Fleafpga ohm minimig

[Amiga1992]

Ahh good call, I can probe it. I usually use a needle to do that

[Caldor]

I got mine last Thursday and I have been playing around with it. I was lucky enough to find a USB keyboard that could actually work directly with the 186 core. Its a silicone rollable keyboard though and really annoying to work with... also seems you have to add a 3.5 audio jack to the pins to get sound? Not sure, because I cannot get DOS 6.22 working, so I seem unable to get much to work in the way of audio drivers and such.

It seems the bios or something is hard coded to require DOS 7.1? Not sure if I really have to build a new bios to make it run DOS 6.22. I noticed the Amiga core is based on the TC64 core... so I guess it should be possible to also port its C64 core... which I think is open source? Not sure.

Does not seem like the creator is planning on porting it, as he wrote earlier in this thread. Since this is somewhat commercial I can understand him. I think he could get more of a backlash than Vice would with their free software. I dont think a third party would be in the same position as him though.

I have installed the Diamond Lattice software... but pretty sure I wont be compiling new cores any time soon, if ever. I usually code in C# so... this is quite different.

[Caldor]

I also ordered a bunch of PS/2 adapters. 4 from China and 2 from Denmark. I already burned out one PS/2 keyboard trying to make my own adapter and was trying to switch around ground and voltage when it would not work... I learned that was a mistake.

[Caldor]

Got the Minimig Core working. Somewhat... for some reason it seems to freeze quite a bit... or something. Will experiment some more tomorrow.

[basman74]

Originally Posted by Caldor

seems you have to add a 3.5 audio jack to the pins to get sound? Not sure, because I cannot get DOS 6.22 working, so I seem unable to get much to work in the way of audio drivers and such.

I've temporarily taken down my tweaked Next186 build with the added integrated audio due to some stability issues. I will re-upload that again soon.

Regarding your other issues: I have attempted to address them over at the related google group.

As for Minimig, see how you go with it. If it works for others I suspect it may work for you too

- Valentin

[happymondays]

Got my board yesterday and flashed the Minimig core to it, everything seems fine, except for that tiny, annoying fact that I seem to have no screen that supports the FleaFPGA's display mode. Although according to my LCD TV's manual it is a keen supporter of 576p mode via its different connections (HDMI, too) and I bought a Mini HDMI - HDMI cable, no screen displayed, so it is obviously not true. I did not expect this after ten years spent together.
The device seems to boot (flashing green LED, then stops), but I cannot see the results. The other screens I have here are two LCD monitors with DVI and VGA connections, I tried HDMI - DVI adapter, no result. And my old CRT TV is out of question. So I could not start to do anything yet. I will pay a visit to my parents, my aunt and my brother this weekend, maybe one of them have some compatible displays.

[robinsonb5]

Originally Posted by happymondays

The device seems to boot (flashing green LED, then stops), but I cannot see the results.

Some minimig variants will allow you to force the screenmode (PAL / NTSC / scandouble) on hard reset / boot by pressing F1/2/3 or 4 - no idea if the Flea variant is one of them but it's worth a go. You'll need to press and hold the key after power is applied, but before the core starts - or hold it while you press the reset button (assuming there is one).

[Sinphaltimus]

So, is it what you all anticipated?

What makes this thing a winner?

[kolla]

Originally Posted by Sinphaltimus

So, is it what you all anticipated?

Don't know yet - I have two.

My idea is to attach it on-top of a raspberry pi zero, and use the pi for various I/O through the GPIO pins, for example use USB keyboard, mouse, joysticks etc on the Pi to control the FleaFPGA, instead of attaching those directly to it. From what I have read, attaching keyboard and mouse directly is rather gamble anyways.

What makes this thing a winner?

Price and size

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by happymondays

I seem to have no screen that supports the FleaFPGA's display mode. Although according to my LCD TV's manual it is a keen supporter of 576p mode via its different connections (HDMI, too) and I bought a Mini HDMI - HDMI cable, no screen displayed, so it is obviously not true. I did not expect this after ten years spent together.

That really sucks. My TV got it right away.
What model is it? Maybe we should start a list of displays that support the Flea's output.
Mine is a 7 year old Toshiba 40BV701. I really love this display, takes plenty of inputs (composite, RGB, svvideo, component, hdmi, vga) and has no lag on analog signals! Although it does try to interpolate between moving frames, and it doens't do true 50Hz (I believe it approximates to 56) so it isn't perfect. But it's mostly great, especially with all the shit I can plug into it without needing a switcher or converter.

Originally Posted by Sinphaltimus

So, is it what you all anticipated?
What makes this thing a winner?

The price and size for sure! Also supporting yet another Minimig platform developer like Valentin
Next186 surely looks great too, I dare say I am more interested in it than I am on Minimig. But I need a new SD card to be able to give it a try.
And I am hoping someone develops a C64 core. Would be great to have one that is just the computer, and with the possibility of it having besides DB9 joystick ports, a C= serial IEC port, so we can connect floppy drives and SD2IECs.

[Sinphaltimus]

Originally Posted by kolla

Don't know yet - I have two.

My idea is to attach it on-top of a raspberry pi zero, and use the pi for various I/O through the GPIO pins, for example use USB keyboard, mouse, joysticks etc on the Pi to control the FleaFPGA, instead of attaching those directly to it. From what I have read, attaching keyboard and mouse directly is rather gamble anyways.



Price and size

I'm curious, but I don't see any videos or anything to show what folks are doing with it (Amiga specific) so a bit concerned too. Can't wait to see what you come up with...

As for Price and Size, it sounds like there is more to invest in (an rPi if you go that route, or a bunch of attachments to make it usable) and size, what's the size after all these attachments?

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Sinphaltimus

I'm curious, but I don't see any videos or anything to show what folks are doing with it (Amiga specific)

Dude we just got them, fresh off the oven. Give it some time.

You can see Valentin demoing a unit though: [ Show youtube player ]

As for Price and Size, it sounds like there is more to invest in (an rPi if you go that route, or a bunch of attachments to make it usable) and size, what's the size after all these attachments?

This is a DIY platform, not an end consumer one. So yeah there's some work to do.
Since this unit is barely the size of two US dollar quarters, you can get really small size-wise. A fully kitted Minimig setup (you don't need a Raspberry Zero, that's kolla's intended use) which would consist of expansion ports and stuff, should be no bigger than a regular size Raspberry Pi.

Some adapters and an old PS/2 keyboard and mouse don't cost much, either. Neither does an SD card. Probably your Amiga joysticks, if you don't have them already, would cost more.

[Sinphaltimus]

Originally Posted by Akira

Dude we just got them, fresh off the oven. Give it some time.

You can see Valentin demoing a unit though: [ Show youtube player ]

This is a DIY platform, not an end consumer one. So yeah there's some work to do.
Since this unit is barely the size of two US dollar quarters, you can get really small size-wise. A fully kitted Minimig setup (you don't need a Raspberry Zero, that's kolla's intended use) which would consist of expansion ports and stuff, should be no bigger than a regular size Raspberry Pi.

Some adapters and an old PS/2 keyboard and mouse don't cost much, either. Neither does an SD card. Probably your Amiga joysticks, if you don't have them already, would cost more.

I'm just taking a back seat at the moment. I haven't really found anyplace or any information to answer my questions is all so I thought I'd ask here. Sounds like it could be fun if you know what you're doing. Really looking forward to seeing what you all do with them and if they fill a gap in my heart for most things Amiga related.

EDIT: I like to hear from the community and not just rely on the developer's info. Too soon I suppose.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Sinphaltimus

I'm just taking a back seat at the moment.

That's the only seat you can take at this moment, it's not a thing you can go out and buy, it was produced for indiegogo backers only and I don't know if there will be any more (Valentin might be able to answer that here later).

Sounds like it could be fun if you know what you're doing.

I think that pretty much sums up a DIY platform Most FPGA reconfigurable computers need a bit of fiddling about!

I'll surely try to post a video once I get the damn PS/2 adapters I ordered and make sure it all works.

[Sinphaltimus]

Originally Posted by Akira

That's the only seat you can take at this moment, it's not a thing you can go out and buy, it was produced for indiegogo backers only and I don't know if there will be any more (Valentin might be able to answer that here later).

OH, I guess that settles it, wasn't sure how those things work. Like maybe they would go for sale after a successful campaign.

I think that pretty much sums up a DIY platform Most FPGA reconfigurable computers need a bit of fiddling about!

Yeah, I guess I didn't read into it that much. I don't have much experience with FPGA stuff.

I'll surely try to post a video once I get the damn PS/2 adapters I ordered and make sure it all works.

Cool, I appreciate your feedback once you get it going.

I can only hope for 2 things at the moment I guess...
1. It ends up being great for what it is and there are a lot of examples as to what can be done with what parts...
2. A version 2 happens. Assuming 1 is true, I'd be more interested.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Sinphaltimus

OH, I guess that settles it, wasn't sure how those things work. Like maybe they would go for sale after a successful campaign.

If I understand this right, there will not be any other production run, unless there is another campaign ("campaign" was basically a pre-sale of units)

1. It ends up being great for what it is and there are a lot of examples as to what can be done with what parts...

Well the idea in regards to Amiga is that it can do whatever the Minimig ECS core can do, and that's a whole lot.
What you can add to the bare board is described within the MInimig core documents:

Minimig ECS 68k (as ported to FleaFPGA Ohm) Hardware specifications:
- 68000, 68010 and 68020(beta) selectable CPU options
- OCS/ECS selectable chipset
- From 0.5MB to 26MB configurable system RAM (many configurations possible)
- Support for four virtual floppy and two virtual Hard disk drives
- Video out via HDMI (576p video) with audio.
- Video out 15/30kHz rate selectable via GPIO (See Appendix ‘A’ for pin drawing).
- Provision for PS/2 Mouse on USB1 port and PS/2 Keyboard on USB2 port.
- Two game ports wired to the GPIO (See Appendix ‘A’ for pin drawing).
- One serial UART wired to GPIO (See Appendix ‘A’ for pin drawing).
- Minimig system reset is accessed via FleaFPGA Ohm 2-pin ‘RST’ header.

So yeah, it'd be like a tiny A600 with lots of RAM and HDMI output.

[Higgy]

I got good ideas for fitting it into a small project box.

Just waiting on capacitors to make the audio circuit for Next186.
I got my dual PS/2 to USB adaptor working.
Wired in a Competition Pro and tried SWOS
Waiting on a load of stuff from China to work out how small I can get it.

Next186 Core has had very recent improvements regarding keyboard compatibility.

Currently looking at a project box 105x70x35mm, got to fit:
2X 9 pin dtype, full size HDMI, 2xPS/2, reset push button, switch for 15/30hz, MicroSD, MicroUSB power and 3.5mm jack. Not worrying about serial yet.

Videos - ummm not done anything like that before. From a podcast submission I sent in, I have a boring sounding voice Could do something with phone camera. I will get audio circuit made first.

[basman74]

Originally Posted by kolla

I feel like repeating myself, but I cannot recall having seen any answer Is there anything fundamental that prevents one from using a pi zero (with a OTC USB hub) as "controller" for keyboard, mouse, joysticks etc? Given that code is written for the pi, of course.

Nothing fundamental that I can see Kolla, except the idea of direct connection between FleaFPGA Ohm and Pi zero was not implemented in my initial Minimig release.

Due to conflicts between the retro-pie joystick pinout and the Raspberry Pi's UART, I have decided to initially release FleaFPGA Ohm minimig with a GPIO pin-out that uses the retro-pie joystick pinout as a reference. See Appendix 'A' of the following: https://github.com/Basman74/Minimig_...tup_README.pdf

I was forced into making a choice for the initial release and went with a retro-pie pin-out instead. Sorry about that.

- Valentin
PS: Kindly note I have also edited my original reply around the matter to reflect this change.

[kolla]

That's ok, I don't mind getting my hands dirty, it's about time, the last time I did any compiling of Minimig was to remap keyboard keys on the original Minimig 5-6 years ago, lol
Thanks for answering me on your google group as well.

[Amiga1992]

OK got my keyboard adapter really fast! Wasn't expecting it to arrive for another 2 or 3 weeks or more (it's Chinese New Year).
It's this one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/401253927600
Worked perfectly with my Mitsumi AT keyboard (via AT to PS/2 adapter)!!
But you might have to wait, seller is on vacation because of the New Year. I got really lucky.

Now I need to build the DB-9 ports so I can actually play something, but my tests so far have left me very impressed!

[edit] remember how I said my screen had tearing on 50Hz scrolling? Apparently, that only applies to analog signals. The Minimig core on the Flea is displaying super silky smooth 50Hz screen scrolling on HDMI!!! this is absolutely great, it looks fantastic!

The screen mode is 754x574 50P, weird indeed.