+mytek Posted June 23, 2020 Author Share Posted June 23, 2020 12 minutes ago, Mr Robot said: So that still leaves the CF refresh which needs a side2? which is impossible without a cart port... unless XEL-CFIII is coming to a NUC+ near you soon? Not impossible. Remember my plans to build a IDE/CF3 CPU piggyback a while ago . Could still happen if I get bored enough after this project. Speaking of which there is one signal I'm missing for that, the decoded /$D1xx from the 74HCT138 chip. So I'll be sure to add a single pin breakout for that on the final board layout. Don't worry I really, really am not pushing for any of this, but also why not allow for it if it doesn't impact upon the goal. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted June 23, 2020 Author Share Posted June 23, 2020 2 hours ago, Keatah said: I say that's going to be the future of projects like this. These custom chips won't be available forever and we will need replacements. Either that or if and when printing NMOS at home becomes a thing.. mmm.. I just bought some NMOS filament the other day ? . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Just now, mytek said: I just bought some NMOS filament the other day ? . Mmm ... home-made chips ... 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted July 6, 2020 Author Share Posted July 6, 2020 Project Update A 2nd PCB run will need to be made in order to fix a few bugs. Not really unexpected, although I always hope for the best on the 1st run. Luckily the bugs were all relatively minor. I've run the ACID800 test repeatably without errors. XRAM appears to work more or less correctly. The Satantronic Extended Memory Test showed more RAM then there should be in Compyshop mode -- looking at possible PLD code changes for that. Rambo tests without issues. All ports are working, video looks good after making a few changes, audio sounds good without any background noise, so far so good ? . Been working on the power control and ROM Game/Language Slot selection. Big changes were required in the TK-II firmware to accommodate this new board's unique requirements. In essence the TK-II chip has become the master controller for this project. Here's a video showing some of that. I gotta get myself a better video camera, and better lighting. 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 Looking nice! I haven't taken any videos from mine yet, as I am working out some video signal issues on my portable. I think I know what is going on and working on a patch for it. Looks like you are making a lot of progress here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted July 6, 2020 Author Share Posted July 6, 2020 Just wanted to mention that a big thanks goes out to Hias and Jurgen for their ideas on implementing the extended ram for this project, which due to it being based on only 2 chips (SRAM and PLD) made it possible to squeeze it into the small footprint. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+gnusto Posted July 7, 2020 Share Posted July 7, 2020 I'm jealous of your IBM 101, it's in great shape. My wife actually attempted to throw mine away at one point. We're still married, but only because I saved it from her evil intentions. 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted July 7, 2020 Author Share Posted July 7, 2020 1 hour ago, gnusto said: I'm jealous of your IBM 101, it's in great shape. My wife actually attempted to throw mine away at one point. We're still married, but only because I saved it from her evil intentions. My wife is the same way, and I often times have to check the garbage before putting the cans out for collection ? . I actually have 3 IBM Model M keyboards thanks to someone that gave them to me for free. They are all in excellent condition, and I use one on my main desktop PC as well as the one you saw in the video for my Atari experiments. They are close enough to the right era and the right color to match up with the XL line. And as you know, they are absolutely wonderful to type on, probably the best keyboards ever made. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted September 25, 2020 Author Share Posted September 25, 2020 (edited) Its been quite a while since I did an update on this project. First of all let me assure you that it's definitely alive and kicking, now having made it to a production ready design. Version 1.1 is the culmination of what was learned from two previous iterations. The biggest problem I had to overcome was incessant video noise issues. But after several redesigns the 576NUC+ has achieved clean, noise and jail bar free video. To that end V1.1 has succeeded, and now rivals what can be seen in a UAV equipped system. Each board revision got it's own unique color. And each one meant an investment of $160-180 (not counting Atari VSLI). The first 'ALPHA' version had absolutely terrible video quality, and also due to the way the power supply was implemented did not reliably turn ON. The 2nd 'BETA' version was not much better with it's initial video quality, although it did confirm what was really at fault, and with a lot of modifying finally achieved what I was looking for. The 3rd 'PRE-PRODUCTION' attempt implemented what was learned in the 'BETA' unit, and really shined this time around, with all issues eliminated and required changes in place. Recently Updated Schematic (changed value of R23 and C24): 576NUCplus_schema_10-9-2020.pdf And for the first time ever, I went with a yellow solder mask and black silk screen. Stay tuned for more to come... FujiNet Inside and custom 3D printed cases. Edited October 10, 2020 by mytek 3rd Update of Schematic 21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted September 26, 2020 Share Posted September 26, 2020 I love the yellow PCB - somewhat reminiscent of the "gold" XEGS PCBs I just recently learned about. Not quite canary yellow, but cool nonetheless 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted September 26, 2020 Author Share Posted September 26, 2020 The original 576NUC+ was going to be relegated to NTSC, since the additional circuitry for producing the PAL color burst was fairly involved density-wise, and I really was running up against the wall with finding space for things. However @tf_hh presented the idea of a GTIA piggyback board to provide this missing aspect. And so was born what I call the 'PALburst' board. By plugging this into the GTIA socket, and then plugging GTIA on top of that, the missing PAL color burst circuit will be provided. Then all that's required is to use the appropriate PAL primary oscillator crystal and a PAL Antic and GTIA. For those that are waiting for a Sophia2 to arrive, this board and GTIA will not be required, since the Sophia2 already provides what is needed for PAL or NTSC. Note: You'll still need the appropriate primary crystal and Antic to match up with either PAL or NTSC. ------ The 576NUC+ does not sport a standard SIO jack, once again due to size constraints. In its place is a Dsub-15M with a pinout that was standardized many years ago, and was also an option on the SDrive-Nuxx. So to make things easier for connecting to legacy SIO devices, an adapter was fashioned. In the schematics that I posted yesterday, there is also an alternative SIO2PC-USB cable outlined that can directly plug into the Dsub-15M on the NUC. However it is felt that once FujiNet makes its appearance as an add-on daughterboard, the need for external SIO will be greatly diminished. Now for those with floppy and tape drives, this will not be the case. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted September 26, 2020 Share Posted September 26, 2020 Hello Michael 6 hours ago, mytek said: By plugging this into the GTIA socket, and then plugging GTIA on top of that, the missing PAL color burst circuit will be provided. Then all that's required is to use the appropriate PAL primary oscillator crystal and a PAL Antic and GTIA. I guess this works on any NTSC 8 bit Atari? Sincerely Mathy (who's just curious) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted September 26, 2020 Author Share Posted September 26, 2020 34 minutes ago, Mathy said: Hello Michael I guess this works on any NTSC 8 bit Atari? Sincerely Mathy (who's just curious) Yep. This one will have the gerbers released to the public pretty soon. Be a good board to be manufactured and sold for a virtually solderless install to convert an NTSC system to PAL. Although you would still need to desolder the primary crystal on the motherboard and swap for a PAL crystal. Note: the 576NUC+ board will not see its gerbers released to the general public. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+slx Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 22 hours ago, mytek said: Yep. This one will have the gerbers released to the public pretty soon. Be a good board to be manufactured and sold for a virtually solderless install to convert an NTSC system to PAL. Although you would still need to desolder the primary crystal on the motherboard and swap for a PAL crystal. Bitsofthepast used to sell such a board which I used to PALify a 1200XL. Worked great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted September 27, 2020 Author Share Posted September 27, 2020 1 hour ago, slx said: Bitsofthepast used to sell such a board which I used to PALify a 1200XL. Worked great. Yes you are correct she did sell something very similar. I had no idea . So this is the best picture I could find of what it looked like. And here is my PALburst board scaled pretty close to the same. And here is what the PALburst board would look like mounted in the 576NUC+. Basically the biggest difference is that the PALburst board's footprint is no bigger than the socket it plugs into. Even if I had known about @Dropcheck's board, it wouldn't have fit the 576NUC+ which was the main reason I designed it. Since it doesn't appear that Dropcheck's board is still being produced, mine could also fill a hole where that's concerned, with the primary focus being a 1200XL which never came in a PAL configuration (I believe the backstory on Dropcheck's board had to do with a request from @flashjazzcat for his 1200XL). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 Just teasing some details of the designs for the cases for the NUC+ This is the case logo On the base we repeat @mytek's PCB logo The case is held together with 4 screws, the sides are bevelled so the case looks lower profile and seems raised off the desk, we're using hot-set inserts so it will last even if you take it to bits a lot. Ports, Lights and buttons are all labelled. Full details when the Fujinet daughterboard is finished and I've updated the designs to fit it. 8 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+gnusto Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 Hah the Fuji Skulltrail logo is great. I'm obviously going to need to have this in addition to my 1088XEL. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 3 hours ago, gnusto said: Hah the Fuji Skulltrail logo is great. I'm obviously going to need to have this in addition to my 1088XEL. Agreed, it should take pride of place on the top case 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NISMOPC Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 (edited) This is looking incredible!! Curious if there will be an option to fit a cartridge slot at some point? Not a requirement, just a thought. Disregard: Just re-read the 1st post "You'll probably notice that there is no cartridge port or parallel expansion port. This is an SIO centric design, one that provides the entire SIO port internally as well as externally. There will be a daughterboard that takes advantage of this, who's design will be developed by a 3rd party." Edited September 29, 2020 by NISMOPC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 5 hours ago, mimo said: it should take pride of place on the top case Funny you should say that... 1 hour ago, NISMOPC said: Curious if there will be an option to fit a cartridge slot at some point? Funny you should say that... The dev team have had some considerable discussion around both these points. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 24 minutes ago, Mr Robot said: The dev team have had some considerable discussion around both these points What happens in the PM ... stays in the PM. ? And on that note, are you planning on showing off an XL-styled variant? 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 1 hour ago, DrVenkman said: are you planning on showing off an XL-styled variant? When I have a finished case with @Dropcheck's fujinet daughterboard fitted, I'll be showing off a few case variants. At the moment I still don't know how high it's going to have to be. I'm aiming for as low profile as possible. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NISMOPC Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 ...and another curious question. Where's the power switch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 On the keyboard. Alt+0 Turn Off Alt+` Turn On with Option Pressed Alt+1 Turn On with BASIC Alt+2 Turn On with ASM/ED Alt+3 Turn On with Galaxians Alt+4 Turn On with Star Raiders The EPROM with these 1-4 options can be changed if you have a burner, not sure if these are going to be the production options. The OS is a custom XEGS with HSIO support. 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted September 29, 2020 Author Share Posted September 29, 2020 13 hours ago, gnusto said: Hah the Fuji Skulltrail logo is great. I'm obviously going to need to have this in addition to my 1088XEL. 10 hours ago, mimo said: Agreed, it should take pride of place on the top case This got debated within the Beta PM, but I'm curious as to how the community feels about having this on the top of the case instead of the bottom. Is it a bit too much? Or is it just right? Or... does it seem too radical and/or scary? I know how I feel about it, but would like to hear from others as to what they think. There is no right or wrong answer. Just a bit of background on what was behind it... The 'NUC' in the 576NUC+ moniker was derived from my desire to make it as small as the Intel NUC series motherboards (4" x 4"). However I wasn't quite able to achieve that level of miniaturization and still have what I wanted to be there, hence the addition of the '+' at the end (4.5" x 4.5"). And in my research on all things NUC I came across what is known as the NUC 9 Extreme version (see below). And there you see the familiar skull. So my thinking was that for an Atari based on the 'authentic' VSLI chip set to be shrunk down as far as it was... that was a bit extreme. Adding the fuji logo inside the skull was the icing on the cake as far as I was concerned. Thanks to Mr Robot's talents, he translated that into a 3D printable logo which looks quite extreme in its own right . 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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