I am wrapping up the OSX version of the new GUI very soon and the other OSs soon after. I have one question to ask that I believe I know thew answer to but I would like to have your opinions. Sometimes when you are working on something like this certain features might seem to fit or might make sense while developing that don't really do anything for the real end-user. So, I recently decided to make room for more technical features by removing the settings menu page and removing the code and strings section of the chip information screen. It will now show the info as soon as you select the chip and you simply need to click button 2 to test once on that screen.

You will still be able to control everything in the settings from the new GUI app. So, the features will still be there they just won't be hogging up Vetus' display menu. 

How does everyone feel about that? My assumption in that no one ever uses anything from the settings more than maybe once or twice and the benefits from doing it this way far exceed whatever downsides there are (if any). I'd love to hear your opinions. 

Thanks

-Kelvin 

I have five 30 pin SIMM prototype boards that are built and I'm not going to sell because the new version will actually show up as being connected in Vetus Pars. The five I have won't do that. It will only show up as unknown or the like. However, it will still function exactly the same. So if you'd like one you can have one just pay for shipping. I only have five though so first come first served. E-mail me at kelvin@retrotroniks.com. I'll look up the cost to ship for ya. Have a good weekend.

So: is the VDD that Vetus drives onto the ZIF a fixed value, or can it be selected per chip (e.g. 5 V vs 3.3 V)? If it's fixed, what's the nominal target, and is ~3.6 V expected under load? And are the digital I/O high levels driven from that same rail, or from a separate (e.g. 3.3 V) logic supply? Trying to figure out whether I should be testing this part at a lower VDD on purpose.

Thanks!

I have a small collection of OKI clock chips, would be nice to put a little green sticker on them :)

Would you consider sharing a technical drawing of the mainboard with measurements and placements of the screw holes, switch, toggle buttons and usb socket.

This way it would be much faster to quickly design case for it so that one doesn't have to pull out the calipers  😉 

May seems to have been a very slow month on the forums and pretty much every other place. That being said, I just want to know if anyone has any issues, questions, concerns, praise? Haha, anyway, I’d love to hear how you guys are liking Vetus Pars and what you’ve done with it and if there are any improvements you’d like to see. Any special chips you’d like a board for? Anything at all.
I’m still working daily on improvements and new addons. The new GUIs and first add-ons are coming soon. Hang in there 

upcoming in the next several weeks should be at least the OSX version of the GUI with the others following soon after and the 30 pin SIMM tester board. 

-Kelvin

The website is mostly done in dark mode, and I'm still working on light mode.   https://caffeinatedbytes.com

A very basic Forum is also now online for tech support.   It also allow to the poster to pick the best solution.

vp-Tools seems to be working (vp-chip, vp-asm, vp-flash and vp-man) and successfully communicate the the backend to download, search, flash chips, etc.

Everything still needs testing.   I still need to do some small things like make user friendly error messages instead of exception messages for things like flashing when not in USB mode, or when the wrong COM port is selected.

I'm away for the next 4 days but when I return I will be granting @nivbot access to download the tools for betatesting.   If he approves I will open it up to a couple more serious testers to try out the command line tools.   

My goal is to also add a screen to the website to examine chips online as well as an option for vp-chip to upload chips to share with others.  I'll do that when the current vp-tools is out of betatesting.

I have a day job and a part time company in my spare time so progress on this project has been slow and was started impulsively.   I think the Vetus Pars is an amazing tool and I want to help get it known out there so it has a chance to compete with the other overpriced tools.    A word to Canadians, after the exchange rate and duty fees and tax it's over $200, and is still less than half the price of Retro chip tester.   Someday I want to buy a second one to mess around putting it in a 3d printed case, but I'm going to wait until the Canadian dollar is stronger.

When I REFRESH to pull the current list, there is a blank file at the bottom of the list in VetusGUI. If I load that from the hardware into VetusGUI, I will get either the correct Code, Chip Name, Num Pins, Chip Type, and Image fields but the String# fields will all be empty or have invalid characters in them - OR - I will get nothing.

A full reboot of the hardware, close/open of VetusGUI and doing a direct SAVE TO results in the same type of behavior. 

I'm on Windows 11, I have updated the hardware to 1.0.3. I have other much smaller test chip files that saved and run without issue.