MiniMig with AGA

[Darrin]

ah yes, I was thinking of the ST keyboard which has the MCU on the keyboard.

There are 30 odd IOs to the Amiga Keyboard, so you would need to wire it up to the main expansion connector if you wanted to do this.
/Mike

So in reality, the only way we could expect to use the A1200 or A600 keyboards is if someone makes a piece of hardware to accept the keyboard ribbon and does all of the work to adapt it to a PS2 connector.

Were "big box" Amiga keyboards just as simple, or would it be easier to produce a PS2 adapter for the A1000/2000/3000/4000 keyboards?

[Darrin]

Sheesh, just get a modern PS2 or USB keyboard with PS2 connector and remap the keys for an Amiga.  Amigans have a way of over complicating the hell out of everything.

You're missing the original point.  

I use a PS2 keyboard quite nicely on my Minimig v1.1 (the minimig is actually in the keyboard).

What we're looking at is reusing old A1200 shells that are left over from tower conversions or have dead mobos and giving them a new lease of life as cases for this new Minimig.

Throwing on of these Minimigs into an A1200 case and then snaking a PS2 keyboard out of the side will look a but "funky".  Bastardising the A1200 keyboard to put in a PS2 keyboard seems criminal (but might be the only option).  If I go that route then I'll use a black PS2 keyboard and spray the A1200 plastic casing black to match.

[Darrin]

The A1200's keyboard interface is not a difficult thing to adapt to the Minimig.  If there were a decent market, could make custom minimig boards.  If not, can do an A1200 to PS/2 adaptor.  Either way, piece of cake electronically.  Anyone with 15 minutes could whip up the schematics needed based on the numberous PS2 to Amiga adaptor schematics from Aminet.

If you ever get bored then put me down for one (assuming you have a spare 15 minutes).  

Perhaps with more and more Minimigs getting into the hands of Amiga users then a market for these adapters will appear to the point where somebody will consider making them.

[Darrin]

What are people willing to pay for A1200 keyboard to PS/2 adapter?

A Keyrah goes for $41 on AmigaKit.com, so that's a good ballpark for me.

[Darrin]

A Keyrah is hideously overpriced. The Custom-looking Motorola MPU which is on the A1200 used a bog-standard Motorola 68HC05 MCU.

See http://www.amiga-stuff.com/hardware/68hc05.html for more info.

Maybe, but the question was "what am I willing to pay".  I was willing to pay $41 for a Keyrah, and I'd be willing to pay $41 for a A1200 keyboard ribbon to PS2 adapter.  Now, what others are willing to pay is another matter.

Amigas are not a cheap hobby.

[Darrin]

In this case, the microcontroller in question can be had for £2.08  

See http://uk.farnell.com/freescale-semiconductor/mc68hc705j1acpe/8bit-mcu-68hc705-dip20/dp/1200547 in the UK

These can also be purchase directly from Digikey in the US for $4/ea. See http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/1081847-ic-mcu-4mhz-1-2k-otp-20-dip-mc68hc705j1acpe.html

Whether or not the contents of the (typically flash EEPROM) could be read back is another matter.

The 68HC05C9A that Commodore employed had a mask ROM area, where their code lived. The closest part number to it is http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=68HC05C9A

Let me know when you have a finished product.  

[Darrin]

The projects on aminet are typically about hooking PS2 keyboards to A1200s, not turning A1200 keyboards into PS2 ones. What is needed is something akin to the Keyrah, and IMO it would make perfect sense to put this on the expansion board that Yaqube is making, but I have no idea whether it is feasable or not.

To be honest, I wouldn't add it to the board as some people won't want it and as a stand-alone unit it could also be used with a PC (WinUAE, etc), Minimig v1.x and the C-One.  All of which equals a larger market for sales.

[Darrin]

Your assumption is correct. Otherwise there was no support for more than 16 MB of RAM.

OS3.9 needed a 68020 or better to run on a real Amiga, is it capable of running on this softcore CPU?

[Darrin]

Whats wrong with a USB to PS2 convertor ?
Then just use Keyrah ?
I mean most USB keyboards you buy nowadays come with a little crappy USB to PS2
Why wouldn't that work ?

Bungle

IIRC Jens stated that the Keyrah will not work with a USB-PS2 adapter.

I just tested it with my Minimig V1.1 using the adapter and the keyboard did not function.  I then removed the adapter and plugged it into a PC PS2 port and (after loading the drivers) it worked.  I'll take a guess and suggest that perhaps whatever the Keyrah needs for power to work isn't supplied over the PS2 port (remember that the Keyrah is more than just a keyboard adapter - it also supplies two Amiga joystick ports).

Either way we need something else (and should something else come along we'll also need an alternative for the now non-existant PC "F12" key).

[Darrin]

I have seen the board in Essen. The PCB is very small.
The Minimig core runs great and the Kickstart thinks it is a 020 @ 14 MHz.
Good job !
I also have a nice talk with Jakub about possible optimization.
Mike can you make one with an Altera FPGA ? I do not like Xilinx tool and neither Jakub :-).
BTW, Quartus II Web edition 10.0 is out and it finally runs on Linux !

Frederic

So it will run OS3.9?

[Darrin]

Let me know what you think.
/Mike

Sounds good to me.

Thanks for all the hard work Mike, and also a big thanks to Jakub and all the other people involved in this project.

[Darrin]

Prototypes Qty < 5
54 sounds like production..

Think BIG, live LARGE!  

With Xmas coming up, a large batch produced at "bulk quantity" prices could be an attractive stocking stuffer if they could find a way around the Kickstart ROM issue and bundled it with a bunch of the "free" games (Cinemaware's stuff, etc).

[Darrin]

The kickstart-ROM I guess will have to be "found" by users , the alternative is to make a clone that present the same API, fits the ROM size, is bit-bang compatible at certain addresses, and runs on 68000/68020.

I wouldn't be surprised to find some sort of torrent file posted containing all you need to extract to the SD Card to get a kick-bottom games collection and Hard File along with any other necessary ROMs/Cores/etc.  

[Darrin]

Should happen this week. The missing connector I have been waiting ages for arrived today.

I am packing the kit of components now.
/Mike

Good news.  This is going to be a long week.  

[Darrin]

The PCB assembler just sent me this :

"I am actually preparing the setup on the pick&place tonight. It's almost done, as I have all the component packages in the vision library already. So when I get the packet with the components,  I'll be ready to load the feeders and start the production. From the  optimization process, it looks like approx 6 minutes assembly per board, on the slowest of my machines. I will most likely run the boards on friday, and I will shoot a little video of the process"

The components seem to be taking quite a while to get there, but hopefully tomorrow.
I'll post a video of the assembly when I get it.

/Mike

[Darrin]

I do post here more than other groups, but the interest has been high from the Atari and arcade game bunch as well.

oh, If you haven't been yet, visit my mates page
http://www.harryfew.com

I put a link on the fpgaarcade page and he is very excited to go from 2 hits a month to hundreds a day

He lives in China and is helping me with sourcing there.
/Mike

One thing we keep forgetting is the other cores that will be available/developed.  What's the situation with them?

(I've given Harry another hit)