MrPix
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Posts posted by MrPix
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I'm working on it, have been for a few months. However, I have a lot on my plate right now with the production of KitBox and the design of an internal mod that gives a CV the TMS-RGB functionality, plus everything else a person would normally do you update their CV. I also have the day job, and that's seen an uptick recently.
Just be patient a little while longer - it's coming.-
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Anyone waiting to order from me should order from Mobius. I have decided to not produce the V2 board and instead focus on the V3 design. The V2 board is absolutely spot on, and I'm sure the Mobius parts are of very high quality.
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Nope. Been doing paid work on a deadline... should be finished in a few days.
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A lot of the 256MB SD cards are only qualified for around 5,000 to 10,000 overwrites. The 4GB and up ones are qualified for an MTBF of 100,000 to 1,000,000 writes. Because of the circular method of the wear leveling algorithm, a 256MB card will last a long time - several months of constant writes. A 4GB card could be written to constantly for several decades before reaching the same point. More modern cards also have far better wear leveling algorithms.
At this point, all 1GB and smaller SD cards are reject dies from 2G+ cards, where the working section suits use under-formatted, so wear leveling is really a best effort and there's no guarantees.
That's the only other consideration I think might persuade any opinions. -
You can use 2GB uSD cards and format them with a smaller partition. The floppy emulator only sees the partition, not the raw size of the SD card.
In this case, just using 2GB or 4GB SD cards formatted to an arbitrary smaller size should work just fine.
It would be cheaper too. -
In light of competition, I have lowered the price of my TMS-RGB boards to $25.
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1 minute ago, -^CrossBow^- said:
Excellent as I need one of these or possibly two of them for testing. Also did you ever find a mini din for use with the Genesis 2 AV cables that can be panel mounted and not PCB mounted only for this? Not sure where he is sourcing them from, But it seems that Tim Worthington has panel mount versions of these mini dins that he provides in the 2600 RGB kits I've been told? Then again, when I think panel mount, I think of one that is really designed for mounting through a plastic frame and not just Epoxied into place like some s-video jacks I've seen.
I have not found the idea panel mounted mini-DIN yet. I'm testing out a 3D printed low key bezel that holds the normal mini-DIN, and has a PCB for wires and attachment. I'm not finished on that yet, because the mini-DINs I ordered might have slightly different dimensions to the ones I have on hand.
Pricing is a bit less than I expected: $34 each, plus $5 flat rate shipping for any quantity. So two would be $68 plus $5 shipping.-
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19 hours ago, Ruggers Customs said:
....a rather large batch coming from China in the next few weeks. His prices per board will be hard for anyone else to beat. He's been well known and well respected in the retro gaming community for years. I'll post a thread when he has his shipment if you can wait a few more weeks.
This is good news. The more and the cheaper, the better.
My delayed ICs just finished passing through customs and should be here soooooon
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I have a small batch of SP0256's coming in an effort to repair an Adam speech module. I'm definitely open to speech - but I'm pessimistic as I have reproduced the circuit I have on protoboards and they just don't work.
I don't see ATAPI IDE CD ROMs ever working on the CV, though they could on the Adam. I think micro-SD cards offer a better and cheaper option anyway.
I've had some paying work come in so I will be distracted for 2-3 weeks and moving slowly in spare time on this and the Inty video project. Bills gotta get paid. -
3 hours ago, jblenkle said:
Sounds good!!! Keep me informed!!!
I found out my Facebook Messenger app on my tablet hadn't been updated in three years - that may be the heart of my IM troubles and why I haven't had good luck with it in several years.
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11 hours ago, jblenkle said:
Yeah, well I don't know if you messaged me back on that or not. I don't seem to get your messages if you did. I was just wondering if you think my speech synthesizer is fixable or not. Didn't you say the chips lost their programming? I don't believe anyone ever dumped them so it might not be possible to reprogram new ones correctly. I know ZERO about such things.
I’ve got a last ditch effort IC coming from China. I have the suspicion it has the right speech patterns after listening to audio of it on a TI. If that fails, I’ll be sending you pack your synthesizer having learned a LOT about it and how it works. I could make a new one, but that’s different and easier than fixing the existing one.
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2 hours ago, LoTonah said:
He had my attention with CP/M 3 in ROM and the SD card. Please be real... please be real...
The SD part is functional, and does not use AdamNet/ADE... It runs at the full speed of the machine.
CP/M 3 is underway. It's a bigger and longer term project, and mostly comes from my own personal desire to use it with its improved memory handling. I will probably stick it in whatever state it is in on github towards the end of the year. The hard part of it for me will be the bootstrap for booting it off ROM.-
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Hi there!On 7/10/2020 at 8:43 AM, -^CrossBow^- said:Is the optional s-video portion nearly completion to work with this as well?
My current S-Video and clean composite card doesn't fit the TMS-RGB or the CV well, so it's getting a redesign. I also designed it for NTSC only, so I am redesigning it to be selectable as NTSC or PAL, which is configured at build time. I estimate this work, plus testing, will take 2-3 weeks. Luckily, that matches perfectly the 2-3 week wait on a part from TI's location in Singapore.
On 7/10/2020 at 8:43 AM, -^CrossBow^- said:Once I've gotten a hold of one of these kits to test on one of my own CVs, I'd like to be added to the list of potential installers if others are okay and onboard with that idea?
PM me and I'll send you the details.
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I'm working hard on getting the parts together to assemble a run of 250 boards. A lot of the parts are here already. Some parts are coming a long way, and from multiple sources. When they arrive, I need to test them to make sure they're genuine and function correctly, then mass assembly will take place. If I end up waiting on just one part holding everything up, I'll buy enough to fulfill orders from digikey and wait for those other parts to come in.
I'll keep you all posted here.
I'm at the hands of the postal services who are at the mercy of the pandemic.
Excellent and informative site, Falonn!-
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I did some work on this on Tuesday but I forgot to make oscilloscope snapshots. I have more work planned and will try do capture this then, also photos.
’cos photos or it never happened.
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If that situation arises, I’d 100% work with you on that.
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Another vote for Ruggers.
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How altruistic do you plan to be with the name? $1 licenses? If I get it, that’s what I’d do.
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If you need help with assembly, I have an SMD assembly capability. When the new pick and place comes my capacity will be about 500 boards a week.
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A couple of things here after talking to my attorney.
1. If CollectorVision allows passing off, this weakens CV's claim to their own trademarks.
2. This does not strengthen Coleco Holdings' claim to CH's TMs, which remain fraudulent.
These two sentences cost me $75, so make the most of them.
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1 hour ago, jblenkle said:
You got my attention with MIDI and SPEECH!!!
The speech is all your fault so...
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This.
A $10,000 sale is a $10,000 sale. It doesn't have to be about more than that. $10,000 extra funds on a marginal cost for extending the run slightly means a lot more resources available for the Next Big Thing.-
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3 hours ago, digress said:
dina 2 in 1 support
a dina is a dual colecovision & sega sg1000 machine. i have 1. it had 2 slots 1 for the sg1000 carts and 1 for the colecovision.
adding a sg1000 compatiblibilty would be cool. My dina takes a mycard convertor too which is a rom cart like a credit card similar to what they then used in the master system.
I haven't heard of this "dina" though I've seen a couple of SG1000s. I honestly don't know what's involved. I'm not going to discount it though, because I have considered adding the 2600 functionality for the mk II release later.
3 hours ago, digress said:I mentioned a few ideas before. Here 1 more probably not gonna happen but...
often cd tracks could be played on early dos cd rom games that were just controlled by the game when to start & stop them.
so an sd version of this. So we could use full music sound tracks instead of the builtin music ability and reserve that only for sfx.
additionally this could relate to full motion video as an option too.
I have no idea about that at all. I imagine it would be quite easy with vintage CD players, but not at all easy with new ones. I haven't seen a system with this - so I'll write it down, but more out of morbid curiosity.
As a segue, there was a huge AV project in the UK back in the 80s. They used laser disks and BBC micros to distribute a crowd-sourced "Domesday Book" to make a current version of the original Domesday Book. It's amazing to me that the digital Domesday Book by the BBC has fallen into complete obscurity in less than 40 years, and is probably not even readable on any modern system. -
Either way, I would not do it without the full co-operation of the CV team. It's a complex product and there are going to be subtleties critical to the design that won't be obvious from the HDL. Also, the F18A is licensed separately by Matthew. I know he intends to fully open that once the F18A mk II is released, but that's a matter for his schedule. He may only release the mk I at first. I do have a modest head start here because my company is already an HDMI license holder.
Right now, my to do list includes investigating the ideas suggested above while also trying to find an obscure ChildOfCv thread talking about the differences between US and EU expansion ports so I can provide proper EU PAL/SECAM support.
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TMS-RGB: An RGB Mod for 2020 and Beyond
in ColecoVision / Adam
Posted
There are two things going on in this image. The first is a single sharp reflection. This suggests either improper impedance matching in the cable or termination at the receiver end. There is also a consistent clock pattern that looks like induced EMI. It is both positive and negative going.
In this case, using a shielded cable from the TMS-RGB and also rerouting the cable well away from any sources of interference should resolve the issues.
The third and less likely alternative, but harder to address, is a failing capacitor or choke near the VDP. If power/ground bounce is happening, this gets imposed on all signals.