Commander X16

The TL866II+ can program both, but it seems to have trouble setting fuses on the SMC sometimes. Fortunately, recent improvements to the SMC code seem to allow it to work without enabling the PLL.

That said, my tool of choice for SMC programming is an Arduino UNO.

I have 50 boards left, but the labor involved in putting a kit together tends to put a damper on my enthusiasm. Most of that frustration is down to populating VERA and the YM replacements. Each VERA, OPM2151, and I2S DAC takes roughly one hour of labor (30 minutes for VERA, 10 minutes for each side ...

The $9F is written because that was the last value on the bus when RWB went low. The analyzer capture below shows roughly what is going on. In this case the instruction is STA $9F20 ($8D $20 $9f). The markers show that $9F was still on the bus when RWB went low and the value being written ($2A) is d...

I'm surprised that the X16 doesn't have a serial port or UART headers as standard. Both the C64 and VIC20 and I think most of the Commodore machines had a serial port. Most of my cheap TV boxes and SBCs have UART as standard. I tried emailing VectorHeadArcade a few days ago to ask if they would be ...

Thanks Jimmy! Hopefully they'll do another revision of the Otter that doesn't need a bodge but then again, I have no idea what I could use the cartridge slot for? There probably isn't much available in the way of X16 expansions yet are there? It isn't likely that I'll do another OtterX through hole...

I appreciate your response Kelli. I don't think that is it though as I can read the correct data from the device. I just can't seem to write anything other $9f to it. Somehow the KERNAL knows when IO is present (I still haven't wrapped my head around how it does this). For instance, if I don't have...

For those not tracking FB or Discord - I've recently completed a hardware prototype for a (relatively) low cost HDMI-compatible output from VERA. It works using a low cost transmitter IC that converts parallel digital color signals into HDMI-compatible TMDS output. As a bonus, it can even take VERA'...

VERA ESPIcial is hardware that I started designing just before VCF Southwest last year but firmware development has been lagging until recently when AndyMt received one. Just this past week, air dropping using WebDAV was enabled and I completed my first successful test of it today. Before dropping f...

If I remember correctly there was a bodge needed on the Community X16 and unless more bodge'ing is done it needs a slightly different SMC than the official board. I am fairly certain it is not being developed any more as Wavicle has moved on to the Otter X16 instead. It seems that the Otter X16 als...

If one is willing to assemble it yourself, there is a $250 kit available also: https://www.vectorheadarcade.com/product-page/otter-x16-8-bit-retro-computer-kit One thing I find slightly annoying (and has made me put the purchase on the back burner, to be honest) is that even if you buy the devkit, ...