Very pleased you had good time with it (besides the confusion caused by the issue with your VIC-20 haha)! It was fun, if a huge learning experience, to put this together for myself, and I'm pleased I could help someone else in the process. Especially for charity! For anyone curious to build this themselves, this is specifically the "Rev 11" version of the board. There's a slightly earlier revision which seems a bit more prioritised in searches, but Rev 11 appeared to be the last version developed, and certainly the last version officially sold by SkydivinGirl, with several fixes incorporated! Also, I admittedly hadn't looked very close at the loader files; they do look a bit complex, yes. I'm sure I'll give them a better look sometime, and figure them out. But from what I can glean from a cursory read of the manual, they're ONLY necessary for disk files, and perform a similar function to what the flash memory does for cartridge games. And it doesn't seem like disks were particularly prevalent with the VIC-20 anyway (but did exist, for sure). Certainly for games. Plenty on cartridges, or with a Tapuino to help, tape! And, referring to what you say at 35:50, interestingly the version of the Ultimate Expansion firmware I downloaded seems to be even more recent, as it's 1.8p, and it has an additional "Navigator" option on F2, which does seem to just let you look directly over the files you have on the SD card, without needing to do anything with loader files (I presume doing anything with them needs the relevant tool, but it'd be convenient to quickly check whether you have that one game on it or if you need to take the card over to your PC :P) Edit: looks like V1.8p can be found on the second page of the Denial thread for the Ultimate Expansion firmware, on an innocuous post which is replying to someone about version 1.5 and appearing as though it will be such. But it seems to be some kind of dynamic link or file, and should be 1.8! (And also, maybe I should have mentioned that I'm a girl xP) A few more little notes: 8:15 - Those are certainly 1/4W resistors, haha! Just happened to be compact ones (TE Connectivity CFR16J3K3). But you clearly had enough of your own xP 11:16 - I don't think it matters too much if those two pins of the SD card slot are bridged; it seems to me to just be the "lock" mechanism, so if they were bridged, it would just mean the "lock" tab wouldn't make the card read-only. But I don't think the FE3 even writes to the SD card, certainly not in such a major way to worry about it, haha. But proper operation is always preferable, yeah :P 14:40 - I remember coming across some mention of what the jumpers do, but I can't find it again. I'll edit this part if I do. 15:13 - As far as I can tell, there's no difference between the IEC ports, so they don't have specific uses; I've been using the right-hand-side one myself :P 18:50 - I could have done with including a link to where I got OpenOCD from!! It took me quite a bit of digging too. Apologies for that, hahaha! At least the rest of those instructions got it done for you! 24:38 - I found the screw secured the board much better with a second washer, so I included another two heh :P 36:48 - That's a cool demo, gotta check it out for myself now! Another fun video Glen, cheers! Here's hoping you can figure out the issue with your VIC-20, and I'm looking forward to seeing the charity VIC-20 getting fixed next! 😁
thats awesome glenn! that was tough ...but your tenacious and you find a way! i like the vic 20 and i am glad that you got the final expansion to work! now demos and games! thats a winner in my book!!
Shoving an improperly formatted SD card with modern videogames on it to a commodore64 has to be like kidnapping a frog and explaining how to code Java to it 😂
I could not stop watching! Waiting for when the penny dropped and you found the two mistakes! Brilliant video again Glen, you are really honing your craft now.
Very kind of you to say so Lee. Few mistakes in this one and a bit of frustration chasing a fault were it didn't exist but got there in the end and they are fantastic carts. Hopefully be a great addition to the charity.
The display's varying brightness is possibly due to one of the capacitors in the video circuit being flakey or dirty variable resistor(s). As @LeftoverBeefcake mentions elsewhere, it could be the trimmer capacitor, but I usually associate that with mangled colour or image instability.
It's scary to think the cartridge is multitudes more powerful than the VIC its plugged into. That's like an 18 wheeler pushing a 6 year old on a tricycle.... And don't get me wrong, I love the VIC20, it was my first computer as a child to which I have very fond memories. I'm just pointing out how technology has jumped in that time span.
Suppose it could just be something that simple. For all it costs I should just recap my VIC20 as if nothing else it does also seem to help the picture quality too.
I've had a bad UB4 before and it caused the diagnostic harness test to fail. Don't think I even tried my sd2iec before replacing it but I imagine it would have caused similar issues
I never had a VIC20, my mate's little brother did, but I got a C64 and felt superior.... :o Ref your build though, it does leave a lot to be desired that these README files give the right and full info on what to do... most users would get lost.
Do you mean the manual for the cart? I have to agree that it is fairly complex. Looking over what is required for the loader files for example, I think it would be a bit of a learning curve for me or anyone unfamiliar with the VIC.
That's strange, try this link discord.gg/ApVwe2Ax which should take you directly to the welcome room. The bot requires you to agree to the rules before granting access to the rest of the place but its nothing out of the ordinary.
RFLMAO yeah I was getting triggered there The SD card slot with the one pin floating got me though, I mean, how hard is it to put a pad going nowhere on a PCB ... Oh and before I forget, there are 1/4w in that tiny form factor now, somehow
The video problems could be down to a bad trimmer capacitor near the VIC chip... I have a VIC with the 2-prong power port and PET/Eurostile font on the keycaps, and one of the trimcaps is bad which makes the screen garbled/unstable. Just wish I knew which value I needed to replace it. :P
Very pleased you had good time with it (besides the confusion caused by the issue with your VIC-20 haha)! It was fun, if a huge learning experience, to put this together for myself, and I'm pleased I could help someone else in the process. Especially for charity!
For anyone curious to build this themselves, this is specifically the "Rev 11" version of the board. There's a slightly earlier revision which seems a bit more prioritised in searches, but Rev 11 appeared to be the last version developed, and certainly the last version officially sold by SkydivinGirl, with several fixes incorporated!
Also, I admittedly hadn't looked very close at the loader files; they do look a bit complex, yes. I'm sure I'll give them a better look sometime, and figure them out. But from what I can glean from a cursory read of the manual, they're ONLY necessary for disk files, and perform a similar function to what the flash memory does for cartridge games. And it doesn't seem like disks were particularly prevalent with the VIC-20 anyway (but did exist, for sure). Certainly for games. Plenty on cartridges, or with a Tapuino to help, tape! And, referring to what you say at 35:50, interestingly the version of the Ultimate Expansion firmware I downloaded seems to be even more recent, as it's 1.8p, and it has an additional "Navigator" option on F2, which does seem to just let you look directly over the files you have on the SD card, without needing to do anything with loader files (I presume doing anything with them needs the relevant tool, but it'd be convenient to quickly check whether you have that one game on it or if you need to take the card over to your PC :P)
Edit: looks like V1.8p can be found on the second page of the Denial thread for the Ultimate Expansion firmware, on an innocuous post which is replying to someone about version 1.5 and appearing as though it will be such. But it seems to be some kind of dynamic link or file, and should be 1.8!
(And also, maybe I should have mentioned that I'm a girl xP)
A few more little notes:
8:15 - Those are certainly 1/4W resistors, haha! Just happened to be compact ones (TE Connectivity CFR16J3K3). But you clearly had enough of your own xP
11:16 - I don't think it matters too much if those two pins of the SD card slot are bridged; it seems to me to just be the "lock" mechanism, so if they were bridged, it would just mean the "lock" tab wouldn't make the card read-only. But I don't think the FE3 even writes to the SD card, certainly not in such a major way to worry about it, haha. But proper operation is always preferable, yeah :P
14:40 - I remember coming across some mention of what the jumpers do, but I can't find it again. I'll edit this part if I do.
15:13 - As far as I can tell, there's no difference between the IEC ports, so they don't have specific uses; I've been using the right-hand-side one myself :P
18:50 - I could have done with including a link to where I got OpenOCD from!! It took me quite a bit of digging too. Apologies for that, hahaha! At least the rest of those instructions got it done for you!
24:38 - I found the screw secured the board much better with a second washer, so I included another two heh :P
36:48 - That's a cool demo, gotta check it out for myself now!
Another fun video Glen, cheers! Here's hoping you can figure out the issue with your VIC-20, and I'm looking forward to seeing the charity VIC-20 getting fixed next! 😁
thats awesome glenn! that was tough ...but your tenacious and you find a way! i like the vic 20 and i am glad that you got the final expansion to work! now demos and games! thats a winner in my book!!
Shoving an improperly formatted SD card with modern videogames on it to a commodore64 has to be like kidnapping a frog and explaining how to code Java to it 😂
I thought you were going to follow through with that resistor.
Tense moment there.
My eye is still twitching. .. . ...
I could not stop watching! Waiting for when the penny dropped and you found the two mistakes! Brilliant video again Glen, you are really honing your craft now.
Very kind of you to say so Lee. Few mistakes in this one and a bit of frustration chasing a fault were it didn't exist but got there in the end and they are fantastic carts. Hopefully be a great addition to the charity.
My OCD was about to go into overdrive, you saved me at the last moment with that final resistor!
The display's varying brightness is possibly due to one of the capacitors in the video circuit being flakey or dirty variable resistor(s). As @LeftoverBeefcake mentions elsewhere, it could be the trimmer capacitor, but I usually associate that with mangled colour or image instability.
It's scary to think the cartridge is multitudes more powerful than the VIC its plugged into. That's like an 18 wheeler pushing a 6 year old on a tricycle....
And don't get me wrong, I love the VIC20, it was my first computer as a child to which I have very fond memories. I'm just pointing out how technology has jumped
in that time span.
I heard there's an animation after level 256 of that Panicman. 😉
Give me a couple of hours and I'll tell you 😂
🙂 bit of a head scratcher on that board issue. Could it be something as simple as a failing capacitor that isn't delivering power correctly?
Suppose it could just be something that simple. For all it costs I should just recap my VIC20 as if nothing else it does also seem to help the picture quality too.
Awesome Video
I was this close to unsubscribing, when that 3rd resistor went in upside down... But crisis averted!
Just a little joke on my part, there is no way I could have slept that night if I had have put it in upside down.
I've had a bad UB4 before and it caused the diagnostic harness test to fail. Don't think I even tried my sd2iec before replacing it but I imagine it would have caused similar issues
Thank you for just going for it...and showing Nyan Cat. :)
I never had a VIC20, my mate's little brother did, but I got a C64 and felt superior.... :o
Ref your build though, it does leave a lot to be desired that these README files give the right and full info on what to do... most users would get lost.
Do you mean the manual for the cart? I have to agree that it is fairly complex. Looking over what is required for the loader files for example, I think it would be a bit of a learning curve for me or anyone unfamiliar with the VIC.
@@CRG yeah the manual, sorry, it was late and I was tired and made no sense 😂
Check out the new VIC-20 Super Serial card.
I wonder if using a smaller cone shaped tip on the soldering iron would help with the SMD components not having solder bridges?
Nice to have options, but this seems like a huge amount of bother compared to the Penultimate Cartridge.
Glenn, trying to join your discord but it’s not bring it up. All I get are the existing groups I’m already in 🤔🤔
That's strange, try this link discord.gg/ApVwe2Ax which should take you directly to the welcome room. The bot requires you to agree to the rules before granting access to the rest of the place but its nothing out of the ordinary.
RFLMAO yeah I was getting triggered there
The SD card slot with the one pin floating got me though, I mean, how hard is it to put a pad going nowhere on a PCB ...
Oh and before I forget, there are 1/4w in that tiny form factor now, somehow
The video problems could be down to a bad trimmer capacitor near the VIC chip... I have a VIC with the 2-prong power port and PET/Eurostile font on the keycaps, and one of the trimcaps is bad which makes the screen garbled/unstable. Just wish I knew which value I needed to replace it. :P
Can you not get the value of it from the schematics over on zimmers?
Looks like either a 20pf trimmer in parallel with a 15pf capacitor, or a 90pf trimmer. Don't get it too hot when soldering it in.
8:33 You're lucky... I was hovering over the unsubscribe button....
Its actually one of those things that annoys me when I'm watching other people build boards so just a little tongue in cheek joke on my part 😉
43:43 Isn't it called Patreons?
The website is called patreon but the people who kindly support me and other creators are referred to as patrons.
btw.. Discord link shows "Invite invalid" 👆
That's weird, I'll fix it now.
@@CRG Thanks, not sure if that fixed it or Discord was playing up. It just forced me to 2fa twice before it would let me in 😕
the vic 20 came out 1980 not 1982.
Yeah not sure where I got 82 from.