The MSTR Case

[Bennehana]

Whatever you decide it will be awesome. Cant wait for this case to be ready.

[akicus]

you cant do custom cartridges on a per customer basis obviously, so there has to be some kind of middleground solutions.

I would sell it standard with a placeholder cartridge with nothing in it for people that wont be using it anyway and do a "Add Optional Cartridge"

PSX and Saturn also yes, I was mostly thinking of supported cores right now. PSX core will most likely take a long time and a Saturn core got a possible future for the MiSTer if we should believe the recent developments. Using those controllers regardless of core is of course also possible, I was mostly thinking of "legacy support" for supported cores.

The cassette will fit 4 x DB15 so you can do the calculation based on that.

Selling it "empty" is also an option and just let the customer decide.

[Lightwave]

You know what you really need to do...

Make the cassette customizable with 4 separate slots

[akicus]

You know what you really need to do...

Make the cassette customizable with 4 separate slots

That is an interesting idea, I will think about it.

[Ryuoken]

What a nice project!

Will there be space for an internal HDD?

[Milspex]

yes, see one page earlier.

2.5" above the player cartridges

[akicus]

What a nice project!

Will there be space for an internal HDD?

As Milspex said there will be space for that.

[Ryuoken]

I'm sorry I missed it.

Thank you!

[repente]

Hello!
First of all, congratulations for the work, it looks excellent.
Cnc premium aluminium finish it's perfect!

As I see that you pay a lot of attention to feedback, here's mine

Regarding the controls, very important part, I love the idea of interchangeable fronts, brilliant idea, BUT....

I don't doubt that everything by usb polling goes very well (in fact I have ordered two boards from Mike but when we talk about original controllers I think that you should not use converters that do polling or at least leave the option to switch to Snac, BUT....

Snac is perfection in its concept, but it has many limitations, so my advice is to adopt its extension fork, which respects Snac and also adds:
- Compatibility with more than 100 cores.
- With db9 and db15 handle the OSD and play with those more than 100 cores, a versatility similar to Blisster, (you are not forced to use the megadrive controller with its core but with almost all but with zero lag, no usb polling)
- possibility to extend to several simultaneous ports by serialization

Please, take a look at the project, I think it is open source.
If I am not mistaken it only uses one more pin from the Nano.
It would be great if you can take it and reimagine / rework it for use it with your pcb with your great cartridge system.

https://github.com/antoniovillena/MiSTer_DB9
https://github.com/MiSTer-DB9?tab=repositories

If I could use my db15 remotes natively without usb polling, you'd have my money on day 1

[akicus]

Hello!
First of all, congratulations for the work, it looks excellent.
Cnc premium aluminium finish it's perfect!

As I see that you pay a lot of attention to feedback, here's mine

Regarding the controls, very important part, I love the idea of interchangeable fronts, brilliant idea, BUT....

I don't doubt that everything by usb polling goes very well (in fact I have ordered two boards from Mike but when we talk about original controllers I think that you should not use converters that do polling or at least leave the option to switch to Snac, BUT....

Snac is perfection in its concept, but it has many limitations, so my advice is to adopt its extension fork, which respects Snac and also adds:
- Compatibility with more than 100 cores.
- With db9 and db15 handle the OSD and play with those more than 100 cores, a versatility similar to Blisster, (you are not forced to use the megadrive controller with its core but with almost all but with zero lag, no usb polling)
- possibility to extend to several simultaneous ports by serialization

Please, take a look at the project, I think it is open source.
If I am not mistaken it only uses one more pin from the Nano.
It would be great if you can take it and reimagine / rework it for use it with your pcb with your great cartridge system.

https://github.com/antoniovillena/MiSTer_DB9
https://github.com/MiSTer-DB9?tab=repositories

If I could use my db15 remotes natively without usb polling, you'd have my money on day 1

We wrote this some time ago in August I think:

Player Mode
The third LED on the MSTR will tell you which mode you are in (USB is blue, SNAC is red and Extra is green). It will always start in ”USB-Mode” after powering the MiSTer on.
”Extra” will be discussed at a later date.

That "Extra" mode is indeed what you are talking about, I just forgot about bringing it up again.

Thanks for your input though .

[repente]

We wrote this some time ago in August I think:

Player Mode
The third LED on the MSTR will tell you which mode you are in (USB is blue, SNAC is red and Extra is green). It will always start in ”USB-Mode” after powering the MiSTer on.
”Extra” will be discussed at a later date.

That "Extra" mode is indeed what you are talking about, I just forgot about bringing it up again.

Thanks for your input though .

Then you've got me
Subscribed and waiting to see the developments and buy one, I hope everything goes well and can be this year.
In fact I was already collecting some parts and planning everything to make me a premade aluminium box with panel mount components and everything rewired inside, but with this that you have in your hands I totally rule it out and I'm going for yours without a doubt

[akicus]

Then you've got me
Subscribed and waiting to see the developments and buy one, I hope everything goes well and can be this year.
In fact I was already collecting some parts and planning everything to make me a premade aluminium box with panel mount components and everything rewired inside, but with this that you have in your hands I totally rule it out and I'm going for yours without a doubt

Yeah let's hope for the best. We should have the pcbs later this month so we can test everything out. To get community support we have to send out pcb setups to some people in the community as well so we know it has official support and does indeed work as we claim.

After that we begin with the case prototype production.

[akicus]

Finally got some pcbs now, components will be added during the week with a follow up of course.

OT: Final pcbs will most likely use ENIG or hard gold plating.

20210216-113423.jpg

20210215-155805.jpg

[Milspex]

Day one!

[Ryuoken]

Are you guys considering implementing the mt32-pi to the MSTR case?

[Milspex]

where's the user I/O port?

[akicus]

You know, I have been looking at this for some time now and it should be possible to make a dedicated Player Cassette with built in display and everything.

[akicus]

where's the user I/O port?

It sits in the connector where the Player Cassette is connected. If people want the user port on the back as well I guess it could be done, and have a switch so you toggle between port on back and Player Cassette, depends on what people want.

[Milspex]

I just got me one of these because I had a raspberry pi laying about. It is cheap and a great piece of kit

[akicus]

Maybe we could sell empty Player Cassettes (or "MIDI Cassette" in this case) for this specific purpose for people who already have most of the hardware? Does that make any sense?

[Milspex]

where's the user I/O port?

It sits in the connector where the Player Cassette is connected. If people want the user port on the back as well I guess it could be done, and have a switch so you toggle between port on back and Player Cassette, depends on what people want.

Instead of redesigning the boards and install a switch, why not just have the user I/O inside as the main input. On the back of the case you just have a small clearing that you can guide the usb through. It gives you flexibility of putting everything inside the case or just have it outside the case.

Or have a female to female usb port mounted on the back of the case, and just connect the internal user i/o to that with a short usb adapter cable. That way you can also pick which port you want to use without the hassle of redesigning it .

Both solutions dont need any redesigning of the pcb


** Edit : Oh wait I can see these are all extremely close together (internal user io and the back of the case) so yeah a switch might even be easier....

[akicus]

Just a fast doodle of how it could look with the MIDI Cassette.

MT32Conc.png

where's the user I/O port?

It sits in the connector where the Player Cassette is connected. If people want the user port on the back as well I guess it could be done, and have a switch so you toggle between port on back and Player Cassette, depends on what people want.

Instead of redesigning the boards and install a switch, why not just have the user I/O inside as the main input. On the back of the case you just have a small clearing that you can guide the usb through. It gives you flexibility of putting everything inside the case or just have it outside the case.

Or have a female to female usb port mounted on the back of the case, and just connect the internal user i/o to that with a short usb adapter cable. That way you can also pick which port you want to use without the hassle of redesigning it .

Both solutions dont need any redesigning of the pcb


** Edit : Oh wait I can see these are all extremely close together (internal user io and the back of the case) so yeah a switch might even be easier....

We will figure something out. Having everything inside would be nice but not sure how much space there will be after all the things we want inside are installed. I'll think about it some more during the weekend.

Maybe we could sell empty Player Cassettes (or "MIDI Cassette" in this case) for this specific purpose for people who already have most of the hardware? Does that make any sense?

That makes sense to me. Obviously you're losing the original controller ports but MIDI is only available on AO486, Amiga and AtariST so it's not as if the official controller ports would be the first option for people as I would expect most people to be using the USB DaemonBite ports anyway.

Yeah my thoughts exactly. If people don't want to use the MIDI cassette they can use the USER IO instead from the back (which is where it most likely will be put).

[Milspex]

I'd focus on getting the main case versions out first and work on player modules later but thats probably your timeline anyway.

[Ryuoken]

The midi cassette idea is great!

Thank you so much for your answer.

[akicus]

The midi cassette idea is great!

Thank you so much for your answer.

The idea is good, hopefully it can be done well in reality as well.

I'd focus on getting the main case versions out first and work on player modules later but thats probably your timeline anyway.

Yeah, first we will test the pcbs so we know it works like we say it will do, then we adapt the final pcb designs to the metal work and finalize the design of that.
It takes time but it is nice to see that people are interested in our product.

[allyourbasekris]

I had been tempted to ask about that, whether there could be a small window for the screen but I thought it was expecting too much because it seems like it would be a completely different case to add the extras.

Not my video.

I know him! ;-P

[siskavard]

I really like the console-esque design!

[akicus]

Been doing some testing with the DE10 Nano and our PCBs. Small update tomorrow, hopefully with some pics.

I really like the console-esque design!

Thank you.

[repente]

Yes!! We look forward to seeing the progress

[akicus]

So here is a short update. The boards were soldered with components and with the time we had this week we tested:

1. SD-Card. At first it did not work but we found the problem so now it works. We designed a new SD-Card pcb though with high speed SD-Card specs so the next/final version of the pcb will be even better.

2. Front USB-Board. Working as normal which is nice. It is a 4-layer board with matching impedance for the USB signals (for those who were wondering).

We will test the rest very soon.

Lastly, I forgot to say what that inside looking USB port would be for (on the same pcb with the front USB ports), the idea was not to use it as a bluetooth/WiFi or storage port (that can be done on the 2nd USB-Hub board on the back) but for something much more special that I can't say yet ;(, it will be shown at a later date but trust me, you will like it .

Oh, and here are a couple of pics of the pcb assembly.

PCBAssembly1.png

PCBAssembly2.png