• potmux 1.0 released

    I’m releasing the first version of the Potmux add-on board for the Keyman64.

    The Potmux is a small hardware add-on for the C64 that allows the user to optionally route the control port potentiometer lines to a destination other than the SID.

    It is mainly intended to be used with the Keyman64 for the purpose of mapping additional joystick buttons connected to the potentiometer lines to user defined keystrokes.

    The potmux utility provided on this page can be used to prefix an existing C64 program with a specific potmux configuration for the Keyman64. The resulting program will first configure the Keyman64 using its serial interface connected to the tapeport lines “Cassette Sense” and “Cassette Write” and then run the original program.

    Documentation is available in both english and german.

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  • Taking orders again

    It actually took me more than two years to get my C64 back up running – never underestimate the trouble and time it takes to build a house.

    However, I’m taking orders again. Please see the individual project pages for details on how to order.

    Apologies to those who mailed me and didn’t get a reply – this is a hobby, after all. Maybe I screwed up by not setting up a prominent note on the project pages. I have send out mail to everyone who mailed me in the past two and a half years. In case you’re still interested in ordering, please repeat your order request.

    There are kits on stock right now. I’m waiting for new Keyman64 pcbs, though. If I sell my current stock, there’s going to be enough spare cash to finance more batches in the future.

    Thank you for your patience and support,
    Henning

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  • Hiatus -- No orders or support for a while

    I am very busy building a home for my family at the moment, so I won’t be taking orders for some time. I will also be without internet for a while, so I will not respond to mail either. I will announce here when I am available for orders and support again.

    I apologize to those who haven’t gotten any reply to their mail in the past month. I will respond when I’m back.

    It’ll be about one or two months from now.

    Thank you for your patience,
    Henning

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  • keyman64 1.6 released

    Version 1.6 adds new features as well as bugfixes and improvements.

    Support has been added for expanding the number of available control lines by adding one or more daisy chained 74595 serial shift registers. Each register will add another 8-bit wide control port. See port expansion for details.

    The firmware update command has been improved for updates that break binary compatibility with existing configuration stored on the device. An optional second argument can be used to specify a configuration file. If present, the exisiting configuration will be disabled before update and reinstalled after the update. This method is required when updating to version 1.6. Please see the update instructions.

    The configuration syntax has been improved by adding an alternative short notation for specifying control lines. Instead of using the verbose port a bit 6 it is now possible to simply use a6.

    It is now possible to configure the speed at which the keyboard is scanned. The new speed directive can be used to select “slow” mode or “fast” mode. Slow scanning is required when the keyboard cable is longer than in a stock C64, for example when installing the device in an SX64.

    The power-on sequence has been improved by adding an early scan and relay step so that keys pressed during power-up are seen as early as possible by the C64. Thus compatibility with cartridges that check for keypresses during power up has been improved.

    A new serial command has been added to directly type a PETSCII-code on the keyboard.

    The client utility now features a reset command to trigger a reset of the device via USB.

    Some bugs relating to symbol parsing and text output have been fixed.

    For a detailed list of changes please refer to the remainder of this post.

    The project page contains the complete documentation.

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  • overlay64 1.2 released

    This release fixes problems in the firmware concerning USB device detection on some flavors of Windows. Previous firmware versions disabled the USB interrupt for short amounts of time during rendering. This had no adverse effects on Linux and also worked reliably on Windows 7, although it is not quite conforming to the USB spec.

    On Windows versions 8.1 and later, this problem causes the device detection for the Overlay64 USB device to only work sporadically.

    If you have an external programming device, use it to upgrade to this firmware version by flashing the combined firmware image to the Atmel.

    If you don’t have an external programming device and device detection does not work reliably on your system, temporarily remove the LM1881 IC as a workaround. Without the LM1881 no text will be displayed, but the USB device(s) should be properly detected under Windows 8 so that you can use the regular update procedure:

    overlay64 update overlay64-firmware-1.2.hex
    

    Changes in the software include fixes for building on MacOSX and fixes to the configuration file parser.

    A detailed list of changes can be found in the remainder of this post.

    As always, please refer to the project page for detailed documentation.

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