Author: Decoy

Commodore 64 – redone #5

I have now finished the C64C. It was a great success! I will make a video one of the next days, showing how to access the games etc. I have been playing Jumpman, Drop Zone and other classics. I forgot to install H.E.R.O., which is a big mistake.

/Decoy

The inside
HDMI, power switch, USB micro for power

Kiss it Bye Bye!

As some of you guys know – the ones I speak to regularly – I had several ideas for concepts and themes for my future pinball projects…the ones coming after the Astro Attack! non-pinball game. As stated earlier, I have been removing myself from pinball, and I have been removing pinball from me. As such, I have no machines left and very little desire to own a pinball machine again (though there are one or two I would consider).
My main interest has always been computer and video games. Pair that with a passion for getting rid of stuff, then you have my decision of stopping with homebrew pinball – even before the first one is finished. I really, really want to make video games again, be it straight up computer or arcade games – I have always been attracted to the video screen.

I have just gotten rid of all my spare pinball parts to force this dogma upon myself.

I will finish the Servalan I/O driver board, since it is pretty far along and the code to support the Arduino 2560 is done (the code will of course need tweaking for individual projects). I will also finish Astro Attack! as I still believe that the concept is great. After that, my only involvement in pinball projects will be supplying boards and/or code to others. If someone has an interesting pinball/mechanical project, then I am open for hire.

/Decoy

Long live the new flesh

MaxiMite project #3

I managed to flash the MMBasic firmware to the UBW32, then connected RGBHV using VGA through the required pins, using fast-switching 1N4148 diodes to ground on each of the R, G and B colours. Apart from a little ghosting, which I hope will be better when interference is reduced, the image quality is fine. There is no PS/2 connector yet, so all I can do is watch the image. Yes, that IS a Ducky Shine Year of the Horse Edition keyboard!

/Decoy

UBW32 (red board under the monitor) running MaxiMite.

MaxiMite project #2

Ready to install new firmware on the UBW32. This is not something that is well-documented, compared to something like Arduino etc. – but few things are. The USB drivers are not even verified as working on Windows 10. So, it seems old and random to me. But anyways, let us try.

UBW32, manual and micro-USB cable

MaxiMite project #1

Recently I have been very interested in the MaxiMite project, after watching 8-bit Guys video on the topic ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQA8lowEKOo&t=229s ). It is an older project, created to ‘imitate’ an older 8-bit computer – like the C64. It is running MMBasic, which, in this case, has the ability to control I/O ports of the PIC microcontroller it is running on. It seems to me (not an expert) that MMBasic and MaxiMite beat micropython to the punch, but did not make a big splash?

Well, I have just received the UBW32 PIC microcontroller board, which also has the ability to run color MaxiMite. Then I will need to hook up a VGA port, a PS/2 port and an SD card read+write. These are in the mail.

UBW32 PIC microcontroller

BLAKE I/O Driver Board

The BLAKE I/O Driver Board is a small (10 cm * 10 cm) board that has inputs from switches etc. and outputs through MOSFETS (or similar). Perfect for mechanical projects driven by a microcontroller or directly from input to output.

Features:
– Nine inputs
– Eight outputs
– Pull-down resistors on inputs and outputs
– LEDs to verify that a signal is being sent towards the output
– Test-switch for forcing an output high (available on output 8)
– Outputs uses 3.96 mm connectors for reliability

If you are interested in this PCB, mail me at decoy at isocube.dk.

/Decoy

BLAKE I/O Driver board

BLAKE I/O Driver board populated

I created a small demo video. Solenoid demo to follow.