I was wondering where or what did u read to understand all this like how u made it and what maybe I could read to understand all the building and the chips!
Well, where to start. I've read *quite a lot* and hacked a lot of stuff over the past 20 years or so!
It all started with one of those Radio-Shack 200-in-1 electronic kit at age 10 or something. Add a Vic-20 and the rest is history
. Later I did some studies in electronics and computers to get a solid base and that's about it. I don't know your electronics or computer background but, for sure learning all that stuff from scratch is a daunting task. Daunting but feasible in those days, with your friend the internet. What's more,since I was never that good in analog stuff, apart from the DAC made of resistors, the project is mostly a digital affair. Binary logic always seemed easier to me that transistors, reactance, integrators and the rest.
First of all, start by reading
this topic. There's info on learning material about the ARV (the micro controller).
How everything functions together is another story, as it's all about this project. And unless you scout the forums, you'll have to wait until I or someone else writes documentation about it. Don't despair, I've managed to start writing some docs yesterday. I've completed a video primer, and write something about how the hardware works. I'll release that then work on explaining the software kernel.
About the boards: The green, red and white boards are made by a member (havok1919). They are printed circuit boards (PCBs) he designed based on a revision of my schematic. He has already manufactured some and they will sell very shortly in some web shops, fully assembled. One thing to note is that his boards uses surface mount technology (SMT) so it's not intended to be assembled by peoples. If you just wan't to start writing games, that's your best options. On the other hand, if you are of the DIY kind, another member Ladyada, will sell kits very shortly. Her kits will have a PCB using through hole components and a bag of parts, so you can assemble and solder it yourself. The great thing about her board is that the only SMT part (AD723) will be pre-soldered to make thing easier!
My version is made of a simple prototyping board. It's just made of small holes in which you slip components and wire them from the other side. It's much more work that way than using a PCB. But at the same time, when you make mistakes its easy to correct: cut the wire and rewire it somewhere else. With PCBs, you are usually stuck with ordering some new ones. And that's a bit more expensive.
Hope that helps,
Alec
