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Post by ggkoul on Jan 25, 2019 16:26:20 GMT
Hello - I've never soldered anything before so I'm looking for someone to do the UART mod on my C64. I'm happy to pay for the parts, your time and shipping back and forth.
Just let me know!
Thanks!
-GGK
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Post by jj0 on Jan 25, 2019 17:22:10 GMT
Hello - I've never soldered anything before so I'm looking for someone to do the UART mod on my C64. I'm happy to pay for the parts, your time and shipping back and forth. Just let me know! Thanks! -GGK Unfortunately I couldn't solder my way out of a wet paper bag, but instead of soldering on a UART on, you could also consider: |
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Post by crispin on Jan 25, 2019 19:01:55 GMT
ggkoul , welcome here. You should try to do it by yourself, it is not that hard. Basically, all you have to do is to connect 3 wires. 3 wires are: transfer, recieve, ground (Tx, Rx, GND). Those are supposed to be connected like that: Tx-Rx, Rx-Tx, GND-GND. As jj0 mentioned, you can use rubber-band method, then you don't need to solder anything. Beside, connection of pins could be quite stable even without rubber-band, that was my case (and of some others). Things becomes complicated when you want to connect Mini to PC much more often: you don't want to open (resolve) housing of Mini every now and then. Keeping it open all the time is clumsy solution too. This is why people often choose to make some connector at housing (I used common audio 2,5mm audio jack), but it requires some soldering for sure. Other solution is mentioned above, "FEL" mod. Study both and find your way around. For UART modding, you'll need adapter to connect it to USB port of PC. It is called "USB to TTL" adapter, or USB-UART adapter. If you want to simplify process and money is out of question, choose ready-made solution with cable. Here is one possible solution: thepihut.com/products/adafruit-usb-to-ttl-serial-cableYou'll probably need 4-pin header like this (it does not have to be angled. Do not connect 4th pin!):   If you are ready to make permanent connector at housing, this one could be even more easier solution: www.delock.com/produkte/G_83789/merkmale.html  There is only one thing that you have to be careful about: you need 3,3V version, not a 5 Volts version of adapter. Software side is another story, but basically you just follow instructions and enter (copy & paste) what is needed. "Tedious" process is needed only 1st time, to achieve admin (aka root) privileges. Later is easier.
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Post by spannernick on Jan 26, 2019 13:38:29 GMT
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Post by crispin on Jan 27, 2019 6:25:18 GMT
Although FEL should be, in theory, much more simple and natural approach (no need to soldering as at UART mod), in practice it should not be the case. First, actually you don't need soldering. Rubber-band method is just enough, if you don't plan to do it often. If you don't want/need a connector, drilling a hole in case is also not needed: FEL hole already exists, below the sticker. As for FEL, things tend to be complicated: Pressing FEL button at the same time as powering unit is somewhat clumsy. Up to it comes situation with missing FEL button. For overcoming that, things becomes complicated - at least, you have to open housing, maybe drill a new hole in the future, for FEL button - ...so 1st goal of FEL - " do not need to open the case or change anything" - failed. Warning you here: it is not just that opening case breaks warranty: every approach to the file system is recorded at .ash_history in root directory, both for FEL and UART afaik. It is very hard (or impossible) to delete it entirely. Everything is recorded there, since login up to unmount / poweroff. This means that, at official service-support, it is very easy to see did anyone messed with Mini altered way then it is officially allowed. Another one is that you actually have little bit less control over system then in UART case. You depend of "magic USB boot loader" at USB stick. Problem is that it should recognise all specifics of your version of Mini's hardware (what if some component change in the near future?). There are few versions of Mini right now (e.g. NAND chip differs) afaik. For UART, that problem does not exist. Of course, here are some other possible benefits of FEL - you can add network-usb adapter that raises potential usefulness of whole hack. Just, it requires some investment (ethernet adapter, hub/router etc). Historically, whole idea is based upon fact that with FEL you don't need any special hardware / adapter to control the system. But TTL (UART) adapter costs just 1-10$. You can add, on top of it, 2-3$ for housing connector (although it could be also made via power usb port iirc). Another flaw with FEL is that you need 2 screens (TV, monitor) for session: one at host PC (or e.g. RPi), one for Mini. It is just not the case with UART mod. As I didn't make FEL, maybe I misinterpreted something. Saying that, I am not familiar with Allwiner u-boot, nor differences between boot1/boot2 etc. jj0 please, could you approve (or correct) what I said, or ad some juicy detail? Some comparison of dis/advantages of both approaches would be nice. |
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Post by jj0 on Jan 27, 2019 11:29:36 GMT
Although FEL should be, in theory, much more simple and natural approach (no need to soldering as at UART mod), in practice it should not be the case. First, actually you don't need soldering. Rubber-band method is just enough, if you don't plan to do it often. If you don't want/need a connector, drilling a hole in case is also not needed: FEL hole already exists, below the sticker. As for FEL, things tend to be complicated: Pressing FEL button at the same time as powering unit is somewhat clumsy. Up to it comes situation with missing FEL button. For overcoming that, things becomes complicated - at least, you have to open housing, maybe drill a new hole in the future, for FEL button - ...so 1st goal of FEL - " do not need to open the case or change anything" - failed. Warning you here: it is not just that opening case breaks warranty: every approach to the file system is recorded at .ash_history in root directory, both for FEL and UART afaik. It is very hard (or impossible) to delete it entirely. Everything is recorded there, since login up to unmount / poweroff. This means that, at official service-support, it is very easy to see did anyone messed with Mini altered way then it is officially allowed. Another one is that you actually have little bit less control over system then in UART case. You depend of "magic USB boot loader" at USB stick. Problem is that it should recognise all specifics of your version of Mini's hardware (what if some component change in the near future?). There are few versions of Mini right now (e.g. NAND chip differs) afaik. For UART, that problem does not exist. Of course, here are some other possible benefits of FEL - you can add network-usb adapter that raises potential usefulness of whole hack. Just, it requires some investment (ethernet adapter, hub/router etc). Historically, whole idea is based upon fact that with FEL you don't need any special hardware / adapter to control the system. But TTL (UART) adapter costs just 1-10$. You can add, on top of it, 2-3$ for housing connector (although it could be also made via power usb port iirc). Another flaw with FEL is that you need 2 screens (TV, monitor) for session: one at host PC (or e.g. RPi), one for Mini. It is just not the case with UART mod. As I didn't make FEL, maybe I misinterpreted something. Saying that, I am not familiar with Allwiner u-boot, nor differences between boot1/boot2 etc. jj0 please, could you approve (or correct) what I said, or ad some juicy detail? Some comparison of dis/advantages of both approaches would be nice. Well... Just my 2 cents: - I fully agree that having an UART (soldered or rubber-band) currently has one big advantage: You have direct access so you're not depending on than FEL-mode NAND driver to recognise whatever NAND chip is used in your Mini.
- The FEL-mode has an advantage for Mini's that have the FEL-mode button/hole so you don't need to open it. Activating is not that difficult, you can put the Mini upside down and keep the button pressed with one hand and use the other hand to switch it on. If you have a monitor/TV with multiple inputs you also might not need two screens
 - FEL mode has an advantage over UART, it allows you to boot a linux environment independent of what's in NAND, which can be useful in case the Mini is bricked. But those cases are very rare, in most 'bricked' scenarios you can probably still boot to ramfs from nanda
- Everything you can do with FEL-mode (network access, USB2Serial, etc) you can do from UART as well, you just need to run FEL-mode once and copy the right modules/startup scripts to the Mini rootfs in nandb or modify the nanda kernel+ramdisk mage
- Pricing of required hardware is about the same for UART and FEL, e.g. you can get a cheap USB2Ethernet adapter.
- Juicy detail: If you don't want your .ash_history recorded than only make changes either from FEL-mode or UART ramfs mode ('setenv nand_root /dev/nandb ramfs' when you are at uboot prompt) and mount the nandb to /mnt
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Post by crispin on Jan 27, 2019 18:04:10 GMT
- The FEL-mode has an advantage for Mini's that have the FEL-mode button/hole so you don't need to open it. Activating is not that difficult, you can put the Mini upside down and keep the button pressed with one hand and use the other hand to switch it on. If you have a monitor/TV with multiple inputs you also might not need two screens
Thanks. Just I am not sure I can agree with that ^ "so you don't need to open it." virtualsky wouldn't agree with that, so as any that missing FEL-mode button (US version of Mini). "Activating is not that difficult" - It is not difficult, but if you're doing it often (switch on/off) it becomes annoying. If you want to add something to USB stick, you need to turn it off/on, and if you are oblivious like I am you'll doing it often. e.g. I need to mod my .vkm file + joystick conf file, so I'll need a lot of testing. Right now, all I have to do is to plug in/pull off USB extender cable, to power on/off Mini. I am doing it with one hand, not even touch Mini. Obvious solution is to add little button to housing (or FaberfoX 's interesting solution with reed switch), but then you need to make a hole at housing (and still need to open the case). "If you have a monitor/TV with multiple inputs" - well, yeah. |
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Post by spannernick on Feb 11, 2019 19:00:33 GMT
I like FEL Mode for one thing,I can copy games using FTP with FileZilla so I can see the files on the Nand and remove a game or add one easily not having to type it on a shell and typing in the commands and having to tell it to delete a file,folder or add a game. This is the closes you get to how you copy roms over to RPI with Retropie,I use FileZilla for that too. Uart is good if you want access while the Carousel is on screen and send commands to it. I can show The64 Mini on my monitor with Windows 10,I use a EasyCap DC60,be careful these can be fake mines not,it composite so I have a MINI HDMI2AV so HDMI is converted to Composite, I use DScaler (4.1.19) cos its the best free capture software available,I have been using it for years,Its not made anymore.I have my PS Classic connected to it at the moment,have not used The64 Mini for a while,I have 2 of them..  If FEL Mode was not available I wouldn't be able to add games to my first TheC64 Mini cos the Uart is blown.I will be puting a reset button on the back of that one so I can just press and hold it while I switch it on to activate FEL Mode.  deinterlace.sourceforge.net/ www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=Easycap+DC64&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.XEasycap+DC60.TRS0&_nkw=Easycap+DC60&_sacat=0 www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=HDMI+to+3+RCA+CVBS+Converter+Adapter&_sacat=0 |
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Post by parkelie on Aug 6, 2019 17:16:33 GMT
Hi...Pressing FEL button at the same time as powering unit is somewhat clumsy. Up to it comes situation with missing FEL button. For overcoming that, things becomes complicated - at least, you have to open housing, maybe drill a new hole in the future, for FEL button. turnkey pcb assembly |
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Post by ggaljoen on Aug 8, 2019 17:02:58 GMT
... drill a new hole in the future, for FEL button Exactly what I have done and explained HERE |
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If FEL Mode was not available I wouldn't be able to add games to my first TheC64 Mini cos the Uart is blown.I will be puting a reset button on the back of that one so I can just press and hold it while I switch it on to activate FEL Mode.
