PICO9918 - a TMS9918A drop-in replacement powered by a Pi Pico (RP2040)

[visrealm]

Next revision of my no-cut PCB came in this week. Looks great. Much slimmer.

 

 

Two-tone case testing

 

"Clay" case

 

 

Edit: The vent holes are marginally narrower on my black case, so it will require two different versions of the top piece. I haven't modified/printed one to fit my black case yet.

Edited November 24 by visrealm

[visrealm]

After a short prototyping period, I've just ordered the next batch of PICO9918s (v1.2).

 

These will incorporate support for a 12pin 0.5mm FFC VGA dongle while maintaining the "legacy" 6-pin 1.25mm JST connector as a fallback (just remove the FFC connector and replace it with a JST).

 

 

The reason behind the change is three-fold.

• Reduce possible interference on the longer 300mm cables.
• Reduce the number of manual steps in producing these (although at a higher production cost).
• Make it easier for SCART folk to use a SCART dongle (coming soon)

My plan is to ship these with the FFC connector by default and provide a VGA connector like this:

 

 

And I'll also produce a SCART connector for those who prefer that. My TI-99 no-cut PCB will get yet another revision to incorporate the new connector too.

 

The FFC cable is 12-pin and includes a ground line between all signal lines. It also includes a 5V line which will be required for SCART. If, for whatever reason this turns out to be a terrible idea, I can revert to using the JST connectors with minimal effort.

 

Despite the higher cost to produce these like this with the additional custom PCB, I will maintain the same $35 sale price due to (hopefully) reduced labor on my end.

[Ti_99_Guy]

That's truly fantastic....

[visrealm]

7 hours ago, Ti_99_Guy said:

That's truly fantastic....

Thanks. I expect I'll have stock in around two weeks. Once I've received, completed assembly and tested these. I sell globally on Tindie from Australia and Arcade Shopper will stock them in the US generally a week or so after that.