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Re: Uzebox 128+

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 1:05 am
by uze6666
Just bough these mouses to experiment:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Adroit-P ... 92364.html
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/new-PS-2 ... 35209.html
At 3$ each with free shipping it a real bargain!

Re: Uzebox 128+

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 5:21 pm
by D3thAdd3r
It looks pretty good, maybe even matched with these keyboards, so for that price if they work decent it seems a good way to go.

How much work will it entail to modify the PS/2 firmware for the keyboard to the mouse?

Re: Uzebox 128+

Posted: Sun May 01, 2016 2:39 am
by uze6666
At first sight I would say not too hard. It's more about redefining the uzebus protocol. It won't be backward compatible alas.

Re: Uzebox 128

Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 11:21 pm
by D3thAdd3r
Tiny update, I'm still going on it here and there. Got a test print mouse pad and the quality I am pleased with; looks quite better red gradient than my phone camera captured. So they will come with a matching mouse pad, big whoop :lol: but for the production value it seems cool. For stickers and stuff I have been dropping the '+' which is for the 4k ram(the stuff that actually has a use yet) because it's superfluous. It is implied there is 4K ram and the name is changed to drop the '+' from here out.
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Headphone amps came and their size should work fine and the audio quality is perfect. So these are definitely the solution I will go forward with on that and anyone with similar project I would say you will be happy with these for most monaural things. The new buttons are lighted red LED momentaries and I have matching toggles with the lighted power symbol on them as well. They are bigger but more presentable so I will put them on the user facing top side. There is no more question or experimentation on buttons from here on. All from aliexpress and it is almost ridiculous how cheap you can get it all.

For the mouse I went nuts researching and bought all kinds of different laser mice that are PS/2 compatible. They are just too sleek looking and it was a mistake. For that matter wireless mice is no longer what I want to do, instead I am going to go with the less aggressive looking wired version Alec ordered which matches much better the design of the keyboard. Partially it is just too difficult to track down mice that are both new, laser, and PS/2 compatible. I don't know if I should put a USB or PS/2 plug yet, since many of the PS/2 compatible ones need a passive adapter to connect PS/2.

Laser engraver is also setup and working so I will see how well it puts the logo in the controllers. So far testing has yielded nice pictures. Also I found out if you interrupt the G-Code command stream to cancel a print, and the laser happened to be on at that moment in the stream...the laser continues to burn and will gladly put a pinhole through a slice of wood and then deep into the workbench underneath! Needless to say I no longer leave it plugged in when I am not there due to paranoia, and that laser is damn hot.

Re: Uzebox 128+

Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 5:29 am
by CunningFellow
Flecko wrote:Even if I need to use 2 of these for stereo, it's much better than my current solution: https://www.adafruit.com/products/987

It was almost $10 + $10 shipping. And it's not the price that bothers me, but the fact that it has limited gain selection. I had a hard time finding anything that takes a potentiometer as input.

Thanks Deathadder!
-Flecko
I don't know if you are still looking for amps. The one I am using is the LM4875. It is mono only, but does have a headphone sense pin and can switch between speaker and headphone automatically.

It also has a DC input for the volume control which makes setting the gain easy. (You can even make a micro controller make the DC voltage to control the volume)

Unlike the LM386 it is DC coupled on the output side so does not need that giant electrolytic capacitor.

Down side is that it is not a class D amp so has under a watt of output if you needed the power.

Re: Uzebox 128+

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 3:36 am
by D3thAdd3r
CunningFellow wrote:I don't know if you are still looking for amps. The one I am using is the LM4875. It is mono only, but does have a headphone sense pin and can switch between speaker and headphone automatically.
This is interesting. I have had the idea come back to me several times to include a small speaker with a tiny enclosure(the type that have fairly big sound for their size). If it ends up that way then I will check this out. It is mostly a size issue and if it is worth the extra work, though if already having headphones, why not go all out.

Alec we had some discussions somewhere and some PMs. I don't remember the last state the ideas were in, but we had come to a point where it seemed some changes were necessary from the existing keyboard interface to also support a simultaneous mouse. I know there was some talk of expansion, do we have any further ideas that could be forward/backward compatible? I am pretty much lost on this project until I can see what path the hardware should take, if we cannot do the mouse simultaneously the same way as a keyboard.

Re: Uzebox 128+

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 3:09 am
by uze6666
I was working on the mouse interface last year, but no progress after I decided to move to a new living space. I don't recall if I had sent you the schematic. In any cases, the protocol is the same, except the packets had to be a bit different to accommodate the mouse and potentially other devices. Good news was that I was to a point were I was receiving mouse movements and displaying the numbers on the screen. But the firmware on the attiny was crap and I would have to rewrite it. That's one thing I would like to complete since I was so close.

Re: Uzebox 128+

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 4:41 am
by D3thAdd3r
Last I recall you were talking about potentially using a ATmega48 so that mouse+keyboard+gamepads+I2C would be possible :shock: Unfortunately it was getting over my head at that time already, and I do not recall what your later ideas were or if I2C was worth it. If you get around to implementing something that seems future proof enough for you, I will implement that on U128 and at least there will be a couple machines and key users out there that have it. If it was a dedicated port for keyboard+mouse and nothing else, I think that is quite a good solution just like that.

Re: Uzebox 128+

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 5:47 am
by uze6666
Yes the interface indeed needs an external mcu. But if mouse and kb is enough it will greatly simplify things.

Re: Uzebox 128+

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 6:45 am
by D3thAdd3r
Well no rush or push at all, whenever it is fun to do I will like to see what you came up with. Personally I think "just" Mouse+Keyboard is ideal. I feel like I2C, adding MIDI back through separate MCU, etc is just getting too exotic past the point anyone will do something with it. Or they can, just U128 is likely not the best choice for hardware hacking and I am fine with that.

The special consideration from my point of view, is that I am totally screwed if the standard changes after the machines are put together. So if it takes a ATmega to make sure it is future proof so be it IMO. If what you have already does keyboard+mouse lets use it! Eh, there is still U128, serial number 1, with your name on it waiting to be put together ;)