Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Teensy Placement, Initial Power-Up, and the Control Block
The PC project board and headers arrived today, so I'm playing with placement of the interface circuit. Probably going to attach it to the back of the keyboard, as there is a nice flat metal surface to which to attach double-sided tape. The limiter is the existing plastic Atari keyboard header. It's 32 years old, so I don't want to put a lot of stress on it - which precludes mounting the circuit in the bottom half of the case.
Oh, and I connected the Pi through the HDMI-VGA interface and powered it up yesterday. Works great so far. I discovered the 8GB SD card is listed as questionable in compatibility (though it worked OK), so I decided to replace it with a 32GB class 10 Samsung EVO card... it was only $11. That way, we can load every last bit of whatever we want on it.
Also put in a pre-order for the RetroPie Control Block ($45 with shipping). That will mean adding 1 additional hole on the back for the mini-USB port. This is the power port that must be used, as the Control Block has soft-power functionality that will feed the Pi. It also allows adding a power switch and status LED. I will use the LED on the Atari keyboard for that. Will try the existing lame red LED, which I verified is working.
Oh, and I connected the Pi through the HDMI-VGA interface and powered it up yesterday. Works great so far. I discovered the 8GB SD card is listed as questionable in compatibility (though it worked OK), so I decided to replace it with a 32GB class 10 Samsung EVO card... it was only $11. That way, we can load every last bit of whatever we want on it.
Also put in a pre-order for the RetroPie Control Block ($45 with shipping). That will mean adding 1 additional hole on the back for the mini-USB port. This is the power port that must be used, as the Control Block has soft-power functionality that will feed the Pi. It also allows adding a power switch and status LED. I will use the LED on the Atari keyboard for that. Will try the existing lame red LED, which I verified is working.
Monday, December 14, 2015
Best RetroPie initial setup how-to
There are several good how-tos floating around concerning setting up the Raspberry Pi for RetroPie. This is the best one, IMO.
Status update on the Control Block
The RetroPie Control Block is available for pre-order. Great! While I'm awaiting its arrival, I will focus on the keyboard interface sub-project.
Friday, December 11, 2015
Hooking up the external ports
With the Raspberry Pi and ports all being well-epoxied in place, it was time to connect the extension cables for the USB and Ethernet ports.
The Teensy 2.0 is also plugged into the external port that will serve as the keyboard USB out. The Teensy will have some headers soldered onto it and these will in turn be soldered to another project board, for interfacing with the Atari keyboard connector.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Ethernet back panel port
The Ethernet extension cable also arrived yesterday, so I installed that where the power switch used to be. Same deal: cut off one of the mounting flanges, widened part of the hole, and expoxied it in place. Just have the USB port for the Teensy keyboard conversion device and that will be it for the initial spate of connectors!
Seating the Raspberry Pi
The nylon standoffs arrived yesterday, so I installed the Raspberry Pi today. I found a pack of 100 M2.5 12mm standoffs for $10 on Amazon with Prime shipping. I used 2 of the 12mm standoffs as-is for the rear legs and cut about 5mm off of each of the front 2. I used the same 2 part epoxy gel I used to mount the USB ports. Easy peasy. The standoffs are great because they have both a male and female side, so you can use another standoff as a nut.
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Arcade Systems, Game Consoles, and Home Computers in RetroPie
Here's a cool summary of the systems covered by RetroPie, in chronological order!
Arcade Systems, Game Consoles, and Home Computers in RetroPie
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