Intellivision *as* a Microcontroller?

[First Spear]

 

This is borderline for the programming forum, but I think this is a better spot. Anyway, i think it would be cool if some of the things that folks do with an Arduino - or used to do with an Apple II - were instead done with our favorite hand controllers and mighty CP1610 CPU. Like a kind of "Microcontroller Cartridge" that did some basic IO display but had lines-out to send signals for devices. Hmm, maybe something for input as well to get readings of temperature, etc like the Vernier Serial Box things.

 

The mind boggles. Or maybe it doesn't...

Edited August 31, 2016 by First Spear

[+Lathe26]

Definitely do-able, thought the size of the Intellivision console would make it a macrocontroller.

[+intvsteve]

With an internet connection, we could add a bunch of Seti@Home processing! Build an IntelliCloud!

 

But I've always wondered if you could actually use the controller ports as *outputs*. I thought those were digital I/O lines - not just inputs. I could be totally wrong though.

[First Spear]

I just saw a post on FB where someone found an old book at a thrift store, and it hilighted an Apple ][ as a motorized telescope controller. Of course I thought "an Intellivision should have been used for that".

[GroovyBee]

It has major disadvantages when compared to an Arduino system:

• Low clock frequency.
• CPU requires multiple voltage supplies to work.
• Needs a ton of support chips e.g. external RAM/ROM/glue logic and I/O chips to make even a basic system.
• Power hungry.
• No commercial availability.
• No mainstream support.
• No IDE and "C" compiler.
• Very tiny development community.

   

   

 

[intvnut]

It would be super ironic to use the Intellivision this way, given that the original PIC microcontroller was invented as a coprocessor for the CP1600, since the CP1600 wasn't great at I/O.

 

That said, if you have an ECS, you can use it today as a simple MCU with two 8 bit I/O ports. The two 8-bit controller ports on the ECS can be switched between input and output, and adhere to TTL voltage levels. Also, one of the jacks on the back of the ECS is used for controlling the cassette motor. It's switched on/off via a relay that's software controllable also.

 

 

But I've always wondered if you could actually use the controller ports as *outputs*. I thought those were digital I/O lines - not just inputs. I could be totally wrong though.

 

From what I understand (though I've never tested), the two 8-bit ports on the Master Component PSG are input only. (They were originally intended to be input/output, but documentation at PapaIntellivision suggests Mattel requested a change here. I've never tested it though.)

 

The two 8-bit ports in the ECS are definitely bi-directional. That's how the keyboard scanning works.

Edited September 1, 2016 by intvnut

[+Lathe26]

It would be super ironic to use the Intellivision this way, given that the original PIC microcontroller was invented as a coprocessor for the CP1600, since the CP1600 wasn't great at I/O.

 

...

 

I remembered this when I woke up this morning but you beat me to it. :-)

 

The only thing I can add is that "PIC" originally stood for Peripheral Interface Controller.

[carlsson]

You might still be able to read temperatures, detect if magnetic locks are opened etc so you could turn your Intellivision into a combined weather station and burglar alarm. That is unless it overheats before the thief has broken into your home.

[+BBWW]

I was at a relatively new hospital near Concord MA, last year and I'm sure the voice chip in the elevator was the same chip used in the intellivoice announcing the floors! So part of it is in a micro-controler somewhere!

[intvnut]

I was at a relatively new hospital near Concord MA, last year and I'm sure the voice chip in the elevator was the same chip used in the intellivoice announcing the floors! So part of it is in a micro-controler somewhere!

The SP0256 speech core got used tons of places. Kevin Horton dumped RESROMs from several variants. One of them was apparently from defibrillator, as I recall, with fun phrases like "STAND BACK!" in a very stern voice.

 

But, the SP0256 doesn't have the CP1600/CP1610 anywhere in it. So, you don't have to worry about relying on an overheating Intellivision to restart your heart if you ever have a heart attack. (Especially if what triggered it was poking around inside said Intellivision and accidentally touching the mains current on the wrong side of the transformer...)