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Mother X4 / MiniBooster Boards

Started by TotO, 18:54, 19 August 13

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TotO

Here, a small mainboard to connect to the black of a CPC.
It' a clean an safe way for plugging up to four 2x25 pins right-angled expansion cards on it.

You can see a MiniBooster on the picture. It's a little cpcbooster clone with modern communication features...
The FlashGordon board is already compatible, and any future boards using the same connector.

- One 2x25 male connector (CPC expansion ribbon cable with easy unplug system)
- Four 2x25 female slots
- One 2x25 male connector (Pass through link)
- One 5Vdc jack, for an optional external power supply
- One reset button
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

gerald

Nice one  :) .
I am using a ribbon bable with multiple connector, but here you get the stability (and a reset button  ;D )
How do you deal with the 5V ? Are all the plugged card powered by the external power supply or can they be powered by the CPC  ?

TotO

#2
Thank you.

About the 5V, I'm using 2 Schottky diodes as "steering diodes" to auto-select the source to use between the CPC 5V expansion line or an optional external 5V power-supply. (support up to 30V/5A reverse current)


"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

TFM

Looks really cute.  8)
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

SyX

LOOKS AMAZING!!! :D :D :D

I want one or two, jejejeje ;)

00WReX

Is someone making a batch of these ??

If "Yes" then how can they be purchased ?  Cost, etc ??

Cheers,
Shane
The CPC in Australia...
Awa - CPCWiki

Bryce

With a simple connector the MegaFlash would also be compatible with this. Nice idea.

Bryce.

Gryzor

Just got mine, along with the Minibooster. Ohhh yeah. Wondering about the sequence I must connect all these, but since it's not that easy to fry things I'll just try them out :)

fano

Quote from: 00WReX on 01:43, 20 August 13
Is someone making a batch of these ??

If "Yes" then how can they be purchased ?  Cost, etc ??


CPC Store - Cent Pour Cent
"NOP" is the perfect program : short , fast and (known) bug free

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TotO

Here, a MiniBooster picture done by Grim. :)


[attach=2]
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

Bryce

Very clean, neat design and professionally made. Excellent work.

Bryce.

TotO

Thank you Bryce. 8)

SyX done a great work on the firmware part to make this design possible.
And like fano, I hope that other peoples will make great things for the CPC with it!
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

fano

#12
About Minibooster and projects , this is one wip for it  ;)





CPC-Power , premiere base de logiciels CPC consultable directement sur CPC !
"NOP" is the perfect program : short , fast and (known) bug free

Follow Easter Egg products on Facebook !

redbox

Quote from: fano on 06:34, 09 October 13
About Minibooster and projects , this is one wip for it  ;)

What a great idea, looking forward to this!!!

Munchausen

One thing I've been wondering about the minibooster, is whether there is a Linux version of the software to send dsk images to it? I no longer have any machines with Windows, so it'd be nice if, e.g. the arkos tools, could work in Linux.


(Also, I think my Minibooster has arrived when I get to work :D Now I just need a CTC-AY...)

Kris

Access to CPC Power directly on CPC : great idea !!


TotO

Quote from: Kris on 19:21, 09 October 13
Access to CPC Power directly on CPC : great idea !!
Yes, it's great for writing not protected DSK directly to 3" floppies. :D
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

Sykobee (Briggsy)

Quote from: Kris on 19:21, 09 October 13
Access to CPC Power directly on CPC : great idea !!


Sounds a bit like the Spectrum's Spectranet device. It can load and run software/games over the internet directly... [size=78%]http://zx.kupo.be/kupospecfull.jpg[/size]

fano

#18
Here , we still need a PC as gateway but MiniBooster is very well thought so it is possible to add an ethernet/wifi shield via SPI (via UART too but modules are difficult to find and more expensives) to access directly internet.
I hope a lot of people will want to devellop for this new version of the CPCbooster as it can be used for a lot of things, i just do not have enough time to do every thing i would like for it  :o


Btw, about the picture you posted : OCP on Speccy ?
"NOP" is the perfect program : short , fast and (known) bug free

Follow Easter Egg products on Facebook !

TFM

Well, I desperately wait for the CPC-AY handbook to support it in Cyber Chicken. Sadly I guess my time runs out in 1-2 days, so I can't support.
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

TotO

I just sent you again the developer manual. (first sent in May)
Now, I'm sure that is better to make a new project for the CTC-AY, instead of only a fast patch. ;)

A better documentation will be only possible if developers share their experiences and feedback with me.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

TFM

#21
Thank's a lot. The old one was preliminary, and I didn't quite get it all. Never mind it's the hardest to make docs about the own stuff. Just got it via email :)




EDIT: One AY of the CTC-AY has all channels left, the other one has all channels right. Correct?

TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Gryzor

Ooh direct access to an online repository? Me wants.

MacDeath

#23
QuoteOne AY of the CTC-AY has all channels left, the other one has all channels right. Correct?
it seems so.

This may even lead to some trivial issue if you want some "Mono" sounds... you know, sound on both side, you would have to sacrifice one channel (play the same sound on 2 channels, one on each side).
would have been good to be able to set some of them on the "middle" but this is not that important because with 3xAY = 9 channels, you have quite enough for awesome compositions... even just having only 2 AY in total is enough provided most classic computers had like only 3 channels... 4 at best. and not all were Stereo.

the CPC internal speaker can give 3 Mono channels anyway. ;D

otherwise it provides 1 Mono (dual side) channel anyway that could provide sweet DMA samples with a PLUS.





Have you contacted the AY riderz ?
Being AY, some of them do have some Amstrad, despite they mostly use speccies128.


A 6128PLUS with this CTC-AY card and Mother x4 could be a nice dirty bugger for them...
Would be great to have a MIDI-MIDInet card to plug on this MotherX4 then...

TFM

Well, I'm stupid in sound. But why using mono, when you can use stereo ;-)

TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

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