[Techtoolslist] Example code for Calculating CRC32 on the Fluke 9100

[Andy Welburn]

Yeh the sigs are different between the 9010 and 9100.. The 9100 is a
different beast compared to the 9010...

If you're a programmer, the 9100 is a very cool thing to play with, once you
get past the old, slowness of a proprietory development system :)

I have heard people buying 9100's, but i hear they are more often than not
just the base unit, it took me several years to get hold of a video card,
i/o module and ic/rom clips, i already had probe, clock module, and managed
to get the video output working on a regular arcade monitor.. the
programmers keyboard took the longest, and was quite expensive, but
ultimately totally worthwhile. Yes i've had to work with a hard disk
failure/crash and worked out a tonne of stuff in the process of rebuilding
it and upgrading it, but all worthwhile.

Once you see what the thing can do, you feel compelled (well i do anyway) to
write stuff for it. Admittedly, you would need to spend an inordinate amount
of time programming on it to completely cover all aspects of a single
example game pcb, but once you have, identifying a faulty node would take a
matter of just minutes, which makes the development on it very appealing...

I actually recently pimped my 9100, i replaced the 20meg (ex-mac) scsi drive
with a 100meg quantum fireball scsi drive (more reliable i hope!) and
removed the noisey fan and put in an almost silent PC case fan, had to
remove the crossmembers of the case as the the airflow was still too
restricted... but now, the 9100 sits switched on for long periods, works
like a top, and isn't noisey anymore!

Andy
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <martin at guddler.co.uk>
To: "Andy Welburn" <warlords at punkass.com>; "Technical Tools Mail List"
<techtoolslist at flippers.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Techtoolslist] Example code for Calculating CRC32 on the Fluke
9100



> I'd love to be programming a 9100 but every time I've tried to pick  one

> up in the past there has always seemed to be a dozen or so other  people

> after it and they've all gone for silly money! The ironic thing  is that

> it's a bit like the 9010's. Most of the people that end up  chasing after

> them in the UK are after them simply because they've  heard it's some

> magic PCB fixing tool and when it boils down to it,  really don't have a

> clue how to use one when they've actually got the  damn thing!!

>

> It's a real shame too since all my gear is packed away at the moment  so I

> would have plenty of time to be tinkering about with one.

>

> If anyone knows of a sensibly priced 9100 setup going begging in the  UK

> then I'd be very interested in a deal on one.

>

> On the CRC32 checking itself Andy, are 9100 sigs different to 9010  sigs?

> On the 9010 I would have used FIDE to generate sigs from the  mame roms

> and read them that way in situ. I'm assuming the 9100 sigs  must be

> different though? I might have a better read up on the 9100  later. Being

> a programmer I do find it pretty interesting :o)

>

> Martin.

>

> On 15 Dec 2007, at 23:59, Andy Welburn wrote:

>

>> hi all.

>>

>> Well, after running into this on more than one occasion, i decided  to do

>> something about it, you know when you have soldered-in roms on  a game

>> pcb and you don't have any 'good' signatures for that rom in  particular?

>> Don't want to have to desolder the rom? Don't have a  reader capable of

>> reading that funky rom? Still want to check the  roms contents with a

>> known good dump?

>>

>> I'm working on an Atari Sprint 2 pcb right now with just such a  problem,

>> after building an adapter to replace the 2k*8 PROM soldered- in with a

>> 2716, i could then verify that i did have a bad prom  there, and

>> subsequently managed to verify all other roms by burning  a bunch of

>> 2716's with mame code and verifying sigs taken from the  real roms in

>> place against the known good 2716... However, while  doing this, i

>> pestered a few peopel into trying to crack the fluke  9100 signature

>> calculation routine so that i could run it on mame  roms and verify on

>> the fluke itself. This is no easy task and i've  been asking around for

>> this for a while now... so i gave up, and  thought to myself it would be

>> great if i could calculate a reliable  signature on the 9100 that is

>> easily calculated on the pc on mame  roms...

>>

>> Well then CRC32 is an answer to this, MAME carries CRC32's of all  the

>> roms it uses in all its game drivers, an excellent source of  known-good

>> sigs!

>>

>> With the help of Chris Hardy - who found this small CRC calculator  code

>> online - it looked like it could be converted for TL/1 use:

>> http://www.di-mgt.com.au/crypto.html#CRC

>>

>> My C programming skills are very rusty, and it saved me a lot of  time

>> talking to Chris to just check on the meanings of the C  statements in

>> this CRC calculator code... Once Chris explained some  of it to me in

>> English, it helped me to translate it to what i know  of TL/1...

>>

>> and here's the result of equivalent code :

>> http://www.andysarcade.net/pix/DSC_2380.JPG

>>

>> (full program code omitted, but if you know TL/1 you know the meat  and

>> potatoes is in the middle bit - so long as you declare numeric

>> crc=$FFFFFFFF, numeric temp, numeric j, numeric octets at the top)

>>

>> I'm no rocket-scientist, but i stuck this in my PROGLIB and it'll  now be

>> available to all my other UUT programs :) Its not tidy code,  its not the

>> quickest or most efficient, but it works... If you can  suggest a better

>> way of doing it, then please do expand on this if  you can!

>>

>> I'm interested to hear who is actually actively programming on the  9100,

>> is it just me all on my own?? I know a few people who own the  9100

>> units, but i'm the only one amongst them that seems to be using  the

>> editing suite... Whats the situation with you lot here on the  list? A

>> show of hands would be nice to see...

>>

>> Maybe we can pool resources and swap code snippets? I have hundreds  of

>> rom sigs and a growing collection of programs i have written, I

>> understand anyones reluctance to give this info up for free (i have

>> certainly put in a considerable amount of time on the fluke) so i'm

>> looking to trade info with other people if anyone needs it?  Personally

>> i'm not after much info myself, but i'm always keen to  add to my own

>> knowledge base, and i don't mind helping others out  with programming,

>> and advice on the pitfalls of bugs in TL/1 etc.. :-)

>>

>> Of course, I could be delusional and I really am the only one doing  any

>> programming with it...

>>

>> so speak up!

>>

>> Andy Welburn

>> http://www.andys-arcade.com

>>

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