Long shot - does anyone have the source for the Hermes or Superhermes extensions bin files

[Pr0f]

As per title really - wondering if anyone may have squirreled away the source for these extensions.

I am working on a PIC based replacement that will plug into the 40 pin IPC and offer everything that Hermes does, but also PS/2 keyboard interface. The PIC chip also just happens to have a 256 x 8 Eeprom on board - useful - but not the same eeprom layout as the SuperHermes. The IPCRAM% command for Hermes is similar to what I would need - but I would want to call that something else to differentiate it.

It struck me that we don't have source for the superhermes PIC device - so it would mean starting from scratch here - although the IPC functions are I think now well understood.

Any help much appreciated...

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

Unfortunatley, the SuperHermes PIC Code was never released, all my requests over the years went unanswered.

Probably, the code is lost, like the ROMDISQ PLD code which I had made a agreement to build more Romdisqs, but the Romdisq PLD code was stored on an old PC and was not backed up, the PC was then thrown away.

I wanted the SER3 port to support SerNET, which would mean altering the SER3 driver to support STX/SRX.

Maybe have to disassemble the Superhermes PIC code.

Maybe I am wrong here, but I do not know of any more information about the Superhermes PIC code

[Pr0f]

I wasn't thinking of supporting Ser3 (or 4,5,6) for that matter - just Ser1 and 2 for receive ( so same functionality as Hermes offers in that respect), the reason for that is I plan to build a quad serial card that has full and fast access to the QL bus, and various forms of connection options on the serial ports.

So it's not so much the IPC side that I need code for, but the much smaller extensions that are loaded to allow the additional commands for Hermes and Super Hermes.

I plan to design the interface so that Hermes extensions can be loaded to give all the advantages that Hermes offers, but it would be nice to go the extra mile and offer up the additional facilities (so PC keyboard status / commands and access to the PIC's on board EEPROM as a byte read/write function)

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

Look at the Fast serial board by Terry Harman on the QL Homepage, this might help, or I think Jan Bredenbeek did a serial board as well.

[Pr0f]

Thanks Derrick - I have those.

But what I am interested in specifically is the source for the Hermes extensions - the bits that you run on the QL that provide the extra commands for Hermes and SuperHermes - specifically the latter in fact, as what I am designing should work with the Hermes extensions out of the box so to speak - it's just getting access to the additional offerings by SuperHermes.

From a technical point of view - my project is more akin to the SuperHermes Lite - so just offering PS/2 keyboard alongside Hermes improvements.

I will do the keyboard translation within the PIC itself - so the presence of a PS/2 keyboard is not going to be expected or need to be catered for - for all intents and purposes - it will just appear like the original IPC/Hermes and provide a scanned keyboard.

However it would be nice to make use of the EEPROM on board the PIC, and to send commands to the PS/2 keyboard - such as for the LED's, and interrogate it's status.