Q for someone with a PCE and IFU-30/CDROM

With the PCE powered via IFU, does the PCE's power switch have any affect? (Is power routed through it or is the switch bypassed?)

 

iirc when I had one you had to have both switches on. I might be wrong though.

 

there is a second switch, which also locks the PCE and CD-ROM in to the IFU30, preventing both devices from slipping out. in the same breath, this is also the main switch of the whole bunch.

 

Tatsujin, can you confirm that the PCE switch must be on as well? I'm asking because I want to know if there's a way to hot-swap HuCards when the PCE is in the IFU

 

ah sure. the PCE switch has to be on as well. it's an AND function!

 

I guess a HuCard adapter is needed then to hot-swap. C'est la vie!

 

You can play audio CDs on the CD-ROM drive while the PC-E console is off and the IFU has the lock enabled (the lock also happens to cut the main power) this was already mentioned.

If the user power on or off the PC-E console while the CD-ROM is playing a audio CD or game disc it will instantly shut down.

Edit: What is the point on hot swap hu-cards ? It will hang the PCE CPU and you will need to reset or you will need luck so that the CPU PC fall in some executable code and be sane enough to continue execution, not ? lol

For Hot swap to be useful you would need to add a reset button to the PCE console, I think...

 

If you disable interrupts and put code in RAM in theory it should continue to run shouldn't it?

 

If one could hot-swap, I could program a HuCard in-system, over the CDROM, without wasting half the ROM for a local System card copy. If only the Arcade Card wasn't port accessed...

And yup, as long as you swap when the CPU isn't accessing the ROM, it's OK. Swapping does put a bunch of noise in the bus (and power rails), but every console I've tried so far seems to tolerate it and continue running.

 

Beat me ! I had no idea you intended to flash cards with it ...

Now, how about finding a spare or two PCE, salvage it's connector and build an Frankenstein with 2 hucard slots and a /CE switch ?

No bus noise... And maybe you could even add the data bus order swap circuitry to allow you to flash your custom cards with the US HUCARD pinout ? :thumbsup:

 

why don't just cut the green edges of the switch which blocks the huey?

 

Making a cheap CD flashable HuCard? That sounds pretty cool.

 

I was thinking of it, but there's no point if the console has to be modded or if the card requires more than just a memory and passive components :\ With a DUO, all you'd need is a switch on the card to disable the internal system card. With a CD/SCD, you'd need a switch to bank the ROM, and consequently a larger ROM. To support both would require two switches... It makes the whole thing a bit unattractive and wasteful. Also I'm afraid that an unprotected PCB could scratch the console...

 

I think if you're using a "passive" (no memory mapper) design you're limited to 512KB or 4 mbit, not ?

 

It's 8M, IIRC the physical A20 decodes the HuCard.