Update PIC on Minimig

[TheDaddy]

@Darrin

>>You're welcome.

OK, I feel better now. I just didn't want to find you living under a bridge in a few months, drinking meths and eating raw pigeons to survive.

 :-D

Uhm...pigeons... :-)

[TheDaddy]

@All

I have come back from my 2 hours meeting with the engineer. We have discussed my case design and solution for the Minimig and there are positives and negatives.

Negatives:
The original design will have to go through some SERIOUS revisions unless people are prepared to pay around the £75 (GBP) mark for it!

So to reduce costs and bring down the final price these are the things that I have been forced to drop:

1) The switches for the reset and menu buttons..............gone :-(
2) Fancy chromed bits..............gone  :-(
3) LED acrylic window...............gone  :-(
4) Aluminium cover....................gone  :-(
5) Engraved lettering....................gone (replaced by printing) :-(
6) Power acrylic window (to display the power LED).........gone  :-(
7) Choice of different colours cut from ANY to 2  :-(

Positives:
Price should be cut dramatically and the prototype for the new revisioned case should be ready next week.

And they want me to pay for it on delivery.

So there you have it...you are up to date.

I am a bit depressed but this is what is like creating a custom case for such a small market...

Anyway I am going to pay for the prototype next week and then post some pictures. If enough people want to buy it I can order a batch otherwise I will be the only one with a very expensive custom made case for the Minimig!  :-)

Thanks.

[TheDaddy]

@All

I have no pictures to show yet but these are the specs:

Plastic enclosure
IPod white/cream or metallic silver finish
It encloses the Minimig completely
All the ports are accessible
Hole for the reset switch
All the ports are identified/marked with their names
Rubber feet
No screws assembly (to be confirmed)

Also to be confirmed (this might push the price slightly up)

EMI/RFI screening
CE marking (if needed)

Thanks.
 :-)

[TheDaddy]

@boing4000

>>TheDaddy, should this be a new kind of minimig or "just" a new case?

Just the case, a custom made one just for our Minimigs.

>>When I get my new PIC with tiny bootloader inside, I want to start testing and adding some features (e.g. write support in adf files) for the original minimig (Dennis' board).

Cool I can't wait!

>>For other systems running "on" the minimig, the FPGA needs to know its hardware. Atari-ST custom chips or maybe Amstard CPC or C64 hardware has to be loaded into the FPGA via existing PIC or JTAG.

So this means that you could have an Atari on a SD Card and an Amiga or C64 on others? :-)

[TheDaddy]

>>Yes, absolutely. The FPGAARCADE board goes a step further and has a boot menu which allows you to pick a "platform", so it can be PACMAN, AMIGA, ATARIST, VIC20 etc etc (assuming you have the FPGA binaries for these platforms). I will try and back-port the AtariST code to the Minimig board when it is finished, but there a quite a lot of differences in the board.
My board also uses an AVR but it may be possible to port the firmware to the MiniMig PIC.

Excellent news! I have been following your site for a few years and I am impressed.
I will design a case for your FPGA board too!
 :-)

[TheDaddy]

@Henrycase and bloodline

The reset and the menu switch on the Minimig board are not that necessary. The keyboard can do what the Menu Switch does. The reset is slightly more important as when the Minimig doesn't answer to the three fingers salute the reset is the only option (together with unplugging the power). But implementing a solution for the case would mean making an expensive case, in the region of £75 (per unit in GBP), which in my opinion is too much. :-)

[TheDaddy]

Good news!

Writing support for ADFs and improved compatibility, very nice!

 :-D

[TheDaddy]

>>Nice to see active people... if I can just get round to getting a shaver power adapter for my MiniMig...



Go on go and buy one, we need more developers (compatibility issues and adf writing), I am as active as I could possibly be with my case design, soon on a desk near you!  :-D

[TheDaddy]

Any news on ADF writing and/or compatibility improvements? :-)