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stanleyella

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Joined: 25/06/2022
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2567

Posted: 03:13pm 18 Feb 2023

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These component testers are useful for testing transitors, cap and esr, frequency counter, variable pwm signal, lots of features for cheap on flea bay.

Volhout
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Joined: 05/03/2018
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 5091

Posted: 08:35pm 18 Feb 2023

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stanleyella said I got that it's a pcb design. The pcbs I've used take those header pin size no problem.
I use breadboard as it's quick and cheap and not permanent. looks a mess for glcd spi but neat for vga and fits in with my thoughts that picomite is a hobbyist idea that you can try cheaply to see if you like it.

You'd learn more wiring it on breadboard.

There was a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZaWYgIYgd8&t=1019s published on the forum which I thought was not a way to get a new user to use vga picomite... would take ages but a breadboard with the 4 resistor vga circuit would take minutes...
ok a ps2 kb you should just happen to have and a vga monitor/tv but you get the idea of hobby/fun. If you don't like it then you haven't invested much. I think the idea is you have all the bits except the rpipico.

I started put the same as you, but after adding sd card, and the level shifter fets , my stup became unreliable. And i build a system on pcb. Now I am glad I did. Havin enough problems, do not need addiotional problems with the hardware.

In case you want a pcb, I have 2 spares. Tell me if you need one.

PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS

stanleyella

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Joined: 25/06/2022
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2567

Posted: 03:16pm 19 Feb 2023

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@Volhout- Thanks for the kind offer but I do not need a sd card reader, well, not yet.
I don't use the inbuilt editor or save files to flash, I use MMedit and win.
I will vero the breadboard version for stability.
A photo of the non vga picomite and lcd built in sd card reader, wired, it works but never used it yet. I got space on the board for level converter or other hardware and it's got 5V and 3.3V supply. It was simpler than making a pcb and it is more adaptable.
Discussing the merit of pcb against perf board is pointless.

Volhout
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Joined: 05/03/2018
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 5091

Posted: 08:00pm 19 Feb 2023

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@stanleyella,

Yes, I know all 3 systems: breadboard, veroboard, and PCB. And veroboard can be just as reliable as PCB. I use a mix of all 3.

One of my breadboard's with LCD, SD card, RTC, and a veroboard circuit for measuring mains voltage (no 230Vac on the breadboard, too dangerous).

I experiment with veroboard a lot. Below the 2 NES controllers (with a VGA GAME picomite), and some interfaces for SSTV.

But, as you can see, I used printed circuit boards for the platform (VGA GAME picomite) and (below) the VGA picomite (my workhorse). Main reason is not only reliability, but also to make sure I have a platform that others can reference to. So if I have a problem, Peter can duplicate. Or when I make software others use, they can trust it works on a reference platform.

Volhout
Edited 2023-02-20 06:03 by Volhout

PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS

stanleyella

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Joined: 25/06/2022
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2567

Posted: 08:11pm 19 Feb 2023

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Wiring/finding a vga socket. I got lots of vga leads, I could just cut off the plug and use the leads. Tidy up with heat shrink and pin connector. I am frugal, c'est moi.
warum nicht?

stanleyella

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Joined: 25/06/2022
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2567

Posted: 08:35pm 19 Feb 2023

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Cool circuit boards. It can be easy to get picomite working cheap.
For me it's the power and graphics., stuff 8bit pics can not do as good as mmbasic.
Writing game code is interesting but I got emulators if I want to play retro games, it's re-writing them I find interesting.
You can use a soldering iron or not and still use picomite, who cares as long as it's fun.. and coding is the interesting stuff, not the hardware wiring, imho.
It could be shields for hardware like arduino but not gone that way yet, good.

Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 7938

Posted: 09:25pm 19 Feb 2023

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You want hats? This one takes hats. ;) Sensible ones using 0.1" matrix board. H1, H2 & H3 are all on the matrix so very easy to make what you want. The hats can be fixed on with 9mm pillars.

It can be a PicoMite VGA with PS/2 keyboard
Or it can be a non-VGA PicoMite
Or it can be a backpack for a ILI9341

You can get two out of a 100x100 board, it fits within JLCPCB's spec for them to panelize them for you.

Whatever floats your boat, Stan. :) I virtually never played arcade games - or anything similar on home computers. Games have never been my "thing", apart from adventure games.

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

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