Finally I got all parts for the dtv2ser+usb boards including the missing USB connector. Actually a type A female connector was placed on the layout but it is less common. By mounting a type A male connector on the lower side of the PCB upside down I was able to replace the female connector with the more common version. Now the board really looks like a USB stick:
It took quite a while until I had the first prototypes of dtv2ser+usb here on my desk… Now they are here: I got nine boards from PCB-Pool and they really look great:
Fortunately, I already ordered all essential parts for one board and started with soldering right now…
Currently, the dtv2ser device provides a RS232 interface and you need an external usb2serial converter to connect it to a modern host computer. So why not directly include the usb2serial conversion on the dtv2ser board. I found the FT232R chip that fullfills that task and is not too expensive (and also Reichelt my local parts dealer has it available 😉
Have a look at my dtv2ser+usb prototype that will be presented in release 0.2 of dtv2ser…
The DTV supports a PS/2 keyboard for an emulation of the original Commodore 64 keyboard. The PS/2 key mapping is hard-coded to a US keyboard layout. If you use a national (here: german) keyboard you have to translate the mapping manually.. Either by remembering the correct mapping or by painting new key caps…
Shadowolf on Forum64 presented a very nice solution: The KeyboardTwister. This small tinyAVR based HW Mod sits between the PS/2 connector of the DTV and the PS/2 keyboard and translates the keymapping.
Have a look at my KeyboardTwister gallery…
As already announced in my last post: Finally, the first public release 0.1 of dtv2ser is online!
Go check it out on my new dtv2ser homepage!
Macs don’t have Parallel Ports. That’s no problem for using nowaday devices but its a real disadvantage if you like to hack hardware and need to access ports or like to work on toggle-bits level with any kind of homebrew hardware.
I had a look at the cool DTV transfer tool called dtvtrans written by TLR. There you build a parallel to joystick port cable and then you can transfer memory blocks directly from and to the DTV’s RAM or ROM. This is ultra handy for development and fast testing…
But without a parport on my Mac, what to do?
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