The quest to a portable Uzebox - update!

[uze6666]

Small update. I finally decided to buy Eagle 7 "Hobbyist version". That one allows board up to 16x10 cm so that just what I need. Back on track.

[uze6666]

Finally wired up the real components: the battery, step-up converters and LCD Lee and I bought, all works as expected and the current draw is ok. The secondary step-up that takes 3.7v->7.5v (for the lcd) is about 95% efficient.

[D3thAdd3r]

It's alive!

Looks like you already have a blue LED you could use your "light tube" trick from the case on too.

[uze6666]

I have been doing a preliminary fitting of all parts on the pcb outline. As you can see, even with all though-hole part, there's "plenty" of free space. And that's with the SPI ram and esp8266 module! The top side will only have the buttons pads (the red things). All parts will be on the other side, hence the reversed labels. That's a bit of a pain to work with since you can't "flip" the board in Eagle CAD. Anyway...steadily progressing. We should have a portable unit by the end of the year if all goes well. One that can be assembled (hopefully) just as easily as the main Uzebox kit.

[cosam]

Wow, this is looking pretty cool. I did tinker with an AVCore and one of these in-car LCD screens for a while but with batteries and all it was getting a bit too bulky to call portable. Any thoughts on two player support, like they had with the Game Boy link cables? Because the screen I was using had dual inputs, I toyed with the idea of having one unit work only as a controller and getting its video signal from the other which actually ran the game.

[D3thAdd3r]

Hey this is really exciting!

Any thoughts on two player support, like they had with the Game Boy link cables?

I don't think a dedicated link cable is necessary. When Uzenet progress gets going again it will be possible to play with someone over the internet. I think too it would be a good idea to implement a method to automatically discover and play with a machine on the same wifi and avoid the latency of the internet. Might be rare the situation arises, but still.

[kivan117]

We do have an unused player 2 controller port compared to the normal Uzebox and there was that whole uzelink idea a while ago if I'm not mistaken. For me personally, using a cable is outdated but it definitely brings back memories of linking up 2 of the old brick gameboys for a pokemon battle as a kid, or later on having multiple gameboy advances all tethered up for advance wars. Obviously the Uzenet module would be the "normal" method of connecting 2 and we definitely need a local wifi only connection method for 2 player, but I think adding in an option to cable 2 together for places with no wifi isn't a bad idea and is in keeping with the feel of the console. We'd want a non-proprietary cable of course, something small that is easily obtainable, and there's no reason to make it a priority. It'd just be nice if the pcb space was left over.

[uze6666]

Any thoughts on two player support, like they had with the Game Boy link cables? Because the screen I was using had dual inputs, I toyed with the idea of having one unit work only as a controller and getting its video signal from the other which actually ran the game.

The Uzebox market is pretty small so I don't expect anybody out there two have two portables in the same room! Currently I had considered putting P2 support via a special "multi-out" plug along audio and video. You could plug another SNES controller. In that case, naturally, you'd have to play on a tv. Uzenet module is the way to go for two players since it can support both regular and portable versions with the same code.

[D3thAdd3r]

The Uzebox market is pretty small so I don't expect anybody out there two have two portables in the same room!

Ah crap, I'm going to feel like a huge nerd..again

I was wondering what this thing would look like in black and red, actually just the design go me thinking Atari today..so I pulled a classic handheld out of it's dusty box along side all the other dusty boxes insane video game collectors tend to have. I just laugh, actually a very cool machine, but this picture..probably explains what I think is so funny. The screen Alec is using is actually the same width and slightly taller and easily much better quality. I tend to think he will manage to squeeze it in a smaller case than the Lynx II

evolution_bits_versus_controller_size.jpg (51.72 KiB) Viewed 5814 times

Now if only someone knew how to make a red and black rendering of Uzebox Portable

[uze6666]

On Atari age it's said The Lynx II is 9.25" x 4.25" x 2", can you confirm? If so that's a beast! I reassure you that the Uzebox portable will be much smaller. Here's a comparision:

portable7.jpg (41.69 KiB) Viewed 5766 times

Now if only someone knew how to make a red and black rendering of Uzebox Portable

Allright I can try something...black case and red buttons?

portable8.jpg (45.73 KiB) Viewed 5765 times