CPC Dandanator Mini 1.3 - WIP

[GUNHED]

They should IMHO provide a digital download. (cost or free, doesn't matter).

[Dandare]

They should IMHO provide a digital download. (cost or free, doesn't matter).

They will. (for free AFAIK)

[Dandare]

did someone order 350 of them or are there really close to 400 individual buyers?  nice to know the size of active hardware base.

The numbers I have:


4Mhz : 200 units
Individual Buyers directly from me : 203 units.
Small batch from other Spanish forum : 10 units.


At the end of the day, units go to individual buyers (since 4mhz is sold out already). It may be the case that some users have two units. Very few users (2 or 3) have 3 units.

[Dandare]

Since it's an "open source" (or whatever you call it...) project it may be difficult to count. M4 quantities should be more valid...

Many times people contact me when building their own boards, either for permission (you don't need it btw), or heads-up (thanks), or asking technical or logistics questions.


But you're right, I can only track those I know of. If someone builds 100 tomorrow and decides not to tell me, I would miss the count for those units.

[Dandare]

...
It's just a regular Dandanator but with the usb header and the buttons removed, so it's

At the software side, it has a custom selector and doesn't look is SNA based... Sorry but there is not download until someone at 4Mhz makes a decision or someone crack opens it's "Repoker pack" and reads the eeprom...

It's a standard CPC dandanator with no buttons and no USB circuitry. Not only the usb header, but the usb chip, xtal and related capacitors.


Loader is custom made by 4mhz and myself and it's not based on the sna format.
4mhz will post the digital download for free as they always do with their games. I don't know any estimated date though.

[Jungsi]

Hey Dan,
today I wanted to test the ROM Generator with the Mojon Twins Romset. With drag&drop the rom into the ROM Generator and also with importing the ROMset
I have the German message ""Fehler beim Datei-Import" - Unerwarteter Dateiinhalt für die benötigte Funktion" :-)
If you can remember there was the same problem with the ZX Dandantor in 2018. :-)
Is there something broken or am I doing something wrong?

[Dandare]

Hey Dan,
today I wanted to test the ROM Generator with the Mojon Twins Romset. With drag&drop the rom into the ROM Generator and also with importing the ROMset
I have the German message ""Fehler beim Datei-Import" - Unerwarteter Dateiinhalt für die benötigte Funktion" :-)
If you can remember there was the same problem with the ZX Dandantor in 2018. :-)
Is there something broken or am I doing something wrong?

Hi, the Mojon Twins romset is not a standard dandanator CPC romset, so it cannot be imported into the ROMset generator by dragging it. If you want to resend it to your CPC Dandanator, please use the "Send alterative file" from the preferences menu, Loader tab.

[yannis_uno]

The numbers I have:


4Mhz : 200 units
Individual Buyers directly from me : 203 units.
Small batch from other Spanish forum : 10 units.


At the end of the day, units go to individual buyers (since 4mhz is sold out already). It may be the case that some users have two units. Very few users (2 or 3) have 3 units.

Dandare, could you please put me down on the waiting list for one?


Thanks!

[Dandare]

All pending units sent. I built an extra one, so if anyone is interested, it's already available.

[Fabrizio Radica]

All pending units sent. I built an extra one, so if anyone is interested, it's already available.

Hi Dandare,
I'm interested in Dandanator.

[Dandare]

Hi Dandare,
I'm interested in Dandanator.

PM Answered. Thanks.

[Devlin]

how much would one of these cost pre-built(preferably with a case of some sort) and shipped to UK? (for an OG 464, edge connector).

I'd like to know so I can save up and get one.

[Dandare]

how much would one of these cost pre-built(preferably with a case of some sort) and shipped to UK? (for an OG 464, edge connector).

I'd like to know so I can save up and get one.

Hi, cased and shipped (registered) within EU is €32.
Please drop me a PM if interested. I think I can have one built in a week or two.


Bear in mind that this is a public domain project and you can build your own if you want to.

[Devlin]

Hi, cased and shipped (registered) within EU is €32.
Please drop me a PM if interested. I think I can have one built in a week or two.


Bear in mind that this is a public domain project and you can build your own if you want to.

I'll have to get back to you when I have the money available, but count me interested.

[Dandare]

No problem. Just send me a PM when you are ready.
Cheers.

[pabloingreece]

Hi all, I wonder if there is any chance to upload games to Dandanator 1.3 mini without having USB installed onboard, I succcessfully connected the board with Arduino UNO and I wonder if I could customise my cartridge in any way.


Thanks in advance!!!

[Dandare]

Hi all, I wonder if there is any chance to upload games to Dandanator 1.3 mini without having USB installed onboard, I succcessfully connected the board with Arduino UNO and I wonder if I could customise my cartridge in any way.


Thanks in advance!!!

Hi,
Actually there is. The onboard USB is just an USB to Serial-TTL chip (CH340G), pretty much the same as the one included in the Arduino.


You can actually create a sketch that does a Serial-Passthrough from the Arduino USB connected serial to another Serial port if available or to a Soft-Serial Port. Considering the serial implementation details stated below, You'd probably be better off by just bitbanging inputs and outputs or directly connect to the same ports used by the Serial port connection, though I haven't try this and it would require some thinking in advance .


If I remember it right, the CPLD pins are 39-->connect to Arduino TX and 40--> Connect to Arduino RX. Check the schematic on the documentation to make sure.


At the UART level you have to consider two peculiarities:
1) CPC to PC is always at 57,6kbps
2) PC to CPC starts at 57,6Kbps but maybe pushed up to 115,2kbps after the handshake.
Bear in mind that there is a custom protocol on top of serial to handshake and agree on transmission speed and to request/transmit chunks of data. These chunks also have a format and a CRC.


If you tell me what are your customisation plans, I could probably give you more to-the-point details.

[pabloingreece]

Hi, I have a dandanator with some games loaded in flash memory, so I would like to load other games or demos, nothing special, but because the lack of USB port I wonder if I could do the game loading in another way.


I have an Arduino Uno, so the trick is to connect the CPLD pins (39,40) to TX/RX on Arduino? As you said would I I need a sketch for managing the transfer? Is there any example for doing this?


I found this: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/SerialPassthrough


Also, how can I connect TX/RX from Arduino to that tiny pins in CPLD? I found in the schematics the CH340G pins in the Dandanator board, but are also tiny... any trick?

Thanks!

[Dandare]

Hi,
I'm afraid there is no other way to connect to Rx and tx, just the ones you mentioned.


What may be possible (I'm not sure though, you'll have to check it first) is that the pins beside the rx and tx pins in the ch340 footprint are unconnected, so you can solder a wire to two pins instead of just one.


Remember that you MUST connect the gnd as well.


I would strongly recommend to get a cheap ch340g usb adaptor and connect gnd,tx and rx.
I guess this is a board built by yourself or a 4mhz game (all boards I delivered have usb)
Obviously, the cleanest solution is to put the missing components in the board, but you'd need some previous smd soldering experience.


On the other hand, the code for writing dandanator flash memory sectors is publicly available, so you could potentially integrate it in a tape or a disk updater. And you can always extract the memory chip (it's socketed) and program it with a flash eeprom programmer.

[Bryce]

Wouldn't it be simpler to just add the CH340 and other missing parts?

Bryce.

[Dandare]

Most certainly it would, however I wonder if the OP is trying to avoid SMD soldering.


From my previous post: "Obviously, the cleanest solution is to put the missing components in the board, but you'd need some previous smd soldering experience."

[Bryce]

Are they only sold in kit form? No pre-assembled units?

Bryce.

[Dandare]

Are they only sold in kit form? No pre-assembled units?

Bryce.

All of them delivered either by the people I know of or by myself are fully assembled and in a machined ABS case.
the 4Mhz game compilation however, was intended as a "ROM" cartridge so no USB circuitry was included.
Since this is a public-domain project, anyone could have built a kit or a non-usb board to sell. This is completely out of my control.

[Bryce]

Cool solution. I like the idea of reduced part population as a read-only version.


Bryce.

[pabloingreece]

I guess this is a board built by yourself or a 4mhz game (all boards I delivered have usb)

Yes, it's a 4Mhz one, but I wonder if I could reuse it as carrtidge for more games, changing them from time to time


Of course the cleanest solution is the soldering of the components, no doubt. But as I have an Arduino I wonder if I can do the process without changing the board. I've already ordered a TL866II programmer for another project, with some adapters, so I think I'll do the trick using the programmer.


Thanks by the way!!