hard to 'create' opalvision for amiga ?

[rednova]

Dear Friends:

My forte is animation, and my hardware skills are nill.
But I would like to know:
How hard is to create a card like opalvision, or the video toaster card ?
What skills do I need to learn in order to create this kind of hardware ?
Is it possible, if I spend years dedicated to learn this ?
Any tips ?

[SamuraiCrow]

@rednova

For someone with a background in animation and 3D modelling, learning to be an engineer would take a minimum of 4 years in college but in your case, I'd suspect it would take a lot longer and wouldn't be worth the effort.

The fanciness of the OpalVision card was the never-released "Roaster" chip that was a CPLD.  Likewise, the Video Toaster has an FPGA on the board that is programmable by software if need be.  The fanciness of these hardware boards was that they could be reconfigured by software or changing of one chip.

It is for this reason that your best bet is to learn to program in C instead of AmosPro for now.  If you went to college to be an engineer you'd need to learn it anyway.  I'm willing to help you learn it little by little so you can start to read existing software renderers.  Once you get from AmosPro to C, I can help you look at Assembly code.  Once you get Assembly code, we can maybe look into raw logic gates and how they fit together.

I must warn you that it takes a lot of skill and dedication to become a software engineer, and much more yet to become a hardware engineer.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

A young but earnest Zen student approached his teacher, and asked the Zen Master:
 "If I work very hard and diligent how long will it take for me to find Zen."
 The Master thought about this, then replied, "Ten years."
 The student then said, "But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast -- How long then ?"
 Replied the Master, "Well, twenty years."
 "But, if I really, really work at it. How long then ?" asked the student.
 "Thirty years," replied the Master.
 "But, I do not understand," said the disappointed student. "At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that ?"
 Replied the Master," When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path."

Cheers!  :pint:

[bloodline]

I'm not sure what value those old analogue/digital hybrid boards have in a modern world. Everything can be done in the digital domain now.

I agree with samuraicrow, learn C and do whatever you want to do digitally!

[trekiej]

I noticed that the A2000 had a printer interface in the video slot. I got this info. from the hardware manual. I assume this is used for communicating to a video card.

Is it possible for the A2000 to talk to the Opal Vision during the blanking cycle through the rgb signal?
Cheers.

[ElPolloDiabl]

If you get one of those build your own computer projects, you would be building things within a few months.

It would take a few years however to get to the level you want.
Do basic electronics first. Move on to components. Then to FPGA boards.

[ElPolloDiabl]

I found a nice electronics site:

http://learnabout-electronics.org/index.php

This page shows the common faults in transistors:

http://learnabout-electronics.org/transistor_faults_01.php

[Darth_X]

Dear Friends:

My forte is animation, and my hardware skills are nill.
But I would like to know:
How hard is to create a card like opalvision, or the video toaster card ?
What skills do I need to learn in order to create this kind of hardware ?
Is it possible, if I spend years dedicated to learn this ?
Any tips ?

Make an animated movie, sell it for $1 million $$$ and then use the money to hire someone to design the hardware for you ;-)

[CodePoet]

As someone who works in Embedded Design, who also went to college and obtained an Advanced Diploma in Electronics, and has friends with full EE degrees from University - None of us would be able (or attempt) to design such a card without many, MANY more months of research.

They teach you practically nothing relevant to designing such hardware, and of course nothing about the Amiga architecture. They give you a good overview of Electronics and Analog Design in general, but when it comes to Digital Design (ie: FPGA programming using a language like VHDL), and the associated PCB layout techniques required, you're on your own.

...I of course don't wan't to discourage you from getting into embedded hardware design, but you're looking at a very steep learning curve ontop of a diploma in EE to design hardware like that.

[rednova]

@ Make an animated movie, sell it for $1 million $$$ and then use the money to hire someone to design the hardware for you ;-)


Haha !!!  That is a good idea !!!

[danbeaver]

If you read the forums, everything is doable on an Amiga after replacing all your capacitors, replacing the PSU, sending your accelerator to Stachu (Stan Sedlak), and interfacing the Amiga with a Raspberry Pi.  Failing that, emulate it in a FPGA or WinUAE.

Bottoms Up and may God Bless.

[psxphill]

Is it possible, if I spend years dedicated to learn this ?

It is possible that someone could learn how to do it, the proof is that someone did it.
 
 Whether you can learn how to do it is another matter, it depends on you.
 
 There are plenty of old books on interfacing to microprocessors which will help. I'd try something simpler first, like a ram card. If you can't make a working ram card then you can't make a toaster or opalvision.