microcat - The ultimative ARM based handheld game console

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Ooh that's a nice upgrade actually. While it's not calc size it's closer to Gameboy size (it was 160x144) and if someone wants to port an old calc game directly he can simply use a black frame around the screen. 16 bit color draw seems cool as well, although 8 bits might be better since it's easier to create 8 bit files on the computer. Anyway I don't mind the price increase if it's not too much anyway.

On a side note, do you have a prototype in the works or will you have to restart from scratch due to the screen change?

[DarkestEx]

Ooh that's a nice upgrade actually. While it's not calc size it's closer to Gameboy size (it was 160x144) and if someone wants to port an old calc game directly he can simply use a black frame around the screen. 16 bit color draw seems cool as well, although 8 bits might be better since it's easier to create 8 bit files on the computer. Anyway I don't mind the price increase if it's not too much anyway.

On a side note, do you have a prototype in the works or will you have to restart from scratch due to the screen change?

Well first, I managed it to get rid of the price increase and I got rid of the directional stick. It is now 4 buttons.
Second, we have a new way how images are drawn. We have color palettes now. For the console we are using the full websafe color palette.
Following colors are in the palette:


Additionally to that the user can define 39 own 16 bit colors to that. The color 0xFF is transparent in sprites and black when used on the drawing buffer.
And for whom that is not enough can directly draw 8 or 16 bit RGB to the display. We will support 1 bpp and 8 bpp (palette) sprites, loaded from SD into RAM.

As said before, the price stays at 49,99 EUR (without shipping and taxes) and might even drop below that (maybe).
We are still doing this for non-profit, so we will make the price as fair as possible.

The backside of the unit is either 3D printed or laser cut. We will probably make two versions to choose from, where the 3D printed one is of course cheaper and always included.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Great palette. Glad you included some shades of gray, too ^.^

Can you 3D-print for cheap?

[DarkestEx]

Great palette. Glad you included some shades of gray, too ^.^

Can you 3D-print for cheap?

Great that you like it.

For the test unit, I ordered a new OLED for testing for 53 EUR from Mouser (half of it was just shipping).

We can print the case for 1-2 EUR. @adekto owns a 3D printer and gets the filliament for a good price.

[adekto]

i hope people dont mind the 3D prints, the plastic i use is PLA and probebly only limited colors

[DarkestEx]

i hope people dont mind the 3D prints, the plastic i use is PLA and probebly only limited colors

Well in case somebody doesn't like a 3D printed back, will be probably provide a laser cut back for a small extra fee.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Is there any kind of paint for plastic that won't peel off and still look professional? That could be a compromise for 3D-printed cases, but otherwise I don't mind unless my device is fluorescent pink

ALso I still hope that shipping fees won't eat too much of your money when ordering parts. Good luck.

[DarkestEx]

Is there any kind of paint for plastic that won't peel off and still look professional? That could be a compromise for 3D-printed cases, but otherwise I don't mind unless my device is fluorescent pink

ALso I still hope that shipping fees won't eat too much of your money when ordering parts. Good luck.

Well we thought about dark orange plastic on the back and the pcb visible on the front. The PCB will be black with white labels on the top. Also there will be no components on the top side of the PCB except for the buttons, the usb connector, the expanson port and the oled.

Also we made huge progress with the conversion tools. Any wave file can now be converted to Claw Audio and most of the image formats are working too.
We plan to offer following image formats:
- 1 bit per pixel (8 pixel per byte) micro palette / monochrome (foreground color selectable from big palette)
- 2 bit per pixel (4 pixel per byte) tiny palette (3 colors selectable from big palette)
- 4 bit per pixel (2 pixel per byte) palette (15 colors selectable from big palette)
- 8 bit per pixel big palette (217 predefined colors and 39 user selectable ones)

For audio, there is the claw audio format, which is essentially a riff wave based one.
It allows for mono audio, standard sample rates, 16 bit per sample, autor + comment + title metadata.

[novenary]

i hope people dont mind the 3D prints, the plastic i use is PLA and probebly only limited colors

Hmmm is it possible to use ABS instead ? PLA isn't the best for casing, especially if you're going to use screws to hold it together because it's too brittle.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Is there any kind of paint for plastic that won't peel off and still look professional? That could be a compromise for 3D-printed cases, but otherwise I don't mind unless my device is fluorescent pink

ALso I still hope that shipping fees won't eat too much of your money when ordering parts. Good luck.

Well we thought about dark orange plastic on the back and the pcb visible on the front. The PCB will be black with white labels on the top. Also there will be no components on the top side of the PCB except for the buttons, the usb connector, the expanson port and the oled.

Also we made huge progress with the conversion tools. Any wave file can now be converted to Claw Audio and most of the image formats are working too.
We plan to offer following image formats:
- 1 bit per pixel (8 pixel per byte) monochrome (back and forecolor selectable when drawing; probably its more like a 2 color paletted image
- 4 bit per pixel (2 pixel per byte) tiny palette (15 colors user selectable)
- 8 bit per pixel palette (217 predefined colors and 39 user selectable ones)
- 16 bit per pixel RGB (RGB565 encoded)

For audio, there is the claw audio format, which is essentially a riff wave based one.
It allows for mono audio, standard sample rates, 16 bit per sample, autor + comment + title metadata.

This is our main chipset. We are still searching for good boost and buck converters therefore the ?.

Description	Manufacturer	Part
ARM CPU	Atmel	ATSAM4S8BA-AU
WiFi SoC	Espressiv	EXP8266-07
Audio amplifier with digital volume	Texas Instruments	LM4811
Step up regulator 100mA 5v	?	?
Step down regulator 500mA 3.3v	?	?

Seems promising. I actually like the freedom those specs seems to offer, especially the image color depth. I am curious about how close to assembling a prototype that actually boots (even if Hello world) you guys are, by the way? Is it still a long way off?

[alexgt]

i hope people dont mind the 3D prints, the plastic i use is PLA and probebly only limited colors

Hmmm is it possible to use ABS instead ? PLA isn't the best for casing, especially if you're going to use screws to hold it together because it's too brittle.

I agree unless you can get PLA at a really reduced cost.

[DarkestEx]

i hope people dont mind the 3D prints, the plastic i use is PLA and probebly only limited colors

Hmmm is it possible to use ABS instead ? PLA isn't the best for casing, especially if you're going to use screws to hold it together because it's too brittle.

I agree unless you can get PLA at a really reduced cost.

PLA is the cheapest we can do.
The case is only going to cost us about 1 euro.
We sadly have no 3D printer that can print ABS.
Maybe at school but i guess its not allowed.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Is PLA really too fragile to be used for cases? I guess you could start with that and if the console gets very popular you could invest a little into ABS. Or maybe the latter could be a premium feature?

Also I heard that those two plastics get malleable when heated. Do you think the console will generate some heat when in use for a while? It might be wise to include some ventilation in such case, in case when the console gets warm it results into the plastic bending and stuff.

[DarkestEx]

Is PLA really too fragile to be used for cases? I guess you could start with that and if the console gets very popular you could invest a little into ABS. Or maybe the latter could be a premium feature?

Also I heard that those two plastics get malleable when heated. Do you think the console will generate some heat when in use for a while? It might be wise to include some ventilation in such case, in case when the console gets warm it results into the plastic bending and stuff.

Well we need to experiment with the plastic to see if it is really that fragile.
For the abs, we would need a whole new 3D printer to use abs, which is beyond any financial resources we have.
About heat i don't know. We need to test. It will probably generate some.

[novenary]

PLA is more sensitive to heat than ABS by the way.