Commander X16

I thought it would be fun to set up the 3 different X16's that I have.
The Community X16, on the left
The Commander X16
The Otter X16. on the right

Extremely kewl.

So which is your favourite child?

I must admit that the middle child is my favorite.
The official Commander X16 is the one that got everything started.

But the Community X16 was my first and still holds my heart for getting the project on its way when it needed a boost.

I'd only recently heard of the Otter X16, I never heard of the Community X16, so this is fascinating. Have there been any compatibility issues with the other machines?

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 also needs a bodge to be fully compatible with the official X16.

JimmyDansbo wrote: ↑Sun Feb 11, 2024 10:56 pm 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 also needs a bodge to be fully compatible with the official X16.

There were only 10 Community X16 boards produced and I still have 2 of them. I know of one that was purchased and never built, leaving 7 in the wild.

The Community X16 was originally compatible with the prototype 3 Dev board, and needed modifications to be compatible with the proto 4 dev board and the production dev board. The three most notable are the SMC pin remapping, ROM bank reset on VPB, and VIA1 move to IRQ. The SMC pin remapping cannot easily be done without a daughterboard, but the VPB bodge can be done by one cut and one wire, and the IRQ only requires cutting a solder jumper and closing a jumper header. The Community X16 edge connector would require a daughterboard to remap it to be Proto 4 Dev / production compatible, and it would not work with cartridges.

Very cool stuff Jimmy!

I am quite tempted by the Otter, if they become available again.

You say the Otter requires a "bodge" for compatibility? Have you got a link to more details on this bodge?

Does anyone know how many Otters got sold?

I have built five Uzeboxes now. It would be cool to build something a bit more complex and the Otter seems like a good choice as I think its all through hole components right?

You can read more about the bodge here:
https://github.com/RetroRemake/OtterX_A ... 0Board.pdf

I am currently running my OtterX without the bodge.

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?