The quest to a portable Uzebox - update!

Topics regarding the Uzebox hardware/AVCore/BaseBoard (i.e: PCB, resistors, connectors, part list, schematics, hardware issues, etc.) should go here.
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: The quest to a portable Uzebox

Post by D3thAdd3r »

uze6666 wrote:Doh! I have received another of those monitors and it's a new PCB with no such 5V header.
Damn, at least it was in the name of science. I messaged Harty on his website hopefully he will check this. The one he uses I can find, and one from the same manufacturer that seems the same but 3.5". All I can find look like they come without a driver board, and from the pictures on the site I can't see an actual driver board in the mini cabinet. The ribbon cable has some stuff inside inside it that looks chippy, so I don't know.
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uze6666
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Re: The quest to a portable Uzebox

Post by uze6666 »

I don't know if we are talking about the same thing, but it is this one:
SKU101762.jpg
SKU101762.jpg (100.42 KiB) Viewed 7344 times
Here's the what the PCBs look like. Right is the new one, left the old one. It uses the same chip, but I find that the quality seems less good on the newer one.
pcbcomp.jpg
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Re: The quest to a portable Uzebox

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I was talking about the AT056TN04 Harty is using, I can find other 3.5" innolux screens like this. It seems like a PITA I'm just trying to collect info since that's all I can really help with; the only screen I have that works with Uzebox is the one I mentioned. Analog solution looks easy..
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Harty123
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Re: The quest to a portable Uzebox

Post by Harty123 »

Hi,

I've used for the Uzebox arcade a simple analogue TFT + driving board with CVBS and RGB inputs. In my Raspberry Pi arcade kits I'm using a digital TFT with driving board. This board has a CVBS input and also a SVGA input. I've tried this SVGA together with a SYNC separator circuit and the EUzebox. This works shortly but mostly the picture is not visible...

http://www.pollin.de/shop/downloads/D120916D.PDF


In my opinion the TW8816 could be also a good solution for an AD725 replacement. This chip has RGB inputs and can drive analogue and digital TFT's directely:

http://www.intersil.com/content/dam/Int ... tw8816.pdf

@LEE: FYI I have a full featured datasheet and also a schematic of a driver board with TW8816
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uze6666
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Re: The quest to a portable Uzebox

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The tw8816 seems like a great chip, though with the amount of pins I'm afraid it need lots of external parts...? If you have the full datasheet with typical application, I'd be glad to see it.
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Re: The quest to a portable Uzebox

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A couple thoughts: is there any solution besides the obvious Ad725->CVBS way, that is actually buildable by your average hobbyist? The TW8816 looks nice and all these alternative ideas I like, not only for efficiency, but also because I would expect the picture to be even a bit sharper since there is less conversion. FPGA, Xmega, TW8816, no matter what, it seems all these methods require soldering on fine pitch SMT chips as far as I can tell. I think there is at least a little weight to that.
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Re: The quest to a portable Uzebox

Post by CunningFellow »

I think maybe the solution is to increase the soldering skill of the average hobbyist rather than decrease the pin count on the chips :)

The problem is that ANY nice small LCD display that is not CVBS/NTSC already has a 0.8mm to 0.4mm pitch FPC connector on it. If you can't solder the FPGA/TW8816/XMega then you can't solder the LCD connector.

Also - if you are dead keen for the portable Uzebox to be as small and sleek as possible - that means you are going to have an ATMega644 in either TQFP or QFN package anyways.
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Re: The quest to a portable Uzebox

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CunningFellow wrote:Also - if you are dead keen for the portable Uzebox to be as small and sleek as possible - that means you are going to have an ATMega644 in either TQFP or QFN package anyways.
The fine soldering is going to be an important skill for any hobbyist down the road. I am forever a "Devil's Advocate" against any idea that seems the most popular at the moment, especially if I mostly agree with it.
Uze6666 wrote: I've been doing more modeling this week and I'm able to fit all parts through hole without any problems.
Just me "eyeballing it", it seems without the SNES connectors and midi, though adding shift registers and Uzenet module, the current Uzebox through hole PCB could be elongated horizontally and fit in the case, if that is a 3.5" screen, to judge scale by.

It could actually be nicer to be a smaller case with surface mount; my humble opinion: the largest/sharpest screen and best looking case possible is more important than anything else. Alec is no doubt working his magic by now, I guess it's more a matter of figuring out how important each one of these variables are and weighing them all out so this thing doesn't stall out. There is always revision B anyways.
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Re: The quest to a portable Uzebox

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I think maybe the solution is to increase the soldering skill of the average hobbyist rather than decrease the pin count on the chips :)
+1 8-)
Also - if you are dead keen for the portable Uzebox to be as small and sleek as possible - that means you are going to have an ATMega644 in either TQFP or QFN package anyways.
I started with the idea of making it small but, in the end, it didn't felt so conformable to hold. Just like most later gameboys and DS. They are mostly made for kids I guess. With the Uzebox we're not in this "market", so why not make it confortable for men hands!? So yeah, it relatively big at 17cmx8.5cmx2.5cm but it fits snugly in the hands. And there's *Lot's* of space inside to accommodate a big battery, all through hole components with room to spare. Btw I forgot the power switch and leds on the previous mockup.

On the LCD subject, bigger would be better, up to ~4.5" I'd say. Looking at many lcd controllers and the resolutions I wondered how it will work with the Uzebox variable resolution mode. The latest mode 9 already exceeds 320x240 3.5" screen.

Not much progress lately, I've been ordering various parts for the audio section, batteries, dc-dc converters etc.
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Re: The quest to a portable Uzebox

Post by CunningFellow »

ANY LCD > 320x240 is not going to be composite so the

ATMega -> AD725 -> LCD

route wont work.

Anything with higher res is probably also going to then want scaling - so you are straight into FPGA+SRAM territory.

On the plus side - you are then not limited to landscape LCD and the whole world of mobile-phone/PDA LCD screens opens up.
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