Pico based Spectrum ROM interface (photoessay)

[Czarnikjak]

Have followed this thread and photo essay with great interest. Decided to re-build it as an excuse to learn how the PIO works on the PICO which removes the need to overclock. Anyway finally got it all working. I also shifted to using through hole components due to my less than stellar soldering skills.

I've started a GitHub to document my findings and put the code etc... https://github.com/TomDDG/ZXPicoIF2ROM

What would be really nice is to have a version for Pico W, running small web server on it where you can upload new roms or snapshots on the fly to it. A dream

Duplicate quoted image removed by admin

[dfzx]

What would be really nice is to have a version for Pico W, running small web server on it where you can upload new roms or snapshots on the fly to it. A dream

That would be fairly easy. The Pico W is a drop in replacement for the Pico, and I don't know about Tom's development, but my original code had an entire core free. Writing some code to receive a ROM image over WiFi and drop it into the Pico's memory would be straightforward, I think. Famous last words, of course...

[PeterJ]

@Czarnikjak,

It's Raspberry Pi Zero powered rather than Pico powered, but have you looked at the OqtaDrive:

https://oqtadrive.org/

That has a full web interface and uses the software from @TomD to convert tap files (amongst others) direct to mdr files. It's very nice! I'm know @TomD was hoping to incorporate a web frontend into the ZXPicoMD.

[dfzx]

It's Raspberry Pi Zero powered rather than Pico powered...

No, it's a Pico, Peter. Assuming we're still talking about the original project. It gets hard to tell with these rambling threads.

[PeterJ]

Hi @dfzx,

I was referring to the OqtaDrive which uses a Raspberry Pi Zero W. I could have phrased my sentence better!

Peter

[dfzx]

I was referring to the OqtaDrive which uses a Raspberry Pi Zero W. I could have phrased my sentence better!

OIC,

[Czarnikjak]

@Czarnikjak,

It's Raspberry Pi Zero powered rather than Pico powered, but have you looked at the OqtaDrive:

https://oqtadrive.org/

Yup, but that requires a IF1. I like this idea of PICO W simply emulating a rom and web interface to upload files to it...No need for if1, nice and simple.

[pollito]

First of all, @dfzx and @TomD, thank you so much for your hard work on this! It never ceases to amaze me what can be done with a modern microcontroller!

I decided to build a https://github.com/TomDDG/ZXPicoIF2Lite board for my 48K Speccy, as I think it will be the perfect upgrade.

I downloaded the gerber ZIP from https://github.com/TomDDG/ZXPicoIF2Lite ... -06-17.zip, and uploaded it to JLCPCB, as I have done so many times before, for other projects. However, they have come back asking me the following question:

Sorry to bother you, but there is an issue that we want to confirm with you before proceeding.

The drill holes and circles in KO layer are overlapped at the arrow in greber file, shall we proceed them as per drill layer or KO layer?



I'm not very au fait with electronics (I'm learning slowly), so I'm not sure what to tell them. I've looked at the gerber, but I can't work out where they are talking about. @TomD please could you advise?

Many thanks in advance,
Nick

[TomD]

First of all, @dfzx and @TomD, thank you so much for your hard work on this! It never ceases to amaze me what can be done with a modern microcontroller!

I decided to build a https://github.com/TomDDG/ZXPicoIF2Lite board for my 48K Speccy, as I think it will be the perfect upgrade.

I downloaded the gerber ZIP from https://github.com/TomDDG/ZXPicoIF2Lite ... -06-17.zip, and uploaded it to JLCPCB, as I have done so many times before, for other projects. However, they have come back asking me the following question:

Sorry to bother you, but there is an issue that we want to confirm with you before proceeding.

The drill holes and circles in KO layer are overlapped at the arrow in greber file, shall we proceed them as per drill layer or KO layer?



I'm not very au fait with electronics (I'm learning slowly), so I'm not sure what to tell them. I've looked at the gerber, but I can't work out where they are talking about. @TomD please could you advise?

Many thanks in advance,
Nick

Unfortunately the image isn't showing so not sure either. I've had a few of these made by JLCPCB and they've never raised anything so a bit puzzled. If you can re-upload the photo I'll check.

TomD

[pollito]

@TomD sorry, I was having DNS issues. It was a false alarm anyway:

Hi there,

So sorry for the late reply.

So sorry that our engineer mixed up the order number, there is no issue about the order.

Thank you

I just hope they don’t mix up the PCBs themselves! Apologies for the bother; I will let you know how my build goes once everything arrives. Thanks again for all your hard work!

Cheers,
Nick

[TomD]

That's is good and no worries please ask away, glad there is interest.

TomD

[dfzx]

So sorry that our engineer mixed up the order number, there is no issue about the order.

Very odd for JLCPCB to mess up like that, they're normally flawless in my experience. Put it down to an aberration at their end.

[pollito]

Very odd for JLCPCB to mess up like that, they're normally flawless in my experience. Put it down to an aberration at their end.

Yes, I've used them many times, and have never had any problem with them before. They also have reasonable postage costs to Romania, unlike PCBWay, and they sort out the VAT for you. I have occasionally had to use PCBWay when the author of the PCB doesn't want to share the gerbers, and every time the delivery cost has been crazy, it's ended up getting stuck in customs for ages, and I've had to pay the VAT at the post office to receive it. Nothing wrong with the quality, I just wish they would sort out the postage and VAT for customers living here.