New Company Car :-)

I remember attending the World of Commodore 2004 and falling in love with a small commuter vehicle seen while going out to eat one night in Canada.  At the time, there was no need for a commuter vehicle, and the idea passed on.

Fast forward to 2010.  With this new position and our new location in the country, I will be commuting 30 minutes to work each day.  Since the Ford F350 truck is not known for great gas mileage (and, diesel tends to be more expensive than gasoline), I once again thought of that commuter vehicle.

After some research (including a test drive of one in Omaha while enroute to Sioux Falls), I was able to purchase a used model with all of the options I desired.

The vehicle?  It’s a Red 2009 Smart ForTwo Cabriolet:

Red 2009 Smart ForTwo Cabriolet
Red 2009 Smart ForTwo Cabriolet

The photo shows it with our RV in the background.  It gets ~41MPG, weighs less than 2000 pounds, will indeed fit in the bed of the pickup, and can go at least 80MPH (Interstates in SD are 75).  The convertible option is truly non-essential, but some would say the entire car fits that description.  My 6’2″ frame fits comfortably in the vehicle, with plenty of legroom.  The kids fight over who gets to ride in the passenger seat, and it has been nicknamed “Smartie” already.  It does seem fitting that the Brain family would own a “Smart” car.

Obviously, it’s no match for the worst of Winter in Sioux Falls, but those are days when the truck will justify itself as a commuter vehicle.

New Business Location

Brain Innovations has moved to a new location outside of Sioux Falls, SD.  Though much work remains to be done, the new location will allow siting of a better design facility.  Plans include offices, design area, and climate controlled space to set up multiple retro computer configurations for testing purposes.  Above all, area will be devoted to parts stock and product assembly, as well as tooling for milling cases for products.

Construction must wait until Spring, but design work can continue through the Winter.

With the selection of a new location complete, I now turn attention to filling the backlog of orders placed over the past month.  I appreciate the patience of all our customers.

Potential Interruptions

I have recently accepted a new position out of state, which necessitates a relocation and all of the changes associated with a move and new position.  Design will continue, but I may be unable to fill orders during the transition period.  Thus, if you’ve been putting off a purchase, note that it is likely I will not be able to fill orders from July 16th to August 16th.

GEOS Support for uIEC Bounty!

One of the most often requested features for uIEC is GEOS support. Given that uIEC emulates a Commodore Disk Drive at the protocol level, not at the hardware level, such support is harder than it sounds. Like many applications of the day, GEOS uses a custom disk drive transfer routine (commonly called a “speeder” or “fastloader”) called diskTurbo to make drive access times more manageable. Since the normal protocol is discarded in favor of a faster variant, successful emulation requires emulating the custom protocol. uIEC uses the sd2iec firmware, which has supported a handful of custom protocols for some time (including JiffyDOS), but does not currently support the GEOS custom protocol.

That may soon change, though.  RedumLOA has created a site called “Commodore Bounty” that will allow interested individuals to fund project activities.  The first bounty is for sd2iec GEOS support, which has been funded to over $750.00 at the time of this posting.  If you are interested in seeing GEOS support on sd2iec and uIEC, please consider a donation.

Cincinnati Commodore Computer EXPO

Many apologies for the lack of postings, but I was preparing for the  Cincinnati Commodore Computer Club EXPO (C4 EXPO), which happened over Memorial Day weekend, and I am just now getting caught up on postings.

Two weeks prior to the show, I shifted all focus to ensuring newly produced products would be available at the show.  X-Pander3 expansion boards and 64NIC+ network cards were in production, but delivery had been delayed a week or so.  This seems to always happen prior to a show, without fail.  I spent evenings obtaining manufacturing and shipment statuses, making last minute parts purchases, and packing for the show.

The week prior to the show was spent traveling to Ohio, taking in some sights (Kings Island, for example), and spending time with the family.  Since we were already on the road, I rescheduled last minute product shipments from China to arrive at the hotel before the show.

Though not the only reason, it is true I offer products for sale to finance these trips.  I can enjoy catching up with old and online friends and relaxing and enjoying the hobby.  This year was no different.  I arrived mid afternoon on Friday, with the show room already open and a few folks setting up systems.  Over the years, I’ve learned how to pack lighter, so my tables didn’t take too long to setup.  Then, I spent time finishing some products for the show and chatting with the early arrivals.

I called it quits early Saturday morning (1AM or so Central), getting back to the room before 9:30AM.  Traffic was lighter than usual, and seemed light all day.  Sales were nominal, but steady.  JiffyDOS sales were hampered by issues with my Willem programmer (after I returned home, I determined the configuration switches were faulty), preventing me from flashing some of the JiffyDOS versions.

Jim and Oliver working on project
Jim and Oliver working on project

Traffic stayed light all day, which is a bit disappointing because this is the second year traffic has been light.  By afternoon, sales dissipated and I spent time fighting with the programmer.  Oliver VieBrooks (Six of Style) came over late afternoon and we brainstormed on project ideas.  Thus began the prototyping portion of the show.   Given that sales had stopped, I decided to start on a project right then, and continued through the normal annual Saturday “C4 EXPO Golden Corral” dinner period (to be fair, I probably would have went, but we’d already enjoyed GC as a family earlier in the week).

Later in the evening, I worked on a project for Leif Bloomquist. Since the Fall ECCC ’09 show, Leif and I have been working to bring his VIC-20 MIDI cartridge to fruition. The main issue with the original design is the UART utilized, a MC6850 that is hard to source and pricey. I suggested rewriting the drivers to use the much more common 16X50-style PC UART ICs. I’d source a batch of them, but still needed to wire up one to Leif’s board so he could test.

By Sunday, I was out of energy, having worked on two prototypes the previous night.  Thus, I packed up and left without much fanfare.

Seeing friends and talking hobby is always nice, but I feel the Memorial Day slot for this show hurts it quite a bit. Traffic was light, as previously noted, and sales were likewise light. Surprisingly, the Louisville crowd didn’t show, which hurt attendance more.

Swimming in Cables!

Boxes of IEC Cables!

It appears I’m now the proud owner of 2600 custom manufactured IEC disk drive cables. Yes, you read correctly. 2600 IEC cables, with 26 AWG 6-conductor wire, shield, and DIN 6 connectors with molded covers. I know, it is insane, but it’s prohibitively expensive to order custom cables in smaller quantities, and it seemed like such cables were becoming a bit scarce. Well, no more! 🙂

1.2M (48") IEC Cables

The shipment of cables arrived this morning via eight 35 pound boxes. The cables are of 2 lengths: 48″ and 12″. Most of the cables were shipped here, but a box of 12″ cables is enroute to Gideon Zweijtzer for 1541U-II orders. Thus, if you’re a 1541U-II purchaser, hopefully this means an IEC cable will be included in your order.

The 48″ cable is already in the store, and I’ll add the 12″ option as soon as I can.

If you’re one of my friends in our neighboring country to the North and you’re interested in a 48″ cable, I’d recommend checking JPPBM‘s store out for a price check, as shipping from the US can be a bear. Currently, Joe’s not requesting 12″ cables, but I have plenty. Thus, if there is CA interest in 12″ cables, I’d recommend soliciting Joe to buy a batch for sale in his store.

0.3M (12") IEC Cables

Project Within A Project

C2NPower Top View
C2NPower Top View

Powering CBM products can prove harder than initially thought. Many manufacturers choose the safe (and professional) route of including a power jack on the product and a plug-in power supply (wall wart). It’s a safe choice, but it carries a double cost. Power supplies tend to be $5.00 or so, and are often bulky and heavy, adding to shipping costs. On the consumer side, there’s a cost in finding another open outlet for the power supply and cable management.

For larger or more power hungry products, it’s a worthwhile tradeoff, but for smaller products, it is more efficient to power the product from the actual machine. Even today, USB devices can obtain power from the host computer, as long as they do not consume more than 100mA of power. Above that, and they require an external power source. Thus, for smaller CBM projects, it’s tempting to draw power from the console itself. On the Commodore VIC-20, C64, C64C, and C128, power can be sipped from the user port, cassette port, and/or expansion port, as well as from the joystick ports.

Over time, the cassette port has become the preferred port for power draw. Mainly, it’s rarely used. The joystick ports are smallest and probably cheapest to interface, but they are heavily used and can be prone to accidental disconnection. Still, the cassette port can prove challenging for interfacing in 2010. Most importantly, the .156″ 6 position connector is hard to source nowadays.

When I started offering products, I chose the cassette port because it offered a way to reduce prices for consumers, and the products used minimal power, making the port an ideal power source. With that decided, I simply needed to source the cassette port connectors and start selling products.

Oh, how I wish it were that easy! To understand the challenge, let me relate a bit of technical information. The standard PET/CBM cassette connector is a male 6/12 .156″ edge connector. For obvious reasons, Commodore created the male portion on the compute rmotherboard, as it was cheap (it requires no connector, just etching the connector conductive “fingers” onto the motherboard). To interface, one needs the female portion, which comes in 2 basic styles. One is designed for chassis (enclosure) mounting and contains 2 tabs on each end, each with a hole in them. They are called “mounting tabs”. The idea is to cut a hole in the case, mount the connector using the “tabs” and the holes, and then use the connector. The other foregoes the “tabs”. Since the “tabless” version is less useful (most use cases require a mounting option), it’s harder to source. Therefore, I initially obtained the more plentiful “tabbed” version of the cassette port connector for my power needs.

After I’d sold a number of units with the cassette port power connector, I noticed two things:

  • The installed connector was very hard to remove from the C64 or C128, as the cassette port on all CBM units is recessed into the case.  Although I’d already know about the issue of removing the connector in general, that issue and this one didn’t concern me greatly because I surmised the connector would not often be removed.
  • The tabs prevented C128DCR usage.  Commodore evidently reduced the width of the cassette port opening in the C128DCR case, making the tabbed connector too wide for entry.  Although this was not a major issue (removing the tabs addresses the concern), it caught some folks off-guard and provided fodder for reviews and such.

Still, I had 150 of the tabbed connectors and no source for the non-tabbed connectors, so I pushed forward.  Along the way, though, I both used up my stock of connectors and also managed to find a source for the more elusive non-tabbed connector.

With experience in hand, I decided to rework the power connection option for the product line.  In addition to the previous issues, a few folks has lamented the lack of a cassette port “pass through”.  Thus, I decided to fix all of the issues at once.  The removal issues and the passthrough request could easily be solved by adding a small PCB to the connector (something to grab onto), and etching a cassette port male connector on the opposite end of the PCB.  The C128DCR concerns required sourcing a non-tabbed connector.  The resulting board would like similar to printer interface cassette port power adapters of the era.  But it seemed a waste to create a PCB just to bring the signals out for passthrough usage.

Never one to ignore an opportunity, I decided to add some value to the power connector.  In contemporary PCB design, it’s a fact that you’re paying for the area of PCB, rarely anything else.  By creatively laying out the PCB, I managed to find space for a DIP-14 socket and a single pole switch.  TO use the DIP socket, I mapped out the pin configuration for a small Atmel AVR microcontroller, the ATMEGA24/44/84.  The cassette port signals all route to the AVR, as does the switch.

Mind you, I have no immediate plans to create a product using the uC onboard the connector.  Thus, the uC is unpopulated, but one can easily add the socket and the controller.  Nonetheless, I’m interested in idea for usage, and eager to see if hobbyists come up with independent ideas for usage.

X-Pander 3 Coming Soon!

X-Pander 3 Cartridge Expansion Unit

In my continuing effort to sell more products for your Commodore computer, I determined users would buy more cartridge-based solutions if they could plug more into their machine at one time 🙂 Thus, given the lack of cartridge expansion options on the market at present, I am producing the X-Pander. Modeled off the CMD EX-3, CMD EX2+1, and the FB-3XP, X-Pander offers the following features and design aspects:

  • 3 upright expansion slots
  • 1 rear-facing slot for larger cartridge options (REU, etc.)
  • Each slot can be controlled via 8 DIP switches (GAME,EXROM,IO1,IO2,ROML,ROMH,POWER are selectable)
  • Slots #2 and #3 can swap IO lines (IO1->IO2, IO2->IO1)
  • Power LED indicators for each slot
  • Switches are located on right side for easy access
  • IO1/IO2 swap option located on right side for easy access
  • Long throw “piano” lever switches used for ease of configuration
  • Slot #3 can be accessed via top or rear port.

The prototype units have arrived and have been tested, production units are currently in manufacturing and should be in the store in a month.  Current pricing estimates are $30.00.