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playvectrex

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Posts posted by playvectrex

  2. Posted

    I'm also adding this as an option:

     

    Vectrex Cartridge Dumper adapters are now for sale, and the only way to currently get them is at a discount of $10 OFF! (i.e. $15 instead of $25)

    This offer is good for today only. I have a limited supply as well and will update this post when they are all sold.

     

    Please check out the details here on how to order one: www.playvectrex.com/vectrexfreestuff/

     

    Don't know what this is?? See my youtube demo here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFcWr0XlpS0

     

    NOTE: you can still get the Vectrex LED board for free if you wish or $10 OFF this Cart Dumper adapter board. If you're already getting the free LED board, and would like the dumper as well, please DM me for your options.

     

    NOTE: When checking out with your purchase, you will be subject to a terms of purchase where you will be required to agree that you will only use this adapter for your own personal use and will not share binaries with others.

    Please DM me if you have any questions.

     

    cart-dumper1.jpgcart-dumper2.jpg

  5. Posted

    Hi friends! For this week only (Feb 22 - 26th), I'm giving away FREE Vectrex LED boards!

    These are RGB selectable LED boards that are designed to be soldered onto the bottom of your Vectrex cartridge to light it up.  They work best with translucent cases of course 😉

    Check out a video of their operation here.

     

    There's also free swag and a chance to win multiple prizes up to $500 cash!

     

    👉 All of the details on how to get one are here: https://www.playvectrex.com/vectrexledfree

     

    Please be patient with me if there is high demand... I will process your message and it WILL ship!

     

    vectrex-led-free.jpg

    image1.jpg

     

    Every shipment also gets some random free vinyl stickers!

    image1.jpg

    image0.jpg

     

  9. Posted

    Read what you wrote... and I'm lost without a visual aid... I think and nice table comparison would be appropriate:

    Button | Instructions                                    | Sean K.                        | S. Kray                     | Actual Game Play

    =======================================================================

            1 | 

            2 |

            3 | power swing/change up (slow pitch) | slow swing (slow pitch) | fast swing (fast pitch)  | ?

            4 | normal swing/fastball (fast pitch)     | fast swing (fast pitch)   | slow swing (slow pitch) | ?

    I have a feeling this won't render correctly, so I've attached a screenshot as well :D

    Screen Shot 2020-05-21 at 11.22.49 AM.png

    • Like 1

  11. Posted · Edited by playvectrex
    added v0.3 stuff

    16 minutes ago, Game-Tech.US said:

    If this does happen, what is the fix?

    Turn off the Vectrex and unplug the USB cable.  Then power up just the Vectrex.  Basically, if it ever messes up... just remove all power, and start over. 

    v0.3 hardware will have a reset button so in theory to recover from a mishap you could just press reset on VEXTREME, and reset on Vectrex.  Most carts won't have reset exposed though, I'd guess.  Definitely something developers would want though.

    In the future, if updating and adding games.  Eject the USB and unplug it before turning on the Vectrex.

     

    With >=v0.24, you'll be able to Eject the USB and leave it plugged in, but you must still Eject it first before turning on the Vectrex. v0.24 will bring Developer Mode to VEXTREME, which will allow you to very rapidly flash games to VEXTREME have them boot instantly on the Vectrex. Coming soon!

     

    v0.3 hardware will bring "Lazy Developer Mode" :D which will allow you to turn your Vectrex on without Ejecting the USB, and it will still work and boot properly.  This will also be considered "Whoops, I forgot to eject my USB mode".

    If you want to help me stay fueled on this project, please consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/XzUGYrhL3 ❤️ 

    • Like 2

  12. Posted

    1 hour ago, Game-Tech.US said:

    No I don't visit the FB or dicord regularly, sorry can only do so much...

    Well that's unfortunate for those 100 people.  I do check these places regularly, so yes.. even though I don't want to have to support 100 v0.2 carts with soldermask issues, you've kind of made it my problem... especially since you are vacant. I'm also not trying to be combative, but I'm not entirely happy either... seeing these troubled carts with no follow up support being sold for quite a mark up.

     

    There were many reports of games crashing, and also booting up with mine storm instead of the menu after adding roms.  Mostly on FB.  Both can easily be explained by soldermask issues.

    Testing on one machine is not a great indicator for how the carts will operate on all units out there.  I've had varying results with my 3 Veccy's with the soldermask issue carts, and I also see other minor issues that will be addressed at some point.  Again, just to note: this is not a finished product right now, we're on v0.23 of this project, everything has been pre-production releases.

     

    There was a change to how games reset as well in v0.21 SW, which would have helped the runtime operation of games, preventing them from crashing.  This was only an issue on certain games AFAIK, but it might have extended to more games on certain Vectrex units with really long reset delays (not sure why there would be such long delays though, like well into the game play).

     

    The "not detecting" as you call it is just the Vectrex not being able to read a valid cart header.  Lots of reasons why this can happen as well, many of which are soldermask related.  But one that might explain some cases is misuse of the cart... you cannot leave the cart plugged into USB after adding roms, without ejecting it, before turning on the Vectrex.  If you do, it will just boot into mine storm.  I would think that would be discovered easily by the user though.

     

    Just speaking to all reading this back and fourth: This is part of the potential drama that comes with open source HW/SW... I'm trying not to let it affect me because I really want to continue to create a great product for the Vectrex community (along with others that are contributing), and I will.  I'm not trying to profit off of it.  It certainly makes development harder when people are trying to profit off of this work, without contributing back to the project.  So if you would like to help the VEXTREME project, we are here: https://discord.gg/xH22tzW  If you see units for sale, and are wondering if you should buy them, just ask and we'll let you know the state of things.  Game on people!

  13. Posted

    24 minutes ago, Game-Tech.US said:

    which BTW were made before any solder mask warnings were put out

    I posted about the soldermask issue about a month before you made your 100 boards: https://github.com/technobly/VEXTREME/issues/10

    You didn't start selling the boards until long after I had confirmed this issue with you.  So let's not pretend we didn't know about it ;-) 

    There are lots of customers that posted on the Vectrex Fans Unite Facebook group with game crashing issues, and I suspect many of them just didn't contact you for support or a refund.  I replied to them with how to test for this issue, and how to contact you.  I didn't see you there offering support.

     

    37 minutes ago, Game-Tech.US said:

    Now the only known issue seems to be cart detection, sometimes his console will not know the vextreme cart is there and will boot straight to built in game.

    I could see this still being a solder mask issue, but not on all pins, could it be just pin 32 of the cart?

    There is a lot more to go wrong to make the Vectrex drop back to the built in Mine Storm than just pin 32 (/CARTS) line which no carts ever used AFAIK.  All carts use /CE and /OE to effectively do the same thing as /CARTS and so does VEXTREME.  That said, if any of the 8 data lines, 15 address lines, /CE, /OE, R/W, or +5V or GND are intermittently making contact with the Vectrex connector... the game can crash, or not be seen.  So that's pretty much every pin of the cart.  Which is why the soldermask must be removed in front of the fingers, because it might work on one machine, but not on another... or might be intermittently making contact on the same machine between cart updates i.e. adding some new games (this is a very commonly reported issue on the FB group BTW).  I'm guessing many users remove the cart to do the updates, and then put the cart back in.. not they have to though.

     

    17 minutes ago, Game-Tech.US said:

    Also seeing this in changelog:

    - Made the contacts on the edge connector thinner (1.52mm) and made sure they were
       spaced properly (2.54mm).

    Maybe they are too thin now?

    How wide are the original contact pads?

    The fingers are still wider than original carts (which are 2.54mm/2 and spaced every 2.54mm).  I would not suspect this to be the issue.  The cart PCB is also 48.0mm wide, so it perfectly centers itself as well.  Same width as original carts.

     

    19 minutes ago, Game-Tech.US said:

    I also noted obvious line in the contacts made from the console's fingers, all were on the contact pads, none were out on the solder mask...

    Well the leading edge of the PCB is the first thing the Vectrex connector contacts touch, and as they wipe across they make their way finally to the PCB fingers.  If you don't see marks on the soldermask, it's because it is sufficiently harder than the HASL finish of the PCB fingers (which is just solder).  Soldermask is typically a hard epoxy based ink... so not likely to show much abuse.

  15. Posted

    34 minutes ago, xrbrevin said:

    dam, i just ordered a PCB to assemble one up

    any idea when the 0.3 will be available?

    UHG, did you remove the soldermask around the fingers by chance?  You can track v0.3 progress here: https://github.com/technobly/VEXTREME/projects/1  This is a hobby project, so it's hard to say when v0.3 will be done, but most of the software tasks (and many extras that there were not planned) have been completed.  This is giving me all of the ammo needed to make whatever v0.3 hardware changes are necessary.

  16. Posted

    5 hours ago, sixersfan105 said:

    What's the best way to purchase a VEXTREME at this time? I see what appears to be a third-party selling them on eBay but I would rather support the developer directly if possible. Cheers. 

    I would wait for v0.3 ... and the ones on eBay have the soldermask problem.  Best to avoid them.  When we make up a batch of v0.3's, I'll be sure to post about it here.

  17. Posted

    On 4/24/2020 at 3:38 PM, chopperthedog said:

    @gtoal On the back side I just used some good clear label/packaging tape. Doesn't show up when installed on vec. If I was going to go further with these, was thinking of getting sheets of paper backed label covers and cutting custom shaped pieces for the smaller items. Battlezone and others with score window at top is just one long piece trimmed to edge of overlay. The trick to using rolled tape is to pull a long length off swiftly to not damage the glue on the tape so that you have a clean clear piece. Armor attack is just the grid cut out in blue and with small pieces of tape affixed to the reverse side of yellow. 😛 Same with WoW. 

     

    Hot lamination would not go well for sure. Edge to edge gluing crossed my mind, but never attempted knowing that would fail as well. They do hold up well though, never considered the custom ones as a polished product though. I enjoy the hell out of them for myself. And sadly I'm sitting on material to make 20 more sets of the colored overlays I was selling before, but it is all garbage, warps in colors, not fully transparent, was a gut punch and huge money loss. :(  Experimented with some other sources and it's like everyone has the same bad batch.

     

     

    good day.

    7.2.jpg

    @chopperthedog Sorry to hear that.  Any recommendations here, or ones to stay away from?  Or is it just a gamble? Thanks!  https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=Transparent+Color+Correction+Light+Gel+Filter+Set&ref=nb_sb_noss

  18. Posted

    Hey gang, I have released VEXTREME v0.23 compiled binaries here: https://github.com/technobly/VEXTREME/releases/tag/v0.23

     

    v0.23 Changelog:
    1. Fixes issue where VEXTREME takes several minutes to mount as USB drive on Windows #53

     

    Instructions on updating are easy enough:
    1. Install the JP1 jumper and power cycle.
    2. Use dfu-util to flash the veccart.bin like this:
    dfu-util -a 0 -d 0483:df11 -s 0x08000000:leave -D veccart.bin
    3. Remove the jumper again, and mount the USB drive and copy over the multicart.bin to the root

  20. Posted

    Hey gang,

     

    I have released VEXTREME v0.22 compiled binaries here: https://github.com/technobly/vextreme/releases/tag/v0.22

     

    v0.22 Changelog:

    • ignore all file extensions that are not .bin or .vec (case insensitive), PR #49
    • increased quick reset delay to 700ms, PR #45
    • adds HW/SW version to VEXTREME menu and games, PR #48 (see example in LED Test v1.1.bin)
    Instructions on updating are easy enough:
    1. Install the JP1 jumper and power cycle.
    2. Use dfu-util to flash the veccart.bin like this:
    dfu-util -a 0 -d 0483:df11 -s 0x08000000:leave -D veccart.bin
    3. Remove the jumper again, and mount the USB drive and copy over the multicart.bin to the root, and new LED Test v1.1.bin to the roms/LED/ folder

  21. Posted

    Just now, Sbeehive said:

    Now is that the solder-mask for all of the fingers or half of them? The picture in the github shows half - but the video looks like all of them. Asking before I inevitably wreck this PCB by being overzealous with the scraping.

    All 36 of them :D The picture is just to show a splitscreen view of what GOOD vs. BAD looks like.

    -------------

     

    In other news, I have released v0.21 VEXTREME compiled binaries here: https://github.com/technobly/vextreme/releases/tag/v0.21

    There is an updated menu: multicart.bin and updated STM32 firmware: veccart.bin along with some LED enabled games (Veccy Bird 1.5 and a demo app I wrote).

    See the changes in the release notes above, but the TL;DR, is:
    1. Polar Rescue is fixed
    2. A quick tap of RESET will reset the game, but holding it for a longer time will RESET to the VEXTREME menu.
    3. LED control was added, and some demo games.

    Instructions on updating are easy enough:
    1. Install the JP1 jumper and power cycle.
    2. Use dfu-util to flash the veccart.bin like this:
    dfu-util -a 0 -d 0483:df11 -s 0x08000000:leave -D veccart.bin
    3. Remove the jumper again, and mount the USB drive and copy over the multicart.bin to the root, and new LED/ folder to the roms/

    • Haha 1
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