Atom Video to HDMI Adapter

[hoglet]

I would very much like a pair of these. Can the surface mount be achieved with a big standard Maplin solder station? I'm generally pretty crap at soldering...

Can you post a photo of the soldering iron tip?

I do most of my surface mount work with a 2mm bevel tip:
https://www.hakko.co.uk/t18-c2-bevel-ti ... -t-2c.html

This works great for drag soldering the CPLDs.

Dave

[thecellartroll]

These are the tips I have to choose from.

[hoglet]

These are the tips I have to choose from.

It's a little hard to tell from the photo, but they both look like a rounded cone shape.

I think you will struggle to drag solder with those.

You really need a bit with some flat surface:

Dave

[thecellartroll]

You are correct. Both tips are rounded at the end and the same all the way round

[John Ferguson]

Some information about the assembly from Dave

How to know which way round the cable to PL4 should be fitted.

If I get it wrong I take it the interface is a right off.
Yes, you don't want to get that wrong.

The cable needs to be such that Pin 1 of J11 connects to Pin 1 of PL4 on the Atom:
- Pin 1 of J11 is the square pad.
- Pin 1 of PL4 on the Atom is identified by a dot on the silk screen, as the end closer to the regulators.

Once connected, but before applying power, use a multi meter on the low resistance range to verify that 0V on the Atom PCB is directly connected to GND on the HDMI convertor. The are a couple of pads labelled GND that you can use for this purpose. The resistance should read <3 ohms. If it doesn't, then something is wrong and you SHOULD NOT APPLY POWER.

There are also the switches and pots. Do I need to touch them?
You will need to adjust RV1 to get a picture. At one extreme, everything will be black, At the other, everything will be green. Somewhere in the middle will be a point where you see the ACORN ATOM prompt.

RV2 is not critical.

The three push button switches operate a menu system. You'll need to use this at some point to optimise the settings for your monitor and your Atom.

There are instructions here:
https://github.com/hoglet67/RGBtoHDMI/w ... tart-Guide

But you should get a picture without needed to use the Menu.

What's the make/model of your monitor?

Which switch is the reset one?
SW4, the right-angle one.

Dave

[John Ferguson]

Dave

When I click on the link for the instructions I get error 404.

John

[oss003]

https://github.com/hoglet67/RGBtoHDMI/wiki

[BigEd]

Probably this particular page: Quick Start Guide

[John Ferguson]

Dave

I have to confess that I went crashing ahead and installed the HDMI interface and got the connection to PL4 the wrong way round. So I have to accept that it’s a right off.

I cant bring myself to make another one so the board will remain in my abandoned hardware box.

They say you learn by your mistakes and that’s why I reluctantly have to fade out from this project.

If someone has a working one that wants to sell it I would be interested. Some hope.

John

[hoglet]

I have to confess that I went crashing ahead and installed the HDMI interface and got the connection to PL4 the wrong way round. So I have to accept that it’s a right off.

I've just checked the schematic, and it you might be lucky. A reversal of PL4 would connect +5V to pin 9 (it was pin 2). This pin is connected to a DC blocking capacitor (C1) so not a lot of current will flow.

So it may actually be OK.

How long was it power on for?

Have you actually tried it the right way around?

Dave

[John Ferguson]

Dave

Sounds as though I might be lucky. It was installed wrongly for only a short time. On seeing no signal I tried it the other way to no effect. I take it the leds should light up if you get it right.

There was damage to the Atom which needed the 8255 and the 6847 chips being replaced.

I will follow your advice later as I have removed the cable.

Thanks. John

[John Ferguson]

Dave

Sounds as though I might be lucky. It was installed wrongly for only a short time. On seeing no signal I tried it the other way to no effect. I take it the leds should light up if you get it right.

There was damage to the Atom which needed the 8255 and the 6847 chips being replaced.

I will follow your advice later as I have removed the cable.

Thanks. John

Dave

Having made sure the ground connection to the Atom was correct as you advised I connected the interface again to the Atom but no HDMI signal was the result.

I have come to the conclusion that the board is damaged so it has to be abandoned.

John

[hoglet]

I have come to the conclusion that the board is damaged so it has to be abandoned.

I'm sorry this hasn't been a positive experience for you John.

I would be happy to take a look at the board for you, if you would like to post me the HDMI PCB, the Pi Zero and the SD Card.

Nothing is beyond repair in the Atom world!

Dave

[John Ferguson]

I have come to the conclusion that the board is damaged so it has to be abandoned.

I'm sorry this hasn't been a positive experience for you John.

I would be happy to take a look at the board for you, if you would like to post me the HDMI PCB, the Pi Zero and the SD Card.

Nothing is beyond repair in the Atom world!

Dave

Dave

I love your optimism. I am happy to take up your kind offer. I am not aware of an SD card.

Please can you let me have your address?

John

[hoglet]

I love your optimism. I am happy to take up your kind offer.

OK, but before that....

I am not aware of an SD card.

John, I really don't understand this comment.

Most of the work in RGBtoHDMI is done with Rasberry Pi Zero running our custom software. You need to install that software, by unzipping it onto a Micro SD card, and putting that in the Pi Zero. That's what the Quick Start Guide covers.

Have you actually done this step, and put the SD Card into the slot in the Pi Zero?

Without a SD Card, the Pi will not boot, and you'll not get any HDMI output.

Dave

[John Ferguson]

I love your optimism. I am happy to take up your kind offer.

OK, but before that....

I am not aware of an SD card.

John, I really don't understand this comment.

Most of the work in RGBtoHDMI is done with Rasberry Pi Zero running our custom software. You need to install that software, by unzipping it onto a Micro SD card, and putting that in the Pi Zero. That's what the Quick Start Guide covers.

Have you actually done this step, and put the SD Card into the slot in the Pi Zero?

Without a SD Card, the Pi will not boot, and you'll not get any HDMI output.

Dave

Dave

I have found the SD card in my box of components I ordered at the start and failed to fit it or install any software.

Shall I go ahead with this or ship the whole thing to you?

John

[hoglet]

I have found the SD card in my box of components I ordered at the start and failed to fit it or install any software.

Shall I go ahead with this or ship the whole thing to you?

Please do give it a try.

Here's a direct link to the ZIP file:
https://github.com/hoglet67/RGBtoHDMI/r ... 19df1c.zip

You need to unzip this onto the SD Card.

Let's see if that gets you any further.

Dave

[John Ferguson]

I have found the SD card in my box of components I ordered at the start and failed to fit it or install any software.

Shall I go ahead with this or ship the whole thing to you?

Please do give it a try.

Here's a direct link to the ZIP file:
https://github.com/hoglet67/RGBtoHDMI/r ... 19df1c.zip

You need to unzip this onto the SD Card.

Let's see if that gets you any further.

Dave

I will give it a try.

John

[John Ferguson]

I have found the SD card in my box of components I ordered at the start and failed to fit it or install any software.

Shall I go ahead with this or ship the whole thing to you?

Please do give it a try.

Here's a direct link to the ZIP file:
https://github.com/hoglet67/RGBtoHDMI/r ... 19df1c.zip

You need to unzip this onto the SD Card.

Let's see if that gets you any further.

Dave

I will give it a try.

John

Dave

I extracted the files to the SD card but I see there are some folders. Is this okay?

John

[hoglet]

I extracted the files to the SD card but I see there are some folders. Is this okay?

Yes, it's expected. In the root of your SD card you should end up three folders (Profiles, Resolutions and cpld_firmware), plus about 15-20 other files.

Don't move or rename any of the files!

Dave

[John Ferguson]

I extracted the files to the SD card but I see there are some folders. Is this okay?

Yes, it's expected. In the root of your SD card you should end up three folders (Profiles, Resolutions and cpld_firmware), plus about 15-20 other files.

Don't move or rename any of the files!

Dave

Yes it is as you say.

John

[John Ferguson]

I extracted the files to the SD card but I see there are some folders. Is this okay?

Yes, it's expected. In the root of your SD card you should end up three folders (Profiles, Resolutions and cpld_firmware), plus about 15-20 other files.

Don't move or rename any of the files!

Dave

Yes it is as you say.

John

Dave

The good news is that the interface is working normally after the auto configuration.

What a fantastic quality display you have achieved.

I could not be more happy now I have your noise killer board and Roland's Yarrb. The Atom is reinvented.

These are wonderful achivements.

Regards

John

[John Ferguson]

Yes, it's expected. In the root of your SD card you should end up three folders (Profiles, Resolutions and cpld_firmware), plus about 15-20 other files.

Don't move or rename any of the files!

Dave

Yes it is as you say.

John

Dave

The good news is that the interface is working normally after the auto configuration.

What a fantastic quality display you have achieved.

I could not be more happy now I have your noise killer board and Roland's Yarrb. The Atom is reinvented.

These are wonderful achivements.

Regards

John

Dave

Some photos of the display.

John

[hoglet]

Well done John for persevering!

Dave

[roland]

John and Dave, well done!

I guess that John now almost knows every in and out of the Atom

[thecellartroll]

Now I have a new soldering iron, a hot air blowing doobery and a bucket of solder paste, could I please order a pair of boards if any are left?

[hoglet]

Now I have a new soldering iron, a hot air blowing doobery and a bucket of solder paste, could I please order a pair of boards if any are left?

PM sent....

[cjm]

How do you get blues and oranges form an Atom as shown in the first post? (reproduced below)

My Atom and the Atomulator only seem to have 4 colours; green, yellow, red and black in mode 0. Is there another text mode?

capture0.png (34.83 KiB) Viewed 3920 times

[hoglet]

My Atom and the Atomulator only seem to have 4 colours; green, yellow, red and black in mode 0. Is there another text mode?

Yes, there is a second set of colours.

To select them:

Code: Select all

?#B002=8

To get both on the screen at once, you need to switch colour sets rapidy, in sync with the screen refresh.

There's a program (COLOUR TEST 1) in the Software Archive to do this:

Code: Select all

   10 GOSUB a
   20 FOR A=#8000 TO #81FF
   30 ?A=A
   40 NEXT
   50 LINK LL0
   60aP=#2800
   70 DIM LL10
   80[
   90:LL0
  100 JSR #FE66
  110 LDA #B002
  120 AND @#F7
  130 STA #B002
  140 LDX @9
  150 LDY @55
  160:LL1
  170 DEY
  180 BNE LL1
  190 DEX
  200 BNE LL1
  210 LDA #B002
  220 ORA @#08
  230 STA #B002
  240 JMP LL0
  250]
  260 RETURN

Dave

[cjm]

Clever