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Having an empty socket with the option of the card being bootable if you put a 28C64 in it is something to consider for the next hardware version. Also the latest A2DVI card suggests it might be possible to have a bootable card without any EPROM/EEPROM chip - the 2xFD firmware seems to be doing exactly that.
Great !
I'll wait for it :-)
That'll be nice! Thanks everyone!
Interesting. My LCD montor has HDMI and VGA inputs. I use both a composite/HDMA converter and a VGA card straight into the monitor's VGA port. I find that for games the ESP32's composite output is better, but that for (non-ESP32) text the VGA is better. The VGA for games is sharper, but more...blocky. I could not find a good quality monitor for any rational price that did both native composite and VGA. Some of the lower cost monitors that had both (and I went through a few) were garbage.
Can you share the make and model of the composite to HDMI converter? I have been trying to find a good one without that much luck.
Sure...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08W98BD6L?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_5&th=1
Wow, that is surprising. This one looks identical to the cheapest converter you can get from AliExpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006839022292.html
Since it's only $2 + $1.30 for shipping, I might as well give it a try!
A lot of stuff sold on Amazon is exactly the same as what you can buy on Aliexpress. You pay a premium for Amazon because you can usually get things much quicker and Amazon's customer service is usually better. If you are patient and lucky then Aliexpress can be the way to go.
I'm sure the Amazon one is better because it's more expensive... :-)
You've been very quiet CVT. I was used to the steady flow of firmware and feature updates. What's happening? :-)
Hopefully something big coming soon!
I'm still hoping for Apple //e or IIgs emulators and a C64 emulator.
There is definitely a new feature coming soon. Whether or not it's something big is not for me to say, however it is the most time have spent on a major firmware version so far, if we exclude the initial release. At some point I didn't even think it would be possible with the current hardware, but I guess I was wrong. Stay tuned for more...
Here is a hint:
Hint.JPG
I am definitely looking forward to seeing what it is.
With a native 68000 processor on there PLUS the capabilities already inherent in the ESP32, one can only imagine.
Can't wait to see what you've got brewing. Definately got a lot of interest...
The ESP32 already does a credible job of emulating a 68000, but it will be interesting to see what putting a real 68k on there could do, if that is really what is happening. Maybe Atari ST or even Amiga emulation?
The real 68K sitting on top of the card was just a hint and not to be taken literally. We are talking about a firmware update after all. Both the Atari ST and Amiga are excellent guesses, but it's not one of those. :)
Sinclair QL? Or a game system like the Sega Genesis or Atari Jaguar?
Haha! It is a fake !
68k pins are neither soldered or socketed
:-)
Really? You don't say! :)
Project Update: Sega Genesis (a.k.a. Sega Mega Drive) coming soon
Exactly 2 years ago my first attempt to add the Sega Genesis emulator was unsuccessful: click!
However I never really gave up on it - I kept the code up to date and whenever I discovered a new way to improve performance I would always go back and reevaluate it. This continued with limited progress until the major performance improvements in v5.03, when it became obvious that a Sega Genesis emulator running at full speed might be within reach. So for the last two months I have been working on code optimization and I am finally happy enough with it to announce the upcoming release.
There will be a couple of caveats, for example ROM images larger than 3.2 MB will not be supported, but 99% of the released games are under that limit.
Sega Genesis.jpg
That's pretty sweet!
Has anyone fabricated a volume output dial? I'm visioning something similar to the Fastchip //e dial that could be mounted on the case slits. Where percisely on the card would this be wired up to?
FastChipDial.jpg
The 3k pot labeled OUT VOLUME will need to be replaced with an external one:
OutVolume.png
Any news on the Sega Genisis update?
It is ready to go, but at this point I am delaying it because of the de minimis exemption expiring for US customers on August 29 for items under $800. Yesterday Bulgarian Posts announced that they are temporarily halting all shipments to the US because of it and this is the only way to ship to the US for just $9 USD.
Every major firmware release causes a surge of orders and I don’t want to release one at a time when I cannot ship to the US. This happened at a bad time for my US reseller MacEffects too. I wanted to finish the new firmware before resupplying them, but now I cannot and they are almost out of stock. If I release the firmware before resupplying them, they will be out of stock for sure. I know this is unfair to both my international and existing customers, as this has nothing to do with them and I am sorry, but my US customers represent around 50% and I cannot exclude shipping to the US, neither would I want to.
However the work on the firmware continues despite all that and when it is released it will be more stable and support more games. This is because fixes that would usually come in v6.01, v6.02 and v6.03 are now going to be part of v6.00 itself.
Sorry CVT I just don't see the connecton. If people are savvy enough to be follwowing this Applefritter thread they either alerady have the card or plan to get one. Either way by reading this thread they'll know there's a delay in getting new cards, which they will know anyway when trying to order a card. And if they're not following here they probably don't know what's going on with the firmware anyway. Either way they will have to wait until there are cards to buy, no matter what the reason. I don't see the harm in new firmware making them more excited about getting the card. So here's my vote to release what you have ready to go now! :-)
This is not the only place where I announce the new firmware releases. Facebook's Apple II Enthusiasts group with its 30k+ members has a huge effect and there is always a surge in new orders when a new major version drops. Not being able to ship to the US when that happens is a big waste. It's like running a TV commercial during a power outage. :)
Hello,
I recently saw this card in an action retro video, and as an owner of an Apple IIe Platinum, it looked super cool and interesting haha
But when I was pretty surprised by the $125 price. That seemed a lot higher than I would think for something that uses (sonewhat) simple board layouts
Now, I haven't read all of the messages in here (I'll do that when I post this), but I saw that the main module, the ESP32 module was only $4.50, and the rest of the components were about $1. But I've also seen that there's some issues with getting these cards with the US.
I do also understand that there's some assembly cost, but looking at other suppliers it doesn't seem to be that much.
If it seems like I'm complaining, not trying to sound like that. I'm just puzzled.
Is it normally $125 (without shipping and tax) or is it that because of the said US issues?
Another question I would ask is trying to source a US supplier, so you don't need to deal with shipping from Bulgaria.
Thanks for making this an actual thing, and being active on the project
The shipping charge from Bulgaria, from the horse's mouth, has been only $9.
I did see that, but I didn't include it
The price hasn't changed (yet) from two years ago, and is below the new de minimis level, so there shouldn't be tariff consequences. That might change though, as trade negotiations continue to be unpredictable.
It's a fair question to ask. It is priced above the cost of the hardware, because 99% of the time spent was in developing the card's firmware, which at this point is about 300,000 lines of C and C++ code. For the price there was some trial and error when it was first released, but it fairly quickly settled on $125 USD after considering everything and seeing that it works for everyone.
Well, it's not below the new US de minimis level, which is at $0 starting today, but I'm not too worried about that. What really worries me is how long is it going to be before shipping to the US is resumed.
Frankly, when you consider the capabilities of this card the cost is pretty fair. I thought so when it first came out. I was a pretty early purchaser. Since then the firmware additions have made it even better. Back in the 1980s people would have killed for something that could run 1/2 the stuff that ESP SoftCard can.
Has it always been $125?
Now that I think about, it would be more for me since I don't have any mouse cards or anything
Not using basic and actually having a GUI is more helpful than people think
Now, what about the suppliers? Have you thought of outsourcing to other suppliers than yours?
Personally, I've never heard of JCLPCB, but they seem alright
But if that's your only supplier near, then that's completely fine
JLCPCB is one of the biggest PCB fab companies that serves the small business/hobbiest space. They are based in China. Right now for US buyers they are affected by the current Tarriff mess. In the past I've mostly used them and PCBWay for having boards made. They're both pretty reasonable. You sure aren't going to find anyone significantly cheaper than them to reduce the costs of a board like this very much. Especially nothing in the US, or for that matter I haven't seen anything not Chinese based that wasn't usually more expensive.
PCBWAY was the main one I would use and some others
As I said, I've used PCBWay, but most of the time I found that JLCPCB was cheaper, at least combined with shipping costs. Often for both the shipping was a significant portion of the total price, especially if you have things shipped other than the slowest options.
Interesting
I would think the assembly fee would be the leading amount
If shipping to the US is problamatic for the foreseable future, maybe you could find a way to release the new firmware to interested customers who have already purchased. For what it's worth, I thought $125 was a great deal for the product when I bought it over a year ago with firmware v3.07. What other //e products out there have had a consistent 2.5 years of development with NEW capabilities added almost quarterly?
As I've said before, I agree completely.
There have been few new products for the Apple II offered in the past few years that have had anywhere near the ongoing development work put into them as this one. About the closest other one would be the A2VGA and A2DVI and derivitives which are a similar concept, using a modern microcontroller to allow a software based enhancement for the //e. The difference being of course that those others primarily enhance the hardware capabilities, and ESP 32 SoftCard enhances the software capabilities with emulators for other vintage platforms and consoles. The exception being the Z80 emulation of the A2VGA/A2DVI which also allows running more software, although in a different way than ESP 32 SoftCard does it.
Well, when a new version of the firmware is released, everyone who has purchased the card can use it.
I am delaying the new firmware release simply in order to avoid having to cancel and refund a bunch of new orders from the US, which will result from the new capabilities the card will have. Tindie does not have a way to exclude the US from the rest of the world and MacEffects (the shop which ships the card form the US) ran out of stock yesterday. I actually asked them to fill my last Tindie order to the US, since I could not.
I don't think this situation should last longer than a month though.
As others have pointed out, it's not just the hardware costs alone. CVT has been amazing with his continuous improvements and additions over the years. When there's a bug reported or feature request, he's very responsive.
In that sense, the higher cost is justified, to me, because you're getting the software support for years and years. Anyone who purchased this earlier on has already enjoyed all of the updates and getting WAY more features than they started with. Every time a new emulation was added, that's just an extra bonus beyond what I originally purchased. That's pretty cool. :)
If this was a project like the VGA/HDMI converter cards or something similar, where it basically just works and you might get minor fixes, that's one thing. But with this card, it's a full fledged computer with basically an OS that still gets updates, and even at $125 I think it's a bargain. Just my opinion of course.
I'm trying to update my current version 5.02 to the latest 5.05 but when I start the update command and pick that version, it shows the progress but then at random percent done, the card beeps and boots me back to the DOS prompt. Might be 5%, might be 10% or higher... seems kind of random.
I've tried also updating to 5.03, or even back to the same 5.02 version I already have, but I'm getting the same thing happening. I also tried recopying the firmware images just in case the FTP transfer failed, but that didn't make a difference.
I also tried power cycling the computer between attempts, ctrl-open apple-reset, etc. and nothing helps.
Any thoughts? Is there something wrong with my card or is it an issue with the update feature in 5.02 that is causing problems with future updates? Any way to roll back to another version or update in some other way to get around this, or get extra logging on what's happening when it resets itself?
Oh... never mind. I saw that version 5.04 has a note "Update: fixed a bug from v5.02 causing UPDATE to crash if a key is pressed or the mouse/joystick moved while updating."
I unplugged my mouse and joystick and the update ran okay. My joystick might have a little drift... been a while since calibrating.
I just missed that since I was going from 5.02 to 5.05 and didn't catch the interim release notes that mention that. :)
For any one else coming from 5.02, keep that in mind.
Any update on the shipping situation or when the new firmware will be released?
Thanks to DHL, it is once again possible to ship to the US from Bulgaria, however the total price for US orders will be $125 + $40 shipping = $165 USD through PayPal - just send me a private message through this forum. There will be no other taxes or custom fees. This ONLY applies to US customers. Everyone else can still order it from Tindie for $125 + $9 shipping = $134 USD.
There is no longer a reason to delay the new firmware (which adds the Sega Genesis emulator), so it will be released shortly. Please stay tuned!
Firmware Update:
Here is the sixth major version firmware update, which adds the Sega Genesis emulator:
ESP32 SoftCard FW v.6.00.zip
To update, place the BIN file found inside the ZIP archive in the /Firmware directory of the SD card and then run the UPDATE command.
Version History: (Continued)
v6.00
- Added the Sega Genesis (a.k.a. Sega Mega Drive) game console emulator. To start just type SG.
- Video player: added volume control and an on-screen volume indicator.
- SD card: Increased the maximum length of long filenames from 64 to 128 characters.
- Command prompt: expanded the MEMORY command to break down the free internal RAM.
- Mac emulator: prevented the mapping of the Command and Option buttons when the host is Apple II/II+ without a joystick.
Also some games and programs gathered from the Net:
SegaGenesisROMs.zip
(The ROMs need to be in the /SG directory of the SD card.)
Most of the ROMs were downloaded from: Sega Genesis/MegaDrive ROMs
Really enjoying the firmware update... so many good Sega games I'd forgotten about, there's over 900 ROMS out there. Thanks for all the hard work making this work.
Would it be possible to add a screensaver feature to each game platform? Similar to the Total Replay screen saver mode, but maybe the user could select 30 seconds, 1 minute, etc of game play to watch and then the emulator would randomly load a new game from the folder and so on. I've been listening to the game music and manually selecting games every few minutes, would be cool if it could run auto in the background.
Thanks again!
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