RBSC's MultiMapper Cartridge 1.0 with 512kb FlashROM

Par Wierzbowsky

Guardian (3650)

Portrait de Wierzbowsky

09-12-2022, 13:31

Quite some time ago RBSC has published the project of the MultiMapper Cartridge 1.0 with 512kb FlashROM:
https://github.com/RBSC/MultiMapperCartridge

We don't sell assembled cartrdidges except for Carnivore2, but some people were asking us to sell the MultiMapper cartridges. A few people even tried to assemble those MultiMapper cartridges on their own and experienced difficulties in getting properly working CPLD or FlashROM chips. Besides, soldering those chips is not trivial and not everyone can do this. But it seems that one of Chinese companies is now making and selling our cartridges on AliExpress. We did not give them the permission to produce those cartridges, so this is unauthorized version:
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005004754219281.html

But if they work fine - we have no objections against people buying those cartridges. But be warned - the we didn't check the quality of the production, so we won't support those unauthorized cartridges.

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Par Gregory

Champion (295)

Portrait de Gregory

30-04-2023, 18:06

I have a question about the firmware. Can it be programmed with Quartus (and what version)?

Par Wierzbowsky

Guardian (3650)

Portrait de Wierzbowsky

30-04-2023, 20:39

Gregory wrote:

I have a question about the firmware. Can it be programmed with Quartus (and what version)?

Yes, it's possible to use the same Quartus version and USB Blaster to program this cartridge as used to program Carnivore2.

Par crisag

Expert (122)

Portrait de crisag

01-05-2023, 02:49

I built one of those recently and wrote an article with a few tips here https://theretrohacker.com/2023/03/28/building-the-rbsc-mult...

Pretty straightforward. The issue, as Alex said, is to get working CPLDs. I recommend buying those from UTSource as AliExpress is not reliable. They usually come with the JTAG pins programmed as IO pins and you cannot use JTAG to program them anymore (until you re-enable the JTAG pins as default). If that is the case you will need a special programmer like the Xeltek Superpro.

If you get working 7064, use Quartus 13 SP1 (or previous versions) as recent ones don't support MAX7000 line of CPLDs anymore.

ATMEL also offers the ATF1504 that is compatible with the EPM7064 and is still manufactured, however you cannot use Quartus POF files to program it directly. You need to convert the output files to SVF using a double hop process with pof2jef (http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/archive/pof2jed.zip) and then ATMISP (http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/ATMISP7.zip).

Par Gregory

Champion (295)

Portrait de Gregory

01-05-2023, 11:46

crisag wrote:

I built one of those recently and wrote an article with a few tips here https://theretrohacker.com/2023/03/28/building-the-rbsc-mult...

Pretty straightforward. The issue, as Alex said, is to get working CPLDs. I recommend buying those from UTSource as AliExpress is not reliable. They usually come with the JTAG pins programmed as IO pins and you cannot use JTAG to program them anymore (until you re-enable the JTAG pins as default). If that is the case you will need a special programmer like the Xeltek Superpro.

If you get working 7064, use Quartus 13 SP1 (or previous versions) as recent ones don't support MAX7000 line of CPLDs anymore.

ATMEL also offers the ATF1504 that is compatible with the EPM7064 and is still manufactured, however you cannot use Quartus POF files to program it directly. You need to convert the output files to SVF using a double hop process with pof2jef (http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/archive/pof2jed.zip) and then ATMISP (http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/ATMISP7.zip).

What programmer are you using for the ATF1504?

Par crisag

Expert (122)

Portrait de crisag

01-05-2023, 15:11

You can use the usb blaster or any jtag capable programmer. For the atf1504 I used the usb blaster with openocd to program it with the resultant SVF file.

Par Gregory

Champion (295)

Portrait de Gregory

01-05-2023, 15:41

crisag wrote:

You can use the usb blaster or any jtag capable programmer. For the atf1504 I used the usb blaster with openocd to program it with the resultant SVF file.

Thanks for the info. I will give this build a try.