Getting Started

Getting Powered Up

Powering your F256K and F256K2

The F256K is powered via a standard 2.5mm DC Connector, which takes a centre-positive 12V 2A capable Power Supply.

It's possible to use 9 V instead of 12 V, (I can personally vouch for it -Mu0n). Typical power draw is a little under 4 W.

This type of power supply is quite common. Example 12V 2A capable power supply (#)

(#) This specific power supply has not been verified (by the author) for use with the F256K. Please update this page with verified options!

Powering your F256Jr and (?) F256Jr.Jr

The F256Jr is supplied as a Mini-ITX form factor mainboard, with a standard 24 pin ATX power supply connector for power connectivity.

Since the F256Jr needs relatively little power, compared to a mini-ATX PC, a popular DC 12V 24pin Pico ATX PSU works well and is a compact solution.

Pico PSU - You power the Pico PSU via a 12V DC center-positive Power Supply source.
12V DC center-positive A/C Adapter - Commonly used to power the Pico PSU.

The board itself has no power switch. If you do not have a Mini-ITX case, a pin header on the board can be bridged by a jumper and thereby used instead of a proper power switch as a stop gap solution. In this picture https://wiki.c256foenix.com/images/6/64/Pinout_Jr_December_7th_Trans.png the pin header in question is shown in the lower right and is labeled with PW ON SPST Switch.

Getting programs onto the F256

SD Card

The F256K, F256K2, F256JR and F256Jr.Jr. have an SD card slot. The device software to read the SD card is a bit touchy (it's inherited from the Commander X16 project) and doesn't work with all SD cards

Cards should support the V2 protocol (HC or XC); older cards that only support the V1 protocol (typically 2GB or less) won't work. By contrast, the kernels for the C256 machines generally only work with V1 cards. Note that, in both cases, this is a software limitation -- all of the Foenix machines are electrically capable of using both kinds of cards.
Partitioning should be MBR, and partition type 0x0c.
Cards *MUST* be formatted FAT32 -- **NOT: FAT, FAT12, FAT16, or exFAT**.
Formatting with Windows 10/11 works fine, but make sure to force FAT32 (or use the command line: format /FS:FAT32 H:)
Formatting with MacOS will only work using the diskutil command line utility. An example usage looks like this: sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 [DiskName] MBRFormat /dev/[DiskNumber]. You can use diskutil list to get the disk number for the SD Card.
Formatting and partitioning SD cards with Linux can be done using the gnome-disk-utility (known simply as Disks) and is installed on most mainstream distributions of Linux. Disks will access all the drives on the computer so be sure you have the SD card selected when editing. Gnome/Disks wiki
FAT32 only supports a maximum partition size of 32Gb, on larger cards you will need to create multiple partitions -- however, only the first is recognized by DOS.
Some folks have had luck formatting cards with the Official SD Association formatter for Windows.

Curated Software Collections

Go here to get a nice curated collection of programs - it was first pepared for VCF East 2025 for the showroom Foenix table, but it is actively getting further updates. simply unzip it to the root of the flash card. You are encouraged to browse and launch most things with the f/manager program by first diving into /- fm from superbasic.
An older 2023 pack can be found here (and is referenced down below in the SuperBasic section of this current page), simply unzip it to the root of the flash card: older demo pack from 2023

Debug USB port

This is what most developers use as it's the most convenient. Connect the debug USB port to your PC or Mac

You can use:
- FoenixMgr - works on Windows, Mac, Linux
  - A Python script to manage the Foenix series of retro style computers through their USB debug ports. This tool allows uploading files of various formats to system RAM, and displaying memory through various means.

- FoenixIDE (Windows only)
  - Development and Debugging Suite for the C256 Foenix Family of Computers.

wget

If you have the wifi configured, you can use wget to pull programs and data right off the web!

SuperBASIC

The machine boots to SuperBASIC. SuperBASIC is inspired by BBC BASIC but offers quite a bit more.

Read the SuperBASIC Reference Manual.

Watch EMWhite's excellent intro series on Youtube:
- Full Playlist here: EMWhite's Intro Series - Full Playlist.
- Part 1 can be viewed here:

To get started, you can type in a sample program at the command prompt:

10 for i=1 to 5
20 print "Hello world"
30 next
run

SuperBASIC is similar to CBM (Microsoft) BASIC but has some differences. For example, note in the sample above it's just next not next i.

The first 15 or so pages of the SuperBASIC Reference Manual are quite instructive.

SuperBASIC is actually much more powerful and supports structured programming (procedures, blocks etc.)

dir - Run this to display directory of SD card

Loading & running programs off of the SD card is similarly easy:

load "JrWordl.bas"
run

Similar to the C64, you can save time in loading programs from the dir listing by using your cursor keys to go up to the entry, typing load " (insert mode is active by default) etc. You can use CTRL+E to jump to the end of the line and use CTRL+K to delete any text from the cursor to the end of the line. Correctly place the closing " and hit ENTER.

CTRL+C acts as a "break" command and stops any running SuperBASIC program or LIST command.

Read built-in help/reference:

/help : But NOTE, this erases BASIC memory! Use Backspace key to go back in menus and to exit.

Explore the included demo SuperBASIC programs:

Program	Notes	Source
`JrWordl.bas`	Wordle game, guess 5 letter word
`mandel.bas`	Draws Mandlebrot set in graphics mode, takes between 2 and 3 hours	@Mu0n
`rpg-demo.bas`	UI sample that shows Zelda like RPG game. Control the character with an Atari-joystick connected to JoyPort1	@econtrerasd
`Problematic_Code.bas`	Displays scrolling starfield
`noelrl.bas`	Simple integer BASIC bench mark from Noel's retro lab. Completes < 3.5 seconds, compares very favourably to other retro systems!	Youtube
`dance.bas`	Animates sprite of dancer	@Mu0n
`luna.bas`	Displays simple scene
`blink.bas`	Blinks drive access light	@Mu0n
`piano.bas`	Play some notes with the PSG	@Mu0n

Running pgz, pgZ, pgx Executable Files

Running executables from superbasic involves calling the "pexec program" normally stored in Flash memory, but which is written as simply as possible with a "-" (dash symbol without the quotes) to make it easy and convenient to run programs.

You can use this notation to execute file.pgz (the same can be done with pgx, pgZ):

/- file.pgz

The / is for running anything that's stored in flash

The - is the special alias for pexec, as it is stored in flash

Therefore /- is used together to launch an executable, which would follow as the first argument to the right. Keep in mind you need a space between /- and your program name.

More Resources

This Wiki

Explore all of the content of this Wiki, to expand your F256 series knowledge!

Discord

The Foenix Retro Systems Discord is the primary place to get questions answered.

Also, if you resolve your question, and you didn't find the answer here on the Wiki, please consider contributing to the Wiki, for the benefit of others with the same question!

Foenix Retro Systems Newsletter

Read back issues here (also a great source for sample programs).

Issues starting at #4 cover the F256 line. Issues 1-3 cover the previous version of the hardware (C256), although there are still many salient points.