+Stephen Posted February 21, 2009 Share Posted February 21, 2009 Thought I'd post a few pics of my assembled CMI08 SMD work takes a steady hand. I use a small pencil tip iron and a paste flux. Resistor farm There is not as much solder as it looks - I couldn't get the lighting right on this image. Still, I am disappointed with the soldering on this side. When I was assembling & inspecting PCBs full time, I would have failed it. I also screwed up and didn't remove the solder mask on the three large holes under the PS2 connector. It works asw nice as it looks. I haven't figured out a case yet. Stephen Anderson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irgendwer Posted February 21, 2009 Share Posted February 21, 2009 Good, clean job! The problem with the PS/2 mounting holes is my fault, but since the interface works without soldering them, I decided to ship this charge of PCBs anyhow. Thanks for the feedback Irgendwer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 if there is metalisation inside those holes it shoud be solderable anyway i would not leave them unsoldered at all - long-term mechanical stress may kill the board proper job to both of You this is smartest adaptation of paddle interface i've seen, and clean way out for connecting mouse to atari Irgendwer: have you adressed accuracy in high-resolution mode? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Good, clean job!The problem with the PS/2 mounting holes is my fault, but since the interface works without soldering them, I decided to ship this charge of PCBs anyhow. Thanks for the feedback Irgendwer Does the CMI08 do anything to relieve the cpu load on the A8, or is it only an adapter so that a widely available mouse can be used? I presume the latter, because to relieve the cpu load it would need some type of a processor to map the mouse position and place the coordinates in an Atari register(s)? -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Does the CMI08 do anything to relieve the cpu load on the A8, or is it only an adapter so that a widely available mouse can be used? I presume the latter, because to relieve the cpu load it would need some type of a processor to map the mouse position and place the coordinates in an Atari register(s)? I seem to remember many years back a mouse driver that used many DLI's on different raster lines, sampling the position, to be able to keep up with normal mouse motion. I don't think 60Hz was enough to keep the input. I wonder if this is similar to how the CMI08 works today? --Selgus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 have you both bother to read hardware description? guess not :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 have you both bother to read hardware description?guess not :/ So it looks like it can act as paddles and tablet positions, making it look like legacy devices. Sorry, there wasn't able to "read hardware description" since there wasn't any in this thread (though I did find another). Seems like an interesting design, I might look deeper into the "hardware description" to see how it was done. --Selgus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 search for abbuc hardware contest, as there might be some details about each and every project that particicped (and this one is 2nd place) what i can see on posted pictures i would assume it uses atmega8-x8 device and bunch of cmos switches connected to resistors to simulate varying resistance of paddle but i'm not the author, and this is educated guess based on chips i'm seeing on attached pictures another guess is that pot placed near minidin connector is for sensitivity, or calibration Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irgendwer Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Irgendwer: have you adressed accuracy in high-resolution mode? The interface supports four modes. The 'relative mode' covers this use case perfectly. CU Irgendwer BTW: I still have some kits in stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irgendwer Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Does the CMI08 do anything to relieve the cpu load on the A8, or is it only an adapter so that a widely available mouse can be used? Like covered in the manual, the interface the most cpu load friendly mouse solution which exists for the 8-bit machines. In absolute mode you can poll the position once a week and it's still correct. The relative mode is a little bit more sophisticated but nothing to be worry about. A query of the mouse position 4 times a second is sufficient for normal applications - easy in VBI. The query itself is just a POT register load - much better and easier to support than a ST-mouse... CU Irgendwer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irgendwer Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 (edited) ...what i can see on posted pictures i would assume it uses atmega8-x8 device and bunch of cmos switches connected to resistors to simulate varying resistance of paddle ... You reverse engineered the interface quite well... BTW: Its not so obvious in the vid ( ), but the precision and comfort of the CMI08 is much better than the accuracy of the CX77. CU Irgendwer Edited February 22, 2009 by Irgendwer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Irgendwer: tell me about accuracy in hi-res mode, do You use some multiplexing scheme?, or result is only 8-bit? btw - if You will be doing another version of pcb, could You provide 3 pin header for mouse connector? it would work well with my io-board, and Y splitter for PS2 mouse and keyboard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Does the CMI08 do anything to relieve the cpu load on the A8, or is it only an adapter so that a widely available mouse can be used? Like covered in the manual, the interface the most cpu load friendly mouse solution which exists for the 8-bit machines. In absolute mode you can poll the position once a week and it's still correct. The relative mode is a little bit more sophisticated but nothing to be worry about. A query of the mouse position 4 times a second is sufficient for normal applications - easy in VBI. The query itself is just a POT register load - much better and easier to support than a ST-mouse... CU Irgendwer Hi Irggendwer. Thanks for the info. -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irgendwer Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Irgendwer: tell me about accuracy in hi-res mode, do You use some multiplexing scheme?, or result is only 8-bit? Please read the 'relative mode' section in the manual. It just works with - eh - relative movements on an unlimited workspace... btw - if You will be doing another version of pcb, could You provide 3 pin header for mouse connector? it would work well with my io-board, and Y splitter for PS2 mouse and keyboard I don't think there will be a second charge. The first was very small and I have still some kits left. But if you like to order many kits, it would be a justification for a change of the layout and a new production run... CU Irgendwer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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