Hand Held CPC

EgoTrip · 20:27, 04 July 11

Is it possible to build a hand-held CPC, with LCD display, SD card for disk, built-in keyboard, etc? If so how much would it cost?

Bryce · 20:34, 04 July 11

The cost wouldn't depend on the components, rather the amount of time you would have to invest in the project. So the quick answer is "very expensive". It would probably make more sense to adapt something similar like a Gameboy with hacked firmware and an add-on card with an SD Socket.

Bryce.

norecess · 20:53, 04 July 11

It already exists. Check for emulators on PSP, DS... PSP emulator based on Caprice can also use an infra-red keyboard.

Ynot.zer0 · 21:51, 04 July 11

Quote from: norecess on 20:53, 04 July 11
PSP emulator based on Caprice can also use an infra-red keyboard.

That is interesting! I have a PSP (in pieces (naturally), but all still working)... if anyone has a link to a project already existing I'd be very interested to check it out.
I was previously investigating and doing proof of concept work around cutting down a 6128, attaching a PS-One 5" LCD and an SDCard reader with a rechargeable battery pack - so that I could have a "portable 6128". As with most things, I realised (as Bryce mentioned) that it takes quite a bit of time to get it all working, sadly time is not on my side this year...

MacDeath · 22:23, 04 July 11

A Blackberry style device would be great...

Keyboard, perhaps some USB plug, screen and Sound output.

Perhaps a bit bigger then.

Yet the problem with such CPC remakes is the screen...
How do you manage the border and overscanned display ?
most softs are 320x200 or even 256x192 equivalent.

Many Démos or a few games on the other hand are actually "full sized borderless screen" (be it for only X or Y...) such as Titan, Arkanoid, DonkeyKong and so on (256x256 equivalent)....

On the other hand, modern tech can theorically craft a full working CPC motherboard inside a simple pinhead...

while good old Cathode ray monitor where quite opened to resolution variations and pixels approximations, the LCD/PLASMA modern ones are absolutly square, precisely accurate, and so on...
Not even scanline based...(sort of)
Batman's demo wouldn't be the same in only 320x200 res max display...

Also those handheld device are really miniaturized to the extreme, so often beyond the average hacker's soldering and tweaking and circuit bending capability...

Not easy.

Bryce · 22:38, 04 July 11

And where do you plug the Joystick in?

Bryce.

steve · 22:57, 04 July 11

Quote from: ynot.zer0 on 21:51, 04 July 11

That is interesting! I have a PSP (in pieces (naturally), but all still working)... if anyone has a link to a project already existing I'd be very interested to check it out.
I was previously investigating and doing proof of concept work around cutting down a 6128, attaching a PS-One 5" LCD and an SDCard reader with a rechargeable battery pack - so that I could have a "portable 6128". As with most things, I realised (as Bryce mentioned) that it takes quite a bit of time to get it all working, sadly time is not on my side this year...

If you have a working ps1 screen then attach it to a gx4000 PCB mounted in a new casing with joypad buttons either side. although batteries are another question entirely.

AMSDOS · 02:14, 05 July 11

I think they mean a real CPC with real Hardware which isn't emulated. Many years ago some guy on the Internet made a Z80 computer the size of a top of a 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive. If this handheld was going to have a LCD then I guessing it might need a different controller chip to the standard 6845?

Bryce · 08:18, 05 July 11

Well you can get most of the ICs in SMD format including our good old Z80. The memory would be a single IC. It gets difficult when you get to the Gate array and the CRTC. How would you emulate the CRTC features in a completely different LCD driver IC?

Bryce.

MacDeath · 09:39, 05 July 11

QuoteAnd where do you plug the Joystick in?

If the joy is in built it is then an Enterprise128... not a CPC6128...

AMSDOS · 11:53, 05 July 11

Quote from: Bryce on 08:18, 05 July 11
Well you can get most of the ICs in SMD format including our good old Z80. The memory would be a single IC. It gets difficult when you get to the Gate array and the CRTC. How would you emulate the CRTC features in a completely different LCD driver IC?

Bryce.

Theorically would it be possible to take a small 5.5" CRT screen like this:

and wire a CPC into that. Only issue with the one above is a Colour one like the one below would be better (if it's at all possible):

News:

Hand Held CPC

norecess