So reviewing the card, I guess you can use the USB for devices but not memory sticks. That's too bad, I guess I'll have to take up a slot with the ISA-USB card after all. The reason this matters is that it's just not easy to get a larger-than-floppy file onto the pc using picomem. You have to incorporate the file onto a HDD image before popping the miniSD card out of the back of the PC, putting the image into the HDD folder, and because you can't swap HDD the way you can FDD, you need to reboot the PC. A real chore.

Contrast with the ISA USB, you just put the file on the stick and plug it in. And the USB stick can even be on an extension so you don't have to reach around the back to access the USB stick. Plus, since you can add an XT-IDE ROM to the ISA-USB, it makes that functionality on the picomem less valuable.

My XT machine has limited slots, so I was hoping not to have to take one up with the ISA-USB. From what I see so far, the picomem lets you eliminate a dedicated XT-IDE HDD emulator , a Gotek (though in my case the board has a built in FDD controller, so I'll probably keep that for the convenience of not having to reach around the back), an Adlib or it's clone (but I may keep my SAAYM sound card as it emulates other sound cards often needed), a RAM card (though I believe in my case I'll keep using the RAMBank as it will allow more and faster memory and in that particular card's case a virtual disk). It adds valuable functionality: Wifi and limited USB joystick and mouse functionality.

So, basically, the Picomem is a good alternative to an XT-IDE CF card. It's the same price as one, or cheaper, and has additional functionality the other lacks. It's also a good alternative to a Gotek FDD emulator, even if the Gotek has Flashfloppy on it, if you don't mind reaching around the back of the PC to access the SD card (especially if the PC lacks a FDD controller). It's great for adding EMS to a 286 or 8088 system. But it's not quite the "one card to rule them all" - yet. Being a software controller and open source, it's entirely possible that future development may add new functionality and improve the existing. Worth the purchase? Oh yeah, most definitely!

NHVintage wrote on 2024-07-01, 11:15:

The reason this matters is that it's just not easy to get a larger-than-floppy file onto the pc using picomem.

Being a software controller and open source, it's entirely possible that future development may add new functionality and improve the existing.

You could use ftp if networking is working for you. That's what I mostly do for transferring files. Or else look at NetDrive (search on Vogons for it). But I agree it would be convenient. I think it was mentioned before on Discord. But that will not come in the short term. I believe keyboard support is also on the to do list.

The drivers are open source indeed. The bios is not at the moment. That will be done in the future Freddy said. Would like to take a peek inside the source code for the bios to debug the network issues I am having. 😀

Ah yes, I did read that, and I certainly understand why it's closed source to keep there from being "too many cooks in the kitchen". 😀

This would be great add-on to my Euro Pc 1. It has only one Isa slot, only 512k memory and a disk drive that only reads real 720k disk's...
Sadly card doesn't yet work with first Euro Pc:(

Only half jokingly I wonder if a future hardware revision could include Voltage Blaster (optional) functionality and make this even more useful than it already is. Using a Voltage Blaster takes up a whole slot and uses only a few 'pins' of the ISA slot to provide that voltage, which is one reason you need cards like Picomem that combine a lot of features. 😀

NHVintage wrote on 2024-07-01, 11:15:

So reviewing the card, I guess you can use the USB for devices but not memory sticks. That's too bad, I guess I'll have to take […]
Show full quote

So reviewing the card, I guess you can use the USB for devices but not memory sticks. That's too bad, I guess I'll have to take up a slot with the ISA-USB card after all. The reason this matters is that it's just not easy to get a larger-than-floppy file onto the pc using picomem. You have to incorporate the file onto a HDD image before popping the miniSD card out of the back of the PC, putting the image into the HDD folder, and because you can't swap HDD the way you can FDD, you need to reboot the PC. A real chore.

Contrast with the ISA USB, you just put the file on the stick and plug it in. And the USB stick can even be on an extension so you don't have to reach around the back to access the USB stick. Plus, since you can add an XT-IDE ROM to the ISA-USB, it makes that functionality on the picomem less valuable.

My XT machine has limited slots, so I was hoping not to have to take one up with the ISA-USB. From what I see so far, the picomem lets you eliminate a dedicated XT-IDE HDD emulator , a Gotek (though in my case the board has a built in FDD controller, so I'll probably keep that for the convenience of not having to reach around the back), an Adlib or it's clone (but I may keep my SAAYM sound card as it emulates other sound cards often needed), a RAM card (though I believe in my case I'll keep using the RAMBank as it will allow more and faster memory and in that particular card's case a virtual disk). It adds valuable functionality: Wifi and limited USB joystick and mouse functionality.

So, basically, the Picomem is a good alternative to an XT-IDE CF card. It's the same price as one, or cheaper, and has additional functionality the other lacks. It's also a good alternative to a Gotek FDD emulator, even if the Gotek has Flashfloppy on it, if you don't mind reaching around the back of the PC to access the SD card (especially if the PC lacks a FDD controller). It's great for adding EMS to a 286 or 8088 system. But it's not quite the "one card to rule them all" - yet. Being a software controller and open source, it's entirely possible that future development may add new functionality and improve the existing. Worth the purchase? Oh yeah, most definitely!

Hi,

Thanks for your comment.

I am aware of this limitation, I face the same problem as well.
File share via Wifi is possible and use of USB disk will be added. It is supported by tinyUSB, but "slow" (64KB/s if I am not wong)

I Just picked up a PicoMEM after seeing on the github page that it's been tested on an Amiga A2000 with the A2286 Bridgeboard. I got it running without issues with the suggested BIOS C800 setting in the config.txt. However I slotted back in my Trident 8900 VGA card and this seems to conflict with the PICOMEM. I don't believe it's an interrupt conflict as that card uses 2 or 9, so I wonder if it's something to do with the mapping of the Trident VGA BIOS. I'm fairly rusty with old PCs as I've been living in the Amiga side of ancient computing lately. If there is a memory address conflict is there a setting that will allow for everything to function?

Just an update, I was able to get the VGA card to agree with the PicoMEM, as it seems I was coincidentally having some hardware failure on the VGA card... After re-seating all the socketed chips on the VGA card It worked, well at least for a while it seems there may be a socket issue or some cold solder joint... but point is, not a PicoMEM memory addressing issue at all...

I just saw that today after being away for a long time, that looks amazing!
I will try it as soon as I can!
Impressionant le travail que tu as fait!
What would be awesome is a VGA output on it... ISA video cards are getting so expensive ... but not sure if it's possible ...

Thanks very much to Freddy and everyone else who's worked on making PicoMEM available. I had a chance to try mine out in a PS/2 Model 25 (XT-class machine with ISA bus). The card could be of particular interest to Model 25 owners because the special hard drives fitted to some of these machines are known to fail, and the machine only has two ISA slots.

One thing I can't figure out how to do is swap floppies, with left-control + shift + f2. I'm using a Model M, and can't get it to work from either the PC-DOS 5 prompt or the PC-DOS 5 installer itself. Is this something anyone else has had a problem with? PicoMEM firmware is 2024-07-08.

Sorry, just saw the documentation about PMINIT.EXE -- will try that!

I just tried it on my new Pocket8086. It freezes up when loading the PicoMEM BIOS.

I ordered an 8088 from ebay. I'll give that a go and then try the PicoMEM and see if it makes a difference (It supports 8088 processors too)

There's a section in the manual saying it accesses memory in "16-bit mode" when an 8086 processor is used so I suspect that has something to do with it.

I shipped all pre-orders this morning and now finally have some more picomem in stock 😀
https://www.serdashop.com/PicoMEM

I now tested the optional DAC expansion for adlib function, it works great.

dreamblaster wrote on 2024-08-04, 08:39:

I now tested the optional DAC expansion for adlib function, it works great.

The attachment PICOMEM_DAC_PRESOLDERED.jpg is no longer available

Oh, cool, that's the exact same module I have in use on sinowin's IDE emulator.

commander_spuds wrote on 2024-07-31, 17:55:

I ordered an 8088 from ebay. I'll give that a go and then try the PicoMEM and see if it makes a difference (It supports 8088 processors too)

Gave this a go. The Pocket8086 accepted an Intel 8088 no problem, but no luck with the PicoMEM. Same deal.

Pressing a key doesn't allow the boot to continue. No response. Sometimes there's a slightly different message. Sometimes it doesn't make it to the 'press any key' bit.

Bummer.

Pico 2 got introduced today. Faster, more power efficient, more RAM (520KB)... plus able to use ether ARM or RISC-V cores. There's a few variants including one with 48 GPIO pins (not out for public yet).

STrRedWolf wrote on 2024-08-08, 21:14:

Pico 2 got introduced today

>Twelve upgraded PIO state machines
>A new HSTX peripheral for high-speed data transmission
>Support for external QSPI PSRAM

those three look very interesting

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-08-09, 00:04:

>Twelve upgraded PIO state machines >A new HSTX peripheral for high-speed data transmission >Support for external QSPI PSRAM […]
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STrRedWolf wrote on 2024-08-08, 21:14:

Pico 2 got introduced today

>Twelve upgraded PIO state machines
>A new HSTX peripheral for high-speed data transmission
>Support for external QSPI PSRAM

those three look very interesting

Adafruit's announced that they're working on a DVI attachment off the HSTX bus and looking at higher-than-320x240 resolutions. So maybe a VGA card w/o a FPGA?

commander_spuds wrote on 2024-08-06, 21:20:

Gave this a go. The Pocket8086 accepted an Intel 8088 no problem, but no luck with the PicoMEM. Same deal.

I didn't mention as well, I need to supply USB power to even get it to this point. Nothing happens without it. No green light on the pico either.

This project is great!

This will be a dream on my Olivetti PC1, as it only has 1 ISA slot.

I read on the GitHub there's a Low Profile version coming? (given my ISA slot is external, this would be even better).

Any news on that?

Anyway, THANKS FreddyV for your work on this amazing piece of hardware.