NRoach44 wrote on 2022-12-14, 07:31:

tabm0de wrote on 2022-12-14, 07:25:

Maybe in the future we can have parallel or simple scsi controller onboard 😉 so we can run our original cd games 😜
and ye sadly only ports that does take the space more then the components that are required 😒
That is if there isnt any real good fakecd's out there 😀

I was thinking of making a modified TinyLlama with a PC/104 header, mainly for the flexibility allowing me to make other weird custom cards to slap onto it. It seems to be quite a versatile interface, with a not-huge footprint too.

Maybe I've seen too many of Rasteri's videos....

I've played around with this idea, there's one big drawback however - the ISA bus on the Vortex86EX isn't the full 98-pin 16-bit standard variant, rather something DMP calls "x-ISA" which has only 64 pins. The most notable omission with x-ISA is that it's only got a single DMA channel. That limits the usefulness of such an expansion.

So my board booted up fine. Flashed BIOS and installed FreeDOS. Went to flash the CS4237B and it couldn't find it. So I went to re-do my soldering on it. When I did I think I accidently bridged pins 45 and 46 (VD1 and DGND1) when I reflowed things and didn't see it right away. And afterwards the board doesn't power on. Even with the SOM and VGA removed. Thinking I must have shorted something internal on the Crystal audio chip. Fuses all check Ok. Going to try reflowing with a fat chisel tip on my iron tomorrow. But looking it all over with magnifying glass it looks perfect. Think it might be time to get a reflow station if I have to replace it.

Aaron707 wrote on 2022-12-15, 06:23:

So my board booted up fine. Flashed BIOS and installed FreeDOS. Went to flash the CS4237B and it couldn't find it. So I went to re-do my soldering on it. When I did I think I accidently bridged pins 45 and 46 (VD1 and DGND1) when I reflowed things and didn't see it right away. And afterwards the board doesn't power on. Even with the SOM and VGA removed. Thinking I must have shorted something internal on the Crystal audio chip. Fuses all check Ok. Going to try reflowing with a fat chisel tip on my iron tomorrow. But looking it all over with magnifying glass it looks perfect. Think it might be time to get a reflow station if I have to replace it.

Look at micro usb input and see if power is going out from the port when it is plugged, my first one was not good soldered so it broke after adding and removing cable few times.

Aaron707 wrote on 2022-12-15, 06:23:

So my board booted up fine. Flashed BIOS and installed FreeDOS. Went to flash the CS4237B and it couldn't find it. So I went to re-do my soldering on it. When I did I think I accidently bridged pins 45 and 46 (VD1 and DGND1) when I reflowed things and didn't see it right away. And afterwards the board doesn't power on. Even with the SOM and VGA removed. Thinking I must have shorted something internal on the Crystal audio chip. Fuses all check Ok. Going to try reflowing with a fat chisel tip on my iron tomorrow. But looking it all over with magnifying glass it looks perfect. Think it might be time to get a reflow station if I have to replace it.

Ah, that sucks! Try measuring the resistance between VCC (5V) and GND, and between 3.3V and GND using a multimeter and see if you get any suspiciously low values. VD1 is connected to the 3.3V rail, so you might have fried the 3.3V LDO. Though, I'm not sure how that could have stopped the SOM from booting as it's only pulling its power from the 5V rail....
Feel free to send me a PM if you want to do a more thorough debugging with me instead of clogging up this thread as well! 😀 I'm sure we can figure something out - and if it comes to that, I do have a lot of spare parts! 😉

A little update:

I've been playing around with the TinyLlama revision 2.0 prototype board, here are some improvements over 1.1:
* USB-C connector for power
* Momentary switch buttons, including a soft-latch power button
* Better placement of the OLED I2c connector
* Rasteri's HIDman, based on the CH559 chip which translates USB HID devices into proper PS/2 signals. Works much better than having the BIOS do a mediocre job of emulating PS/2. Plus, this frees up the two native USB ports for storage.
* Wemos D1 mini ESP8266 board which can be used as a Hayes-compatible modem, or provide a TCP/IP stack in DOS using either PPP or SLIP
* All components, with the exception of the SOM pins, CS4237B chip + crystal and the D1 mini are assembled by the PCB manufacturer, making it possible for me to sell a few of these fully assembled and ready to go. Of course I'll still keep the design 100% open source for those who want to modify/assemble themselves.

The current prototype measures 100 x 100 mm, I'm currently in the process of redesigning it down to around 100 x 77 mm by ditching the HIDman daughter board and moving the CH559 directly onto the PCB + moving the D1 mini to the bottom side of the board. I'll also try hooking up 4 lines from the CH559 to the joystick input of the CS4237B and see if we can get USB gamepad-to-analog joystick conversion working down the road.

PS. A little bird from Taiwan told me fall 2023 could be a very exciting time for llama enthusiasts. 😉

Santa was early, looking nice, keep up the good work 😀

Eivind wrote on 2022-12-20, 12:07:

A little update: […]
Show full quote

A little update:

I've been playing around with the TinyLlama revision 2.0 prototype board, here are some improvements over 1.1:
* USB-C connector for power
* Momentary switch buttons, including a soft-latch power button
* Better placement of the OLED I2c connector
* Rasteri's HIDman, based on the CH559 chip which translates USB HID devices into proper PS/2 signals. Works much better than having the BIOS do a mediocre job of emulating PS/2. Plus, this frees up the two native USB ports for storage.
* Wemos D1 mini ESP8266 board which can be used as a Hayes-compatible modem, or provide a TCP/IP stack in DOS using either PPP or SLIP
* All components, with the exception of the SOM pins, CS4237B chip + crystal and the D1 mini are assembled by the PCB manufacturer, making it possible for me to sell a few of these fully assembled and ready to go. Of course I'll still keep the design 100% open source for those who want to modify/assemble themselves.

The current prototype measures 100 x 100 mm, I'm currently in the process of redesigning it down to around 100 x 77 mm by ditching the HIDman daughter board and moving the CH559 directly onto the PCB + moving the D1 mini to the bottom side of the board. I'll also try hooking up 4 lines from the CH559 to the joystick input of the CS4237B and see if we can get USB gamepad-to-analog joystick conversion working down the road.

IMG_0188.jpeg

PS. A little bird from Taiwan told me fall 2023 could be a very exciting time for llama enthusiasts. 😉

Dont know if it’s best idea, but just throwing it out, thinking if you wanted to save some space maybe serial port could be as old boards and just headers, that might save some small space and maybe can be top soldered;)

tabm0de wrote on 2022-12-21, 13:13:

Dont know if it’s best idea, but just throwing it out, thinking if you wanted to save some space maybe serial port could be as old boards and just headers, that might save some small space and maybe can be top soldered;)

I think there's balance to be struck, between compactness and utility. I like having the serial port there, attached to the main board. So that'll stay! 😀
The bottom of the board is already far from flat because of the VGA module, so having the ESP board there as well doesn't really mess with the overall height.
I'll post some 3d mockups when I'm done with the new layout! 👍

I am really liking the updated board! I think I fixed my board as well. I damaged my 3.3v regulator so soldered in new one and it boots now! Printed my case for the 3rd time. Its getting there. Not sure what revision I am on at this point. Will need to lower VGA port 1mm possibly. Its really close to bottom of PCB so I cut the pins near the center rear of the bottom of the PCB and put some kapton tape over the vga connector housing to be safe. Hopefully printing the final version this weekend and get the OS and software all squared away. Then I get to enjoy all the retro fun while looking forward to the next improved version!

One option to get the 2.0 board smaller would be for a daughter board for the switches with a cable connecting them to main pcb. Then you can place the switches anywhere like the front of the case. But that is also something easily done by the end user if desired.

Aaron707 wrote on 2022-12-23, 02:24:

I damaged my 3.3v regulator so soldered in new one and it boots now!

Glad to hear it! 😀

Aaron707 wrote on 2022-12-23, 02:24:

Printed my case for the 3rd time. Its getting there. Not sure what revision I am on at this point. Will need to lower VGA port 1mm possibly. Its really close to bottom of PCB so I cut the pins near the center rear of the bottom of the PCB and put some kapton tape over the vga connector housing to be safe. Hopefully printing the final version this weekend and get the OS and software all squared away. Then I get to enjoy all the retro fun while looking forward to the next improved version!

Looking fantastic! 👍

Aaron707 wrote on 2022-12-23, 02:24:

One option to get the 2.0 board smaller would be for a daughter board for the switches with a cable connecting them to main pcb. Then you can place the switches anywhere like the front of the case. But that is also something easily done by the end user if desired.

I like your idea of having "panel buttons" - I'm adding a pin header for that right now! 😀 I think I'll still keep the mounted buttons in place though. While I (also) like putting the board in a shmick case, I don't feel this should be a requirement.

Vga pci-e in store now

tabm0de wrote on 2022-12-27, 09:50:

Vga pci-e in store now

what? so it's possible now to add a PCI-E GPU to this now?

Duffman wrote on 2022-12-27, 10:05:

tabm0de wrote on 2022-12-27, 09:50:

Vga pci-e in store now

what? so it's possible now to add a PCI-E GPU to this now?

The VGA module used by the TinyLlama has always been a 1x Gen1 mini-PCI-e type! 😀
Link: https://shop.dmp.com.tw/INT/products/87

Duffman wrote on 2022-12-27, 10:05:

tabm0de wrote on 2022-12-27, 09:50:

Vga pci-e in store now

what? so it's possible now to add a PCI-E GPU to this now?

Hehe off course I was talking about the mini that is used with tinyllama 😉

Eivind wrote on 2022-12-27, 10:08:

Duffman wrote on 2022-12-27, 10:05:

tabm0de wrote on 2022-12-27, 09:50:

Vga pci-e in store now

what? so it's possible now to add a PCI-E GPU to this now?

The VGA module used by the TinyLlama has always been a 1x Gen1 mini-PCI-e type! 😀
Link: https://shop.dmp.com.tw/INT/products/87

I was smart this time and ordered extra connectors for the new boards also 😀

Speaking of which, I want to experiment something so I've bought mini PCIe to PCIe adapter and PCIe to pci adapter, I wonder if it'd work 🤣

Wish me luck 😃

Deksor wrote on 2022-12-27, 15:25:

Speaking of which, I want to experiment something so I've bought mini PCIe to PCIe adapter and PCIe to pci adapter, I wonder if it'd work 🤣

Wish me luck 😃

Good luck! 😁
I'm actually very interested, I've been toying around with the idea of using a PCIe-to-PCI bridge chip for another Vortex project (sometime next year) - not a small single-board computer but more like a full mainboard. Depending on the Vortex variant, I might not have access to both a native ISA and PCI bus without going through an external bridge. Which PCIe-to-PCI adapter did you buy? (I assume one with a Pericom PI7C9X1xx type chip on it)?

tabm0de wrote on 2022-12-27, 09:50:

Vga pci-e in store now

Thanks for the heads up! Ordering now 😀

Edit: Oof, their shipping fees are STEEP!

Deksor wrote on 2022-12-27, 15:25:

Speaking of which, I want to experiment something so I've bought mini PCIe to PCIe adapter and PCIe to pci adapter, I wonder if it'd work 🤣

I've managed to get a few full-size PCI/PCIE graphics cards working on the EX.

Speeds up DOS game framerates significantly, but I think you'll struggle to get any 3D accelerated drivers working.

rasteri wrote on 2022-12-27, 19:17:

I've managed to get a few full-size PCI/PCIE graphics cards working on the EX.

Which ones did you try, and which ones showed improvement over the Vortex86VGA?