MiniMig with AGA

[kolla]

Yaqube and I are in discussion about the first expansion board, which will contain USB and Ethernet as a minimum.

BTW - chances are that the replay + expansion board will actually fit inside an A1200 or even A600 case - how about a keyboard controller for the A1200/A600 keyboards?

[Darrin]

BTW - chances are that the replay + expansion board will actually fit inside an A1200 or even A600 case - how about a keyboard controller for the A1200/A600 keyboards?

That would be a great way to reuse old cases.  I'm sure I have an old A1200 case somewhere from when I put the mobo in a tower...

Actually I used it to install a Keyrah and it is on a shelf in my room!

[mikej]

The only problem with getting it in a A1200 case would be the height of the IO connectors. You could order a board without the PS/2, Joystick and video connectors fitted and cable it instead I guess.

I have a 1200 case in the UK I'll pick up next month, so I'll see if it fits.
/Mike

[AJCopland]

Hey Mikej, it must feel pretty good to be in the home straight now and so close to completion! Nice work mate!

[NovaCoder]

The only problem with getting it in a A1200 case would be the height of the IO connectors. You could order a board without the PS/2, Joystick and video connectors fitted and cable it instead I guess.

I have a 1200 case in the UK I'll pick up next month, so I'll see if it fits.
/Mike

If this thing does take off you could always talk to AmigaKit to see if they are interested in funding a drop-in A1200 MB replacement option

If you did go for the replacement 1200 MB option I wonder how much work it would be include a CardBus slot (eg update the PCMCIA)?

[kolla]

If this thing does take off you could always talk to AmigaKit to see if they are interested in funding a drop-in A1200 MB replacement option

That would be awesome, and I think you could easily make one to fit both A600 and A1200 cases. Regardless, this is something I would try to do myself. And yes, I could always use keyrah, but I'm not sure the USB on the expansion will handle USB keyboard/mouse well enough so that PS2 is not needed at all. I must admit that personally I would rather see the PS2 ports replaced with USB-1.1 ports alltogether, but I just assume PS2 is much cheaper and simpler to implement.

If you did go for the replacement 1200 MB option I wonder how much work it would be include a CardBus slot (eg update the PCMCIA)?

I think I'd rather put a USB card reader there, frankly, it's been years and years since I last saw a cardbus card now.

[trip6]

Ohh... Man this is gonna be good... I cant wait until these boards are ready... 060 Expansion planned to run OS4 on, an Ethernet USB expansion planned... Is there anything else planned? Just kidding... Wow... I can hear the money draining out of my bank account already (but its so worth it)...LOL... Do you have a layaway plan?

[Clyborg]

Mikej,

I'm so glad you are doing this.  It's been over 10 years since I shorted out my a1200 trying to install it in a tower kit.  I skipped the orignal minimig because I wanted something as powerful as my A1200 w/ 030 50mhz mongoose accelerator.  I'm really looking forward to purchasing your device.  Nothing beats amiga OS.


Jason

[kolla]

060 Expansion planned to run OS4 on

OS4 does not run on 060, it requires PowerPC.

[wizard66]

Yaqube and I are in discussion about the first expansion board, which will contain USB and Ethernet as a minimum.  

/Mike

Can you guy's concider to put a RTC on the expansion board if possible ?

[yaqube]

Can you guy's concider to put a RTC on the expansion board if possible ?

Yes, I'm currently working on it.

[wizard66]

Yes, I'm currently working on it.

Yaqube your the best ;-) (as always)
looks like a nice expansion board, i'm in for one no matter what !!
Keep us posted on your nice design for the replay addon board, I already have your ARM conntroller board for the Minimig and this is also a quality design product.
Looking forward to this new replay addon board.

[xyzzy]

I was thinking how the main board can communicate with the outside world. There's a debug serial port over which we could run PPP or SLIP, or we could use the ARM with its USB port to emulate a high-speed serial-over-usb link.

Secondly, i've been studying the schematics and I don't see any issues with plugging amiga mice into the joystick ports - the h/v pulse lines all go straight into the FPGA, and all three mouse buttons are accounted for.

However I think the ports will be only wired up to 3.3v according to the schematic.

Will this be a problem for autofire joysticks? Do they expect 5v for their electronics ?

[mikej]

Will this be a problem for autofire joysticks? Do they expect 5v for their electronics ?

The power to the joystick ports is by default 3V3. We had some discussion about this and felt it was the best compromise, and joysticks would work fine at 3V3.

You can move the ferrite from L17 to L16 to get 5V. I don't recommend fitting both at the same time

/Mike
p.s. still waiting for assembly time.

[bloodline]

I was thinking how the main board can communicate with the outside world. There's a debug serial port over which we could run PPP or SLIP, or we could use the ARM with its USB port to emulate a high-speed serial-over-usb link.

Secondly, i've been studying the schematics and I don't see any issues with plugging amiga mice into the joystick ports - the h/v pulse lines all go straight into the FPGA, and all three mouse buttons are accounted for.

However I think the ports will be only wired up to 3.3v according to the schematic.

Will this be a problem for autofire joysticks? Do they expect 5v for their electronics ?

From the joysticks I've dismantled in my time autofire simply closed the joy button circuit... No special electronics at all.

[psxphill]

From the joysticks I've dismantled in my time autofire simply closed the joy button circuit... No special electronics at all.

Autofire generally uses a 555 timer. I'm not sure what joysticks you've taken apart, but they don't sound great. Unless the auto fire toggles on and off then it isn't auto fire & you can't do that with just a switch.
 
555's work best with higher voltages, so it might get upset with 3.3v
If might work, you'll have to test it.