+selgus Posted June 7, 2020 Author Share Posted June 7, 2020 9 minutes ago, jamm said: Excellent! I'll take two! ? I'll take that into account, when I order my revision 002 version of my PCB and start building them up. ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted June 7, 2020 Author Share Posted June 7, 2020 5 minutes ago, StickJock said: Along with your built-in joystick, you could also add built-in paddles. Put one on each side. I had decided against doing this early on, as with everything about this project, size matters (in this case, smaller is better). With the keyboard, and the joystick, along with the LCD, it doesn't leave a lot of areas to add additional items and not be awkward. Just some of the design decisions I made to at the start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 Amazing job so far. Enjoying your progress! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted June 7, 2020 Author Share Posted June 7, 2020 Each of the unique key-caps for my mini-keyboard.. which I am going to 3D print, though I don't own a 3D printer, so I use Shapeways. The lettering will be added on afterwards as decals of some sort (haven't figured how I wish to do that yet).. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozzwald Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 2 hours ago, selgus said: Each of the unique key-caps for my mini-keyboard.. which I am going to 3D print, though I don't own a 3D printer, so I use Shapeways. The lettering will be added on afterwards as decals of some sort (haven't figured how I wish to do that yet).. I know you're well on your way thru the design on this, but I thought I'd toss out this idea... use an off the shelf mini thumb keypad for the Atari portable. The rubber overlay can be removed from the original keyboard and cut to fit a custom case. Your PCB design just needs pads for the snap dome overlay that is removed from the original and placed on your custom PCB. I had tried making my own rubber overlay and it was not worth the effort. But, reusing a manufactured rubber overlay would probably work great. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted June 8, 2020 Author Share Posted June 8, 2020 5 minutes ago, mozzwald said: I know you're well on your way thru the design on this, but I thought I'd toss out this idea... use an off the shelf mini thumb keypad for the Atari portable. The rubber overlay can be removed from the original keyboard and cut to fit a custom case. Your PCB design just needs pads for the snap dome overlay that is removed from the original and placed on your custom PCB. I had not thought of this, as one of my design goals was to replicate the XE keyboard (with extra function keys) to be a scaled version for the portable. That mini-keyboard wouldn't have the correct number of keys or placement for an XE-style keyboard, but it is a very interesting concept. Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted June 10, 2020 Author Share Posted June 10, 2020 Getting some revision 002 boards made, with my modifications and support for a full SIO port. As soon as I get the blanks, I'm going to build one up while using the revision 001 board for testing and debugging the bios.. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddtmw Posted June 10, 2020 Share Posted June 10, 2020 Have you given thought to a case? What are the dimensions of the board? (Thinking of 3-D printer footprint... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted June 10, 2020 Author Share Posted June 10, 2020 1 minute ago, toddtmw said: Have you given thought to a case? What are the dimensions of the board? (Thinking of 3-D printer footprint... Yes I have.. the dimensions to my boards were given on post #34, I believe. The form factor is something like a Nintendo Switch, but with a keyboard on the top and the 5" display on a bit of an angle also on the top of the unit. There is a joystick on one side of the keyboard, and a fire button on the other. I am modeling the case using the ATARI XE computer line as the design language, along with the key caps being scaled representations of a 130XE keyboard. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddtmw Posted June 10, 2020 Share Posted June 10, 2020 Hmm. Not likely to print on something as small as an Ender 3 (220mm) unless it can possibly be printed on its front, diagonally... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted June 18, 2020 Author Share Posted June 18, 2020 Been working on the keyboard, should have some of my 3D printed key-caps soon, and been doing some modeling for the case. These are the layouts of the different circuit boards, inside the portable, and current prototype work on the enclosure. The keys aren't to proportion right now, but more for blocking out where it would be.. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted June 19, 2020 Author Share Posted June 19, 2020 Got my revision 2 boards today, so test-fitted one of the major additions.. the SIO port.. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddtmw Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 Looks nice. Where did you get the sio port? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted June 19, 2020 Author Share Posted June 19, 2020 2 minutes ago, toddtmw said: Looks nice. Where did you get the sio port? From my XEGS motherboard.. same place I got many of my custom ATARI chips and the crystal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 16 minutes ago, toddtmw said: Looks nice. Where did you get the sio port? Don't forget, @foft is having a new run of SIO sockets manufactured as a one-time deal. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted June 19, 2020 Author Share Posted June 19, 2020 Oh, and the top-mounted D-pad "joystick" for the portable.. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted June 22, 2020 Author Share Posted June 22, 2020 Spent some time today on Father's Day, to start soldering up the new CPU board.. about half the passives and the compactflash connector down, lots to go.. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Did you ever fire up the first board? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted June 22, 2020 Author Share Posted June 22, 2020 1 hour ago, mytek said: Did you ever fire up the first board? I did assemble it enough to do some testing.. I had to do a few mods, which I worked into this new CPU board and was able to bring it up under my scope to see the clock and the different signals working, and the 6502 pulling the reset vector. I still have more work to do on my BIOS, as its a heavily modified version of the XEGS OS, with a lot of additional functionality added.. which I still need to organize to get all the constant vector entry points at their correct org locations.. Depending on how long it takes me to make my BIOS bootable, I might take the XEGS OS, as is, and just NOP out some of the hardware differences so I can get it running well understood code. Though I'd rather spend that time on getting my BIOS working properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 1 hour ago, selgus said: I did assemble it enough to do some testing.. I had to do a few mods, which I worked into this new CPU board and was able to bring it up under my scope to see the clock and the different signals working, and the 6502 pulling the reset vector. I still have more work to do on my BIOS, as its a heavily modified version of the XEGS OS, with a lot of additional functionality added.. which I still need to organize to get all the constant vector entry points at their correct org locations.. Depending on how long it takes me to make my BIOS bootable, I might take the XEGS OS, as is, and just NOP out some of the hardware differences so I can get it running well understood code. Though I'd rather spend that time on getting my BIOS working properly. Wow I didn't realize how involved you were with creating an alternative BIOS, as well as creating a new motherboard. Can you go into more detail as to what it will be doing vs. the standard OS? Sounds very intriguing ? . Yeah I still have yet to bring my new board online. Still waiting for a dual inverter chip to arrive which is central to my primary oscillator circuit. I also need to write code to have my board fire up, but in my case it's code for the PIC chip. Good luck . 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted June 22, 2020 Author Share Posted June 22, 2020 Sure, first and foremost is support for the CompactFlash. The BIOS has the SIO vector to see if it's dealing with the CF, and if so, handles the R/W, etc. operations. Then there is built-in partitioning of the CF, and a loader that can be enabled from the one of the BIOS menus.. That is another addition, a BIOS menu system, that is entered if you RESET while holding down the HELP key. It has a few configuration options, commands, etc. This is one of the menu screens: I am using P/M graphics and DLIs to do a custom display list, and the screen memory used for building all of this, is another feature of my portable (i.e. the RAM under the PBI). I have made multiple changes to the OS ROM, to remove functionality I don't support on my hardware or want, to get more ROM space. There is also a built-in debugging mode, that current has a way of looking through memory and modifying it. I have plans for breakpoints, watched memory locations, etc. but I need to get the rest of the BIOS working and see how much ROM space I have available. Oh, and of course, I have a color scrolling Fuji when you boot the system. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamm Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 1 hour ago, selgus said: Sure, first and foremost is support for the CompactFlash. The BIOS has the SIO vector to see if it's dealing with the CF, and if so, handles the R/W, etc. operations. Then there is built-in partitioning of the CF, and a loader that can be enabled from the one of the BIOS menus.. That is another addition, a BIOS menu system, that is entered if you RESET while holding down the HELP key. It has a few configuration options, commands, etc. This is one of the menu screens: I am using P/M graphics and DLIs to do a custom display list, and the screen memory used for building all of this, is another feature of my portable (i.e. the RAM under the PBI). I have made multiple changes to the OS ROM, to remove functionality I don't support on my hardware or want, to get more ROM space. There is also a built-in debugging mode, that current has a way of looking through memory and modifying it. I have plans for breakpoints, watched memory locations, etc. but I need to get the rest of the BIOS working and see how much ROM space I have available. Oh, and of course, I have a color scrolling Fuji when you boot the system. O_O Most impressive! You'll want to squeeze in high speed SIO routines in there, too. They'll be invaluable once you start playing with FujiNet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 27 minutes ago, jamm said: O_O Most impressive! You'll want to squeeze in high speed SIO routines in there, too. They'll be invaluable once you start playing with FujiNet any SIO connected device like an SDrive-MAX, SIO2PC, SIO2SD, Happy 1050, FujiNet, or any device that is capable of faster speeds than a stock Atari disk drive. Fixed that for you. ? 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted June 22, 2020 Author Share Posted June 22, 2020 18 minutes ago, DrVenkman said: Fixed that for you. ? I started looking at the high-speed SIO code today, and since I already overload this vector for the CF support, I will look to add this support too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 2 hours ago, selgus said: Wow!!! That's going to be sweet! So you are not only a fantastic hardware guy, but also a software genius as well. Will this new BIOS also work in a stock XEGS with the CF card added? If so people are going to want to use it outside of your system as well. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.