Saturday, February 16, 2013

PCBs for USB Datasette and Wiimote2Amiga arrived

My USB Datasette and the Wiimote-Amiga-Joystick-Adapter (now better called "Wiimote2Amiga") finally reached the state of being implemented on professional PCBs using the company PCB-Pool.

2 "USB Datassettes" and 3 "Wiimote2Amiga" Boards are left

USB Datasette

Top: Old version with stripboard and cables. Bottom: New version with just one PCB.
The cables that were required for the connection to the datasette and the C64 itself are now gone and replaced with an edge connector and a female connector. This way it's a little bit more compact and less "wiry".

It even has a "feature" that you get if you design hardware without looking at the port locations.
WHY THERE IS IEC PORT? - Rage-Face from http://alltheragefaces.com
But as the main purpose of the device is the connection to the datasette without the usage of the c64 itself this is not that of a matter.

Wiimote2Amiga

Left: STEITEC Evalkit Version, Right: New PCB with everything in one.
The board equipped to my 1200 with plugged in bluetooth stick.
As this project never leaved the evaluation board before, this was my first circuit board with an LPC1768 controller. And of course this leads to some errors that are clearly visible in the photo.....
The current needed to drive this project is reduced by a fifth to 70mA (@5V) which is great for the Amiga 1200 which has a resistor in series at the joystick port effectively reducing the possible current you can draw.
Also the size of the device is now greatly reduced to 48x48 mm and should be small enough to be placed inside the "rear trap door" of an Amiga 1200 to make it even more compact.
To reduce problems with the C64's sound this board offers the possibility to disconnect the power supply of your computer from the device and a port to connect an external 5V source.

Conclusions

In the past I preferred designing with stripboards as they could be developed and debugged easily and incremental. But the beauty and cleannines of real etched PCBs is just untouchable.
As I had a minimum order quantity with boards as small as this I decided to sell the remaining unequipped boards for the cost price if there is interest.

Of course there is no warranty and I'm a little bit pedantic about releasing source code. ;-)