Pluggy Reloaded

Using, learning, programming and modding the Gigatron and anything related.
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norgate
Posts: 50
Joined: 20 Oct 2019, 16:50

Re: Pluggy Reloaded

Post by norgate »

I have now 3D printed a case for the device, that works quite well. All connectors and the reset button are still accessible. Won't be offering this case with the remaining units though, since my 3D printer always requires a lot of convincing and babysitting :D

@Marcel you'll still get yours, don't worry!

case3.jpg
case3.jpg (168.1 KiB) Viewed 7617 times
case2.jpg
case2.jpg (178.51 KiB) Viewed 7617 times
case1.jpg
case1.jpg (181.67 KiB) Viewed 7617 times
norgate
Posts: 50
Joined: 20 Oct 2019, 16:50

Re: Pluggy Reloaded

Post by norgate »

Hey all,

I'm sold out of boards! Thanks to everyone who has bought one!
If you still want one, but don't want to source the parts yourself, I'll start a waiting list.
If I get ten more potential buyers I'll order a second batch of components.

I have also now set up a git repository for Pluggy Reloaded with the PCB and case design files:
https://github.com/pkupper/pluggyreloaded

My BabelFish fork for flashing the promicro is available here:
https://github.com/pkupper/gigatron-rom

To the buyers: I'd love to see the your assembled boards ;)
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marcelk
Posts: 488
Joined: 13 May 2018, 08:26

Re: Pluggy Reloaded

Post by marcelk »

Mine arrived today. I couldn't postpone the build until the weekend, so here we are. It works! Great job!

First test
First test
PluggyReloaded.jpeg (238.22 KiB) Viewed 7560 times

I decided to have the female connector for the breakouts, so I desoldered the pins from the SDC board and swapped connectors. That took most of the build time. Heating up the soldering iron comes in second place, it's that easy. You only have to be watchful with the D-SUB connectors. And when programming the board, to select the 5V config.

P.S.: I haven't studied the BabelFish changes yet, and may not have time until the end of the year. May I suggest to bundle it all in Contrib/pkupper/.. and offer a pull request to the main repo? (Or if the changes are minor and don't affect the other configurations, offer it directly...)
norgate
Posts: 50
Joined: 20 Oct 2019, 16:50

Re: Pluggy Reloaded

Post by norgate »

That's amazing! I'm glad it works! :D

Regarding the code: I wouldn't call my changes major, but I'll put it in Contrib first anyway until you get a chance to review.

Here's an overview of the changes I made to Babelfish:
  • Adding support for the Pro Micro
  • Adding support for program transfer from an SD card using the Arduino SD library. This comprises:
    - A new command "J" for listing the SD card contents (for now just the root folder)
    - A new command "K<filename>" for transferring an object file from the SD card
    - Initialization of the SD card
    - A function for transferring a file from the SD card
    - Restructuring the doTransfer() function to work with more data sources than EEPROM or Serial
  • Moving the static strings to progmem where possible using the handy builtin F() macro to reduce SRAM usage
Edit: @Marcel Thanks for the Twitter shoutout btw
brian
Posts: 7
Joined: 17 Dec 2019, 08:03

Re: Pluggy Reloaded

Post by brian »

Gents,

Have built my unit (almost identical to yours Marcel) but now having difficulty getting it to work! :cry:

Basically I am a hardware guy so my software knowledge is rather limited so please bear with me if what I am doing is completely wrong.

When I try to flash the Pro Micro using the babelfish.ino sketch as extracted from the Gihub download we just get compiler errors and thus can not verify. Similarly we get the same errors if we try PS2.ino from the same source.

The board type and COM port is correct and I am able to download other sketches to the Pro Micro which all work so I believe the Pro Micro is OK.

Have tried another Pro Micro which produces the same results.

Since your units all work it must be something that I am doing wrong.

A few pointers to where I could be going wrong would be appreciated.
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marcelk
Posts: 488
Joined: 13 May 2018, 08:26

Re: Pluggy Reloaded

Post by marcelk »

Here's a screenshot of the settings I used on my Macbook. I used norgate's own GitHub repo, opening BabelFish.ino as the project (PS2.ino is only a module for that sketch, it gets included automatically). It worked first time, and I don't recall specific compiler warnings, or any excess of them. Hope that helps...

Arduino IDE.png
Arduino IDE.png (130.97 KiB) Viewed 7441 times
norgate
Posts: 50
Joined: 20 Oct 2019, 16:50

Re: Pluggy Reloaded

Post by norgate »

I'm sorry to hear you're having issues.

Here's a couple of guesses what the problem could be:

- You haven't installed the SD card library (which you can do through Tools>Manage Libraries in the Arduino IDE)
- You haven't installed the Pro Micro Board Addon for the Arduino IDE (instructions can be found here: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/pr ... boardaddon)
- The "Board" and "Processor" settings under "Tools" are set incorrectly (Marcels screenshot shows the correct settings)
- You are trying to use the mainline version of BabelFish which doesn't support the Pro Micro. Make sure you use the one from my gigatron-rom repository or the one in the Contrib folder of the official repo

If this doesn't solve the issue please post your compiler output here, and I'll see what I can do. Preferably with the "Show verbose output" option enabled in the Arduino IDE preferences.

When I get to it, I'll write some instructions for both assembly and firmware flashing.
jbailey
Posts: 28
Joined: 20 Nov 2018, 08:54

Re: Pluggy Reloaded

Post by jbailey »

In addition to the advice mentioned above, are you getting errors on one of the "include xxx.h" lines? If so make sure you put all of the other files from the \BabelFish directory into your same project folder. This code also makes use of some of the code base from the original Pluggy McPlug Face.

The include files cause the complier to include and embed the code from these .h files into the code your are trying to compile.
jbailey
Posts: 28
Joined: 20 Nov 2018, 08:54

Re: Pluggy Reloaded

Post by jbailey »

I built and flashed two of the Pluggy Reloaded kits (picture below), and they worked on the first attempt. This is a very nice upgrade to the Pluggy family, thank you for making this available. Next up is to 3D print the case :D

Image
Attachments
BE36BD3C-CE92-4778-AA04-6E3680821A79_1_201_a.jpeg
BE36BD3C-CE92-4778-AA04-6E3680821A79_1_201_a.jpeg (802.95 KiB) Viewed 7348 times
norgate
Posts: 50
Joined: 20 Oct 2019, 16:50

Re: Pluggy Reloaded

Post by norgate »

Very nice too see another board in action! :D
Just a reminder: I'm still taking reservations for the next batch. Just a couple more and I will order the components.
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