microcat - The ultimative ARM based handheld game console

[DarkestEx]

I sadly have to announce that the project will be put on hold as we cannot continue at this point. This is only for the hardware side of things, the software (Claw and the OS) will still be actively developed during the hold phase.

This is not the death of the project, but we have come to a point where we can't continue until we have the financial power to do so.
We need another 300 Euros to continue at this point and our personal resources are currently exhausted. We already exhausted our budget of 500 Euros that we took from our own savings. Having no real income, reaching those 300 Euros will take time. Maybe half a year, maybe less. I personally can't save more than about 10 Euros a month and adekto won't be able to save much either.

If you want to support the project, we do accept donations (early donators will certainly be rewarded specially) or, what need even more, is help. There are many ways to help getting the project to life. If you happen to have a CNC machine or somebody who owns it and can cut some prototyping parts out of some plastic, or if you have a reflow oven and maybe even a pick and place machine, we would be glad if you could solder the early prototypes. If you happen to know something about switching power supplies or how to build a LiPo charger, we would love to know more about it.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

I'm sorry to hear. Is it due to cost overruns? I am glad that you still plan to finish the software or at least the Claw language, though. I hope Microcat lives on, and hopefully one day as an hardware too.

Good luck!

[DarkestEx]

I'm sorry to hear. Is it due to cost overruns? I am glad that you still plan to finish the software or at least the Claw language, though. I hope Microcat lives on, and hopefully one day as an hardware too.

Good luck!

Thanks
Well the issue is that we lack money and manpower.
We have so much work to do and so much money to pay, but with some help of either we could finish it. We are trying to get it to live under any circumstances but its pretty hard recently.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

What I don't get, though, is that a few months ago, you said that the entire projects and parts were funded already and you had pretty much all parts ordered or at home. So why even more money is now needed? Did you have to replace several parts?

[DarkestEx]

What I don't get, though, is that a few months ago, you said that the entire projects and parts were funded already and you had pretty much all parts ordered or at home. So why even more money is now needed? Did you have to replace several parts?

That was not really the problem. We always knew that we will come to the point that we have to design and build a PCB prototype. We have sadly reached this point. We never knew where we should take the money for the prototype and I really can't spent this much. The parts we bought already were only for the breadboard prototype alone.
After the PCB prototype is done and works, we are pretty much ready for getting it into production and doing the kickstarter.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Ok but I still don't get all of it. You told me a while ago that you received a lot of money from someone for this project (I forgot who). I didn't realize that the final cost would be in the thousands of euros in the end.

I see about the prototype, though. I thought that the breadboard parts could be re-used for a PCB prototype.

[DarkestEx]

Ok but I still don't get all of it. You told me a while ago that you received a lot of money from someone for this project (I forgot who). I didn't realize that the final cost would be in the thousands of euros in the end.

I see about the prototype, though. I thought that the breadboard parts could be re-used for a PCB prototype.

Actually not. I got a comparatively small donation from p4nix (it was really awesome of him, but sadly certainly not enough to fund the prototype though it is certainly a good step in the right direction ). The big amount of money is needed for mass production but now we need money to do the prototype.

About the parts, we cannot reuse them.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Ah I see now. I hope at one point you can get enough money to continue (and won't end up getting it when they decide to increase the price of parts)

[DarkestEx]

Great news everybody! I will be resuming development on the microcat platform and we will be starting with the PCB side of things at some point too. Before that, I will have to clear some things up: So first we still lack the required money to do the PCB prototypes and we still have no licence for eagle (and the knowledge for it or KiCad).

We were thinking of doing a smaller, alternative to the gaming microcat which is more IoT friendly. It will not have a display, buttons and a LiPo, but it will have the audio amplifier, wifi, sd card and the same processor. This way programs will stay compatible if needed between the microcat and the smaller IoT board. They will also run the same OS.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Interesting, but will it work on a TV or PC monitor?

And will Claw remain?

[DarkestEx]

Interesting, but will it work on a TV or PC monitor?

And will Claw remain?

Well, theoretically it is possible to hook it up to VGA monitor with some special adapter and we might sell one eventually.

And yes, Claw will remain; C won't.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Ideally, if your console loses its screen, then it would be better to not require the use of a proprietary screen or one specific screen. It would be better in such case to make it like home consoles, where you need a TV or a standard LCD monitor. I don't mind if it doesn't support HDMI nor composite if it means lowering the costs, but of course it depends if newer TVs still offers old connections.

If the Playstation 3 for example only worked on the PS TV that they were selling for a while in game stores, then I bet that almost no one would have bought it and would have instead went with the Xbox 360 at the time.

On a side note, I wonder if it would be expensive to make such console shaped like a ?

[Vogtinator]

we still have no licence for eagle (and the knowledge for it or KiCad).

For such a (relatively) small product, eagle is not really necessary. You should really go for KiCad, which is a good alternative that does everything you want to and it is actually easier to work with than eagle.

[DarkestEx]

Ideally, if your console loses its screen, then it would be better to not require the use of a proprietary screen or one specific screen. It would be better in such case to make it like home consoles, where you need a TV or a standard LCD monitor. I don't mind if it doesn't support HDMI nor composite if it means lowering the costs, but of course it depends if newer TVs still offers old connections.

If the Playstation 3 for example only worked on the PS TV that they were selling for a while in game stores, then I bet that almost no one would have bought it and would have instead went with the Xbox 360 at the time.

On a side note, I wonder if it would be expensive to make such console shaped like a ?

No you totally misunderstood. We want to make two seperate products based on the same chip set. We want to start with TBS IoT module first as it's easier and cheaper to develop and get to the console later. The IoT module has no buttons, no screen, no sound and no battery, but it will have aa webserver and a Claw based CGI. It will allow multi tasking (multiple connections at once and a background process that has nothing to do with the webserver.
The real console will of course have a screen and everything that we decided earlier.

Yes it would be very expensive and add a lot of work
But putting a small walrus on the silkscreen would be very easy and free.

we still have no licence for eagle (and the knowledge for it or KiCad).

For such a (relatively) small product, eagle is not really necessary. You should really go for KiCad, which is a good alternative that does everything you want to and it is actually easier to work with than eagle.

Yes, but I don't like kicad. adding parts is so hard. Also getting the footprint right will be hard too.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Oh I see now. I thought you were ditching the original portable console idea and switching to something closer to the OUYA.