FPGA Replay Board

[mikej]

What protocol does it speak, does it have a ps2 connector on it?

[freqmax]

The pinout is below, and the keyboard protocol is likely "standard Amiga" ..
The mouse is another problem however. Special pinout and special protocoll. But I think it can be solved with an adapter and new HDL-code.

Keyboard (5 pin mini-DIN):

amiga-hardware.com - Commodore: CDTV Keyboard
cdtv.org.uk: Commodore CDTV Expansion Ports Explained
l8r.net: Amiga Keyboard Pinouts

Pin   Signal
 1    GND    
 2    KBDATA
 3    KBCLOCK
 4    Vcc
 5    KBSE
 6

Mouse (4 pin mini-DIN):

cdtv.org.uk: Commodore CDTV Expansion Ports Explained from link at abime.net
Pin Signal
 1 GND
 2 GND
 3 PRDT (Mouse Data?)
 4 +5V

(pain in the ass to find out)

[Cignale]

@ Mikej and freqmax:

Thanks, I'm sorry if I've caused trouble ! I was and I am  an almost complete noobie in Amiga World (Im basically a Sinclairist); anyway I think that  the implementation at least of original pluggable keyboards  of  various Amiga models (4000, CDTV, etc) could be quite....interesting.

Thanks again.

[ShapeShifter]

@ Mikej and freqmax:

Thanks, I'm sorry if I've caused trouble ! I was and I am  an almost complete noobie in Amiga World (Im basically a Sinclairist); anyway I think that  the implementation at least of original pluggable keyboards  of  various Amiga models (4000, CDTV, etc) could be quite....interesting.

I asked Yacubed about this, as I too would love to use a real, genuine Amiga keyboard with the Replay.  I was told that, whilst it would be possible to support it in the Minimig core, the onscreen-menu of the Replay itself also requires a keyboard and not just the Amiga core itself.  

So then the question becomes: Which keyboard protocol should be the default at power-on of the Replay board itself? If it's Amiga, then PS/2 keyboards used by most people won't work.  If it's PS/2, Amiga keyboards won't work.  Since the Replay is meant to be used to power many different cores (not just Amiga), it's easier just to stick to PS/2 keyboard support for the time being.

Oh, and welcome to the world of Amiga, Cignale! It's always nice to welcome someone new to our humble little community

[tasmanian guy]

I think personally it should support ps2 keyboards, plenty of them and more reliable than older Amiga keyboards.

[Cignale]

Well,
obviously ps2 standard keyboard and mouse are the real choice for a FPGA based machine. And now I understand the difficulties about using other key/mouse standards.
Anyway, just for the sake of discussion,  I wonder if could be possible to implement, just  at the power on of the board  a "timed choice" : "You have 5 seconds to press any key on a original Amiga keyboard, otherwise the system will be started in  ps2 keyboard mode". Is this feasible or the different pin coding of different keyboard standards can fry something if I plug an Amiga keyboard on Fpga Arcade with ps2 core preinstalled or viceversa ?
 
@ShapeShifter - thanks for the welcome

[mikej]

Yacubed and I are working in different areas at the moment.
I am using a small micro-core to control the PS2 ports, and this could be made to cope with various input devices.
It would need to translate to some standard codes back to the ARM processor to drive the OSD, but this is do-able.
/Mike

[Cignale]

These are good news, Mikej .

Thanks.

[freqmax]

@mikej, How tight is code space?

Selection can be done by pressing some Amiga keyboard specific key.

A note thoe, all Amiga keyboards seems to use their own unique pinout. So a heap of adapters will be needed. Otoh, one use a Amiga->PS/2 keycode translator when at it anyway

[CrazyApe]

Thinking about it, most probably I won't even need a keyboard (unless I'm playing pinball dreams) - just a mouse...

One more think, as the Arcade FPGA comes with PS2 connectors, will I be able to use a wireless keyboard/mouse combo with a PS2/USB converter?

Not unless the keyboard/mouse speaks PS2 protocol over USB - the converter is just a passive adapter. The new Amiga core uses a tiny microcontroller soft core to do the ps2 interface and I am looking at making it speak USB - so then a ps2/usb adapter would work with a true USB device. Something for the future.

Oh, the rear IO panels have arrived :
http://www.fpgaarcade.com

This will be 14 Euro each + shipping. Again, it's the NRE cost which hurts - after the first 100 it will drop a little. I will do another version for the daughterboard and offer a trade in

/MikeJ

For anyone interested, I found something that looks like it would do the trick but it's very expensive for what it is.

In reality, it's probably just a PIC micro-controller with USB support, bit-banging the PS/2 protocol.

I suspect there are plenty of USB and PS/2 PIC code examples floating about on the net so building a similar contraption should be pretty much a case of cut'n'pate with the existing examples.
http://www.kvm.com.au/store/product.aspx?ProductID=5524&CategoryID=311

This is my first post, but I've been watching this thread from the beginning, but now that things are getting closer I must say....

.... I wan't one.


I'll send a PM & email for you to add me to your list shortly.

[freqmax]

Bit banging in a CPU infer the risk of unreliable operation.

[bloodline]

Bit banging in a CPU infer the risk of unreliable operation.

That's a massive generalisation! I've never hand any problems, interrupts are your friend

[freqmax]

Interrupt congestion and timing margins are your suprise attacks
Especially if you have to deal with other time critical events simultainously.

Another possibility is a microcontroller like Atmel-AVR that translate between PS/2 and "Amiga". The CDTV mouse is in particular an protocoll anomality.

[mikej]

I am using a slightly shrunk picoblaze core to do the protocol and keyboard handling - it takes less area than the current VHDL implementation. The software can be changed to enable different keyboards.
/MikeJ

[Casey4147]

Wow, what a thread I stumbled upon.  Had my share of Amigas - heck, the A1000 is still in the basement, but the A500, A600, A2000, A3000, CDTV and CD32 are all long gone.  This project looks fascinating.  From the layman's POV, can "just anybody" order up and assemble one of these boards into a working Amiga?  What's involved?  Who do I talk to, and is there a ballpark cost estimate for what's needed?  Thanks in advance.

[Darrin]

Wow, what a thread I stumbled upon.  Had my share of Amigas - heck, the A1000 is still in the basement, but the A500, A600, A2000, A3000, CDTV and CD32 are all long gone.  This project looks fascinating.  From the layman's POV, can "just anybody" order up and assemble one of these boards into a working Amiga?  What's involved?  Who do I talk to, and is there a ballpark cost estimate for what's needed?  Thanks in advance.

Email/PM "MikeJ" above and he'll add you to the list to receive an assembled board once each batch is completed.