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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : PicoGAME 4 - At last!
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Mixtel90 Guru  Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6786 |
 I know it's been a while but I kept allowing myself to get distracted. :) I'd better warn you, this one is hot off the drawing board in some places. It isn't a tested design (yet) although I think all the different items (VS1053, USB, VGA pins, game port etc.) have all been tested individually now. Once again, it's a pretty flexible board and you have various options that you can use. It's rather a good idea to read the manual. :) If you decide to put it in a case then you will have to chop out some of the PCB support pillars to get it to fit. Sorry 'bout that. PicoGAME 40 gerber.zip PicoGAME 4 101 circuit.pdf PicoGAME 4 101 manual.pdf Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 4228 |
Hi Mick, It will become hard to choose what picomite platform to use. All have benefits and drawbacks. I am beginning to get confused. Peter cranking out boards, and your new introduction. But I guess yours is a superset of the picoGameVGA design, correct? Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6786 |
Correct. In fact, it's a development of the PicoGAME, PicoGAME 2 and the unreleased PicoGAME 3, which were all based on the PicoMite VGA. I've taken out some of the less-used options and added the latest USB and VS1053 developments. It's needed a bit of fiddling, but compatibility with the previous version is pretty good if you ignore the loss of Port B. PicoGAME isn't intended to compete with Peter's CMM 1.5 or the CMM2, it's designed to be a gaming platform in its own right. It doesn't give the user a load of GPIO to play with, it replaces that with a standardised game controller / joystick socket. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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Turbo46 Guru Joined: 24/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1611 |
Hi Mick, I seem to recall a board that Volhout sent to the 8 bit guy but I can't seem to find any details. Can you please point me in the right direction? Sorry, a bit of topic. Bill Keep safe. Live long and prosper. |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 4228 |
Hi Bill, The board is never sent to the 8-bit guy. He lost interest, and if you see his last 3 video's, you know why. See also "TIME RIFT ARCADE" on youtube. I have shipped one board to LeoNicolas for development of his KnigthMare game. It is the version V2 (not V1) with the WII controller connection. Regards, Volhout Edited 2024-03-18 18:08 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6786 |
That would be the PicoMite VGA Basic. It's a very much cut down system to play games on. I can't remember which thread it was in just at the moment... Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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Hawk Senior Member  Joined: 15/07/2021 Location: AustraliaPosts: 141 |
Hi Mick, Your latest design certainly looks very flexible. What sort of controller does it support? Can the controller port be used as an RS232 serial port? I guess it would need level convertors to do that. And I guess a question that might be better directed at Peter, is the USB version of the firmware taking over from the PS/2 version. I have been working on a case that fits an available small form factor PS/2 keyboard, and now I am just looking at how to fit the PicoMite VGA PCB into the case. Things like the switch header make it easy to mount a switch wherever I want, and (u)SD extensions likewise. Even an audio jack can be run from header pins and mounted on the back panel. The connectors that I need mounted on the same side of the pcb would be the VGA and the power, which I believe this design has. It's been a long search, but I believe I'm getting closer to my ideal Modern Retro Computer. Edited 2024-03-19 12:32 by Hawk |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6786 |
The DB9 has GP0, GP1, GP2 and GP3 dedicated to it. They all have 3K3 pullup resistors. I've shown the controller possibilities in the manual, but basically you can have: 1 or 2 NES/SNES controllers Atari joystick Any I2C controller such as the Wii Classic using I2C2. You could use GP0 and GP1 as COM1 TX and RX but you would need extra hardware, as you say. Not all at once though. :) Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6786 |
From the revised manual: Gerbers etc. will be sorted out shortly. ======================== EDIT: Not quite identical now. The order of the pins for the SD card has changed so that it lines up with SPI2. SPI is still used by the VS1053. . Edited 2024-03-24 07:50 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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