AVGCART

[Atari_bbs_fan]

4 hours ago, lewiS said:

SIO connector is standard from very beginning. I believe that there are no resellers based in US as well. But we ship to US 🙂

 

  @mrrobot if my AVG cart came with an SIO connector pre-installed, does this mean I should have the solder holes for this ECI connection?   If I order this cable from the UK, does it come with the connector that I would need to most likely solder into the AVG cart?

[lewiS]

I think it is rather question to me

 

Yes, I should have a connector, I can add, just put it in order notes. And yes, it will have solder points, as explained above.

[+Mr Robot]

7 hours ago, Atari_bbs_fan said:

  @mrrobot if my AVG cart came with an SIO connector pre-installed, does this mean I should have the solder holes for this ECI connection?  

Yes, the holes for both SIO and ECI/PBI have always been there, on earlier boards it was in the corner of the board diagonally and not easy to reach, newer boards its straight and near the edge. Both ports are now populated by default but earlier ones needed to have the connector added. @tmp and @lewiS sell ECI cables but only @tmp has both lengths, the longer one is to get the little extra needed for the earlier boards. @lewiS has the PBI cable available, @tmp doesn't have the PBI cable on his site yet. No word on whether there are two lengths of cable needed for the PBI like there is for the ECI, I'm hoping there is enough slack in the XL cable that it works for all versions of the AVGCART but it may just be that @lewiS doesn't stock the longer cable in the same way that he doesn't stock the longer ECI.

 

I pointed out the lack of longer ECI cables to @lewiS on Facebook a while ago, noting that he should say on the page that the short cable is for newer AVGCARTS only. Instead of updating as suggested, he just got super defensive. The site still sells one length only and doesn't warn users it may not fit. This is why when people ask my advice, I don't mention his site. 

 

 

 

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

At the moment, both the ECI (XE) and the PBI (XL) cable block the corresponding port.  Is it technically possible to change that?

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

[xxl]

20 minutes ago, Mathy said:

Hello guys

 

At the moment, both the ECI (XE) and the PBI (XL) cable block the corresponding port.  Is it technically possible to change that?

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

no, it shouldn't be a part of the AVG HW but a separate splitter - see here is a similar solution for CART connector

http://atari.myftp.org/rsg/rsg.html

[vinniet]

On 4/6/2022 at 6:41 PM, lewiS said:

Yes, new AVGCARTs can have a cable for PBI or ECI which make it a RAM expansion. You can buy them in my shop for example: https://retrolemon.co.uk/search?controller=search&poscats=0&s=Avgcart

Older carts can have a connector for these cables added. You need also newer firmware.

 

 

 

 

Never heard AVGCART had ability to be ram expander.  Where does connectors plugs in 800xl?  The expansion Port on the back?

[leech]

6 minutes ago, vinniet said:

Never heard AVGCART had ability to be ram expander.  Where does connectors plugs in 800xl?  The expansion Port on the back?

It was the main reason I bought one, but at the time they hadn't made any cables.  And I would order the cables, but it looks like only the ECI cable is on the store that is 'non-UK' so far.

[lewiS]

3 hours ago, vinniet said:

Where does connectors plugs in 800xl?  The expansion Port on the back?

As a name of the cable says, it is a PBI port.

 

3 hours ago, leech said:

 And I would order the cables, but it looks like only the ECI cable is on the store that is 'non-UK' so far.

We deliver worldwide, so feel free to order.

[Panther]

On 4/6/2022 at 3:41 PM, lewiS said:

Yes, new AVGCARTs can have a cable for PBI or ECI which make it a RAM expansion. You can buy them in my shop for example: https://retrolemon.co.uk/search?controller=search&poscats=0&s=Avgcart

Older carts can have a connector for these cables added. You need also newer firmware.

I could use an ECI cable, but I hear the cables you sell are too short for the older carts.

[lewiS]

There were two lengths of the cables manufactured. I need to recheck which ones I have in stock at the moment.There were two lengths of the cables manufactured. I need to recheck which ones I have in stock at the moment.

[+CharlieChaplin]

@lewiS:

 

Alas, I am stuck when trying to order from your page...

 

Step 3) shipping method is already tagged but the continue button is still grayed out, so I cannot continue my order...   see screenshot.

 

(Waited several minutes, but that did not help. Was therefore unable to finish my order.)

 

 

[lewiS]

Please send an email to [email protected] I will have a look into it.

[tmp]

just to prevent any confusion and tears, currently available pbi cables (at retrolemon) will be short for anyone who doesn't have newer cart that has connector at the top-left side of the cart (e.g. @CharlieChaplin)

[+CharlieChaplin]

22 minutes ago, tmp said:

just to prevent any confusion and tears, currently available pbi cables (at retrolemon) will be short for anyone who doesn't have newer cart that has connector at the top-left side of the cart (e.g. @CharlieChaplin)

 

Damnit! Or better: Thanks for the info! 

So the retrolemon cable is too short for my (older) AVG pcb...

 

[Atari_bbs_fan]

For a 130xe with this AVG cart version (see attached picture) where I think the required connector is in the LOWER right corner, what ECI cable length will I need?

 

 

[tmp]

you'd need the "longer" (10cm) eci cable and the corresponding connector for the pcb

[Atari_bbs_fan]

4 minutes ago, tmp said:

you'd need the "longer" (10cm) eci cable and the corresponding connector for the pcb

Got it.. thanks tmp.  Curious, would this new connector be soldered onto THIS side of the PCB or the bottom side?  Btw, what is the connector just below the two buttons.  Is that an programming/JTAG connector?  Since I have you, I'm curious what the expected performance of this "RAMBO" class RAM expansion is supposed to be like.  Is it as "fast" as standard 130xe RAM or slower (what I suspect)?  I'm also curious that with the RAM expansion enabled, is that "RAM" coming from the AVG cart's FPGA itself or it's onboard RAM?  Is 512KB as much as the current AVG cart design can ever offer or is there still some additional space possible with say extreme optimizations / sacrifices?

[tmp]

6 minutes ago, Atari_bbs_fan said:

Got it.. thanks tmp.  Curious, would this new connector be soldered onto THIS side of the PCB or the bottom side?

https://avgcart.tmp.sk/ecimod/

 

second photo

6 minutes ago, Atari_bbs_fan said:

Btw, what is the connector just below the two buttons.  Is that an programming/JTAG connector?

jtag

6 minutes ago, Atari_bbs_fan said:

Since I have you, I'm curious what the expected performance of this "RAMBO" class RAM expansion is supposed to be like.  Is it as "fast" as standard 130xe RAM or slower (what I suspect)?

same thing as internal ram, it can't be "slower" otherwise it wouldn't work

6 minutes ago, Atari_bbs_fan said:

I'm also curious that with the RAM expansion enabled, is that "RAM" coming from the AVG cart's FPGA itself or it's onboard RAM?  Is 512KB as much as the current AVG cart design can ever offer or is there still some additional space possible with say extreme optimizations / sacrifices?

it comes from cart's 1MB sram chip and it's shared with other functionality so the amount of available extra ram is depending on what's being loaded (car/xex requiring ram based on their file size, atr/atx/cas not)

1MB extra (1088kB total) would be doable but i'm not sure if it made much sense given it'd basically limit file support to atr/atx/cas and i can't currently think of any sw it'd make it possible to load that's currently not possible

 

[+Mr Robot]

Are the gerbers/stl's for the ECI/PBI connectors available? 

 

[tmp]

currently no, maybe in a month or two if there's a demand

[leech]

On 4/8/2022 at 2:26 AM, lewiS said:

There were two lengths of the cables manufactured. I need to recheck which ones I have in stock at the moment.There were two lengths of the cables manufactured. I need to recheck which ones I have in stock at the moment.

By the way, if you are repeating text, turn off Grammarly!  Figured this out after I nearly threw my phone through the wall!

[MrFSL]

I recently purchased the AVG cart and SIO cable from this site and received it yesterday! (Awesome product.)

 

#1   I see the PBI cable mod here: https://atari8bit.net/tutorials/de-re-avgcart/    but not here:    https://miscretro.com/     Where can I buy this cable for deliver in the US?

 

#2   Does this cable have a PBI passthrough?

 

Thanks

 

 

 

[lewiS]

PBI cable is not pass through.

 

At the moment I do not believe that anyone sell them in US.

[MrFSL]

On 4/6/2022 at 7:03 PM, lewiS said:

SIO connector is standard from very beginning. I believe that there are no resellers based in US as well. But we ship to US 🙂

Turns out I missed this. --- And I see the cable on your site now. 

 

A bit too steep of shipping charges for me today. Thanks though.

[Mclaneinc]

The damn cost of careful shipping and border charges are really hurting this cottage industry of ours / the entire small non massed produced market. It's buyers and vendors have to make hard choices about which territories they support. No more so than Europe to or from the USA, if the shipping for an item is more than the cost of said item then people are going to just stop or, at the very least, think really hard if it's affordable..

 

Ok if you have a throw away percentage of income but in these days of high living costs, does anyone really still have that much free cash where they can afford to pay very high costs for hobby like items.

 

PS, I'm saying these issues are outside the remit of the producers of our beloved items. all these people want to do is sell their gear and make enough to recover costs and maybe a little for their troubles..

Edited April 15 by Mclaneinc