Post by spannernick on Nov 30, 2023 12:27:55 GMT
The Atari2600+
-------------------
I added this too because its made by PLAION and made in the same factory in China as THEC64/CHA.
Right click on a photo image below and open it in new tab to see it bigger.
Ben Jones that designed the Atari2600+ has it on his wall... wow
Hardware
-------------
Serial Debug Port is its UART, connect TX,RX so RX to TX and TX to RX and Ground to it so you can see its log in Putty.
Specs:
---------
This uses the same nand from THEC64 Mini and its say TOSHIBA on it so it must be old stock, the company changed its name in 2019 to KIOXA because the same nand is used in THEA500 Mini too but has KIOXA on it so this must be old stick from when they made THEC64 Mini in 2018, well its cheaper to use old stock then new stock because you already have it.
Right click on a photo image below and open it in new tab to see it bigger.
I/O Board Front
--------------------
This in/Out board that reads the Atari 2600/7800 rom cartridge and sends it to the tmp/ folder and then loads it into Stella.
Chips(ICs):
MCU= Micro Controller Unit
U1: MCU to detect and dump the cart ROM
U2: MCU to convert controller ports to USB
U6: CH444G quad analog switches chip. Used to connect the USB-C connector to one of the two MCUs or the mainboards rock chip.
U7: CH442E dual analog switches chip. connects MCU U2 to the D+/- pins of the mainboard header going to the rockchip or connects the MCU to U6.
Some interesting labels:
USB_S: USB switch connected to the B/W switch. B/W mode selects one of the MCUs. Color Mode selects the rockchip.
BOOT_KEY (on header) connected to the RESET switch. When reset is pulled down and power is switched on the Rockchip enters update mode(Like FEL Mode).
CAR_TEST (CARD_TEST on main board) goes to dumper MCU U1. Probably a request from the main baord to the dumper MCU to test the cart (again)
1PA_1PB, 2PA_2PB are opposite of the A and B difficulty labels on the case. Must have been confusing determining which is which.
other interesting things:
J8 is the dumper MCU's UART that is used to send roms to the emulator. There's 1 1K resistor added between GND and 5V. There was probably an issue with the 5V and this resistor was added as a fix.
The Controller port MCU also has a small UART header available. probably used for debugging.
Both MCUs U1 and U2 have their chip markings removed. One has a bar mark to distinguish the one from the other. Maybe @ben from Plaion can tell us what mode MCU is used?
On my version of the Atari2600+, I do not have the resistor on the UART pins in the I/O board, its on the 3rd image of the I/O board above, its a yellow resistor and its bands are Gold, Red, Black and Brown, its a normal resistor and the only one on its board, it don't look like it was soldered by the solder machine in the factory, looks like it was added after by hand.
In/Out Board Back
------------------------
USB Ports on the I/O board Front
-----------------------------------------
D-, D+ is USB Port 1 and D-1, D+1 is USB Port 2, you could use 5v and GND for both ports or just to solder a USB Hub on it.
You could solder a USB Hub on solder points 5v, D-, D+, GND so then you can use the USB Ports on it.
Atari 2600+ dumper
-------------------------
You can add a cart dumping feature to the Atari 2600+ by connecting a FTDI cable (USB to serial cable) to the Ataro2600+ I/O board serial header
github.com/MrBlinky/Atari2600plus-dumper/
More to come....
-------------------
I added this too because its made by PLAION and made in the same factory in China as THEC64/CHA.
Right click on a photo image below and open it in new tab to see it bigger.
Ben Jones that designed the Atari2600+ has it on his wall... wow
Hardware
-------------
Serial Debug Port is its UART, connect TX,RX so RX to TX and TX to RX and Ground to it so you can see its log in Putty.
Specs:
---------
Rockchip RK3128: Quad-core Cortex-A7 up to 1.2GHz Mali-400MP2 GPU RK3128 - Rockchip Wiki
NAND: 256mb: TOSHIBA TC58NVG1S3HT A00 NAND IC like THEC64 Mini Download Datasheet
RAM: 256mb: H5TQ2G63GFR Hynix Semiconductor DRAM Chip DDR3 SDRAM 2Gbit 128Mx16 1.5V 96-Pin FBGA Download Datasheet
NAND: 256mb: TOSHIBA TC58NVG1S3HT A00 NAND IC like THEC64 Mini Download Datasheet
RAM: 256mb: H5TQ2G63GFR Hynix Semiconductor DRAM Chip DDR3 SDRAM 2Gbit 128Mx16 1.5V 96-Pin FBGA Download Datasheet
Right click on a photo image below and open it in new tab to see it bigger.
I/O Board Front
--------------------
This in/Out board that reads the Atari 2600/7800 rom cartridge and sends it to the tmp/ folder and then loads it into Stella.
Chips(ICs):
MCU= Micro Controller Unit
U1: MCU to detect and dump the cart ROM
U2: MCU to convert controller ports to USB
U6: CH444G quad analog switches chip. Used to connect the USB-C connector to one of the two MCUs or the mainboards rock chip.
U7: CH442E dual analog switches chip. connects MCU U2 to the D+/- pins of the mainboard header going to the rockchip or connects the MCU to U6.
Some interesting labels:
USB_S: USB switch connected to the B/W switch. B/W mode selects one of the MCUs. Color Mode selects the rockchip.
BOOT_KEY (on header) connected to the RESET switch. When reset is pulled down and power is switched on the Rockchip enters update mode(Like FEL Mode).
CAR_TEST (CARD_TEST on main board) goes to dumper MCU U1. Probably a request from the main baord to the dumper MCU to test the cart (again)
1PA_1PB, 2PA_2PB are opposite of the A and B difficulty labels on the case. Must have been confusing determining which is which.
other interesting things:
J8 is the dumper MCU's UART that is used to send roms to the emulator. There's 1 1K resistor added between GND and 5V. There was probably an issue with the 5V and this resistor was added as a fix.
The Controller port MCU also has a small UART header available. probably used for debugging.
Both MCUs U1 and U2 have their chip markings removed. One has a bar mark to distinguish the one from the other. Maybe @ben from Plaion can tell us what mode MCU is used?
On my version of the Atari2600+, I do not have the resistor on the UART pins in the I/O board, its on the 3rd image of the I/O board above, its a yellow resistor and its bands are Gold, Red, Black and Brown, its a normal resistor and the only one on its board, it don't look like it was soldered by the solder machine in the factory, looks like it was added after by hand.
In/Out Board Back
------------------------
USB Ports on the I/O board Front
-----------------------------------------
D-, D+ is USB Port 1 and D-1, D+1 is USB Port 2, you could use 5v and GND for both ports or just to solder a USB Hub on it.
You could solder a USB Hub on solder points 5v, D-, D+, GND so then you can use the USB Ports on it.
Atari 2600+ dumper
-------------------------
You can add a cart dumping feature to the Atari 2600+ by connecting a FTDI cable (USB to serial cable) to the Ataro2600+ I/O board serial header
github.com/MrBlinky/Atari2600plus-dumper/
More to come....