SD2IEC on the FE3 Cartridge

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prowlr
Vic 20 Amateur
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2017 3:59 am
Location: Australia

SD2IEC on the FE3 Cartridge

Post by prowlr »

Hi,

I have been lurking for a bit as I reacquainted myself with my Vic20 but during that time, I bought an FE3 and predominately been using it as a RAM expansion. Recently I have tried to use the SD2IEC part of the FE3 but with no luck so I am hoping for some pointers on what to do next to get it to work for me as I am sure I am missing something simple.

It's an FE3 rev 11. v3.2, r022d.

When I try and use the disk loader from the FE3 menu, it goes to a blank page and returns to the FE3 menu. When I attempt to load from the SD2IEC like a disk ie load "8",8 it returns device not present. A # returns 'DEVICE#8' so the vic knows there should be something there. To make sure I had not set the SD card up wrong, I used an external SD2IEC I also have. I downloaded a zip file of games with menus setup etc for the FE3 from this site and extracted it to the SD card. When using the external SD2IEC I can access the device like a normal disk drive etc. When I have the external SD2IEC plugged in at the same time as the FE3, when I select the disk loader option in the menu, it loads the menu from the external SD2IEC fine and allows me to load and use the contents of the SD card fine.

Due to this I feel that there is something I am not doing right on the FE3 side of things. Would an upgrade to r022e be advisable?

Thanks.
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Mike
Herr VC
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Occupation: electrical engineer

Re: SD2IEC on the FE3 Cartridge

Post by Mike »

Have you tried other device addresses, like 9, 10 and 11?
Would an upgrade to r022e be advisable?
The SD2IEC only shares the power supply with the rest of the FE3, otherwise it's a completely separate module on the PCB. Especially, the SD2IEC firmware has nothing to do with the FE3 firmware (and, for that matter, the CPLD programming is yet another issue).

Maybe your SD2IEC is still missing its firmware. Try loading the newest firmware from https://sd2iec.de/, put it on the root of the SD-Card you're using, switch on the VIC-20 with the SD-Card inserted in the FE3's SD2IEC and *wait* for at least 30 seconds.

Then try loading the directory of the SD-Card with LOAD"$",8 (or the other possible device addresses) to see if anything works.


Oh, and welcome to Denial! :mrgreen:
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tokra
Vic 20 Scientist
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Location: Scheessel, Germany

Re: SD2IEC on the FE3 Cartridge

Post by tokra »

I have also heard of people not connecting the SD2IEC of the FE3 to the serial port. However you MUST connect it by serial cable to the serial port. It will NOT magically work through the the expansion-port.
prowlr
Vic 20 Amateur
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2017 3:59 am
Location: Australia

Re: SD2IEC on the FE3 Cartridge

Post by prowlr »

I have also heard of people not connecting the SD2IEC of the FE3 to the serial port. However you MUST connect it by serial cable to the serial port. It will NOT magically work through the the expansion-port.
Yeah, this seems to be the crucial part that I was missing. SD2IEC is now working on the FE3. Thanks.
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