CardPro Tips & Tricks
If you ever have the need to program a Fun card with an External Eeprom of 512 Kbit or more (for loading the Joker CAM software for instance), then I have a working solution for you.
To start with, you will need to download some stuff from the download archive. From the subdirectory CardPro_MultiPro , get yourself the zip file MultiProSpecialFlash.zip. It contains a MultiProSpecialFlash.hex which you will need as a loader file. This file is copied to the card with CardPro.
OK, this is the procedure:
Start CardPro and select the "normal" Fun card from the menu (see below).
Tick the boxes Flash memory and Internal EEPROM.
No need to tick the External EEPROM box.
Now click Erase.
Next, you load the MultiProSpecialFlash.hex from the zip file
Remove the tick marker from the Internal EEPROM box.
Now press Write.
After you have programmed the Flash, you can program the External Eeprom.
For that we need to use the MultiPro in its Phoenix mode.
So start MultiPro software and click the Phoenix 6.00MHz mode (see below).
The actual programming of the External Eeprom is done with Picbined.
I used the latest official release of Picbined, which is still version 1.54e.
In Picbined there is a special function which allows us to load large Eeprom files.
That option is called special_open1 (see below).
So after having started Picbined, you select special_open1 from the pull down menu.
Now you click on File (in the menubar) and then select Open.
From the Open File dialog window, you select the External Eeprom file you want to program.
In this case, I used the Joker CAM v0.70 firmware for the Funcard-5.
Now open the pull down menu Firmware at the left hand side in you screen (see below).
Select the option FunVia/c64 via.
In the right hand part of the screen, a lot of data will appear.
Especially the 2 blue lines in the above screen shot are important.
These lines contain all the settings that you need to enter in the appropriate fields:
- Baud Rate 9600 for the 6MHz Phoenix mode
- No parity
- 8 Data bits
- 1 Stop bit
Now enter these values in the right fields (see below).
When you have entered all values correctly, you click Write.
A new window will pop up, asking you if you are sure that all settings are entered correctly.
If you are, then click Yes.
Picbined will now program the External Eeprom.
This process takes a while, especially with an Eeprom of 512 Kbit.
After the programming has completed successfully, a lot of data will appear on the right.
In the bottom left of the window you should see Success (write).
The External Eeprom has now been programmed correctly.
If you want to, you can click Verify to check the Eeprom data.
Finally we only need to write the definitive data to the Flash (and if needed the Internal Eeprom).
For that, we will again use CardPro.
So, start CardPro again.
Check to see if the Funcard is still selected.
Make absolutely sure that the tick box for the External EEPROM is empty!!!
Select the Flash file you want to program to your card.
If needed, also select a file for the Internal Eeprom.
Are you sure that you have entered all settings correctly?
If so, then click Write now.
That is all.
This procedure allows you to program large Eeproms with you MultiPro programmer.