Discussion Forum for all things Microbee
Product requests - Printable Version

+- Discussion Forum for all things Microbee (https://microbeetechnology.com.au/forum)
+-- Forum: Microbee Forum (https://microbeetechnology.com.au/forum/forum-1.html)
+--- Forum: Microbee Technology Online Store (https://microbeetechnology.com.au/forum/forum-12.html)
+--- Thread: Product requests (/thread-457.html)

Pages: 1 2 3

RE: Product requests - MbeeTech - 05-05-2022

(05-05-2022, 12:15 AM)mjelic Wrote: Not sure if this was covered in Points 1 and 2 above, but take a look at this video of a device designed locally for the VZ300, which is another Z80 machine designed in Aus for Dick Smith.
The little device is basically a Gotek but without all the hassle of having a full floppy disk controller etc etc.

https://youtu.be/3EvRcHnhG9k?t=630

This of course would not be for the Premium models (since they have disks and you can change them out to Goteks), but the ROM based ones to enable people to save to "disk" rather than mucking around with tapes.

There is something similarly designed for the Amstrad.

https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/ddi3-usb-floppy-emulator-for-amstrad-cpc-464-11223

Hi Mark.
Thanks for the links.
While it would be possible to do something like the ones you've pointed to, there are so few ROM based bees
out there [unlike the VZx00 / Amstrad etc] that Microbee Technology would never recover any costs in developing the hardware.

It seems to me that you are trying to get the Tape based Microbee to do something it was never intended to do - support disks.
If you really want the convenience of disks and easy loading, just use the Disk based coreboard that you have.
While it's nice having a lot of ROMs onboard for quick access, having the same programs on disk means 2 seconds of loading
time instead of instant, but much more flexible.  A disk can hold many more games / applications than the rom space in a PC85 as well.

Alternatively, you could upgrade your machine to be a Premium Plus and then have the SDcard to load all the floppy disk images from
with no need for an external floppy drive or gotek.

RE: Product requests - mjelic - 05-05-2022

> there are so few ROM based bees out there [unlike the VZx00 / Amstrad etc]

Really? OK, I was under the impression that the ROM ones are the most common and the disk ones were the rare ones. Go figure. Wonder how I got that impression...

>Alternatively, you could upgrade your machine to be a Premium Plus and then have the SDcard to load all the floppy disk images from
with no need for an external floppy drive or gotek.

This... It is the massive external floppy drive box that I'm trying to avoid. Every other machine I have is small, compact and self contained.

OK, so there is a solution, and luckily I have a Premium machine to allow me to do this... But if I didn't, I'd be out of luck? Do you also have numbers of how many Premium vs Standard machines are out there and thus this solution doesn't work for them?

>While it would be possible to do something like the ones you've pointed to

Well that's good to know and gives me hope that maybe someone might design such a thing. I'm soon to get my hands on a VZ300 and one of those SD drives and I might take a look at reverse engineering one and adapting for the Bee.

RE: Product requests - elpiggio - 11-06-2022

A bit late to this thread, but I've been thinking lately about:

- A decent quality 8-bit DAC (if that's not an oxymoron... maybe a little wave shaping on the output).

- Real Time Clock Kit

- SN76489a Sound Generator Kit (I do have a Beethoven, but would also like to try out the chip option that the Premium / 256TC has "onboard".

- Definitely interested in the Telnet adapter.... also been keeping an eye on FujiNet and things like that. Hope to see this on the Microbee one day. I really want a text-based email / messaging kind of system.

- Hard Drive image option for the Premium+ (would be excellent as a paid ROM upgrade)

- Mouse adapter, so I can play around with GUI programming

- Wi-Fi SD Cards (eg. Toshiba FlashAir) so we can easily add disk images to our Premium+ any time we want Smile

- High quality reproductions of Microbee books and Magazines to order on demand.

- +1 for FPGA-based Microbees or even a Raspberry Pi Keyboard type thing with uBee512 built-in.

- VZ300 emultator on the 'Bee Wink  OK, that last one was a joke.

RE: Product requests - mjelic - 12-06-2022

(11-06-2022, 06:57 PM)elpiggio Wrote: - Real Time Clock Kit

- SN76489a Sound Generator Kit (I do have a Beethoven, but would also like to try out the chip option that the Premium / 256TC has "onboard".

- Definitely interested in the Telnet adapter.... also been keeping an eye on FujiNet and things like that. Hope to see this on the Microbee one day. I really want a text-based email / messaging kind of system.

- Hard Drive image option for the Premium+ (would be excellent as a paid ROM upgrade)

- Mouse adapter, so I can play around with GUI programming

- Wi-Fi SD Cards (eg. Toshiba FlashAir) so we can easily add disk images to our Premium+ any time we want Smile
All of the above I would support, too.

Personally, I'm more interested in expanding and enhancing the capability of my existing Bee than ripping it's brains out and making basically a modern emulated Bee that at best has software backward compatibility to my current hardware and very little connection to it, otherwise. I have absolutely no interest in learning what goes on inside those mystical black boxes called FPGAs.

I honestly think there would be a bigger market for brand new old stock of Bees than anything that tries to modernise the Bee. Have you seen what prices the Bees go for on eBay?! And those are old ones with dodgy keyboards and unknown functionality and usually not even Premiums. How much and how many would sell if the best of the old Bees (I guess the 128k Premium+?) was re-made and put inside a sexy new case like Owen showed off at the March of the Microbees? (I didn't get a photo of it, but it kinda looked like this sexy Philips MSX machine)

   

It's a shame we can't do polls here, but would be interesting to cast it out there and see how many and for how much $ are people willing to buy what Owen is putting his efforts into right now, vs how many would buy a New Old Bee with maybe a couple of quality of life things like a hard disk or removable storage like Compact Flash or SD cards. Maybe I'm just too old school, but I don't want the Z80 replaced with an FPGA. Make it a faster Z80, sure. But an emulated Bee... I have that in uBee512, soon to make it's way to a Raspberry Pi Keyboard, I bet.

(Please don't take this as anything but hopefully helpful constructive criticism. I want Owen/Microbee to be financially successful, more than anything.)

RE: Product requests - Ernest - 12-06-2022

(11-06-2022, 06:57 PM)elpiggio Wrote: - Real Time Clock Kit
- Hard Drive image option for the Premium+ 
Hi elpiggio,
Check out MAXIM's - DS12887+ these fit into the latter MB1248, Premium and 256TC Microbee's with very little changes required. These are available new from various sources, just be aware of none new ones (ebay) as the internal lithium batteries maybe depleted, been caught there, however even then they can be repaired using an external battery for the adventurous.  
Even reduces the original parts required as both the battery and the clock are on-chip. Just ensure you enable MOTOROLA mode not INTEL mode. 
Works really well with the PJB Enhanced BIOS. 

A little more challenging for the early Microbee that didn't have RTC provision on the mainboard, however not too hard to do an off board option with flying lead type connection in the original RTC fashion, PM me if you're interested as I have a couple of boards left that fit vertically to the left of the top cover support of the Microbee case. 

I agree with the Hard Drive idea, the SD card has plenty of room on it and being able to emulate four partitions of a hard drive Microbee would make the system a lot more usable, making most programs available without the hassle of swapping Floppy images in and out.

Rather than the complexity of SD Wifi, just having the ethernet port functional to transfer files to and from another PC would help with file transfers.

Ernest

RE: Product requests - someone - 12-06-2022

(11-06-2022, 06:57 PM)elpiggio Wrote: .... - VZ300 emulator on the 'Bee Wink  OK, that last one was a joke.

That's not as absurd as it sounds.
Here is a screenshot of someone's Micro Professor MPF-I emulator on a microbee complete with mouse (or keyboard driven) pointer.
   

RE: Product requests - MbeeTech - 14-06-2022

elpiggio Wrote:- Real Time Clock Kit

- SN76489a Sound Generator Kit (I do have a Beethoven, but would also like to try out the chip option that the Premium / 256TC has "onboard".

- Definitely interested in the Telnet adapter.... also been keeping an eye on FujiNet and things like that. Hope to see this on the Microbee one day. I really want a text-based email / messaging kind of system.

- Hard Drive image option for the Premium+ (would be excellent as a paid ROM upgrade)

- Mouse adapter, so I can play around with GUI programming

- Wi-Fi SD Cards (eg. Toshiba FlashAir) so we can easily add disk images to our Premium+ any time we want [Image: smile.png]

- High quality reproductions of Microbee books and Magazines to order on demand.


In regards to the RTC kit, if you have a premium machine, you should be able to source the parts yourself and install it.
I would not think the RTC would be of much use other than to have fun installing it.  It doesn't have a century byte so none
of the existing software would give you the correct calendar functionality. The Shell was the only place that time / date was 
displayed.  No other software, to my knowledge, made use of it.

Same issues exist with the SN76489 sound generator.  Different port map (If I recall correctly) and no software used it, as it
was never fitted in the factory.

Making use of Hard disk images in the premium plus / 256TC-SE is something I'd be interested in pursuing myself.

The Telnet adapter is something I've already done (hardware : WifiSer ) and need to finish off mods to Telcom and Videotex
software for it's release.

[Image: 51421369_2003045749815133_51211970180892...e=62CBA759]

Mouse adapter.  This is something I am looking at.  I can duplicate the original Microbee Serial mouse adapter fairly easily,
but I would prefer to make a USB mouse adapter.  I'd like to have this ready for the Classic Plus release.

Wifi-SDcards - you can buy these already.  I haven't tried them, but I see no issue in using them.

In regards to the manuals, it is something I am considering for a select range, and possibly Online Magazine.

Appreciate your input. Smile

mjelic Wrote: and put inside a sexy new case like Owen showed off at the March of the Microbee


First off, I know it's a bit confusing having Microbee originally owned by 'Owen' and now 'Ewan'
so I'd just like to clarify.. I am Ewan - the current owner of Microbee Technology (have been for more than 
a decade.)

In regards to the sexy new case, I assume you are referring to the right most one in the picture below:

[Image: 277077156_4839681546151525_6276639072545...e=62AC7CC4]

That particular unit is my working PC and a test case for a modern Microbee PC.  However, the keyboard
and case are designed to be used with the up-coming 256TC-Plus which has the same innards as the Classic-Plus
that I've been talking about (and is in the picture above, 2nd from the right) with the exception that it has the
full PC style keyboard.   
The Classic Plus is designed to be the cheaper version without a case (to be used like that or to replace the 
boards in an existing Microbee), while the 256TC-Plus is the fully cased version with the deluxe keyboard.
See Here for more details.
While both these models have some parts integrated into an FPGA, there is very good reason for it.
Making original Microbees and even the Premium Plus has to rely on obtaining 30-40 year old parts :
in particular, the SY6545 screen controller (along with other items) which presents problems in sourcing
the components, and possible reliability problems / higher failure rates.
This is one of the reasons I've moved the video section into an FPGA. I don't want to be held at the mercy of
redundant parts suppliers.
And while it doesn't appeal to absolutely everyone, I am adding newer features to give people something to 
play with, program, investigate and learn with rather than just replicating an old model.  You don't have to have 
any knowledge of FPGAs to make use of the new features, and you can ignore them completely if you want as it 
still runs all of the original software. It's still a regular Z80 based machine, it's just that some circuitry has 
been implemented in programmable logic rather than individual chips.
That brings me to another point as to why some parts of the Microbee have been moved into the FPGA :
Cost & simplicity.  While still having A Z80, PIO, memory etc., as components to be soldered in to the PCB,
the FPGA enables me to reduce the chip count (hence cost) and make the board easier to get going for the 
constructor.

I hope this clarifies a some items for you.
All the best.

RE: Product requests - CheshireNoir - 14-06-2022

Keep up the good work Ewan :-)

We appreciate the effort you're putting in. Just don't release it before I get my tax return, mmkay?

:-D :-D :-D

John

RE: Product requests - mjelic - 17-06-2022

(14-06-2022, 03:12 PM)ejwords Wrote: mjelic
Quote: and put inside a sexy new case like Owen showed off at the March of the Microbee

> First off, I know it's a bit confusing having Microbee originally owned by 'Owen' and now 'Ewan'

My mistake Ewan. I actually do know you're the owner but my brain typed an E while fingers press O. Smile

> In regards to the sexy new case, I assume you are referring to the right most one in the picture below:

[Image: 277077156_4839681546151525_6276639072545...e=62AC7CC4]

Correct. I love that style of case!

>While both these models have some parts integrated into an FPGA, there is very good reason for it.
Making original Microbees and even the Premium Plus has to rely on obtaining 30-40 year old parts :
in particular, the SY6545 screen controller (along with other items) which presents problems in sourcing
the components, and possible reliability problems / higher failure rates.
This is one of the reasons I've moved the video section into an FPGA. I don't want to be held at the mercy of
redundant parts suppliers.

>And while it doesn't appeal to absolutely everyone, I am adding newer features to give people something to 
play with, program, investigate and learn with rather than just replicating an old model.  You don't have to have 
any knowledge of FPGAs to make use of the new features, and you can ignore them completely if you want as it 
still runs all of the original software. 

Fair enough... Are you adding any graphic modes to it? (I believe I read you are, but I missed the details.) If in the affirmative, then will any of these new modes be compatible with other computers of the time? As in, if you are adding some colour mode that say the MSX2 standard had, then it could be easier to port software from some other platform to add to the Bee's library.

>It's still a regular Z80 based machine, it's just that some circuitry has 

So it will still have a fair dinkum Z80 at it's heart? (It sounds like it will. That is important, for me.)

Hope this formatting works. See comments above.

Mark

RE: Product requests - MbeeTech - 18-06-2022

mjelic Wrote:Fair enough... Are you adding any graphic modes to it? (I believe I read you are, but I missed the details.) If in the affirmative, then will any of these new
modes be compatible with other computers of the time? As in, if you are adding some colour mode that say the MSX2 standard had, then it could be easier
to port software from some other platform to add to the Bee's library.

>It's still a regular Z80 based machine, it's just that some circuitry has 

So it will still have a fair dinkum Z80 at it's heart? (It sounds like it will. That is important, for me.)


Hi Mark.
See this post which shows one of the new graphics modes.

I will also be adding support (thanks to 'someone' for the details) for other video modes to support porting software from other systems such as the
ZX Spectrum.  See this post for a ZX Spectrum screen running (under a modified microbee emulator ).  
Have a look at Someone's other 'Microbee the ultimate doppleganger' posts as well.

Yes, Still a Z80 at it's heart. Smile

All the best.