exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

:girldance:

Excellent news and I really can't help but think it's been over volted.

Excellent news and I really can't help but think it's been over volted.

Yep I think that would explain it. Keyboard works (tested by using wire to bridge the pins) and the joystick works as well. I did test the AY chip by swapping it onto my ZON-X81 so I know the sound side works so at least that chip survived.

:yay: :yay2: :dualthumbup: :cheer: :girldance:

So big thanks to AI for this but a Hackinstrad is starting to take shape.

Almost fully got a USB keyboard adapter working. Most keys work but some still to map or figure out why they don't work.

BTW the power connection for the adapter is only temporary until a later stage.

USB Keyboard adapter is now working and mapped. Although AI (ChatGPT and Claude) helped for the most part there were a few wild goose chases along the way and it couldn't solve the final issues with some rows being out by 2 on the MT8816. Pins x6, x7, x8 and x9 pins on the MT8816 want to be x8, x9, x10 and x11 in the program for some reason? I picked this up because the keys related to the first 2 were triggering the last 2 rows.
Now for the next step - external tape connection.

Acsi wrote: 03 Sep 2026 10:48 USB Keyboard adapter is now working and mapped. Although AI (ChatGPT and Claude) helped for the most part there were a few wild goose chases along the way and it couldn't solve the final issues with some rows being out by 2 on the MT8816. Pins x6, x7, x8 and x9 pins on the MT8816 want to be x8, x9, x10 and x11 in the program for some reason? I picked this up because the keys related to the first 2 were triggering the last 2 rows.
Now for the next step - external tape connection.

Nice.

Are you going to put it in a case or will it be a bare board?

I have a few 'naked' machines, an OSI 600D, SoC MK14, Cosmac ELF, Atari 800 & Acorn Atom, all replicas (Bar the Atari 800) and all uncased, and I quite like it that way, though I do think some sort of homebrew case might be nice.

I do also have a ZX80 replica, but that is about the only one in an official replica case!

Nice.

Are you going to put it in a case or will it be a bare board?

Thanks @rubber_jonnie

I am thinking of maybe just a base but am also thinking of trying to bend some acrylic sheet (I last bent some at school back in the early 1980s) as that will give me something to mount stuff on.

Very well done!

I like the funky keyboard. Not *quite* the CPC colour scheme, but similar vibe. :D

BW

It reminds me of the Schneider CPC colours. I spotted it whilst searching for a cheap mechanical keyboard as my original idea was to rewire the keys to suit. The advantage I get with using USB is that the LED bling works. :lol:

Whilst having a play at designing a pcb I found why my x pins 6 and 7 don't work in the program, the pinouts for the MT8816AE that Claude used are different to the pinouts I found on EasyEDA which do correspond with what I needed in the program. I think that'll also explain an earlier issue I had with some of the y rows being transposed which I'd just put down to my bad eyesight when making the connections.