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Atari compatible hardware eclaireXL, in mini form.


santosp

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Mozzwald do great job! Atarimax SIO connectors look great too, i have seen it in foft threat, i don;t know that anyone make it.

Now i search for PIN producer for sio connectors and yes, I plane to do it in november/december this year, injuction molding. First render (again I attach it) is here.

 

SIO_1.png

SIO_2.png

And one more question: any chance for new mini eclaire XL production? How is cost (I ask foft, but i see - wrong person probably, foft make software for it?)?

Edited by Sikor
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Perfect jon Sikor.

If you start production, count me for 100 - 200 from those. 

 

Yes Mark do mainly the software but from the first day we are cooperative on this. Now this time I have start and run another project here -Turbo Freezer 2011-, but always was my mind to construct and have available in stock eclaireXL devices also. My major issue was the lack of this SIO connector, but now if you finally produce it, then things will changed.

 

As for the price if I remember well the last batch cost about 180$ each.

Edited by santosp
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  • 1 month later...

Sorry for a noob question, but is this still available / going to be available again?

 

I just can't work out if this was a limited run or something or just a limited number of dev untis - it looks absolutely amazing and is preferrable to trying to obtain old and generally well used 800xl / 130xe machines.

 

As a returning atari enthusiast, something like this would be a dream setup......

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 months later...

After having it unopened for more than three years, tonight I unwrapped my Eclaire XL and got it working! It works even after being neglected for so long.

 

The board says Version "3.0 *FIX" and the firmware says "Board:2 Date: 20180222 Core:20"

 

1) Should I worry about updating the firmware? Can I even do that to this version without the special cable? (That sounds complicated. Putting a file on an SD card is more my speed.)

 

2) There's a constant hum from the audio (over HDMI.) (I am not using the external audio port yet.) Anything to do about that?

 

3) What case should I get? Off-the-shelf or 3-D printed?

 

Thanks

Kay

 

Edited by Savetz
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1) I think so, up to v37. sd card upgrading is supported but your core version is too old, before I added support for this. So you need to use the usb blaster. See http://www.64kib.com/redmine/projects/eclairexl/wiki

(See Updating the Core)

 

2) There is an audio adc on the board, it should be connected to the sio audio in, or grounded.

 

3) The board is mini-itx, so there are plenty of cases to choose from.

http://www.64kib.com/redmine/projects/eclairexl/wiki/Known_good_cases

 

I do advise putting it in a case, it is important the pcb does not get bent. I broke mine like that…

Edited by foft
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32 minutes ago, foft said:

1) I think so, up to v37. sd card upgrading is supported but your core version is too old, before I added support for this. So you need to use the usb blaster. See http://www.64kib.com/redmine/projects/eclairexl/wiki

(See Updating the Core)

Thanks. Looks like I can't do it with Mac, and it's very complicated under Windows. I guess I'll leave it alone.

32 minutes ago, foft said:

2) There is an audio adc on the board, it should be connected to the sio audio in, or grounded.

 

3) The board is mini-itx, so there are plenty of cases to choose from.

http://www.64kib.com/redmine/projects/eclairexl/wiki/Known_good_cases

 

I do advise putting it in a case, it is important the pcb does not get bent. I broke mine like that…

Thanks.

 

-K

 

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5 hours ago, foft said:

 

2) There is an audio adc on the board, it should be connected to the sio audio in, or grounded.

I've watched the video over and over, and don't understand how to connect the audio cable. It looks like you connect GND and MIC3 on the bottom later to MIC3 and + on the top layer. My MIC3 is just two holes - how do I connect to that? Did you do soldering that is not shown in the video?

 

Also does that type of cable have a name? I searched for "motherboard audio cable" but mostly found ones with four or eight connectors not two.

 

(referencing this video)

 

 

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It’s not a standard cable. On the main board there is a 3 pin header with left/right/gnd for the adc in. It has a microphone symbol on and I think is marked with L/R/GND iirc.
 

For now just connect those 3 audio pins on the main board together, that will ground the inputs and cut the hum.


Later to get sio and pbi audio in working you can get some dupont cables. Connect the L to the sio in and R to pbi in for instance. Gnd is already connected to the sub-board elsewhere.

 

edit: mic 3 + and mic2 + on the top board are the audio inputs for sio and pbi iirc.

Edited by foft
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9 hours ago, OmaOhneBH said:

I wish there were eclaireXL versions which fit into 600XL/800XL/XE casings right off the bat, monitor output, SIO port, Joystick ports etc. exactly on the right place. Like the Commodore Ultimate64.

Yes!

Or perhaps even better, a new one like the Spectrum Next. I would back that Kickstarter in a heartbeat.

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Happy to do the schematic and core if someone wants to do the pcb layout, case and keyboard for the 'next'.

Also happy to do the schematic and core if someone wants to do the pcb layout for the original form factor replacement boards.

 

Would still appreciate someone to take on software side in the cores.

 

Regarding core development, I should really release some of the work I did on the cores. Its been a long time. In the queue:

i) @ndary asked me to try and add high resolution hdmi modes. I thought this sounded interesting, so learned how to write my own scaler. I wrote an area based scalar and a polyphasic scalar. This needed a larger buffer. This fitted in the large A4 fpga and the smaller A2 fpga, however in the A2 it broke the cpu. The Intel software seems to have a memory block sharing bug. So I can't release this for the older boards, which is annoying!

ii) Pokeymax compatibility.

 

I'm only going to do releases from now on for the A4 core, since the A2 is full. Dealing with full FPGAs is hard work and this is a hobby! However I'll do a final A2 core with: 4 channel covox, pokey 2 tone fix and automatic 2 channel output for mono playback.

Edited by foft
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On 11/13/2021 at 12:59 AM, foft said:

Happy to do the schematic and core if someone wants to do the pcb layout, case and keyboard for the 'next'.

Also happy to do the schematic and core if someone wants to do the pcb layout for the original form factor replacement boards.

 

Would still appreciate someone to take on software side in the cores.

 

Regarding core development, I should really release some of the work I did on the cores. Its been a long time. In the queue:

i) @ndary asked me to try and add high resolution hdmi modes. I thought this sounded interesting, so learned how to write my own scaler. I wrote an area based scalar and a polyphasic scalar. This needed a larger buffer. This fitted in the large A4 fpga and the smaller A2 fpga, however in the A2 it broke the cpu. The Intel software seems to have a memory block sharing bug. So I can't release this for the older boards, which is annoying!

ii) Pokeymax compatibility.

 

I'm only going to do releases from now on for the A4 core, since the A2 is full. Dealing with full FPGAs is hard work and this is a hobby! However I'll do a final A2 core with: 4 channel covox, pokey 2 tone fix and automatic 2 channel output for mono playback.

Will your new releases also work on the Atari 8-bit cores for the MiST (Cyclone III) and MiSTer (Cyclone V) FPGA computers?

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@foft: just to remind you - if there will be possibilty to remap fire on different key on keyboard that would be great ;) 

as far as I remember, now it is on right windows key. All mini keyboards I have do not have right windows key - only left.

It would be a great improvement for me.

 

thanks in advance :)

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On 11/19/2021 at 10:26 AM, bocianu said:

@foft: just to remind you - if there will be possibilty to remap fire on different key on keyboard that would be great ;) 

as far as I remember, now it is on right windows key. All mini keyboards I have do not have right windows key - only left.

It would be a great improvement for me.

 

thanks in advance :)

I added left alt, is that ok?

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