ATMEGA 644PA (SMD)

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: ATMEGA 644PA (SMD)

Post by D3thAdd3r »

ESP01 fell out of favor in some discussions on future firmware availability so I might suggest going with the ESP-E/ESP12 for future compatibility as they can be purchased in single quantities for almost nothing at this point. Then what you have here looks the ultimate solution for anyone wanting to etch their own Uzebox. Maybe you could put it up on the wiki?
CunningFellow
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Re: ATMEGA 644PA (SMD)

Post by CunningFellow »

Nice work Ivan. I forgot to reply with a congrats to getting it all going after the Port-C JTAG issue was sorted.
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uze6666
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Re: ATMEGA 644PA (SMD)

Post by uze6666 »

It's been a while, but I second, congrats, great Uzebox build! Will have to add it to the wiki's custom Uzbebox hall of fame now! :)
Vikt0r
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Re: ATMEGA 644PA (SMD)

Post by Vikt0r »

Hi, folks!
Thought It's not worth of a separate thread - but another uzebox has born, thanks to it's genius designer!
I've made a "poor-man's" SMD design, with no connectors on the PCB - just standard 2,54 header pins, kind'a
bare motherboard with interfacing left to the user's fantasy. The SD card reader is made of a standard
SDramps MicroSD module I had laying around uselessly (instead of resistor dividers).
With minor changes the pcb can be adjusted to use the cheapo ebay microsd-arduino reader modules, that
cost less than a dollar.
Just to keep things retro-minimalist, the pcb is laid out with toner transfer method in mind (0.4mm traces),
single-sided, but the whole second copper side serves as a ground plane.
The whole thing boots up and reads the SD card contents, displays NTSC color image, so it could be considered working.
Unfortunately I can't test it further, as soon as (being a hobo beggar) I don't have any gamepad so far :)
But a pack of HC4021's already on it's way, because yes - the gamepads are also going to be self-made :)
I've attached the PCB layout in case anyone might be interested (dooubtful, but still...).

Regards,
Vic
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: ATMEGA 644PA (SMD)

Post by D3thAdd3r »

Holy smokes nice work!

Hand made PCB are rather hardcore :ugeek: Looks great!
Vikt0r
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Re: ATMEGA 644PA (SMD)

Post by Vikt0r »

Now this is how the controller came out. Everything works just fine. Tons of thanks to the Developer!
P. S. Getting the SD card to work was a challenge. The only way I could get my 512 mb card recognized was to create a less than 256 mb partition fat16/16kbyte cluster.
P. P. S. Is there any vertical/horizontal scrolling shooter around? Does the platform allow such games at all?
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Jubatian
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Re: ATMEGA 644PA (SMD)

Post by Jubatian »

Nice! :)

For a vertical scrolling shooter, check out Grobian's Stormforce, a new game which came out for the UCC. There is a new video mode in development by me which should allow for creating more games of this genre ;) (and possibly also Outrun style racers)

Couldn't it be that the SD card was formatted for FAT32 originally? (The SD specification is one thing, what filesystem you put on it is another, so it is perfectly possible to even format a card for ext2 or anything else).
Vikt0r
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Re: ATMEGA 644PA (SMD)

Post by Vikt0r »

Thanks,Jubatian!
Very interesting, I'll check the thread.
Although I'm more a hardwareman, who knows - peharps one day I'll get an inspiration to join game development :)
With regards to the SD card.
I did try to format it several ways, so the FAT32 issue wasn't the issue for sure. Tried 2 cards - a 512Mb and a 2Gb(non-SDHC).
The 2 gig one never got recognized. While experimenting, i dropped back to Hardy's 0.4.3 bootloader, but that did not solve the issue either.
With the 512 meg card I tried different options - ALL the possible cluster sizes, one by one. Also tried exFat, with varying cluster size, starting with 512
bytes and ending up with 32 kilobytes. Nothing helped, including the FAT16 and 16 kilobyte cluster size - I was reading rubbish.
Only after reducing the partition size to less than 256 mb and then formatting it to FAT16/16K cluster - I have finally got the Uzebox to recognize it.
Now I'm thinking if it's worth to bother it once more to upgrade back to 0.4.5 bootloader...?
P.S. Updated to 0.4.5, but it does not detect my SD card upon reset, if it's inserted. However, if I remove the card at reset, but then insert it - the loader
detects, lists and reads the contents with no problem. Until next reset... :( So had to drop back to Harty's modified 0.4.3...
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uze6666
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Re: ATMEGA 644PA (SMD)

Post by uze6666 »

Nice work Vickt0r, thanks for posting pics! We don't see new pcbs often, specially not home made!

The bootloader seems to be a hit or miss thing. It works fine for the vast majority, but then for a few it's very finicky. Hard to say what it is since I can't get my hands on the problem cards.
Vikt0r
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Re: ATMEGA 644PA (SMD)

Post by Vikt0r »

Thanks, Uze6666!
Well, the issue was definitely with the SD-card itself - I've got an another one since, a 128Mb Nokia(!) one, and that works well in every case.
But then, there's another problem - all the bootloaders work fine, except the 0.4.5. one - for some reason my TV detects it's output
as PAL-M, and in a second the top of the image gets bent to the right. While with other loaders it detects as NTSC and displays correctly.

P.S. You are very welcome with pics, also I'd gladly share the design if anyone's interested. I'm somehow missing the times we were all making things with our bare hands. Especially now, when it costs nothing... It's not because I can't afford to order the pcb for cheap - even though I'd have to wait for it for a month or more, and that would make my hobby unnecessarily expensive...
It's because this hand-built DIY is a kind of disappearing art - just like the idea of ultra efficient 8-bit coding. Making such a pcb these days is really a basic knowledge, it's really more about fighting your inertia.
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