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FTDI / Propeller Loader Mac OS Clasic — Parallax Forums

FTDI / Propeller Loader Mac OS Clasic

davidsaundersdavidsaunders Posts: 1,559
edited 2011-05-24 20:39 in General Discussion
Ok this thread is now being changed to reflect the new MacProp Propeller Loader for Mac OS 'Classic' that I am writing. I am using the PropLoader.spin as a reference, an writing the loader in Think Pascal in a way to be able to compile with Code Worior (so there will be both 68K native and PPC native varients).

Comments

  • davidsaundersdavidsaunders Posts: 1,559
    edited 2011-05-20 20:37
    Ok I have installed and verified the Mac OS Classic version of the FTDI drivers (it comes in the form of a system Extension).
    This still leaves the question:
    Has any one done any work towards a Propeller Loader for the Classic Mac OS versions??
  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2011-05-20 20:58
    No. It shouldn't be hard using pretty much any programming environment for the Mac (RealBasic comes to mind). There are versions of the Propeller loader in Spin and Python that can be used as models.

    Long ago and far away, I did use Virtual PC for early Propeller work. It did work (barely), but you had to be very careful to keep any Windows background programs from running. Windows Update particularly would cause downloads to fail regularly. I say barely because it was very slow, but it did work.
  • davidsaundersdavidsaunders Posts: 1,559
    edited 2011-05-21 06:58
    Thank you Mike. I am unable to get VPC 4.0 to see the USB serial port so I will have to use a Mac OS Classic based Propeller loader. I am looking at the spin Propeller Loader as my model. Not yet sure if I am going to use Code Worior C or TNT BASIC. Either one would the job fairly easily. Hope to post my code today (as that will mean that I have it working and can get my binaries to my Propellers).
  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2011-05-21 07:57
    The only way to use a USB serial port with VPC is to have the Mac driver installed and configure VPC's COM1 or COM2 to use the Mac serial port (which is the USB adapter).
  • davidsaundersdavidsaunders Posts: 1,559
    edited 2011-05-21 08:29
    Thank you Mike. That looks like it will work.
  • davidsaundersdavidsaunders Posts: 1,559
    edited 2011-05-22 21:24
    Well I do thank the responces. I wasted most of the day trying to get either the Prop Tool or BST to even detect a propeller under VPC. I guess my Macintosh G3 450 with 384MB of RAM just is not fast enough to emulate a pc with the needed speed.

    I am now working on a Propeller Loader tool for Mac OS 7.1 through 9.2.2. Once I succeed at loading the Propeller I will start a thread in the Propeller forum on this topic.
  • ForrestForrest Posts: 1,341
    edited 2011-05-23 03:43
    FYI years ago I was running OSX 10.3.x on an original iMac G3 233 MHz with 256 MB of RAM. On another thread last week, I read BST was tested on a G3 400 MHz machine running OSX 10.4 http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?131758-BST-Mac-Install
  • davidsaundersdavidsaunders Posts: 1,559
    edited 2011-05-23 06:13
    Forrest:
    I thank you. I whas already aware of this. the trouble is that my Macintosh does not have a DVD Rom and every DVD ROM that I have tried with it it did not like, except one that it will not boot from.
  • davidsaundersdavidsaunders Posts: 1,559
    edited 2011-05-24 10:02
    I am now working on a PropLoader for Mac OS 7 through Mac OS 9.

    In order to accomplish this I am using PropellerLoader.spin as a reference. I have not yet succeded, though continue to work toward the goal at hand.
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2011-05-24 10:50
    Loaders are available in Python, C, and probably PERL. Maybe you should try one of them.
  • davidsaundersdavidsaunders Posts: 1,559
    edited 2011-05-24 11:49
    Jazzed:
    I whas not aware of any open source loader in any language other than spin. Would you please point me in that general direction?
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2011-05-24 17:33
    davidsaunders wrote: »
    Jazzed:
    I whas not aware of any open source loader in any language other than spin. Would you please point me in that general direction?
    Zog has a loader and can download files to flash/eeprom/sdcard with the right support.
    The most generic loader piece is the simple serial loader library in PLoadLib.c/h.
    http://code.google.com/p/propeller-zpu-vm/source/browse/#svn%2Ftrunk%2Fzogload%2Fsrc

    Catalina has a loader too.

    Here is a thread on a Python loader: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?99366-Python-Downloader-modified-for-MacOS
    There is another Python loader floating around too, but can't find it.

    Hippy did a VB6 loader: http://forums.parallaxinc.com/forums/default.aspx?f=25&m=211304

    Google the rest.
  • davidsaundersdavidsaunders Posts: 1,559
    edited 2011-05-24 20:25
    Thank you Jazzed. Wow Hippy did a good job with that packed encoding.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2011-05-24 20:39
    The VB6 loader can also be found in the current forum here: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?96822-serial-boot-loader

    ('Not sure when parallaxinc.com is going away.)

    -Phil
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