exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

So i've started looking at this chip as a potential replacement for the U75 on the CDTV. But there is no reason why one couldnt be built into a future TF CD32 card or even just on a riser.

https://www.ftdichip.com/Products/ICs/VNC2.htm

Its a USB2 host with multiple programmable IO and is 5V tolerant.

So we could convert mouse and keyboard HID devices to Amiga signals for a chips that costs a couple of quid. It could also probably support Atari too. The keyboard and mouse controllers in them are very similar to the Amiga.

Its not my top project but its one I want to look at playing with or supporting anyone else who wants to do this as their own project.

Discuss.

While I think it is a good idea, having us use USB devices instead of PS/2, but since the CD32 (and somewhat the CDTV) is a pure "gaming console" it would be awesome if we could get a wireless solution going. Something Bluetooth compliant. I haven't looked into the programming required so I really have no idea if it is hard or not to implement.

On a side note; wouldn't it be great if one could play "null modem games" like Lotus over the internet? A device that connects peer-to-peer via IP translating null modem signals? :P Anyone know of anything like this exists? I would sponsor the crap out of that. :D

And all this rabling was probably not the answer you were looking for. So don't mind me. :oops:

Edit:
And giving the null modem thingy another thought, it might be impossible due to lag and the way games have been programmed to handle shared data(?).

theq wrote: 09 Mar 2019 11:42 On a side note; wouldn't it be great if one could play "null modem games" like Lotus over the internet? A device that connects peer-to-peer via IP translating null modem signals? :P Anyone know of anything like this exists? I would sponsor the crap out of that. :D

And all this rabling was probably not the answer you were looking for. So don't mind me. :oops:

Edit:
And giving the null modem thingy another thought, it might be impossible due to lag and the way games have been programmed to handle shared data(?).

Some console (SNES/SEGA/NES) emulators had that feature way back, not sure how well it worked, so I guess its possible.

Wireless controllers were also on my mind here.

Its something i have going on the back burner unless someone wants to lead this from a programming point of view. I'll do all the hardware for it.. Im just less keen on coding since its my day job.

All the wireless stuff could be done through external USB devices, no reason to embed that internally imho.

Please do not forget about the Microchip and Atmel chips, maybe these are more expensive but they have a known programming environment and a lot of people have experience with these kind of MCU's, also these might be more futuresafe.

Don't forget to hook up the SPI port and it's own SS!

Maximilian wrote: 09 Mar 2019 15:21 All the wireless stuff could be done through external USB devices, no reason to embed that internally imho.

Please do not forget about the Microchip and Atmel chips, maybe these are more expensive but they have a known programming environment and a lot of people have experience with these kind of MCU's, also these might be more futuresafe.

Don't forget to hook up the SPI port and it's own SS!

I'm not embedding anything. I'm providing 2 x USB ports internally that you can put any device you like into. Keyboard, Mouse or Controller. The software just marshalls that.

FTDI was chosen and i've already got the dev tools. You get an out of the box environment with it. The ATMEL chips arent 5V tolerant. So they arent really suitable in context.

EDIT: This board does everything we need. It just needs a pin remap to the CDTV.

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/interfac ... s/7080104/