Config Menu

[Atari8guy]

Upon installing this device, I got into the config menu once...since then if I type the SYS 54301 I just get a blank screen and the READY prompt... is that expected?

[frntc]

No, of course not :-) How did you install it (additional address lines?)? Can you hear the SID when you start a program (never entering the config menu)?

[Atari8guy]

no additional address lines. I just plugged it in. the sound works and the mouse works in GEOS, which was my reason for getting it to begin with, so I'm happy and it's working fine as far as I can tell, but I can't get back into the config menu...I downloaded the firmware from here this morning, and as I said, it worked the first time

[frntc]

No real idea what went wrong. Have you tried flashing the firmware again? (maybe with slightly lower/higher bus timings, via SKpicopatch)

[Atari8guy]

I tried several different timings, i was able to get into the config menu once, but not repeatedly. The menu was somewhat garbled but I was able to work through it? I'm also sort of at a loss....I checked all the solder points and reflowed a couple of them, even though they looked okay. No difference.

[frntc]

Usually such problems only occur when the timings are bad (the next firmware will include some minimal diagnostics...).

If your SKpico-PCB is ok, and other timings did not help... do you have another Pico to test? Maybe writing to the flash doesn't work? (that's what the config menu does)

[Atari8guy]

I have another pico w but it has no headers on it. I suppose I could source another one. In the mean time I'll give a few more variations on the timing a try - I read through your stuff, you think lower is better?

[frntc]

I made a brute force timing diagnostic some time ago, which was inconclusive. But people who ran into timing problems reported that lower values solved their issues.

[Atari8guy]

Just to give the last bit of information I can share. None of the timing changes, up or down, really made a difference in behaviour that I could tell. I was able after a reflash to get back into the menu one more time, it was garbled again, but I was able to set the SID to 6581, and leave the second one disabled. I was NOT able to change the timing to NTSC (my machine is NTSC) it stayed on DREAN (I don't even know what that is). However, once I rebooted the machine I again had no access to the config menu, but outside of that, everything works, SID tunes, demos, and the mouse in GEOS. I'm not likely to play with it again for a while as aside from the menu access it seems to work and my vacation time is over, I will watch though, in case you do track down the bug or release new firmware. Thanks for quick responses, even though we didn't get it quite solved.

[frntc]

The just updated firmware includes a small diagnostic routine for timings -- you might want to give it a try. Apart from that, it might still be the case that it's a hardware issue (flash etc.).

[W0RMinator]

I just wanted to mention that I had the same issue with one of the sidkick pico's that I made. Was not able to change much in the settings and it was stuck on DREAN. Some text was garbled. Like Atari8guy mentioned, sound tests worked fine. I tried reinstalling firmware multiple times and no changes. I've narrowed it down to a hardware issue with the raspberry pi pico board (official board). I desoldered it from the sidkick board and soldered another pi pico board (official) and it worked. Not quite sure what's wrong with the pi pico board but it definitely has some sort of failure. Just posting this in case anyone else has the same issue.