Re: TI-H: Extender uP for SPinTerface


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Re: TI-H: Extender uP for SPinTerface





>Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 09:26:42 -0400
>From: Bryan Rittmeyer <bryanr@flash.net>
>To: ti-hardware@lists.ticalc.org
>Subject: Re: TI-H: Extender uP for SPinTerface
>
>Richard Piotter wrote:
>
>> The Extender uP looks like a great idea. I was just at your page and 
it
>> looks like it's comming allong well. I know there's room for the two
>> chips in the cartridge, but it's the other things that might be a
>> problem. Still I'd rather have a slightly thicker cart than have to 
mess
>
>Well, the Atmel dataflash is availible in a 28 pin SOP (SOIC?) format..
>which is extremely tiny. The PLCC chips are a bit bigger since they
>require sockets... but I/we could use the SOP format and ditch the 
PLCC.
>The problem comes with the PIC16F84. The PIC itself
>is availible in a SOP (SOIC?) format... but my programmer has an 18
>pin gold machine socket and I would need to make a converter of some
>sort to allow me to burn the SOP parts. It wouldn't be too hard... and
>an 18 pin SOP chip and a 28 pin SOP chip could CERTAINLY fit in the
>footprint of a 9V battery, and be maybe 1/8" high. The diodes and
>resistors, if I used SMT parts, wouldn't be too big either. But I'll
>worry about that later, the last thing I want to do is spend an hour
>checking the prototype for solder bridges between the tiny SOP chips'
>pins. ;-)
>
>A lot of people are interested in an internal Ex*er... and the
>SPinTerface looks very slick, so perhaps you'd be interested in 
building
>Extender uPs inside of peoples' calcs for them? I'm still not sure if
>I'm going to be building finished units, since there are some hassles
>involved with that... so if you'd like to build SPinTerface cartridges
>inside of peoples' calcs using PICs that I could burn for you, that
>would be great. E-Mail me back if you're interested.
>
>BTW, last night I got the status byte read out of the Atmel chip,
>through
>the PIC and into the calc. It won't be long before I have the calc
>reading files, and not status bytes. :-)
>
>Regards,
>
>Bryan Rittmeyer
>bryanr@flash.net

Awesome Job!!!  (:

It takes time to work out the bugs in such a device and I've been 
following. It's amazing! I could probably build tons of them. I just 
need a new tip for my soldering iron cause the one I have is half its 
normal lenth from scraping it clean (=  I'll have to figure out if an 
SMT version can fit into the cart covers I use. If it doesn't, them I'll 
have to find something bigger that I can get in large quantities. This 
will be my first cart project that's not wire wrapped or point to point, 
but I have done tons of work on small, including SMT devices. If you can 
get me pre-fab boards, plus the chip, and anything else you would need 
to provide, I suppose I could do it then. As for internal instalations, 
I would think it would be best to just use the SPinTerface port and then 
have interchangable parts, unless the circuit doesn't interfere with 
normal link opperations. If it won't interfere, then I would think that 
an internal circuit would be best. You could have a SPinTerface port as 
optional and a memory port designed just to hold the memory chip. 
Another possibility would be a removable SPinTerface cart containing the 
PIC and the other circuits, but have a 6-pin cart slot on it to plug 
Memory chip carts into it. That way, you could disconnect the memory 
device entirely to save power when you don't use it.

I got to go now, but I hope I can help out!!!

Thanks!!!

Richard Piotter

e-mail: richfiles@hotmail.com

home page: <A 
HREF="http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/5081/Richfiles.html">The 
Richfiles</A>
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