+karri Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 42 minutes ago, necrocia said: Hey thanks Nop90, I'll add that as an argument that can be passed in. Karri - Pi4, nice! I'd like to see some timing information for programming a cart... I will implement that also. But the real need is theater light/sound control, dual HDMI outputs where you can beam out the 2nd screen with perfect music sync while using screen 1 for control. There may also be a new DiscoHat v 2 with some new features I have been dreaming of. This is my 3rd hobby https://www.discohat.com This year I will be on stage as "Richard I of England" or just "Richard the Lionheart" for friends. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nop90 Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 57 minutes ago, necrocia said: Hey thanks Nop90, I'll add that as an argument that can be passed in. Better make it the default behaviour: since the code clears the whole EEPROM before writing data, there is really no need to repeat writing the last block content until the end of the eeprom. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted July 4, 2019 Author Share Posted July 4, 2019 Default behaviour it is. Haha Karri - maybe I should make a new revision with a lot more LEDs on board ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 I am using a lot of LED snakes for effects. You can program them individually using the SPI interface. Here with a friendy RED panic button. Lighted, of course. The blue buttons are also in different spots on stage so you can launch events while you are acting (doorbell, light switch, answer phone etc.) If something fails you can trigger the events from the touch screen or the Tardis console. The LED's can be controlled from the RGB panel. It applies to snakes and full RGB walls as well. Here is a closeup of the control with a small LED fixture. Plus RPi controlling a snake. I have also controlled a LED snake with the Lynx using the address block lines and AUDIN The original "Shaken, not stirred" cart had 3 LED's for blinking blue/white while driving and turning red during fights. If you wander where TARDIS comes from it is Truly Amazing Remote Disco Interface System that can also be controlled with a sonic screwdriver in addition to the obvious switches and buttons. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted July 6, 2019 Author Share Posted July 6, 2019 Very cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted July 24, 2019 Author Share Posted July 24, 2019 Quick update - I'll be overseas for the next month so the next batch will be build towards the end of August and will be shipped out in September. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bhall408 Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 Has anyone (yourself, Karri, otherwise?) done a design that would only be a card reader? (ie, not also a programmer) I'd be interested in sponsoring/creating a USB Lynx card reader if not. @necrocia @karri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
42bs Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 50 minutes ago, bhall408 said: Has anyone (yourself, Karri, otherwise?) done a design that would only be a card reader? (ie, not also a programmer) I'd be interested in sponsoring/creating a USB Lynx card reader if not. @necrocia @karri You can use a Lynx with a small program for this. Though it must be modified a bit to allow swapping cards. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted July 24, 2019 Author Share Posted July 24, 2019 The stand-alone board doesn't have to be used as a writer, it comes down to the software. The hardware is essentially a "dumb" I/O expander. All of the smarts are (thanks to Karri) in the software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 I have a stand alone cart reader that requires to solder one wire in the Lynx and a ComLynx USB cable. We dumped lots of carts with this setup. It runs mmtty.exe on a pc and produce Intel hex dump out of the cart. When I get back to civilisation I could look it up. Still in Keitele on an island. But to my surprise there is some tiny phone net available. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bhall408 Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 9 hours ago, necrocia said: The stand-alone board doesn't have to be used as a writer, it comes down to the software. The hardware is essentially a "dumb" I/O expander. All of the smarts are (thanks to Karri) in the software. So I guess the main question then is does a supplier for new made card edge connectors exist? I think I have seen posts that indicate the answer is no? Here is a search on mouser.com for 34 position edge connectors, but I don't know enough to sort out if any of them would work... https://www.mouser.com/Connectors/Card-Edge-Connectors/Standard-Card-Edge-Connectors/_/N-axj7d?P=1yq9ciw It may be that you'd need to see if a 68 position connector (double sided) could be used as a substitute? Which would then mean a custom run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted July 24, 2019 Author Share Posted July 24, 2019 There is no supplier or connector that works. Atari made a completely custom piece here. I've tried to get in touch with Foxconn but they ignored all of my emails. Karri and I both made custom connectors using pogo pins (he used long probes and I used short ones). That approach works but it isn't very reliable. If you wanted a large amount of these connectors, you'd have to have some custom made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bhall408 Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 1 minute ago, necrocia said: There is no supplier or connector that works. Atari made a completely custom piece here. I've tried to get in touch with Foxconn but they ignored all of my emails. Karri and I both made custom connectors using pogo pins (he used long probes and I used short ones). That approach works but it isn't very reliable. If you wanted a large amount of these connectors, you'd have to have some custom made. Foxconn is too big to care about projects measured in anything less than millions of units... However there are other suppliers that will take on projects measured in thousands. Had anyone tried the idea of looking for a 64 "pin" double sided edge connector where you'd just care about one side? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nop90 Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 The problem is the uncommon Pin spacing. I found a one side 64 Pin connector with spacing very cose to the half of the lynx one. It could be possibile to 3d print an adapter for karri PCBs to have a good alignment with half of the pins, but It needs too time much and money for me to try It. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 I have a proto made with a connector that had exactly twice the pitch of a Lynx connector. But this test still lacks a 3D print of the cart enclosure, And it was tedious to remove the extra pins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 (edited) On 7/24/2019 at 9:51 AM, karri said: I have a stand alone cart reader that requires to solder one wire in the Lynx and a ComLynx USB cable. We dumped lots of carts with this setup. It runs mmtty.exe on a pc and produce Intel hex dump out of the cart. When I get back to civilisation I could look it up. Still in Keitele on an island. But to my surprise there is some tiny phone net available. Back to the city again. A week on the island was relaxing. I did not find the original build yet. But I did find a later build that might work. dumper.lnx The original build had a title screen like this to remind you of not pirating stuff: The utility itself in pretty simple. The dump format is Intel HEX files. The dump speed is 9600 bauds as it was compatible with most PC's. hex2bin.exe Mttty.exe Edited July 26, 2019 by karri Added the Windows counterpart for ComLynx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bhall408 Posted August 7, 2019 Share Posted August 7, 2019 On 7/24/2019 at 9:08 AM, bhall408 said: So I guess the main question then is does a supplier for new made card edge connectors exist? I think I have seen posts that indicate the answer is no? Here is a search on mouser.com for 34 position edge connectors, but I don't know enough to sort out if any of them would work... https://www.mouser.com/Connectors/Card-Edge-Connectors/Standard-Card-Edge-Connectors/_/N-axj7d?P=1yq9ciw It may be that you'd need to see if a 68 position connector (double sided) could be used as a substitute? Which would then mean a custom run. So mouser got back to me today, and it was just the same link I'd found myself... Oh well! "We would not carry a connector specific to this. It might be something you could adapt to with one of the 34-pin card edge connectors shown below, but you would want to carefully review the mechanical specifications for any of them against what you would need (you may need to take those measurements) to determine if they might still be useable for your needs. Many of these would likely not be suitable: https://www.mouser.com/Connectors/Card-Edge-Connectors/_/N-axj76?P=1yq9ciw" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted August 16, 2019 Author Share Posted August 16, 2019 Hey everyone, I'm back from vacation and I'll start building more of the boards again soon. Will be reaching out to all the people who wanted one in the next couple of weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted August 16, 2019 Share Posted August 16, 2019 I plan to attend the Portland Retro Gaming Expo on 18th to 20th of October. If everything goes as planned you can see how the cart burning works live using the PiHAT. Here is a picture of my "Jukebox/Cart burning/McWill display" combo that can also be used to run demo videos of my carts (gameplay of every game). As I have just a half stand there is not much stuff that fits so I decided to combine everything in one A2 sized interactive unit. From the back the system looks like the image on the right - a 10" IPS monitor + RaspberryPi 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted August 17, 2019 Author Share Posted August 17, 2019 Very cook Karri! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo Laser Lynx Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 (edited) On 6/3/2019 at 11:01 AM, necrocia said: Awesome! I'm thinking that I should make the turbo mode as default... How do I write a cart in turbo mode? I updated the programmer tools last night but it took eleven minutes to program a cart as usual. I was so tired that I forgot to try and write -h and now I'm super curious and can't wait to know how 'til tonight when I have the time to sit down in front of the computer. Edited August 20, 2019 by Turbo Laser Lynx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nop90 Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 -turbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo Laser Lynx Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo Laser Lynx Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 Damn it, it took almost 18 minutes in turbo mode, haha the usual is 11 minutes (for on duty). I used: ./writecart -turbo -vv onduty.lnx perhaps the -vv slows it down? Or maybe I should get a newer raspberry pi at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nop90 Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 3 minutes ago, Turbo Laser Lynx said: Damn it, it took almost 18 minutes in turbo mode, haha the usual is 11 minutes (for on duty). I used: ./writecart -turbo -vv onduty.lnx perhaps the -vv slows it down? Or maybe I should get a newer raspberry pi at some point. With a PIZero and turbo mode it takes me only 8 minutes to write a 128KB rom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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