-232 5v standard. The MAX232 IC will do this for us quite easily. We'll also use one at the other end for the Arduino.

UPDATED (2024): The CTS and RTS wires were incorrectly ordered on the original diagram. The following diagram is now correct, but I've decided to leave the comments at the bottom of this article which state otherwise.

The circuit is derived from 8bitfiles.net. This circuit was also correct in that the pins are wired up as DTE. This means that you could use it, as-is, to also hook to a modem or any other DCE device.

The MAX232 needs few extra components. Fortunately, these extra components are identical on both ends, so buy everything in duplicate! The capacitors are all 1.0uf electrolytic. I used 1k resisters on the LEDs so as not to draw too much current from the User Port.

Arduino Serial Port

This is nearly the same circuit as the C64 end. The funniest thing happened here... if you google enough 'arduino max232' you'll just loop back around to my post, from ages ago on interfacing an IBM printer to the Arduino. Just make sure you don't use that circuit! It's DTE, we need DCE as per below! I've left out the RTS/CTS as I don't intend on using any form of handshaking in this project. It's still in the circuit above for the C64 so that you can use the port for other purposes.

ARDUINO-RS232

As per usual, make sure you DO NOT apply 5v in the wrong direction... I did and it ruined a few caps and possibly the IC. Garbage then came through the serial port. If this ever happens, then throw out the components and start again; you'll never be able to trust them.

Also make sure that you use the 5v pin on the Arduino. AREF is NOT a valid voltage source.

Hooking it all together

Build both circuits above and give one a male and the other a female db-9 connector. The DCE device usually gets the female, so put this on the Arduino-side!

DSC03947 DSC03956 DSC03954

DSC03955 DSC03950

If you want to roll your own cable, then grab some grey IDC and two crimp-style plugs. Just make sure that you have pin 1 matched to pin 1. If you're splitting the cable, then paint a wire (or use a marker) to ensure that you get the orientation correct. It's really easy to confuse pin 1.

DSC03998 DSC04000 DSC04002

From above, you can see the pin numbering. I slid the second port all the way to the end, prior to crimping, to ensure that the numbers matched up. Using the red '#1 wire' on the cable worked wonders too.

Testing with Strike Terminal 2013 Final

Download Strike Term 2013 Final from here and then get it to your C64. I copied the D64 to my SD2IEC and loaded it up. Hit M and select User port. Hit b and switch it to 1200 Baud (or other baud, depending on what you've configured in the Arduino.)

DSC03976 DSC03978 DSC03957

DSC03958 DSC03964 DSC03965

Once ready, hit f5 and then hit enter on the default server. This'll start sending modem AT commands down the serial and they should start showing up at the other end. Either open the Arduino Serial Monitor... or edit the code to display it. I bought some 8x8 LED Matrices to render the data coming in.

DSC03963 DSC03971

There were no real caveats here... everything just worked! Press f3 to get to the terminal. Hit commodore+e for local echo and then commodore+i to 'send id'. You should now be able to type freely... everything will be sent down the wire.

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At that point I only had one matrix... so the last char typed was displayed.

Writing C code to use the Serial Port

Nanoflite has written a 2400 baud User Port Serial Driver for cc65. I originally tried to use this at 1200 baud, as that's what I'd been using everywhere and heard it was the max the User Port was capable of. It turns out that this driver only supports 2400 baud! Download it and put the source somewhere.

Switch to the driver directory and compile it:

cl65 -t c64 --module -o c64-up2400.ser c64-up2400.s

Copy this to the folder that has your source file it. I slightly modified the example.

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <serial.h>
#define DRIVERNAME  "c64-up2400.ser"

static const struct ser_params serialParams = {
    SER_BAUD_2400,      /* Baudrate */
    SER_BITS_8,         /* Number of data bits */
    SER_STOP_1,         /* Number of stop bits */
    SER_PAR_NONE,       /* Parity setting */
    SER_HS_NONE         /* Type of handshake to use */
};

int main (void)
{
  int xx;
  
  clrscr();
  puts("C64 serial ...");

  // Load driver
  ser_load_driver(DRIVERNAME);

  // Open port
  ser_open(&serialParams);

  // Enable serial
  ser_ioctl(1, NULL);

  for (xx = 0; xx < 10; xx++) {
	ser_put('C'); 
	ser_put('6'); 
	ser_put('4');
	ser_put('.');
	ser_put('.');
	ser_put('.');
  }
 
  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Compile this:

cl65 -t c64 -O -o trainctl2 trainctl2.c

I then put it on the SD2IEC and loaded it via LOAD "0:TRAINCTL2",8 followed by a RUN.

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Shit... worked... this is great! Next it's time to put a PWM throttle onto the Arduino and control it from the Commodore... I'll tinker with graphical programming in C also.

29Feb/129

Arduino + Thermal Printers (Sparkfun, IBM 4160-TF6)

I've always wanted to print my own receipts... devious activities come to mind; but the following usage of receipt printers is nothing sinister at all. My goal is to print out activities for trains on the layout; certain locations will have a new reporting mechanism!

I'd seen a few printers on eBay, most being USB. Serial was always to be my preferred method and I had the components on hand. I then saw the Thermal Printer at Sparkfun and decided that it'd be my first guinea pig.

Sparkfun Thermal Printer

The Sparkfun themal printer is, like most of their products, targetted at the Arduino. Thanks to this there is a wealth of information on their page on how to connect and use it. After hooking up a proper power supply (they recommend 9v @ 2Amps, so use a 7809 with a heatsink!) the printer just started spewing out whatever I threw at it.

Sparkfun Thermal Printer

The easiest way to use this is via the library found here: Displaying on Paper – Thermal Printer + Arduino. bildr.org is actually a really cool site full of interesting projects for the Arduino, check it out when you can!

There's a forum for discussing the above library, in which I've already posted my praises to the developer. If you need a hand then go over and ask away... they're always open to feedback and improvements to the library too!

Note that this printer uses small rolls of 58mm paper. I found a 10-pack of these at OfficeWorks (Australia) for AUD$9.95.

IBM 4610-TF6 (on Windows)

I'd finally found a dirt cheap printer on eBay that was RS-232. It was a chunky/retro IBM thermal printer and really was just a larger, more robust version of the Sparkfun thermal printer above. It didn't come with a power supply and, after purchasing, I realised that it wanted 38v! What the hell? It seems that the 'thermal' side of it uses a lot of current to burn the paper! It also wanted 3 AMPS at 38v... where the hell would I find that?

Split open IBM SureMark 4610-TF6 Bypassing the power socket 58mm paper output!

I installed the printer drivers here on a Windows XP 32-Bit machine (DOES NOT WORK WITH 64-Bit!) and provided it 12v @ 2A. The LED came on, but the printer showed up as 'offline'. All attempted connections via Hyper-Terminal showed the port as 'already open'; the printer driver would've been the cause. I uninstalled it and rebooted, but Hyper-Terminal wasn't receiving any responses after connecting successfully.

Middle bar not printing!

Bit Switches

I then found a second 12v power supply and chained them together... Prior to this I'd re-installed the printer drivers and, upon the boost to 24v, the printer flicked to 'online' and the LED glowed slightly brighter. I could now also use the line-feed button on the top of the printer! I opened notepad, loaded a text file from the Arduino directory and, without thinking, hit print. The printer control panel window showed the job spooling up to 20 pages and then the printer started .... and kept going ... for an hour. It printed at a rate of about 1 line per 5 seconds.

Testing output

I had no idea how to cancel it... so I had to let it go.

IBM 4610-TF6 (on the Arduino)

It was now time to make this printer talk to my Arduino Mega. I hooked it all up based on how the Sparkfun printer wiring and attempted to use the same code; nothing happened. I then used the code from Tom Taylor's Microprinter blog post. Once uploaded, I had junk coming out of the printer... It occurred to me that I probably needed a MAX232 in the middle to raise the voltages to proper RS232 levels (as per everyone elses examples!)

I hooked up the MAX232 as per the schematic below and then had a functional printer from my Arduino! Determining the actual commands to send it came next.

Printer Connection to Arduino

Proper cabling Initial DB9 Connections Two RS232 cables for the Arduino

MAX232 Setup

Fonts, spacing, etc...

Right, this gets tricky... you can either put 58mm or 80mm paper in this printer. 80mm is recommended as it has better chances of staying aligned with the paper cutter (coming out diagonally is actually an issue.) I had started with the 58mm but quickly went and bought 80mm paper (AUD$12 for 4 80x80 rolls) as I also wanted the extra printing space.

You can work out how many characters per line based on the font chosen, character spacing. It is pretty much expected that you're using 80mm paper. Font A is 10x20, Font B is 12x24 and Font C is 8x16. The Cash Receipt print line is 72 mm (2.83 inches) long. There are 576 dots per line and 203 dots per inch.

The Application Guide provides the following calculations:

  • 20 CPI ⇒ 8-dot wide character + 2-dot space (Font C) ⇒ 57 characters/line
  • 17 CPI ⇒ 10-dot wide character + 2-dot space (Font A) ⇒ 48 characters/line
  • 15 CPI ⇒ 10-dot wide character + 3-dot space (Font A) ⇒ 44 characters/line
  • 12 CPI ⇒ 12-dot wide character + 5-dot space (Font B) ⇒ 33 characters/line

More test output

Printing a Barcode

In a comment below, Jonas has asked how to print a barcode from any programming language via the serial port... Here's a list of instructions to do so:

  1. Set the Font (0x00 or 0x01):
    0x1d 0x66 FONT 0x0a
  2. Set the Text Location:
    • 0x00 - None
    • 0x01 - Above
    • 0x02 - Below
    • 0x03 - Both
    0x1d 0x66 POSITION 0x0a
  3. Set Barcode Width:
    0x1d 0x68 WIDTH 0x0a
  4. Set Barcode Height:
    0x1d 0x77 HEIGHT 0x0a
  5. Print a Barcode. 'CHARS' is the list of characters to print.
    • 0x00 - UPC-A
    • 0x01 - UPC-E
    • 0x02 - JAN13 (EAN)
    • 0x03 - JAN8 (EAN)
    • 0x04 - CODE 39
    • 0x05 - ITF
    • 0x06 - CODABAR
    • 0x07 - CODE 128 (c)
    • 0x08 - CODE 93
    • 0x09 - CODE 128 (a, b)
    0x1d 0x6b BARCODE_TYPE CHARS 0x00

A 'Hello World' example of point 4 would be:

0x1d 0x6b 0x00 0x48 0x65 0x6C 0x6C 0x6F 0x20 0x57 0x6F 0x72 0x6C 0x64 0x00

IBM SureMark Thermal Printer Library for Arduino 1.0

IBM provides a great reference document for this collection of printers: Application interface specification for IBM 4610 printers. I found it to be a little hit-and-miss as to what commands are available on the TF6, but most worked well. Either way, I built the following library which provides the following functionality:

  • Text Styles: Bold, Underline, Overline, Inverted, Arbitrary Font Scaling, Double Height/Width, Rotated, Upside-down
  • Barcode Printing: UPC-A, UPC-E, JAN13 (EAN), JAN8 (EAN), CODE 39, ITF, CODABAR, CODE 128 (c), CODE 93, CODE 128 (a, b)
  • Image Printing from data stream, image storing to printer RAM and image printing from printer RAM
  • Message storing to printer RAM and printing from printer RAM
  • Beeper sounds. (Example below has 'Mary had a little lamb')
  • Paper cutting, line spacing, line feeding, etc...
Download the library and example here.

Other references

It turns out that, if I'd google'd more, I would've found a lot more help around the traps... here's a few locations to check out: