Spectrum Computing

Today I continued testing BM 3.2 and found some rough solution how to avoid (mostly) that buzzing sound.
I noticed that after each reset with CTRL + Break, the buzzing stops and then I can enter the menu with F1, select the game and go back to the emulator, without that sound issue.
It’s not too elegant, but it’s the best I can do for now.
I also tried to replace bootcode.bin and fixup.dat from version v2.0 but that didn't help either.
Also, during testing, I noticed that the emulator boot almost two seconds faster, if there are no bcm2xxx *.dtb files on the sd card.
What is the purpose of these files and does their absence cause any problems, since I did not notice them during the brief testing?

Pegaz wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2020 4:32 pm Today I continued testing BM 3.2 and found some rough solution how to avoid (mostly) that buzzing sound.
I noticed that after each reset with CTRL + Break, the buzzing stops and then I can enter the menu with F1, select the game and go back to the emulator, without that sound issue.
It’s not too elegant, but it’s the best I can do for now.
I also tried to replace bootcode.bin and fixup.dat from version v2.0 but that didn't help either.
Also, during testing, I noticed that the emulator boot almost two seconds faster, if there are no bcm2xxx *.dtb files on the sd card.
What is the purpose of these files and does their absence cause any problems, since I did not notice them during the brief testing?

Beware, the fixup.dat needs his correct pair, start.elf. FYI, the start.elf is the image of an realtime OS named ThreadX. When this OS loads, only can access to 256MB RAM. The fixup.dat is used to patch the binary to relocate the OS to upper memory and access to all RAM memory.

In the PC world, ACPI serves to describe the hardware. In the ARM world, the (far away) equivalent are the DTB files. Without it, firmware don't know where are the memory mapped I/O ranges, the different devices present on board, etc. They are more than convenient to be present on the SD, or the firmware can't initialize it correctly.

zx81 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 02, 2020 12:10 pm

akeley wrote: ↑Sat Aug 01, 2020 3:44 pm Can't find Paralactika demo in tap/tzx format, to test it on 128k models, I only have a trd version.
I saw in soime youtube video "paralactika_zx128" or something like that but the author did not leave a link.
Can you share some download link for that version, which you used when testing on 128k machines?

Yes, I have, on my home. But I'm not at home today. Tomorrow afternoon, I'll put a link to it.

The promised link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yjgnw6wxakxg8 ... s.zip?dl=0

For what it's worth, I'm a US-based user who has never even seen a ZX Spectrum in real life, but was interested enough historically that I was overjoyed to find ZXBaremulator (being such a fan of BMC64).

It was compelling enough for me - even at a proper 50Hz, mind - that I ended up also buying the recreated keyboard (at EXTRAORDINARY expense, sheesh!) for a more authentic experience.

I also own a MiSTer, but when I want to get my Elite on, it's ZXBaremulator for me.

The only thing I'd sincerely wish for myself is the ability to save - by tape, save state, whatever. I've dearly wanted to go through a grand adventure like Bard's Tale, but obviously cannot do so in current state.

Whether there are any future updates or not, please know that you HAVE reached a larger community than you may believe, and we are still very much active users and fans! In fact, I registered just now only to tell you this!

Thank you, zx81!

zx81 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 02, 2020 12:07 pm ZXB is far from complete, IMHO. But, have any sense to add it, when the users are starting to migrate to FPGA based systems?

I have the Next, but I bought a +3A Pi today just to be able to use this emulator, and it's been a real treat. Aside from using the Pi Zero in my Next (that I installed only yesterday), I've never used a Pi before, so it took a while to figure out how to force sound out through the jack when using HDMI, and also how to get the ideal video setup, but it's working very, very well.

Growing up I only ever had a 48K Spectrum with tape recorder - no joysticks - so I don't mind not having too many extra features; 48K and 128K modes and the Multiface are good enough for me.

A great job, thank you so much!

Mort wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2020 1:51 pm i have a next and still like the home made zxbaremetal machines almost as much. All i want is the option to save state my games etc and all would be fine by me

I have to agree with @Mort. If a genie popped out of a lantern and granted me a wish for a single ZXB feature, I'd pick the save state feature

As for me, the tape browser with saving support is the only thing, that is really missing.
Everything else, including snapshot support is just optional...

If anyone here uses a Speedlink Competition Pro with zxbaremulator. Does anyone know if you can map the buttons? For me it defaults to the small trianle buttons instead of the big round clicky ones.

Great emulator btw.

gZes Deuce wrote: ↑Wed Sep 09, 2020 6:02 pm If anyone here uses a Speedlink Competition Pro with zxbaremulator. Does anyone know if you can map the buttons? For me it defaults to the small trianle buttons instead of the big round clicky ones.

Great emulator btw.

When I remember correctly, this joystick claims to be compatible with DirectInput but have the X/Y and A/B buttons interchanged between them. This joystick works using the Mayflash NS-MAGIC adapter driver (in DirectInput mode), so I can't change in software the button positions.

ok cheers for the information

Hello, New Forum Member here, and my 1st post.

After reading through this thread, I went and bought a Pi 3A+ and installed ZXBaremulator.

Works great, and boots up fast! However... NO audio through HDMI.

It's not the Pi, or my TV, as the sound works fine on both, with Retropie.

Tried the audio socket, there's sound but it's *very* quiet.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

J2112Z wrote: ↑Thu Sep 10, 2020 8:15 am Hello, New Forum Member here, and my 1st post.

After reading through this thread, I went and bought a Pi 3A+ and installed ZXBaremulator.

Works great, and boots up fast! However... NO audio through HDMI.

It's not the Pi, or my TV, as the sound works fine on both, with Retropie.

Tried the audio socket, there's sound but it's *very* quiet.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Hi and Welcome to the forum.

I'm fairly new to this myself but did you possibly download the Armv6 pack from the ZXBaremulator website?

If you did. Try using the Allfiles pack instead. I'm using a Pi 3 A+ and I've got audio.

Hope this helps.

@ gZes Deuce:

Thanks for replying. I've tried your suggestion, but unfortunately, that made no difference!

The PI firmware chooses the sound output automatically. When you have a HDMI device connected, the sound is sended to it. When no HDMI device is found, the sound is sended to PWM.

Are you tried with another TV set?

zx81 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:09 amAre you tried with another TV set?

It's not the TV, as I get sound through HDMI using Retropie, with no problems.

J2112Z wrote: ↑Fri Sep 11, 2020 2:00 pm

zx81 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:09 amAre you tried with another TV set?

It's not the TV, as I get sound through HDMI using Retropie, with no problems.

ZXBaremulator uses a non-usual sample rate for audio, 32 khz. I guess that some TVs have problems with it.

FYI:

The TV that ZXBaremulator won't work with is my bedroom TV (Celcus LED22167FHD LED TV).

I've tried it on my living room TV (Panasonic TX-L32C3B), via HDMI, and the audio works!

So, yes, it works, but only on *some* TVs, which is a pain, especially as I intended to use my Pi 3A+ on my bedroom TV, or at other people's houses, on their TVs!

Then, I had a 'lightbulb' moment:

I recently bought on eBay, one of those 'generic' HDMI To Scart & HDMI Converter with 3.5mm audio.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Neoteck-HDMI ... 2749.l2649

I plugged the HDMI from my Pi into it, and my Celcus TV SCART plug into the other end. Guess what? I've got sound!

Even better, if I plug in another HDMI cable from the TV to the adaper (as it outputs *both* SCART *and* HDMI), I get audio through the HDMI as well!!!

As a bonus, I get a sharp, clear picture, whereas with SCART, it's a little fuzzy (although it's more authentic to the original Speccy display quality. )

So, there you have it - a 'workaround'!

The irony is, I bought that adapter by mistake, as I wanted an adapter that has SCART input, *not* output, but I decide to keep it as I thought it may 'come in handy' - it just did!

The Baremulator project is finally complete! It took a good 3 months or so but I was going at a relaxed pace. The final product works great.

Here are some pics...









Here are a few features:
- Powered by the fantastic ZXBaremulator running on a Raspberry Pi 3B+
- Connected to a recreated Spectrum keyboard
- On/Off switch easy to reach behind the unit
- USB port on the back for controller or 2nd keyboard
- HDMI port on the back to plug into an external monitor/TV. The round button on the back allows you to toggle between built in display and external display. HDMI carries the sound signal to the TV.
- Micro-SD is accessible on the back
- Volume dial on the side (not in pics)
- Convenient Storage area located on top of the box
- It's portable-ish

Nice work

Its great to be able to build a small for factor spectrum setup with the pi

Hi,
I downloaded the ZXBaremulator 3.2 and it looks really great on my pi 3b and it's wonderful to load those speccy games again.
Just a few things that would help me:

1) I've tried lots of USB joysticks including XBox360 controllers but can't seem to get any working?

2) I use the ZX Spectrum recreated keyboard and sometimes the keys continuously repeat until you press the key again. Not sure if anyone else has found this?

3) To make the retro experience even better, it would be great if you could support the BMC64 IO hat which connects to the GPIO header. This allows you to connect original 9 pin joysticks just like the Kempston interface. It works very well for the BMC64 much better than the USB joysticks. I'm guessing it might also be easier to implement than the many USB joysticks. It's also cheap to make and the parts are available for anyone see https://www.pcbway.com/project/sharepro ... ry_Pi.html
It's also useful for Pi 3a+ where you can use the single USB for the keyboard and the IO hat for 2 Atari style 9 pin joysticks.

Any comments on my 3 points would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

1333david wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 10:55 pm Hi,
I downloaded the ZXBaremulator 3.2 and it looks really great on my pi 3b and it's wonderful to load those speccy games again.
Just a few things that would help me:

1) I've tried lots of USB joysticks including XBox360 controllers but can't seem to get any working?

2) I use the ZX Spectrum recreated keyboard and sometimes the keys continuously repeat until you press the key again. Not sure if anyone else has found this?

Any comments on my 3 points would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Hi 1333david

Maybe I can help with your issues. I am also running ZXB on a Pi 3b. Haven't had any trouble with USB joysticks and also no trouble with the recreated keyboard.

To address your issues:
1) With the joystick plugged in, are you pressing the joystick button to toggle through the joystick modes?
I've used an Xbox One controller and also a PS4 controller and both work fine.
For the Xbox One controller, press the small black button to the right of the left analog stick.
On the PS4 controller, press the "Share" button, which is northeast of the 4 direction keys.

On the screen you should see the joystick types toggling(Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor etc). It shows in green font.

2) On the keyboard, make sure the "Layer" button is switched over to mode A. Mode B does give funky results if I remember correctly.
Alternatively, plug a regular USB keyboard into a USB and see if that works.

Let me know if you're still having trouble,

Thanks

Thanks for your reply. The keyboard is set to layer 1 and I have tried some other games and it's still repeating on the odd occasion. I've also checked the keyboard on another computer and it is working fine.

Re the joystick. I have tried all buttons on the xbox 360 controller. All I get is a flashing green light around the silver X box key in the middle of the controller. I have it connected via USB. Also tried a second Xbox 360 controller same results.

I've now tried the recreated keyboard on another Pi a+ with the same microsd copy of ZXbaremulator and it's working fine so it looks like a hardware issue at my end. The Pi 3b has a Nespi case which has a usb extender inside so maybe that's the cause. Anyway, the keyboard now works fine...great. but still no joy with the usb joysticks. Would be great if I could use the 9 pin joystick GPIO hat I mentioned before....but since that's not an option at the moment can anyone offer any further assistance on getting my Xbox 360 controller to work?
I've also tried a theC64 usb joystick, 8bitdo N30pro and a generic NES style controller pressing all button combinations but none of them can be used. Any help would be greatly received....

Glad you could get the keyboard to work.

I tried my Xbox 360 controller on my ZXB setup for the first time and it's not working for me either. The round orb keeps flashing green which sounds like what was happening in your case. So on my side, so far the Xbox One and PS4 controllers are the only ones that work. I wonder if there's another flavor or release of Xbox 360 controller that does work, since it's mentioned on the ZXB website that it's supposed to work.

The PS4 and XBox One drivers was written by myself, but the XBox 360 driver was written by Rene, the Circle library author because I don't own a Xbox 360 gamepad. Could be that Rene was using a Xbx360 clone, I can't remember very well.

Probably a good option would be a Mayflash Magic NS USB adapter, to use your Xbx360 gamepad wired or using Bluetooth. I can't recommend the 8bitdo USB adapter.