This section is
dedicated to any hardware related mods and projects I’ve done.
Not everything is completed....
Not everything is completed....
Ardino-Uno based mini 'Line Wobblier' type game:
The hardware part of this is in a functional state, and the software is in a playable state. Although I would still like to tweak this and add more game elements ( at least moving enemies, and running water).
Right now this is using an Arduino Uno for the processing and a single board, like the ones you get in phones to control the movement of the 'player' LED.
Right now the enemies are static bars that flash on and off and dots that you have to land on and quickly 'wobble' on to destroy them. It has 5 levels of play with the course getting progressively harder.
I'll try to put up some video sometime.
Building a Vectrex Cartridge:
Well I bought an eprom programmer, 20 eproms, 20 mounts, 20 cartridge boards, and four cartridge cases, along with some sticky-backed gloss paper. It's pretty straightforward to make the cartridge with 'off the shelf' premade parts like this, and it actually worked out cheaper to get the equipment pre-made now than it was when I first looked at doing this myself some years ago.
Initially I soldered a mount into the cartridge, and put the eprom it that for testing. It run fine but the cartridge wouldn't close. So I ended up soldering the chip directly on to another board.
So this is my first attempt at making a working cartridge version of the (proof of concept) 'Trapped' game before, hopefully, going on to finish the full version and maybe making an initial run of Ten or so. Although I don't know if anybody would actually want them, or this version!?
Arduino to composite video TV Cable.
A simple circuit was needed to connect the Arduino to the Composite input of a TV.
This uses two resisters, a 1K ohn and a 470 ohm, to produce the compost signal from the Sync and VID out pins from the Arduino.
The ground cable is a straight-through connection from a GND pin on the Arduino to the cables shield.
The screen shot on the right shows what can be done with the basic setup of TVout and the cable above.
Although something like this may take a bit of effort it is easy to get started, and a demo sketch is bundled with the library.
I quickly wrote a very (very) simple Snake type sketch that makes use of the Funduino Joystick Shield and the 'TVout' library along with the custom-made cable.
When output to a CRT TV this gave a late-seventies to early-eighties feel.
You could easily make a TV-Game Pong type console like this.
A simple circuit was needed to connect the X and Y waveform output from the Arduino to an XY capable output screen using the standard BNC type cable connectors.
A connection is taken after each resistor to the probe input, with the ground going to probes ground shield.
This is done for both the X and Y inputs.
This is required to display images on a vector display.
I've successfully used this to output an XY signal to an old analogue CRT Oscilloscope, as well as a Vector Display monitor using an Arduino Uno, and a cable made using the above circuit with a couple of BNC leads:
Activating Full Colour mode on my old Microvitec CUB monitor:
Most people will know this best as the old 'metal box' monitor used
with the BBC Micro computers. But it is a remarkably useful, and flexible,
monitor that may be used with a range of systems.The main issue with these is that as standard they are
configured to run in their ‘digital’ mode. This is good for producing a crisp 16
colour EGA style display, and as they were primarily used with the BBC Micro
this was a good option.However, for more widespread use the analogue mode is the one you want. And probably the most asked question about the Cub is ‘How do I convert the to Microvitec CUB monitor to analogue mode?’
Despite the answer being relatively straightforward I’ve
found very little in the way of simple explanations of how to do this, so I
decided to put these easy step-by-step instructions up here:
1) Remove
the back panel from your CUB monitor
(you shouldn't need to remove the top)
2) Locate
the PL103 jumper switch set:
This is located towards the
left-hard corner of the circuit-board...
just to the rear of where teh cables connect.
Viewed as you look in from the back.
just to the rear of where teh cables connect.
Viewed as you look in from the back.
3) There
should be a long bar with ten pins coming from the top
Three
of the pins should be marked as R, G, and B, each with a jumper.
(for Red, Green, and Blue)
(for Red, Green, and Blue)
As standard these jumpers will be set to the TTL
mode.
All of them link the middle ‘ground’ pin to switch position 2 by default.
All of them link the middle ‘ground’ pin to switch position 2 by default.
5) You
need to move the three jumpers to position 1 (Linier)
for each of the R, G, and B switches.
for each of the R, G, and B switches.
6) And
that’s it. The monitor is now setup for ‘real’ colour mode,
it can now be used for any number of purposes.
I run my Amiga through it and it works perfect.
it can now be used for any number of purposes.
I run my Amiga through it and it works perfect.
7) Oh,
and don’t forget to screw the back panel of your CUB back on.
Once this is done you can use it with anything with an RGB out. I made leads for my Amiga 600, and the original Saga Master System and Megadrive.
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