PlusCart (an inexpensive DIY WiFi multicart)

[+Al_Nafuur]

Happy 2nd birthday PlusCart thread.

 

🎂

 

[+Gray Defender]

Congrats, happy BD and thanks for all your hard work!

[+sramirez2008]

Happy birthday and thanks to all involved.  This is such cool tech and it continues to get better and better.

[Prizrak]

Hard to believe it's been two years already, look at the progress and what we're accomplished.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[Wizzard]

Happy b-day, PlusCart is my only real cartridge that I use with my Atari.

[+Al_Nafuur]

Prices for the PlusCart parts and ordering process:
I have no more PlusCarts available at this time and would actually need to order new parts now. However, the hardware prices are extremely high at the moment (especially the STM32 board). And it looks like the prices will stay this high for a while.

So I have to increase all products in the online store by another € 12,50.

Before I order the parts I would like to know how high the demand would be at the increased price.

Please use the stock-notification function (even if you have placed one before).

I will be ordering the parts on 11/11 based on the new stock-notifications.

Real PlusCart orders can then be placed in the online store around mid-December.

The delivery of the orders will probably start in January 2022.

[+Al_Nafuur]

Parts arrived yesterday.

 

 

 

DIY kits will be available in the online store today. I will start assembling PlusCarts next week, so after Christmas there should be a few assembled PCBs and PlusCarts in the store.

 

[+Al_Nafuur]

I didn't had much time the last days, but I managed to solder some PlusCarts. So there are a few soldered PCBs and some PlusCarts in standard cartridge available in the store now:

 

https://pluscart.onlineweb.shop/

 

The majority of the boards is still at my soldering service, so there will be more PlusCarts available in January.

 

[Trabucco]

Love this little cart, it's amazing to be able to play a few rounds in some games every now and then and get the scores posted on a highscore list automatically! Amazing stuff!

 

One question: What are the chances to see the original Pac-Man for the 2600 in the highscore club at some point in time? I know, there is the 4K one, which is considered to be the better version. There is the 8K one, which is somewhat like the original, but well, not exactly. To be able to play the original, Tod Frye one for hishscore online would be amazing! Any chance of that happening?

[+Al_Nafuur]

16 hours ago, Trabucco said:

Love this little cart, it's amazing to be able to play a few rounds in some games every now and then and get the scores posted on a highscore list automatically! Amazing stuff!

thanks

 

Quote

One question: What are the chances to see the original Pac-Man for the 2600 in the highscore club at some point in time? I know, there is the 4K one, which is considered to be the better version. There is the 8K one, which is somewhat like the original, but well, not exactly.

Pac-Man was the third game I added to the HSC, and as far as I remember the original version didn't had enough ROM space left to add the code. That's why I choose to use @Nukey Shay's 8K version.

 

Quote

To be able to play the original, Tod Frye one for hishscore online would be amazing! Any chance of that happening?

I'm not planning to do that at the moment, but you never know if someone else might want to try it out.

 

[+Al_Nafuur]

New soldered PlusCarts have arrived:

 

and the new injection molded cases by @Sikor

 

 

the differences to the Atari "Red Label" shells are:

• No holes under the label!
• The surface is slightly smoother than the original cartridges.
• The shells are a little bit taller than the original cartridges (3mm).
• The area for the front label is not centered.

Here is a picture that compares the size of the new shell to an original Atari and an Imagic shell:

 

The new cartridge is now available in the PlusCart shop!

 

The new cartridge is 3 Euro cheaper than a used standard cartridge, because it means much less cleaning work.

 

 

 

[Artie Stolks]

My Pluscart always disconnects from my Wifi. I‘m using a Fritz Box 7430. I already changed some settings but that didn‘t cut the cheese. I need advice, please.  😯

[Andrew Davie]

31 minutes ago, Artie Stolks said:

My Pluscart always disconnects from my Wifi. I‘m using a Fritz Box 7430. I already changed some settings but that didn‘t cut the cheese. I need advice, please.  😯

My first step in diagnosing this would be to setup a mobile hotspot using a smartphone and connect the PlusCart to that instead.  If the WiFi still "always disconnects" in the same way then I'd be looking at a fault in the ESP8266 on the PlusCart.  That's an easy first step for testing.  

[Artie Stolks]

I took my cart to a friend today and it is working fine here with his setup. I think the problem is my Fritz Box. 

Edited January 22 by Artie Stolks

[Artie Stolks]

I think it has something to do with the firewall settings of my router. Is there anything i have to adjust to bypass problems which can occur?

Edited January 22 by Artie Stolks

[Artie Stolks]

I figured it out. The Fritz Box Stealth Mode was the culprit. Deactivated it and now the connection is rock solid. Highscores are saved every time. Cheers to the makers of this fine cartridge. I love it!

[+Al_Nafuur]

New public firmware version v2.3.1 in PlusStore with:

• Support for new ACE bankswitching provided by @MarcoJ 
• New firmware updater that supports files greater than 112 KiB

 

PlusCart Duo (WiFi & SD-Card) users have to flash their build manually (with STMCubeProgrammer) :

 

 

There is also a new build for those who want to use the unified build on their UnoCart hardware (needs ST-Link for flashing)

 

[devwebcl]

Sometimes my wifi setup is removed/lost and I have to reconfigure it.

 

Does this happen because I haven't used the cart for a long period?

 

[+Al_Nafuur]

14 hours ago, devwebcl said:

Sometimes my wifi setup is removed/lost and I have to reconfigure it.

 

Does this happen because I haven't used the cart for a long period?

 

This shouldn't happen. The ESP8266 is storing the connection details "forever". But if you switch between different WiFi networks you might have to reconfigure the setup.

 

[Karrolls56]

On 8/8/2021 at 8:47 AM, Al_Nafuur said:

I opened a bug report here:

 

Hi @Al_Nafuur have you heard from Thomas or Andrew on this report or any changes since last year? I have the latest firmware on my pluscart and same behavior with the sync drop during page changes within the menu. No issues in game.

Edited April 12 by Karrolls56

[Thomas Jentzsch]

2 hours ago, Karrolls56 said:

Hi @Al_Nafuur have you heard from Thomas or Andrew on this report or any changes since last year? I have the latest firmware on my pluscart and same behavior with the sync drop during page changes within the menu. No issues in game.

AFAIK the menu has been completely rewritten by Andrew. So I cannot help here.