Interim Backplane - VGA from Scratch - Part 16
Переглядів 5,960
День томуThe last VGA video contained an “unplanned demonstration” of how fragile these builds can get with lots of temporary wiring. In preparation for some more complex work I decided to spend some time tidying the wiring up and integrating the existing modules on a new temporary backplane.
If you are just following the circuit logic you can safely skip this video but if you want to see the detail of how I’m building this you’ll want to watch. Hope you enjoy the results. I do give a little preview of some demo code I’m working on at the end.
0:00 Introduction
0:42 Assessing the Problem
2:57 PCB Design
5:14 Soldering
14:36 Installation
18:53 Test & Troubleshoot
25:01 Problem & Fix
26:33 Demos
29:13 Outro
@weirdboyjim 5 місяців тому
Join us on Discord: discord.gg/jmf6M3z7XS Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/WeirdBoyJim Support the channel on Patreon: www.patreon.com/JamesSharman
@jean-philippegrenier120 4 місяці тому
my favorite parts of this series is the troubleshooting when things go wrong :)
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
In that case it's convenient I am far from perfect! 😅
@jean-philippegrenier120 4 місяці тому
@@weirdboyjim it's very inspiring to see how you can troubleshoot in all this complex build. I would totally freak out and start screaming : D
@colinstu 4 місяці тому
@@weirdboyjim it's kinda fun seeing how a single pin here or a swap there leads to some interesting results. (and when you swap things around live and they change)
@hola3535 4 місяці тому
This is not my favorite part.
@hola3535 4 місяці тому
I think this is the real fastest 8 bit console I ever saw, GOOD JOB MR JAMES.
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
Thank you! I have some future plans that will surpass it but this is really about exploring design concepts for me!
@janschrder 5 місяців тому
20K subscribers :-) Well done and well earned James!. As allways it's so rewarding to see Your systematic work and follow the reasoning behind it :-)
@weirdboyjim 5 місяців тому
Thanks! Hopefully a few more of the "work first time" boards in the future.
@janschrder 5 місяців тому
@@weirdboyjim On the other hand James, If everything just worked as espected out of the box, it wouldn't be that interesting to follow. The beauty of the design phase is one thing, but the fault finding and optimisation process is another. In my view, it takes a ballance between these parts, to make things interesting to take part in or simply to follow. Personally I find the combination of these processes to be the most instructive and inspiring thing. And Your videos has a good (and addictive, I might add) ballance between these phases 🙂
@m1geo 5 місяців тому
The game engine at the end is absolutely excellent! Very, very impressive! 👌
@weirdboyjim 5 місяців тому
Thanks George! It's going to be a lot of work to turn it into something playable!
@m1geo 5 місяців тому
@@weirdboyjim I'd be keen if you were to make some software videos, too. Perhaps at a high level. I love the magic at the boundary between software/hardware.
@el_es 4 місяці тому
Your technique of holding the turned pin sockets upright is totally legit.(I would have not hesitated using enough solder actually, to let it flow through the entire plated hole to the other side, there's nothing wrong with that. Apart from you might need slightly hotter iron. But props for the soldering skills :) )
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
I'm still looking for the best way to do that! I want to try a 3d printed holder.
@HeadCodeMonkey82 4 місяці тому
Always worth the wait to see the progress you are making on the build, can't wait to see where it goes!
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
Thanks! Glad you are enjoying!
@nahkamursu 4 місяці тому
Thank you James and have nice christmas, these videos are such a pleasure to watch and unwind from hectic day. I do hope you continue doing em even after all this is finished, like it's never gonna be ;D
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
Kind of you to say. Glad you are enjoying them!
@asd685 Місяць тому
to get the connectors to stay straight when soldering, plug them into male-male header rails, then stick them into one of your spare PCBs (just plug them in without soldering them) and stack the PCB you want to solder on top to make a PCB sandwich. stays put nicely especially if you have both vertical and horizontal connectors on the board as long as your holes aren't way too large.
@weirdboyjim Місяць тому
Yeah, I’ve done exactly this before but it is predicated on have a bunch of spare headers around.
@helmutzollner5496 4 місяці тому
Great progress! Glad to see you back.
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
Glad you are still enjoying it!
@Fuq_you 4 місяці тому
Seeing the disorganised and unnecessary interconnects be lifted away and out of frame after the new temporary PCB was installed was really quite satisfying. Seeing the VGA portion of the project be that messy must’ve been a massive burden. Also, massive congrats on 20K subs.
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
Indeed! And thank you! That number is difficult to visualize!
@TheGunnarRoxen 5 місяців тому
Congratulations on 20k subscribers, James!
@weirdboyjim 5 місяців тому
Thank you very much!
@wadowicegwadowiceg8093 4 місяці тому
That Was very satisfying. Congratulations, I enjoyed your progress.
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
Glad you enjoyed it!
@byteforever7829 4 місяці тому
Awesome, that must be so rewarding to get working
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
It really is!
@FrankGevaerts 5 місяців тому
It's always good to leave something to debug to keep the video interesting, and having it easy to fix is definitely a bonus! :)
@weirdboyjim 5 місяців тому
Oh, Conspiracy theory _"I can actually do perfect design but introduce simple mistakes to make for more interesting videos"_ . I wish 😅
@FrankGevaerts 5 місяців тому
@@weirdboyjim Conspiracy theories are the most fun! :) But yes, I know, and you've had plenty of things in the videos that were more involved than that.
@RoamingAdhocrat 4 місяці тому
you've reinvented the desktop PC! now to build a desk with a transparent desktop, which you can mount your PC underneath ;)
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
I've actually been thinking more along the lines of a wall mount for this one!
@renaissanceman5847 4 місяці тому
Biggest VGA card even by 1990s standards... and I absolutely love it!
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
Only a few more modules left to put in it!
@vitormoreno1244 4 місяці тому
The game at the end is very nostalgic, reminds me of Wolfenstein of the 80's. Nice work
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
That's the idea, not sure how close to a full game I'll get it.
@rauljvila 4 місяці тому
This feels like the hardware equivalent of a clean-up refactor. Very interesting, as always! And that Wolfenstein 3D demo.. so promising!
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
Pretty much! I think if I didn't put effort into keeping this tidy it would run away from me!
@khatharrmalkavian3306 4 місяці тому
Nice! That FPS is coming along well too. I'm interested to see how that goes.
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
Thanks! It's tough to share my time out between all the things I'm trying to get done.
@andymouse 4 місяці тому
Awesome !...cheers.
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
Thanks andymouse!
@JaenEngineering 4 місяці тому
A good rip for keeping those sockets straight, attach them to their corresponding pins before soldering.
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
You mean use the finished modules? That would work but I worry about damaging the modules.
@GameBacardi 4 місяці тому
Amazing
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
Thank you! Cheers!
@sjwatt 4 місяці тому
Oh wow, a reversed connector, I’ve been there before😂. Now I go to the extra effort to put numbers on my silkscreen templates
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
That's probably the smart thing to do. I kicked myself for the mistake, and kicked myself for not finding it quicker.
@derekjc777 5 місяців тому
Very inconvenient indeed! Most people would say a pain in effin' arse!
@weirdboyjim 5 місяців тому
It takes a little persistence to get past some of the bumps in the road
@GeorgeFoot 4 місяці тому
Nice work, much tidier! You'd hate to see my latest concoction though, wires everywhere... My sister-in-law said it looked like sewing!
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
Thanks George! I shall look forwards to seeing your latest concoction!
@GeorgeFoot 4 місяці тому
@weirdboyjim Ah this isn't necessarily for a video, but we'll see!
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
@@GeorgeFoot If nobody sees it, can it really be considered messy?
@maskloy 4 місяці тому
excellent
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
Thanks!
@OscarSommerbo 4 місяці тому
As for soldering in headers. Tack one pin in the middle, not caring too much about how straight it is. Hold the board in your offhand, index finger on the connector, melt the solder of the tacked pin. Now you will easily feel when the connector is fully seated and square. Let the tack cool down, then just solder in the rest of the pins. This is of course very hard with two pin connectors.
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
That's pretty much what I've been doing. Doesn't really matter which pin you tack though.
@TroySchrapel 5 місяців тому
Very nice, James. Is that your face in the doomed demo? Also, congrats on the 20K. It doesn't seem that long ago you celebrated 1024 subs!
@weirdboyjim 5 місяців тому
Ha! Yes it is. I started out with the classic doom guy but I though it would be funnier to do that.
@TroySchrapel 5 місяців тому
@@weirdboyjim you were right.
@andrewwatts1997 4 місяці тому
I wonder at the end of this ride, to what retro game console your system would be comparable too. I would love to see this come out as a computer kit some day aswell!
@renaissanceman5847 4 місяці тому
despite it being only an 8 bit my guess is its capability could reach Nintendo 16 bit given the VGA and sound capabilities?
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
I'm looking forwards to writing some games. I'll hopefully be able to make some interesting stuff but I suspect it would take a long time to explore all the possibilities.
@mikafoxx2717 3 місяці тому
@renaissanceman5847 Well, there's not several layers with transparency and mode 7, nor is audio an autonomous second processor, so it's basically a super NES.. but not a SNES.
@tinygriffy 4 місяці тому
5:00 true true ^^
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
I know! I recently fully hand routed a similar board you'll see in the future so I know how much effort it's going to take to a good job of this one.
@tinygriffy 4 місяці тому
@@weirdboyjim it is impressive though.. my first and last attempts with auto-routers are 5 years ago, it was so ugly and didn't complete all nets so that I decided to put the brain power into it, with nice power planes and as equal trace length as possible with no strange angles, nice copper fill and so on .. I decided then it is well worth the time to route a board with gray matter instead of silicone and never bothered an auto-router again.. but it is nice to know that it works when in a hurry and aesthetic is not required ;)
@Stabby666 4 місяці тому
If you decide to make this into a kit, it'd be nice to have the option to connect the different sections as vertical cards into a backplane, like PC slots. Maybe convertor boards from the existing boards that break out the connections to edge-connectors? Just so people could build smaller cases around it maybe? I guess anyone could really do that part, with the schematics!
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
My goal here is very much to create a display piece for people to understand the inner workings. You could make it much more dense in the way you describe. I'd probably design larger modules with more functionality on each though.
@rimmersbryggeri 4 місяці тому
I thill think it would be easier to hold the pin headers in with ca gel while soldering than faffing around with the boards. or possibly put the pin headers on the excisting modules and lay the backplane on top, that way they wil fit even if they dont look perfect.
@renaissanceman5847 4 місяці тому
I always just use masking tape to hold through hole components.... works well enough
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
I worry about using the existing modules as physical support.
@rimmersbryggeri 4 місяці тому
@@weirdboyjim That seem reasonable. Teh might melt pretty readily.
@ffsireallydontcare 4 місяці тому
The VGA circuits need more LEDs! And more cowbell!
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
I'll see what I can do about the Led's, most things on there would just change too fast to have value.
@ffsireallydontcare 4 місяці тому
@@weirdboyjim Yes good point, it's not exactly something you can step through is it..
@AJB2K3 4 місяці тому
This is Jam Hot!
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
Friends tell me I am crazy That I'm wasting time
@AJB2K3 4 місяці тому
@@weirdboyjim I bet you had to google it because its so old
@weirdboyjim 4 місяці тому
@@AJB2K3 Well, I'm definitely not old enough to remember it. Not me!
@peter.stimpel 5 місяців тому
Ah, halfway there to get a Doom clone running :) Now, let's count up to 40k ...
@weirdboyjim 5 місяців тому
Well the next big milestone to celebrate should be 2^15 surely?
@peter.stimpel 5 місяців тому
@@weirdboyjimTrue! You started odd celebrations at 20k ;)
@weirdboyjim 5 місяців тому
@@peter.stimpel I know some people see that as a round number.
@m1geo 5 місяців тому
That autorouter makes me sad. 😱
@weirdboyjim 5 місяців тому
Results were terrible, but temporary and working.
@m1geo 5 місяців тому
@@weirdboyjim Absolutely! It's so quick! And for this kind of design, that's fine! Just makes me cringe a little. But I don't blame you!
@AmauryJacquot 4 місяці тому
autorouters are always terrible. this is NOT a solved problem in computer science, by a long shot
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