nanomig, cheaper lighter mister type dealio

[copse]

There's a project being discussed over on Atari Forum where a cheap $30 USD FPGA device, the Tang Nano 20K, is running 1.3 and some games.

Here's the source code for the Amiga firmware nanomig on github. This seems to follow on from the MiSTeryNano project which already supports to a large degree the Atari ST/STE.

The requirements are that you purchase:

• A Tang Nano 20K FPGA board. The Amiga firmware is written here along with the kickstart and disk images.
• A M0S host board. The MiSTeryNano firmware is written here and it provides the overlay UI and USB keyboard and mouse.
• A breadboard to wire them together.
• And maybe you need an HDMI display that supports 848x480 @ 60Hz. This is only mentioned on the MiSTeryNano troubleshooting page. How common is it? No idea!

The Amiga-specific youtube shorts are listed on the nanomig github page and there's Atari specific shorts on the Misterynano github page. I'll link the Amiga ones here for convenience.

• NanoMig #1: Amiga DiagROM booting on Tang Nano 20k
• NanoMig #2: USB keyboard and audio for the FPGA Amiga
• NanoMig #3: Booting workbench for the first time on Tang Nano 20k
• NanoMig #4: Running Amiga Pro tracker on the Tang Nano 20k

[copse]

As a point of reference, I bought the 20K board pre-soldered bundle, two breadboards, the M0S board for $86 NZD all up with GST included shipped to NZ. That's around $52 USD. When you consider that the new cheaper mister dealio that was reported on recently is going to be ~$99 USD + shipping + cost of extra bits.. I don't know. But interesting to give it a try.

I've cloned the Github project for nanomig, installed the education edition of the Gowin IDE and compiled the nanomig.fs firmware to verify it does at least compile as advertised. I haven't tried it yet, as the boards have not arrived yet of course.

[mikeboss]

waiting for the M0S to arrive. flashed the NanoMig binary to the Tang Nano. display says it's getting a signal with a resolution of 768x576 at 50 Hz. but there's nothing on the screen, it stays black. assuming that it's because of the missing M0S...

[copse]

Well, this is something that I have zero insight into but this seems relevant (from the Misterynano github readme):

The properly flashed Tang Nano 20K will boot into the Atari ST desktop even without anything else connected. But in order to use the system you need at least a keyboard and most likely also a mouse. These are usually connected through the M0S Dock.

As does the first entry on the troubleshooting page:

The Tang Nano 20K with the core atarist.fs correctly installed but nothing else will display an all-black 60Hz scan doubled video signal and the HDMI screen should be able to sync to it. Many screens have some kind of "menu" or "info" button and will tell the mode they are seeing.

Given that I am a congenital idiot with no experience, I would wonder if you flashed the rom or disks. The troubleshooting guide seems pretty handy.

[mikeboss]

yup, I tried it with MiSTeryNano (including the two TOS ROMs) and NanoMig (including Kickstart 1.3 flashed at offset 0x400000 & 0x440000). I got the 60 Hz signal from the MiSTery, also black screen. the M0S should arrive soon. maybe something has changed and now the M0S is needed to boot at all..? we'll see.

[copse]

If I were you, I would inquire in the Atari Forum thread. It should be working if what is written is correct.

[copse]

In idle moments I've been reading through the Misterynano thread on Atari Forum and what the dev has stated is that he is using the m0s host explicitly for a USB host. As the BL616 chip is on both boards, M0S and Tang Nano 20K, he was wanting to have the BL616 on the Nano board also be the USB host.

The problem was that the BL616 on the Nano board by default has a firmware that is there to flash the FPGA. If you flash one for it to be a USB host, then before you can flash the FPGA again you need to flash the old firmware back into the Nano BL616. From the date of the post below, there were licensing concerns in that it was unknown if the original firmware could be distributed to aid in this and doubt it could be pre-downloaded/extracted by the user before reflashing for USB host functionality. The dev compiled it himself from source. It was expressed by the dev that ideally the involved code from the original firmware could be included in the misterynano BL616 firmware in the future to make that suitable for dual purpose (flashing/misterynano FPGA control).

https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopi...452703#p452703

He also states that if you use the USB port on the Nano you need to provide 5V power from somewhere else. This would be dealt with by the additional ST board which can be used instead of the M0S hub for ST/STE users (this also provides MIDI, joystick and more).

[mikeboss]

thnx! I did not want to bother Till until I do have the whole setup. either I did something wrong or the M0S dock became mandatory... if it's still not booting with the M0S attached I of course will post at the atari forums.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by copse

When you consider that the new cheaper mister dealio that was reported on recently is going to be ~$99 USD + shipping + cost of extra bits.. I don't know. But interesting to give it a try.

That is where my money is

[ Show youtube player ]
https://twitter.com/zyjnumber1/statu...69986396307930

The Nano was interesting when it first came out before the price increases but it is too niche now with too few developers. With MiSTer you have far more support

[dreadnought]

I guess a joke about how 99$ MiSTer clones are like buses is in order...

Can't say it's a bad thing thou - even if my "investment" of buying a 2nd (discounted) DE10 last year now seems silly

[copse]

Reference for the $99 USD mister. Of course $99 USD is the projected price, not the actual release price and does not include shipping or extra memory IIRC, nor case and so on. So you're looking at 2-3x the price of a Nano setup and the cost of extra memory. Then there's inflation and why wouldn't they do post-release demand price hikes. We'll see where it stands when the dust settles.

[ Show youtube player ]

[mikeboss]

Originally Posted by alexh

The Nano was interesting when it first came out before the price increases

the SIPEED Tang Nano 20K costs $30. was it ever cheaper? okay, the M0S dock is needed also, costs an additional $5.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by mikeboss

the SIPEED Tang Nano 20K costs $30. was it ever cheaper?

Yes.
https://x.com/SipeedIO/status/165917...fRFhlodbA&s=19

[mikeboss]

the "Gowin Programmer" for M$ Windows is crap! just go with openFPGALoader (runs on Linux or, in my case, macOS).

after flashing "nanomig.fs" and "kick13.rom" to the Tang Nano 20K I got the bootscreen:



this works without the M0S dock.

https://github.com/trabucayre/openFPGALoader

[copse]

Originally Posted by mikeboss

the "Gowin Programmer" for M$ Windows is crap! just go with openFPGALoader (runs on Linux or, in my case, macOS).

There were reports about it being unreliable in the misterynano thread IIRC. But that it was possible to see if it failed via the status code and retry successfully. Perhaps even reasoning for why it failed.

These look like pretty good instructions but if there are sporadic failures it would be good to get them mentioned.

https://github.com/harbaum/MiSTeryNa...ION_WINDOWS.md

[xc8]

Originally Posted by copse

• And maybe you need an HDMI display that supports 848x480 @ 60Hz. This is only mentioned on the MiSTeryNano troubleshooting page. How common is it? No idea!

I had no signal (ST core) when I tested it with two different displays (one tv and one monitor) via HDMI, but it works with a VGA one (still screen looks need some shift to the left) via a generic HDMI-to-VGA

[copse]

Thanks, good to know. My gadgets have cleared customs and I am unclear on whether my TV can handle the given resolution.

[copse]

Release v0.2 made yesterday: https://github.com/harbaum/NanoMig/releases/tag/v0.2

The common inter-platform (VIC20, Atari ST, Amiga..) CPU core:

• extended Amiga on screen display (OSD) options (chipset: ECS or OCS, chipmem: 512k-2MB, slowmem: 512k-1.5MB, display: NTSC/PAL, drives: how many/speed/what is in each, settings: video scanlines/video filter).
• Additional OCS differentiation for A500 and A1000.

FPGA firmware:

• Note that Github defaults to not ignoring whitespace. When you're looking at a commit there are two toggles up on the top right { Whitespace | Ignore whitespace } and { split | unified }. Make sure "Ignore whitespace" is selected otherwise most of what you will see is noisy meaningless whitespace changes.
• Small fixes here and there.
• PAL mode.
• Support for extended core OSD options.

MasterOfGizmo has suggested that he is not really an Amiga guy and that it is a good time for people to get involved in working on the nanomig core. It's good to see there is another developer helping out on both core and firmware, xolod79 (thanks dude!).

[utri007]

Any one care to link correct hardware here, FPGA and possible host boards?

Aliexpress?

[mikeboss]

Originally Posted by utri007

Any one care to link correct hardware here, FPGA and possible host boards?

Aliexpress?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005142466936.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005581148230.html