zaphro72 Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 On 10/21/2021 at 1:29 AM, fieroluke said: Actually I haven’t. Since my board will contain at least some of the SGM capabilities including RAM and sound (so hopefully some SGM games will run on it), and the expansion bus on my board only supports the Atari expansion module I’m not sure how Opcode Games will feel about it. If you work out a licensing fee with him he would likely be fine on the original SGM side, or at least that's what I believe eventually happened with the CollectorVision Phoenix. I don't know about the SGM2 as it isn't out yet and it is designed to output its own video. This is a really cool project you have put together. Lots of people have talked about it but to see someone actually do it is cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieroluke Posted October 22, 2021 Author Share Posted October 22, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, zaphro72 said: If you work out a licensing fee with him he would likely be fine on the original SGM side, or at least that's what I believe eventually happened with the CollectorVision Phoenix. I don't know about the SGM2 as it isn't out yet and it is designed to output its own video. This is a really cool project you have put together. Lots of people have talked about it but to see someone actually do it is cool. Well, I don’t see the why a licensing fee would be warranted. Adding 32K RAM (the only RAM chips in DIL package that are still available) to a Z80 and implementing one bit from a register to disable the ROM can be credited to the ADAM engineers if anyone. I’ve never even seen an SGM or schematics, so I didn’t copy anything either. Besides, I’m not going to sell these things anyway, at least not built ones. Maybe blank boards at cost. This is a fun project, and it would be cool to be able to run games that support those capabilities, that’s all. Edited October 22, 2021 by fieroluke Typo 6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMarcoux66 Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 This is so cool. Would love to get one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 On 10/22/2021 at 9:59 AM, fieroluke said: Besides, I’m not going to sell these things anyway, at least not built ones. Maybe blank boards at cost. This is a fun project, and it would be cool to be able to run games that support those capabilities, that’s all. I would be all/in for populating blank boards. I volunteer as a QA tester. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieroluke Posted October 25, 2021 Author Share Posted October 25, 2021 Update: my AY-3-8910 sound chip showed up today! Together with the 24K Adam RAM the test cart played nicely! 6 channel sound is nice! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieroluke Posted October 25, 2021 Author Share Posted October 25, 2021 (edited) … and ADAM memory register implemented! Full 32K accessible, as is the AY sound chip! Successful day! Edited October 25, 2021 by fieroluke 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieroluke Posted October 28, 2021 Author Share Posted October 28, 2021 Fixed the color issue (intermittent connection of a critical cap)! Big thanks to @Falonn! Now black really is black, saturation could be better, but that may be the TV. so I’m pretty happy with it now. Adam ram and ay-sound are working, going to test sgm game soon. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yurkie Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 Very cool. Is the video output RGB or composite or both? I think it should be both and use the same Din jack as the model one Sega Genesis, that way SCART (RGB) and composite cables could be shared/readily available. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yurkie Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 Also you should consider putting thru holes to allow original power switch and reset to be installed. A rebuilt power switch is very reliable and I only experienced a reset switch issue a couple times out of many hundreds of consoles I worked on. This allows for a perfect drop in for original case and physical buttons. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieroluke Posted October 31, 2021 Author Share Posted October 31, 2021 1 hour ago, Yurkie said: Very cool. Is the video output RGB or composite or both? I think it should be both and use the same Din jack as the model one Sega Genesis, that way SCART (RGB) and composite cables could be shared/readily available. For NTSC there’s composite output (could be test it, don’t have a 9918), with the 9928/9929 there’s RGB and b/w composite & color composite with the expansion module (again untested because I do have one). the RGB is the Genesis 2 Mini DIn connector. 1 hour ago, Yurkie said: Also you should consider putting thru holes to allow original power switch and reset to be installed. A rebuilt power switch is very reliable and I only experienced a reset switch issue a couple times out of many hundreds of consoles I worked on. This allows for a perfect drop in for original case and physical buttons. I actually added that with the next board revision today. Since I can’t get original buttons, there are also replacement buttons that are available today that drop in also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieroluke Posted December 27, 2021 Author Share Posted December 27, 2021 Rev. B (third iteration) boards showed up today! They look gorgeous as usual, with minor improvements: The board now fits both NTSC and PAL machines, and now the original power switch fits as well as an alternative (similar) switch still being made today. Same goes for reset switches: Coleco original or modern alternative! There are now also two alternative locations to feed power: rear of the console (preferred for PAL machines) or near Controller jack 2, routing cable through stock power jack hole. You can follow the progress at my ColecoVision blog: DIY-ColecoVision 13 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nateo Posted January 19, 2022 Share Posted January 19, 2022 Excited to see how this progresses. I have what might be a perfect candidate for a transplant with this board given that the RAM in a CV I've been working on has rusted itself onto the mainboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieroluke Posted January 19, 2022 Author Share Posted January 19, 2022 1 hour ago, Nateo said: Excited to see how this progresses. I have what might be a perfect candidate for a transplant with this board given that the RAM in a CV I've been working on has rusted itself onto the mainboard. Have you checked out my blog? (Link in post above) im currently testing the expansion module #1. It basically works, but my Genesis 2 cable is hardwired to RGB, so my TV doesn’t switch to Composite when I plug in the expansion module. I get sound but no picture. I do see composite video on my oscilloscope though, so I blame my TV. my Tv only has Scart, so I must come up with adapters to continue testing… 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted January 19, 2022 Share Posted January 19, 2022 15 minutes ago, fieroluke said: Have you checked out my blog? (Link in post above) im currently testing the expansion module #1. It basically works, but my Genesis 2 cable is hardwired to RGB, so my TV doesn’t switch to Composite when I plug in the expansion module. I get sound but no picture. I do see composite video on my oscilloscope though, so I blame my TV. my Tv only has Scart, so I must come up with adapters to continue testing… So have you been able to test the board on an NTSC TV so far? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nateo Posted January 19, 2022 Share Posted January 19, 2022 23 minutes ago, fieroluke said: Have you checked out my blog? (Link in post above) im currently testing the expansion module #1. It basically works, but my Genesis 2 cable is hardwired to RGB, so my TV doesn’t switch to Composite when I plug in the expansion module. I get sound but no picture. I do see composite video on my oscilloscope though, so I blame my TV. my Tv only has Scart, so I must come up with adapters to continue testing… I did check out the blog! And I'm very grateful for your documenting the development of this project! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieroluke Posted January 19, 2022 Author Share Posted January 19, 2022 44 minutes ago, Pixelboy said: So have you been able to test the board on an NTSC TV so far? Afaik the TV is Multistandard, but the Coleco is RGB anyway, so the only part that’s NTSC or PAL is the expansion module itself, and I only have a PAL one (and only PAL Atari carts as well)… 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted January 19, 2022 Share Posted January 19, 2022 35 minutes ago, fieroluke said: Afaik the TV is Multistandard, but the Coleco is RGB anyway, so the only part that’s NTSC or PAL is the expansion module itself, and I only have a PAL one (and only PAL Atari carts as well)… If you need an NTSC EM#1 and a few NTSC Atari 2600 carts, I can help you out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieroluke Posted January 19, 2022 Author Share Posted January 19, 2022 54 minutes ago, Pixelboy said: If you need an NTSC EM#1 and a few NTSC Atari 2600 carts, I can help you out. Thanks for the offer! I’m in the process of building one for you so you can test drive it extensively… 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted January 20, 2022 Share Posted January 20, 2022 I have one of @fieroluke’s boards. It is a true work of beauty! Although I am decent with electronics and soldering, populating the board is going to be quite a bit of work for me. I will need to project manage this and break it down into small steps that I can do daily for probably a few weeks. If the v2 board production is ramping up, I would like to get a group order going for the components. Anyone willing to volunteer to head that up? I would, but I already have a few projects on backlog. Would love to see a skilled video tutorial for this a la those of @-^CrossBow^- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted January 20, 2022 Share Posted January 20, 2022 I wouldn't mind checking one of these out to see well it works with some my 2 trouble carts that are very picky about the CVs they will work on. And putting together any project like this, you always start with the smallest components and then work your way up from there. If I did a video on something like that it would likely be done similar to how I did the Genesis recap vid where I sped it up from start to finish and barely spoke at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieroluke Posted January 20, 2022 Author Share Posted January 20, 2022 5 hours ago, phattyboombatty said: I have one of @fieroluke’s boards. It is a true work of beauty! Although I am decent with electronics and soldering, populating the board is going to be quite a bit of work for me. I will need to project manage this and break it down into small steps that I can do daily for probably a few weeks. If the v2 board production is ramping up, I would like to get a group order going for the components. Anyone willing to volunteer to head that up? I would, but I already have a few projects on backlog. Would love to see a skilled video tutorial for this a la those of @-^CrossBow^- Once I have tested all details of the current version (and this is a spare time thing), I’ll prepare the files to have the boards made including all or the majority of SMT components in China. That‘ll make component sourcing so much easier and building one should be possible in an evening or maybe a weekend. 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieroluke Posted February 3, 2022 Author Share Posted February 3, 2022 I have designed a 3D printable sleeve to fit over my replacement for the power switch. Next to the original switch you can see it‘s very similar! (The board also accepts the original switch if you have one, but not everyone does) 9 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieroluke Posted February 20, 2022 Author Share Posted February 20, 2022 I finally made some progress with my replacement mainboard today! Using a small bios patch, I enabled intrinsic 64K ADAM RAM if no cart is inserted, and wrote a minimalistic cartridge header into RAM at $8000 before retesting for a cartridge. I used a boring Game name and copyright ©2222 because I hand coded the assembly and patched the bios. But the important news is: it worked as planned! So next I can test the USB port to actually download games through USB from a PC… 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ten-four Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 Unbelievable amazing to follow this project. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kneehighspy Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 great following this, please let us know when these are available for purchase, definitely want a couple. //kneehighspy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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