The P2 Thing
MXX
Posts: 7
Dear All,
let me introduce the latest (final?) version of my P2 board, You can find the first version at P2EDGE gaming/standalone breakout discussion.
It briefly consists of:
- 96 MB RAM with 16bit Bus (previous 8 bit bus)
- USB port for programming and power supply (USB type B )
- Additional PROP PLUG header
- Additional 9 - 24 V power supply input (for 5V 15 W)
- Additional leds for power supply and rtx signal (previous rtx only)
- Front panel connector
- High precision RTC (supercap backed up)
- Selectable boot from 6 different flashes (previous 4 flashed)
- SD card high speed 4 wire bus (previous slow mode)
- USB hub 4 ports for joystick, keyboard and mouse (previous 2 ports)
- VGA connector
- Stereo Analog audio out (headphones or line)
- HDMI connector (previous not available)
- ESP-01 or ESP-01S connector (previous not available)
- Shared 16 bit expansion connector (previous not shared)
- ESD protection
- Optional dedicated heatsink Code 345-1744-ND (previous not available)
- 6 Layer PCB (previous 4 layer)
A major difference compared to previous PCB is about heat dissipation. The two additional layers increase heat transfer to external connectors (acting as heatsink).
I designed this board in an attempt to reduce the connections mess between P2 and the various peripherals typically used.
Furthermore, this board will make it easy to experiment with all those fantastic software related to the world of retro consoles and audio-video systems in general.
Special thanks to:
@rogloh
@evanh
@Rayman
@Wuerfel_21
@JonnyMac
@pik33
@cgracey
for the efforts put on the P2 platform, this board is based on and inspired by their work .
Another difference is the front panel which is now interchangeable with various options such as the 3.5" display and the 4.3" display which will be coming soon.
In the photo we can also see other accessories such as the heatsink and the ESP-01 module....
The LCD display is driven with 16 wires but in 24bit RGB configuration thanks to the help of latches so it does not require any initialization.
I also prepared a modified version of the Burn-in RAM test software created by Werfel_21 in order to quickly test the other peripherals on board.
Comments
Looks good!
Neat-o!
This is a very feature rich platform and looks like there's gonna be a lot of things in there to test as it's a big upgrade from before.
What do you have working so far? I see the front panel parallel LCD is already working in your youtube vid and it's responding quickly, and your test software screen looks useful. Any tricky problems you had to resolve or is it all coming up nicely?
I have one of these and can vouch for it as a great unit! If I've not given much feedback on it, it's because it's just been so good to me. (though I never tried messing with the RTC or the ESP module)
I've been using it as my main development system lately, it's just so nice and tidy. Did most of the work for MisoYume beta 11, P1 Classics Collection and this silly music thing on there. (and the Teapot demo on the previous version)
Maybe we can workshop, like, a catchy name for this capital-T Thing? I've just kinda been calling it the "MXX box" or something to that extent. (Because I need
Nice re-use of the RAM tester text driver thing!
(BTW, I think(?) the version of the FUNSCII font there has the full set of Parallax P1 ROM font PUA glyphs, so you can draw fully connected boxes if you want - you may need to add
--charset=oemto the compiler command line if not already there to get 8-bit extended characters, otherwise it will attempt to use UTF-8)Wow, Marco (Massimo?), that is really nice. Congratulations.
But that's Massimo, Marco is @macca , you need to get your Italians straight.
OK, I need to get my Italians straight
@Wuerfel_21 Are your emulators going to work with this LCD?
IDK I don't have one or any specs. I think we talked about this once in some e-mails, but who knows what of that made it to the final product. (My influence did result in upgrading to 16 bit wide PSRAM)