PiRTO II multicart just published

[aotta]

For who's interested, my last and cheaper and simpler version of the RTO multicart for intellivision:

https://github.com/aotta/PiRTOII

[mthompson]

Neat.

 

One correction you might make to the Github page to avoid any confusion: the line "Colecovision flash multicart based on Pico clone" should say "Intellivision."

[aotta]

3 hours ago, mthompson said:

Neat.

 

One correction you might make to the Github page to avoid any confusion: the line "Colecovision flash multicart based on Pico clone" should say "Intellivision."

Thank you, of course i copy&pasted the readme from my previous projects, that's why the typo! 😁

Edited May 18 by aotta

[max4677]

I happen to still have one Pi Pico from my 360 modding and may try this.  I am still having a miserable time getting my Teensy based RTO running with my NTSC Model 2609 and I just got a bunch of 74LVC245ANs from DigiKey, so one would hope that those are legit.  Will this iteration of your cart have the same timing problems with setup on an NTSC Intellivision?

 

Edit: I saw on your Github that using a real Pi Pico is a bad idea.  Do you have a link to the proper board that should be used?

Edited May 18 by max4677

[+Philsan]

Congratulations Andrea.

[aotta]

23 hours ago, max4677 said:

I happen to still have one Pi Pico from my 360 modding and may try this.  I am still having a miserable time getting my Teensy based RTO running with my NTSC Model 2609 and I just got a bunch of 74LVC245ANs from DigiKey, so one would hope that those are legit.  Will this iteration of your cart have the same timing problems with setup on an NTSC Intellivision?

 

Edit: I saw on your Github that using a real Pi Pico is a bad idea.  Do you have a link to the proper board that should be used?

Last firmware for PiRTO and PIRTO II doesn't use furthermore an hardcoded delay but reads bus cycles from bdir, bc1 and bc2 signals from inty, and there's no timing issue reported since now. Strangely, some approach didn't worked with original RTO.

About the Pico clone, i ordered mine from aliexpress, simply looking for pico 16mb or pico purple.

Different vendors use different flash eprom ICs, but all worked fine until now.

 

[max4677]

1 hour ago, aotta said:

Last firmware for PiRTO and PIRTO II doesn't use furthermore an hardcoded delay but reads bus cycles from bdir, bc1 and bc2 signals from inty, and there's no timing issue reported since now. Strangely, some approach didn't worked with original RTO.

About the Pico clone, i ordered mine from aliexpress, simply looking for pico 16mb or pico purple.

Different vendors use different flash eprom ICs, but all worked fine until now.

 

Sounds good.  I'll look into that if/when I build a new batch.  But, on the Teensy front, I have good news to report.  Tissemon had given me v1.1b of your code that you supplied him with, and so far it is working perfectly with my NTSC 2609 Intellivision 1.  I have been able to play 4-Tris, Astrosmash, Air Strike, AD&D, and Burgertime! without any trouble so far.  This is when using the DigiKey supplied 74LVC245ANs.  I happen to have them socketed into this board, so I might try the Amazon reseller supplied ones and see what happens.  I'm not much of a coder, but I did see that the delRD and delWR variables were commented out.  I'm guessing you were able to apply the same bus cycle reading that is used on your PiRTO?

Edited May 20 by max4677

[aotta]

Thanks for the report about RTO, yes i sent to Tissemon for some test the new version, but never published it because in my RTO it worked worst than the v.1.1. 

[+BBWW]

I would love one of these. Please build more and I’ll send you the big bucks!

[Tissemon]

Really cool project, as always!

Does it matter what diode you use on it? Will DO-35 Diode IN5711 work?

And what kind of reset-button and screws did you use?

[Tissemon]

@aotta I noticed that 1N4148 diodes were even cheaper - will one of those work on this cart?

I also have a little question about this sentance on your GitHub-page: "you need only a diode and a push buttons for resetting the cart if needed or want restart." - I get that the reset-button is optional - but do you mean that the diode is only needed if I want to be able to reset with the button on the cart?

 

Also, you didn't mention the transistor in the text on GitHub, but it's in the KiCad-file. But I assume that the BC547 must be on the board as well for the cart to function, right?

[aotta]

@Tissemon you are right, i think i can declare you RTO's expert!  

Yes i used BC547 and 1N4148, and angled push button 6x6x12. Screws for shell are M2,5x16.

 

[Tissemon]

30 minutes ago, aotta said:

@Tissemon you are right, i think i can declare you RTO's expert!  

Yes i used BC547 and 1N4148, and angled push button 6x6x12. Screws for shell are M2,5x16.

 

Thanks 🙂

Well, I've got a collection going here now, so I just ordered all the stuff needed to make some PiRTO II:s as well 🙂

[Tissemon]

@aotta you should consider renaming this cart to either PiR2 or PiRTwo - feels like a missed opportunity 😉

[SiberianSpForces]

I haven't assembled all of my boards yet. 😆 Once I do, I'll give the II a whirl. 

[obocafree]

@aotta Would you happen to build and sell some PiRTO II for those of us who don't deal well with pcbs and 3d print?

I live in Spain so shipment from Italy wouldn't be expensive i guess...

🙏

[aotta]

Sorry but i had only a couple of spare carts, and  they're just shipped. I don't intend to order further pcbs, but i think other members are going to built their, and may be they could write here if some more available for selling

[+5-11under]

I've got a few boards on the way, which I'll likely populate and sell. Probably only 4-5 at a time.

[+Steve Jones]

8 hours ago, 5-11under said:

I've got a few boards on the way, which I'll likely populate and sell. Probably only 4-5 at a time.

put me down for one when they are ready

[obocafree]

12 hours ago, 5-11under said:

I've got a few boards on the way, which I'll likely populate and sell. Probably only 4-5 at a time.

I'll be looking forward them, thanks! 😙

[Tissemon]

Here we go again! 🙂

Before anybody starts sending messages to me about buying:

I'm only making 10 carts and THEY WILL ONLY BE FOR SALE IN SWEDEN - I will not send them anywhere outside Sweden.

 

I've made one cart so far and here are some notes if anybody else wants to make a cart:

The pads for the transistor are very close together on the PCB - I first bridged two of the by accident. Luckily didn't hurt neither my console or the cart - just gave me blank screen. A bit flux and resolder and the problem went away 🙂 Check with MultiMeter that no legs are connected after soldering if you are unsure!

FATfs is a bit limited and won't load ANY games if ONE or more files with bad or too many characters exist in a folder. Bad characters include , : ; ! and a few more. Took a while for me to find them all, Seems that quite a few games have ! in them. Like Shark! Shark! 🙂

I renamed my files and now they all work.

Bad Apple demo won't work on this cart either (only works on original RTO).

Sometimes when I turn on my unit - the image is just totally blank - I then had to first push reset on my Intellivision and then reset on the PiRTO II-cart. Did not work if I did it in reversed order. Might be something that is fixable with a software update, but then again, it's not really a problem since it doesn't even happen all the time.

And lastly the shell fits quite badly for me the screws are 1mm too far apart so I had to cut the plastic a bit to fit the PCB. The shell is also about 1mm too high, so it's a very tight fit into the connector. These issues is probably because I use a 0,6mm nozzle on my 3D-printer, instead of 0,4mm. So I'm redesigning the shell a bit to fit my needs. Printing a new test as I type here now 🙂

 

Great job as usual @aotta !